Former Representative Bob Barr’s (R–GA) criticism of the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) anti-aircraft and missile program is understandable but misplaced. Representative Barr, quite reasonably, points to the Obama Administration’s plan to continue spending money on this cooperative program with Germany and Italy despite an announcement early last year that it is moving to exit it. What he fails to appreciate is that the Administration’s earlier decision to exit the program was itself misguided. MEADS is important and advantageous for several reasons. First, MEADS successfully completed its design review …
A month before the Supreme Court is expected to rule on the constitutionality of Obamacare, liberal supporters are already planning an aggressive propaganda campaign to sway media coverage and public opinion. The focus of the liberal public-relations campaign will be on “real people” — individuals who can speak about the impact of the ruling regardless of what the Supreme Court decides. A newly released memo, first published by BuzzFeed, suggests liberals should adapt their message and events to defend government-run health care. “No matter what the flavor of our response …
President Obama has repeatedly claimed that he is “going to keep on fighting for what matters to middle class families.” Well, in this “fight,” the President seems to be his own worst enemy. His health care law does far more damage than good to the American middle class. Here are the five most prevalent and harmful burdens the middle class will be forced to bear under Obamacare: More taxes. Obamacare imposes $502 billion of new or increased taxes and fees. Heritage expert Curtis Dubay explains that several of the taxes …
We know that “progressives” favor what they call “living constitutions,” governing documents that change easily to accommodate the changing tastes of voters. Sometimes they rely on judges to “breathe life” into the Constitution, as the Supreme Court did in 1965’s famous Griswold v. Connecticut. But some also seem to be rooting for dead constitutions. On Thursday, an NPR interviewer had an interesting idea: “I have to say that when I talk to friends across the country, they look at this system in California and they say: well, why don’t they …
Suppose you could produce $50 of electricity but it cost you $100 to do so. Would that make any sense? It would if you work at the White House. In a speech at a wind-turbine blade manufacturer in Iowa, President Obama called for extending two sets of subsidies that turn energy economics upside down and force higher costs on consumers and taxpayers. The first extension is for the production tax credit (PTC), which is set to expire at the end of the year. It provides wind-energy producers with a subsidy …
In today’s Wall Street Journal, Steven Pifer responded to Senator Jon Kyl’s (R–AZ) op-ed that argued that President Obama should refuse to provide written assurances to Russia that compromise America’s ability to defend itself. Pifer’s complaint with the Senate Republican Whip’s argument is that “an assurance could open a path to a cooperative NATO-Russia missile defense.” Pifer misses the point. Missile defense is inherently defensive in nature and poses no offensive threat to any country. The Russians want assurances from the U.S. that U.S. missile defenses will not ever have …
Three days after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sri Lankan Foreign Minister G.L. Peiris met in Washington, D.C., to discuss Sri Lanka’s human rights record, former Sri Lankan Army General Sarath Fonseka was released from prison. Fonseka is viewed as a war hero by the Sinhalese majority for his victory over the terrorist group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009, ending a decades-long civil war. He resigned from his post as Chief of Defense Staff in 2009 to run for the presidency. He was defeated by Mahinda …
Syria’s “Arab Spring,” long delayed by barbaric repression, is now rapidly deteriorating into a bloody civil war. The Bashar al-Assad regime’s stubborn rejection of political compromise and its brutal suppression of the opposition has led increasing numbers of Syrians to take up arms against the regime. They have been joined by a small but growing stream of foreign Islamist militants who have flocked to Syria like moths to a flame. The Assad regime has been targeted by a series of suicide bombings carried out by the Al-Nusra Front to Protect …
There are some things that are so apparent that they’re not even worth mentioning. What goes up must come down. The earth is round. President Barack Obama is a big spender. But this week, some in the media and in the White House are denying one of these totally obvious truths. It shouldn’t be a big surprise which one it is. On Tuesday, MarketWatch’s Rex Nutting wrote that claims of Obama’s big spending ways are overblown and that the “Obama spending binge never happened.” In a press gaggle on Wednesday, White …
What can someone accomplish in four months? It’s possible to play an entire NFL football season, but you’d need another full month to complete the playoffs. You could try to build a new home. But you’d need plenty of cooperation from your contractor to get it finished on time. Or you could try to write, from scratch, the greatest governing document in history. Well, no point in trying for that last one, since it’s already been done. That’s right. The U.S. Constitution, which has enabled our country’s growth and success …
