On November 2nd, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) completed a critical milestone in its young, yet ambitious, space program. China’s unmanned Shenzhou 8, which launched on October 31, successfully completed an automated rendezvous and docking with their prototype space station module, Tiangong 1. This docking exercise is a critical development in China’s quest to launch and operate its own manned space station in Low-Earth Orbit. As China moves ahead with enhancing their space capabilities, the U.S. shuttle program has ended with no successor in place and an unclear future. …
April 15th is Tax Day, the day that our tax returns are due to the Internal Revenue Service. As we perform this annual ritual it is important to take a look at how much we are paying to the government and what it is being spent on. Our nation has been struggling to recover from a severe recession and the solution proposed by liberal Democrats is to increase federal spending to staggering levels and have the government take over the private sector. It’s amazing how little regard the Administration and …
Last weekend, I headed to Afghanistan with some of my colleagues to view firsthand the conditions on the ground as a follow up to the new strategy outlined by President Obama. We met with our troops and senior military officials and, from my perspective there is a lot of positive momentum coming from them. The morale of our troops is high and our commanders on the ground are confident we can win the tactical battle. The military is pleased with the President’s decision to send additional troops to assist with …
Today, another burden is being placed on America’s small businesses. Effective on this date is the third installment of the increase of the minimum wage that was passed in 2007. Once again, our federal government has provided not a help, but a hindrance to our economic recovery. When the three-phase minimum wage increase was initially signed into law in May 2007, the unemployment rate was 4.5%, and when the first phase went into place, the unemployment rate was 4.6%. Today it stands at 9.5%. At a time of record deficits, …
