With the anniversary of Roe v. Wade this week — and as pro-life demonstrators assemble across the nation in defense of life — feminists should take note: Although women may have gained equality in many areas over the past decades, they haven’t gained it in the womb. While male unborn babies in Asia are often desired, prized, and esteemed, female unborn babies are often dreaded, despised and, increasingly, prohibited from even entering the world. If 160 million girls turned up missing tomorrow—eliminated solely for being female—wouldn’t a cry of outrage …
The official end of U.S. operations in Iraq last week calls to mind controversial issues from the past decade. One of the most important intellectual and policy battles, which remains relevant today, is over how to defend both civil liberties and security in time of war. In other words, how should America defend itself from enemies at home and abroad while also preserving the freedoms that we enjoy and that make our country great? People often say that we need to balance liberty and security. This implies that the two …
In case you’re not keeping track, it has been nearly 1,000 days since the United States Senate passed a budget. Meanwhile, America’s fiscal nightmare keeps growing, and those on the left—including Members of the Senate—keep advocating for even more spending despite America’s $15 trillion national debt. That’s an important record to keep in mind as the Senate votes today on two versions of the Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA). A BBA is constructive, but it’s not the final answer to America’s fiscal woes despite the tools it offers—in large part because …
Small businesses that are important to the safety and security of the nation are being gravely threatened by deep defense spending cuts. The NAVSYS Corporation is a small business in Colorado that developed the first GPS cell phone to provide the 911 cellular location services that exist today. That first cell phone will soon be displayed in the Smithsonian. NAVSYS has gone on to create other innovations, and many of its products play an important role in America’s defense technologies. On Monday, Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R–WA) hosted a panel …
Sometimes the White House gets the easy questions wrong. On Tuesday, White House press secretary Jay Carney was asked about a controversial mandate stemming from Obamacare that would require religious employers to provide insurance coverage for birth control despite religious objections. The regulation in question, released by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), falls under the category of “preventative services” and would require almost all health insurance plans to cover everything from all FDA-approved contraceptives to sterilizations—without cost to the insured. The mandate includes coverage of controversial drugs …
Want to hear something disturbing? China has increased its defense budget by double digits every year for the last 20 years. Just as China seems to be gearing up for some undefined enterprise, the U.S. is winding down its defense budget at a similarly rapid pace. Despite the obvious contrast, President Obama said recently that reductions in U.S. defense spending “will not—I repeat, will not—come at the expense of the Asia-Pacific.” Yesterday, Obama visited Australia to announce a renewed U.S. troop presence in coming months, part of a new security …
The 39-story United Nations headquarters stands on the banks of the East River in Manhattan. But now the U.N. is planning the construction of a new building next door, with a price tag pegged at $400 million — and it could soar even higher. And since U.S. taxpayers pay 22 percent of the U.N. budget, the costs for that new building will come right out of your pocket, leading to a very serious question: Just how far should the United States go in supporting the U.N. and international organizations like it? The …
President Obama may believe that America’s “reset” policy with Russia is the correct move to cover important foreign policy bases, but the policy is deeply flawed. It puts the United States at a disadvantage we can’t afford and forces us to lay aside fundamental American principles of human liberty. The “reset” concessions are simply not worth the exchange of empty promises from Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who is merely a talking head for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. As Heritage’s Ariel Cohen & Kim Holmes wrote recently in a memo on …
Today, an Iranian Christian pastor’s life hangs in the balance as he sits in a prison in Iran. Yousef Nadarkhani was handed a death sentence in 2009 after questioning the Muslim teachings that his children were receiving at school. While that was the original charge, the Iranian government now claims that Nadarkhani illegally converted from Islam to Christianity as well. The list of alleged crimes is growing. Despite signing the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Iran does not recognize the freedom to change religion. Sadly, worldwide religious persecution, specifically …
Free trade agreements (FTAs) have economically benefited nations the world over since their inception. Poverty rates in countries with low trade barriers are significantly lower, and data in The Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom demonstrate that free trade also leads to higher incomes, more jobs, and greater equality. That’s why it’s vitally important to quickly enact the three pending U.S. trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea. These FTAs have been sitting on the President’s desk since 2007 for no good reason. President Obama has finally made them …
