Saturday marks the anniversary of the passage of the Interstate Commerce Act, which in 1887 created the first federal regulatory agency, the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC). Although those who created the ICC had no intention of establishing the modern administrative state we now have, the creation of the ICC was an inadvertent first step toward the federal leviathan that governs us today. The ICC was originally created to address growing problems created by the expansion of railroads in America. It was the outgrowth of the “Granger” movement, which took hold …
The Fourth of July presents the occasion not only to celebrate our great country, but also to reflect upon its meaning. The division between today’s liberals and conservatives is not irreducible to policy differences. It is indicative of a deeper debate about the meaning of America. Such debates are not new. Calvin Coolidge, our 30th president, often celebrated America’s birthday (which was also his) by defending America’s principles against the challengers within the “progressive movement.”
Breaking news: President Obama is a strong believer in free markets. Yesterday, in an address to the Business Roundtable, Obama mounted a vigorous defense of the free market and private enterprise, explaining his basic approach to economics and regulation. In his own words, Obama has “always been a strong believer in the power of the free market. It has been and will remain the very engine of America’s progress – the source of a prosperity that has gone unmatched in human history. I believe that jobs are best created not by government, but …
The Senate is currently considering legislation that would give the District of Columbia a voting member in the House of Representatives. The legislation is patently unconstitutional, which should end the debate at the outset. But it is important to note that it is unconstitutional not simply because it was written that way in a musty old 18th Century document. In this instance, the Constitution’s text is not an anachronism, something well suited for the late 18th Century but no longer applicable in contemporary times. The Founders certainly knew that the Constitution would not allow D.C. to have …
The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee voted yesterday to send to the Senate floor unconstitutional legislation that would give the District of Columbia a full seat in the House of Representatives. Like the nearly identical proposal that died in the Senate two years ago, the District of Columbia Voting Rights Act of 2009 would give a House seat to the District and create another seat that would go to Utah. This seat would belong to Utah only temporarily, however, and would later be awarded to whichever state merits …
On February 12, 2009, The Heritage Foundation celebrates the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. Our sixteenth President was one of our history’s greatest statesmen, and continues to serve as an example of the power of conservative principles to change America for the better. Abraham Lincoln’s firm and unyielding opposition to slavery grew out of his dedication to the principles of our Founding Fathers, principles which have been under assault by the Left for decades. The Left seeks to reinterpret Lincoln as the father of the centralized administrative state that was …
There is a growing debate on the web and in the media regarding Senator Hillary Clinton’s eligibility to be appointed to the office of Secretary of State by President-Elect Barack Obama. The controversy centers on the “Emoluments Clause” of Article I, section 6 of the United States Constitution, which states that “No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been encreased during such time….” …
Citizens and public officials earned an F, on average, in the most recent annual report on Civic Literacy, released by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute last week. More than 2,500 randomly selected Americans took the test on Civic Literacy, and more than 1,700 of them failed. The average score was a 49%. More shocking, the average score of elected officials was 44%, meaning that our public officials performed worse than citizens selected at random. Less than 1% of those surveyed (21 of 2,508) earned an A on the test (90% or higher). This report builds …
On this date (November 19) in 1863, Abraham Lincoln gave perhaps the greatest speech in American History, the Gettysburg Address. The text of the speech is short, less than 300 words, a fitting reminder to contemporary politicians that, sometimes, the most succinct speeches are the most meaningful. Perhaps the brevity of Lincoln’s remarks can be explained by the only inaccuracy in the Gettysburg Address: namely the assertion that “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here….” In Lincoln’s view, it was the actions of the brave soldiers who fought rather …
Over the coming months, we will witness one of the most remarkable aspects of American political life — the peaceful transfer of political authority from one administration to another. Because this is commonplace in America, we tend to overlook the novelty of this phenomenon. However, Americans from our founding generation understood the significance of this fact. Many people have observed, approvingly, that the election of 1800 was the first time in human history that power shifted from one party to another without violence and bloodshed. One woman wrote at the …
