“The problem isn’t that we haven’t agreed, the problem is that we’ve agreed way too much,” explained Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) in a recent interview with The Heritage Foundation. “Otherwise we wouldn’t have trillion dollar deficits, $16 trillion in debt, and unfunded liabiltiies of $113-131 trillion.” Senator Coburn visited The Heritage Foundation this week to discuss his new book, The Debt Bomb: A Bold Plan to Stop Washington from Bankrupting America which makes the case that the biggest threat America faces is “Washington politicians who refuse to relinquish the intoxicating …
The Energy Department’s inspector general released a report recently highlighting the lack of financial oversight in the Department’s electric vehicle funding program. The report underscores problems with some of the program’s beneficiaries highlighted here at Scibe and under scrutiny by congressional investigators. The IG report focuses on DOE’s Transportation Electrification Program, which is part of the president’s stated goal of getting a million electric vehicles on the road by 2015. The report states: the Department had not obtained and reviewed required financial and compliance audits and cost reports for the …
President Obama will make a push for wind energy subsidies on Thursday at the Iowa production facilities of a politically connected wind turbine manufacturer with ties to his administration. The appearance could serve to reinforce perceptions of cronyism in the administration’s “green jobs” push. At the manufacturing facilities of TPI Composites, Obama will tout the need for continued federal “investment” in wind energy, according to the Des Moines Register. TPI has some notable connections to the White House through Element Partners, one of its key investors. One of Element’s operating …
Is cable news network MSNBC complicit in the death of Trayvon Martin? The suggestion, of course, is absurd. But under the same logic that liberals have used to tie Koch Industries to the Martin shooting, companies like General Electric and Comcast—owners of MSNBC—would be just as responsible. The issue arose during a testy interview on MSNBC last week between commentator Martin Bashir and Mark Holden, general counsel for Koch Industries. Karen Finney, a substitute host on Bashir’s program, had previously suggested that Koch Industries, because it supports the American Legislative …
The Department of Health and Human Services has inked a $20 million contract with a top public-relations firm to sell aspects of the Obamacare law to the American public. According to a report in PR Week, HHS’s Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services has awarded the contract to PR firm Porter Novelli. The firm has offices worldwide, and boasts PepsiCo, Hewlett Packard, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as existing clients. According to The Hill, the Porter Novelli campaign is “designed to educate the public about how to stay healthy and …
President Obama’s has repeatedly promised to rein in the influence industry’s role in federal policymaking and access to top federal officials. But the president’s actions consistently belie his rhetoric, as a recent review of White House visitor logs demonstrates. “[T]he lobbying industry Obama has vowed to constrain is a regular presence at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave,” the Washington Post reported on Monday. Visitor logs “suggest that lobbyists with personal connections to the White House enjoy the easiest access,” the Post adds. The White House has consistently worked to circumvent its own …
An effort funded by a major left-wing environmentalist group is looking to appeal to conservative and libertarian thinkers through an initiative that proposes center-right solutions to environmental problems. The Meridian Institute’s “Twelve Big Ideas for 2012″ is funded by the Environmental Defense Fund, a group that uses its massive lobbying footprint – it has spent more than $6.3 million on lobbying efforts since 2009 – to push primarily for cap and trade legislation and bills related to Gulf Coast cleanup efforts, among other initiatives. EDF is fond of referring to …
Three prominent members of Congress, all of Cuban descent, spoke out against the State Department on Thursday for its decision to grant a visa to Mariela Castro Espin, daughter of Cuban dictator Raul Castro, and herself a member of the Cuban dictatorship. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) called the decision “outrageous and an enormous mistake,” while Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) said the move “sends the wrong message to the [Cuban] regime and to Cuba’s struggling opposition movement.” Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), who was born in Havana and now chairs the House …
The U.S. State Department has decided to grant a visa to Mariela Castro Espin, daughter of Raul Castro, the country’s President and Premier, neice of notorious Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, despite laws precluding such visas from officials of the Cuban dictatorship. Castro Espin, who is the director of Cuba’s state-funded National Center for Sex Education, is scheduled to speak at a San Francisco conference held by the Latin American Studies Association starting May 23. A LASA spokesman confirmed that she is scheduled to attend in person. Castro Espin’s organization is …
Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) has been among the Senate’s strongest proponents of a robust national defense. In his role as Republican Whip, he is now leading the charge against efforts to shortchange our Defense budget, and warning of potential dire consequences for national security. Kyl spoke at the Heritage Foundation on Thursday as part of its Helms lecture series, where he discussed national security and the launch of Heritage’s Protect America Month. He explained why the federal government’s constitutional obligation to provide for the common defense must remain a bedrock principle of …
