The following letter was sent from The Heritage Foundation Center for Data Analysis to House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan’s staff regarding our recent analysis of the Chairman’s budget proposal: In further response to the Chairman’s letter of February 28, 2011 requesting technical advice and assistance, we have given additional scrutiny to calculations concerning the unemployment rate under the Chairman’s proposed budget plan. As a result of that examination, we are making an adjustment to one variable — the full-employment unemployment rate, which is one component of the equation for the …
It has been more than 40 days since the House passed a budget for 2011, cutting spending by $61 billion. The task was left undone by the previous Democrat-controlled Congress, the first time since 1974, an embarrassing feat for a body charged with holding the purse strings. Today that task remains incomplete, and the moment until a partial government shutdown is growing near, easily measured in hours, not days. It’s time for action and leadership, not press conferences and finger pointing. But yesterday a press conference is exactly what we …
Except in Jeopardy!, questions usually come first, followed by answers. Likewise, when criticizing public policy studies and their underlying methodologies, it typically helps to see the policy study and methodology used before one embarks on criticism. Today at 8:37 a.m. ET, Matt Yglesias of the Center for American Progress’ Think Progress blog released a critique of the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis (CDA) econometric analysis of the federal budget for FY 2012 proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI). Yglesias’ posting preceded Heritage’s public release of the CDA’s study and …
Following Attorney General Eric Holder’s announcement Monday that the United States would try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his four co-conspirators in military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, The Heritage Foundation’s Senior Legal Fellow, Cully Stimson, testified at a House Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday on the 9/11 trials. Stimson’s message? The right decision on military commissions has finally been made; now Congress and the White House must stand by it and fully resource them to ensure their success: [T]he administration and Congress must take every reasonable step to ensure that the trial …
Welfare spending is projected to skyrocket over the next 10 years, costing taxpayers $10.3 trillion and driving the United States toward bankruptcy. To make matters worse, a new report shows that the United States is seeing large percentage of its immigrant population exacting a costly toll on the welfare roles. According to Steven A. Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies: In 2009 (based on data collected in 2010), 57 percent of households headed by an immigrant (legal and illegal) with children (under 18) used at least one welfare program, …
Following his party’s devastating losses last November, President Barack Obama made clear that where his party could no longer legislate, it will regulate. Just a month later, America saw his words become action when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to issue new rules regulating the Internet, even though courts and Congress have stood in opposition to its actions. Tomorrow, the House of Representatives is poised to voice its opposition to the FCC’s unmitigated power grab and will vote on a resolution to block the FCC’s rules, sending a powerful message that enough …
In the shadow of the U.S. Capitol, children suffer in a public education system rife with violence and ranked among the worst in the nation. Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives took action to give those students some hope when it voted to reauthorize the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (D.C. OSP), which provides scholarships to low-income children, allowing them to attend their school of choice. It was one of the most consequential education votes that Congress will make this year. The program empowers parents, and it rejects the notion that …
You would think liberals in Congress have nothing better to do with their time. Amid a war in Libya, an effort to aid earthquake and tsunami-stricken Japan, a continuing war in Afghanistan, rising gas prices and endless unemployment, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and the Democratic leadership in the U.S. Senate are refusing to accept a modest agreement to fund the federal government through the end of the fiscal year. And time is running short. What’s Senator Reid wrangling over? A mere $51 billion in additional budget cuts, which amounts to a few …
What happens when a city buys the liberal dream hook, line and sinker? Just take a look at the City of Detroit. The once-great city lost 237,493 residents over the last decade according to the 2010 Census, bringing it to 713,777 – a population plunge of 25%. That’s its lowest population since 1910, and it marks the city’s fall from a 1950s peak of two million, over 60%. And that’s just the people who can afford to leave. Detroit, once known as “the great arsenal of democracy,” has made headlines …
As gas prices hit $4 per gallon, White House spokesman Jay Carney assured Americans on Monday that the administration is well aware of the toll high fuel costs are taking on American families. So what’s President Obama’s solution to America’s pain? According to White House chief of staff Bill Daley, the administration may tap into the nation’s oil safety net – the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) – in order to bring down the cost of fuel. Big mistake. While most folks want to pay less at the pump, dipping into …
