As we saw at yesterday’s press conference, President Obama is not going to lead on the debt ceiling issue. Nor is he going to compromise or play a mediating role. He is more interested in blaming others for his troubles, demagoguing other solutions and running for re-election. This is why conservatives need to be reminded not to yield to scare tactics. Last night, our sister organization, Heritage Action for America, announced it would ask Members of Congress to vote “no” on raising the debt ceiling–unless, that is, a deal “rises to …
The U.S. government intentionally sells assault weapons to Mexican drug cartels. Those cartels use those weapons to kill, among others, a U.S. law enforcement officer. The White House deflects questions on the subject. The director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), who watched the gun sales on video in his office, stonewalls Congress. So does the Justice Department. The whistleblower that exposed it all is fired. Paperback novel or real-life Obama Administration scandal? Time’s up. Just last week, Vince Cefalu, a special agent in the ATF …
When it comes to making bad energy policy decisions, President Obama is a pro. Yesterday was no exception when the Obama Administration announced it would release 30 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). This is part of an agreement with the International Energy Agency (IEA) to put a total of 60 million barrels on the market in the next 30 days. Another 27 nations will make up the other half of the oil needed. President Obama and the IEA first explained this irresponsible action by noting …
Welcome to the new Foundry.org! Today, The Heritage Foundation is excited to re-launch The Foundry, the foremost conservative blog for public policy news. It was only 18 months ago that we introduced you to our former Foundry design. Since then, Washington policy debates have grown even more critical, and so has keeping you informed of their impacts. The face of digital news and media has also changed tremendously, and we are committed to ensuring that our product remains a pioneer among our peers.
If General Motors CEO Dan Akerson had anything to say about it, you would be paying a dollar more a gallon for gas. Yes, with $4/gallon prices hitting consumers in a tough economy, Akerson told the Detroit News: “You know what I’d rather have them do — this will make my Republican friends puke — as gas is going to go down here now, we ought to just slap a 50-cent or a dollar tax on a gallon of gas.” Akerson, 61, was appointed CEO of GM last fall, having …
If you’re looking for an expert in revisionist history, look no further than former Governor Jennifer Granholm (D). For the past several months, Granholm has been trying to erase from people’s memories the economically-destructive record she left behind in Michigan. And now, Granholm is trying to rebuild the image of the equally unpopular government bailouts of General Motors and Chrysler. Neither effort is likely to successful. Governor Granholm has been on television, in print and online for weeks now extolling the virtues of the auto bailout. On May 24, she …
The Obama White House has a warped messaging strategy. In this week’s Time Magazine, Obama’s senior advisor and former campaign manager David Plouffe celebrates the president as a sort-of entertainer-in-chief, rather than a serious leader. Plouffe tells Time that when President Obama recently spoke about immigration at the Texas border and said off-script of those who want greater border security: “Maybe they’ll need a moat. Maybe they’ll want alligators in the moat,” this was a messaging victory. According to Plouffe, the messaging “victory” is apparently measured by the amount of …
Yesterday, The Heritage Foundation filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, reiterating Heritage’s opposition to the individual mandate that is a key piece of the Obamacare statute. This is the first time we have ever filed such a brief—as far anyone around here can remember. But we had no other choice. In its merits brief before the appeals court, the U.S. government quoted a 21-year-old statement by a Heritage Foundation policy expert supporting an individual mandate for health insurance, when Heritage’s view today is to the …
Less than 48 hours after Osama bin Laden was killed in a skilled military operation, the Washington Post’s liberal pundit Ezra Klein is already stretching to find a reason bin Laden actually “succeeded,” albeit partially. Klein’s hypothesis: Because Americans spent money in ways Klein doesn’t support, bin Laden succeeded by bringing us closer to “bankruptcy”. He conveniently throws in a myriad of policies he finds unappealing, mostly conservative of course, and chalks them all up as supporting the terrorist’s goals. It’s really mind-boggling. Unfortunately, this is what liberals who objected …
The same Washington press corps that hammered President George W. Bush relentlessly when prices were still well under $3 a gallon—well before the $4 a gallon peak, which lasted only six weeks in 2008—have given President Obama a pass thus far on the recklessness of his energy policy. In fact, in the first two years of his presidency, as gas prices steadily rose to over $3 a gallon, the press corps never asked the President about gas prices in any of his press briefings. Even when he called a press …
