President Obama’s pick as chairman of the White House Council on Economic Advisors co-authored a paper that showed that extending unemployment benefits will likely exacerbate joblessness. The paper’s findings run counter to the president’s economic argument for an unemployment benefit extension, which is expected to be a major part of …
In last week’s Heritage Libertad Radio program, we covered topics ranging from Libya and the earthquake, to Heritage member questions. For the Spanish segment, click here. For the English segment, click here. You’ll hear Heritage’s position on Libya moving forward and hear answers to questions such as: is the War …
Correlation doesn’t necessarily equal causation, but some disturbing correlations are evident in the nation’s economic woes. Take Illinois. If you take a look at the chart below, you can see a startling picture. In Illinois, employment numbers increased steadily until January 2011, at which point they took a sharp dip …
Contrary to tradition, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) today released its mid-year assessment of the budget and economic situation. Traditionally, CBO releases its mid-year assessment after the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) releases its statutorily required Mid-Session Review (MSR). The law requires the MSR to be produced …
With continuing unemployment problems driving more and more Americans to seek Social Security disability benefits, that program’s already weakened trust fund faces a bleak future. Just as unemployed older workers have been forced to apply for Social Security retirement benefits much earlier than they expected, thousands of other unemployed people …
The concept of a Keynesian stimulus never seems to tire among politicians eager to grow the economy artificially by spending other people’s money. Recently, Obama’s Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack encouraged expanding SNAP, the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program aimed to help the poor, as a way to stimulate the economy. …
Providing for the defense of the United States is Congress’ constitutional obligation. Lawmakers should recognize defense is a necessity, if not the federal government’s most important responsibility. In recent years, however, defense spending has continued to decline as entitlement spending increased. Priorities are being misplaced as the gap between entitlement …
Consider it a warning from the highest levels of the U.S. government. Yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta held a joint press event in Washington in which they cautioned that U.S. debt is jeopardizing America’s ability to ensure national security and preserve its interests abroad. Under the Budget …
During a joint press event today in Washington, the Secretaries of Defense and State agreed that politicians must tackle the elephant in the room to reduce America’s crushing debt: mandatory spending on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, which account for more than 60 percent of the entire federal budget. As …
This week’s Heritage Libertad Radio program – half in English, half in Spanish – covered the recent S & P downgrade, including a discussion with economist JD Foster; a discussion on the recent report on poverty with expert Robert Rector; and a segment answering member questions. Among them: How does …