What pain has sequester wrought at the federal Department of Education? Apparently, not much. The 4,200-person agency has just hired a new “executive director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans.” Fox News reports that the position apparently commands a six-figure salary, as the new director—a …
A record number of Americans received food stamps in 2012. Citing the latest statistics released by the Department of Agriculture, the Weekly Standard reported food stamp participation was at an average of 46,609,072 people every month of 2012. In December of last year, 47,791,996 people received food stamps, or one …
In his first interview since leaving office, former Czech Republic President Vaclav Klaus urged for “a paradigm change” in European politics that shifts control to individual, sovereign nations and away from centralized power. “Europe is in a very problematic situation,” he said. “Europe needs a radical political process that has …
One of Obamacare’s many failures is the temporary small business tax credit, which is intended to encourage small employers to offer health insurance to their employees by partially offsetting the cost. Thus far it has largely failed to do so. Initially, the IRS estimated that 4.4 million taxpayers could have …
How do conservatives continue to advance their ideas? That was the big question answered by retiring Heritage President Dr. Ed Feulner, who led off a panel discussion also featuring the presidents of other leading think tanks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) over the weekend. “One of our objectives …
Despite billions of dollars in unused loan authority remaining under the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Loan Programs Office, negative publicity surrounding the loan guarantee programs (which offer taxpayer dollars to government-approved companies) has tampered with applications, according to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. More than $51 billion in …
This week, President Obama travels to the Middle East, including his first visit to Israel since becoming commander in chief. The trip comes at a challenging time of declining U.S. leadership abroad and waning economic freedom and prosperity at home, a regrettable combination that the President’s own policies have created. …
Congressman Paul Ryan’s (R–WI) budget outline calls for federal employees to contribute more to their pensions, but the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is none too happy about it. In noting that total federal employee compensation is currently excessive, Ryan is on solid empirical ground. But instead of trying …
Federal funding for high-speed rail would end under the House fiscal year 2014 budget introduced by Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan (R–WI). Costly high-speed rail and other intercity rail projects are not federal priorities, especially in this era of trillion-dollar budget deficits. They should not be exempt from budget cuts. …
