DENVER — One of Barack Obama’s only legislative accomplishments in the U.S. Senate is the Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act, which passed in September 2007. When he announced his candidacy in Springfield, Ill., Obama called the bill “the most sweeping ethics reform since Watergate.” Critics from left and right, however, have called it a chilling threat to free speech. This is something to boast about? Obama’s ethics bill sounds good on paper: “strict bans on receiving gifts and meals from lobbyists; new rules to slow the revolving door between public …
As all eyes turn to Denver and the Democratic National Convention this week, anticipation is building for Barack Obama’s address to a crowd of 75,000 at Invesco Field. The speech everyone is awaiting is another in a long line of addresses by both candidates this election cycle. What do these speeches tell us about the status of the Constitution in American politics today? Unfortunately, the answer to this question is that our public officials and candidates have progressively ignored the Constitution as a theme of their governing philosophy. Andrew E. …
It is no secret that public diplomacy, a vital component of America’s strategic victory in the Cold War, has received inadequate attention in recent years. But, of course, we are still engaged in a war of ideas. Thus, the need for a public diplomacy which explains and defends our principles to the world is as needed today as it was on July 4, 1776, when the founders submitted the facts contained in the Declaration “to a candid world” out of “a decent respect for the opinions of mankind.” Newly confirmed …
Today both the The Washington Post and The New York Times have front-page stories on Sen. Tom Coburn’s (R-Okla.) use of legislative “holds” to bring debate on spending priorities back to the U.S. Senate. A “hold” prevents the majority party in the Senate from moving forward on a bill until it has been debated. But in this Congress, the liberal majority does not want to debate issues or allow amendments. Of the 890 bills that have been passed in the 110th Congress, only 50 of them have been debated. For …
On Sunday the New York Times profiled Diane McLeod, a 47-year-old single mother working two jobs, who by her own admission acknowledges she spent too much money shopping to make herself feel better without reflecting on how it would impact her future. Commenting on reader reaction to the article, former Weekly Standard senior editor David Brooks wrote: “Individuals don’t build their lives from scratch. They absorb the patterns and norms of the world around them. … [W]hat happened to McLeod, and the nation’s financial system, is part of a larger …
The 4th of July is no ordinary holiday. As we travel and spend time with our families this weekend, we must take a few moments to reflect on the meaning of our Declaration of Independence, and its ongoing significance in light of our nation’s current struggles. The resolution to declare independence from Great Britain was actually passed by the Second Continental Congress on July 2, and John Adams believed that the 2nd would be the date on which Americans would celebrate their independence for years to come. So, why do …
For years, he worked tirelessly to tell the stories of the courage shown — and horrors endured — by the tens of millions who lived and died under tyrannical regimes. He honored those who resisted, those who were silenced and those whose names never would be known to the wider world. Now, though, Heritage Foundation scholar Lee Edwards is the one being saluted. And it’s gratifying to see the plaudits aren’t only from friends and allies in the conservative movement, but the peoples of former communist nations. In recognition of …
Widespread ignorance of U.S. history is only the most visible symptom of a troubling decline in popular knowledge of the nation’s core principles. Some hopeful news, as well as sobering facts, arrived earlier this month in “E Pluribus Unum,” a report issued by the Bradley Project on America’s National Identity. The purpose of the project, brainchild of the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, is to begin “a national conversation … to affirm the belief that what unites us is far greater than what divides us.” The report warns: Many Americans …
Last year, Congress rejected legislation that would violate the Constitution by granting the District of Columbia voting representation in the House of Representatives. But advocates of this plan haven’t given up hope. Instead, voting rights activists have stepped up their lobbying efforts, and Roll Call reported last week that they may be about to secure a major victory: Washington, D.C., voting rights advocates expect to be able to more openly lobby for representation in the House next year, using money from the District budget. A step forward came Tuesday, when …
What do the Bridge to Nowhere, the highway bill, the “subsidies for millionaires” farm bill and our crippling entitlement crisis have in common? They are all examples of the corrupt governance that is guaranteed to happen when the federal government takes over responsibilities best left to the states. In each of these cases (transportation funding, agriculture policy and health care), massive federal government spending and aid to states in the form of matching grants have all but drowned out the ability of state and local governments to set their own …
