Leaders from New Jersey and New York blew up yesterday after House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) postponed a vote on an aid package related to Hurricane Sandy. But the bill is so loaded with pork projects that these officials should consider directing their anger at the Obama Administration, which is …
By delaying defense sequestration two months, President Obama and Congress have shown their unambiguous recognition that sequestration’s automatic and indiscriminate cuts to the U.S. military pose clear dangers to national security. However, America’s leaders must now match their recognition of this reality with the resolve required to definitively stop defense …
General Norman Schwarzkopf, the man who led U.S. troops during the first Gulf War in 1991, died at 78 years old yesterday. Schwarzkopf was residing in Tampa, Florida, the location of his last military assignment: commander of United States Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base. He died of complications …
“A single nuclear weapon exploded a hundred miles above the United States could create electromagnetic pulse effects, thereby bringing our entire economy to a standstill,” writes Phyllis Schlafly, a lawyer and conservative political analyst, in her most recent op-ed. An electromagnetic pulse (EMP), a high-intensity burst of electromagnetic energy caused …
On Thursday, the Senate is expected to begin consideration of H.R. 5949, the Foreign Intelligence Amendments Act of 2012 (FAA). The bill would reauthorize amendments to the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which are set to expire December 31. FISA created a secret court to review wiretap applications for …
According to the Financial Times, the insurance industry estimates the total bill for insurers from Hurricane Sandy will be between $20 billion and $25 billion. President Barack Obama’s emergency request for Hurricane Sandy totals $60.4 billion. One must naturally wonder how the damages not covered by insurance could be roughly …
Throughout recent federal budget discussions, strategies to pull America out of recession, and the potential for massive cuts to national security, one cost cutting idea has been to withdraw U.S. military forces from Europe. The primary arguments behind such proposals are that this will save money immediately and that these …
Last week North Korea successfully launched an Unha-3 rocket, thereby demonstrating an alarming capability to target U.S. territory with ballistic missiles. China is rapidly expanding its fleets and arsenals in an unprecedented military build-up, while intimidating other countries in East Asia—including U.S. allies. The Middle East is a conflagration of …
The threat of sequestration—the half-trillion dollar cut to defense set to occur January 2, 2013—has been debated and prevention plans have been discussed since before it was even written into law. The budgetary measure was written to be so unpalatable that Congress and the Administration would have to find a …
Rumors are swirling that included in their negotiations to avert the “fiscal cliff,” President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner (R–OH) may add an additional $100 billion in cuts as an alternative to the roughly $500 billion in defense budget cuts over nine years required by sequestration under the Budget …