Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) decided his political stunt on judicial nominees wasn’t working. He abandoned the plan Wednesday, agreeing to a deal with Republicans to schedule votes for 12 district-court nominees and two circuit-court nominees before May 7. The deal ensures President Obama’s nominees will received an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor. That’s exactly what conservatives like Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) had wanted. Lee, still outraged by Obama’s unconstitutional “recess” appointments in January, has vowed to vote against each nominee until Obama rescinds the appointments. Reid, hoping …
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has rightfully earned the reputation of running a do-nothing Senate. More than 1,000 days have elapsed since the upper chamber approved a budget. He’s currently ignoring the House-passed JOBS Act and actively opposing steps to lower gas prices. Now, in a blatant political stunt, Reid is attempting to blame the Republican minority for the Senate’s failure to confirm 17 of President Obama’s district court nominees. >> UPDATE: Realizing his stunt wouldn’t work, Reid reversed course late Wednesday, agreeing to deal with Republicans on some of the nominees. …
Journalists and pundits are chalking up President Obama’s plummeting approval rating to the high cost of gasoline. No doubt that’s having an impact. But there’s another important factor to consider: Obama’s decision to trample on the religious liberty of Americans. Since the Department of Health and Human Services announced its anti-conscience mandate in late January, President Obama has faced withering criticism over the decision and his so-called “accommodation.” Two years after the passage of Obamacare, it served as a wake-up call for Americans who care about the Constitution, irrespective of …
The White House and its liberal allies are planning a comprehensive public-relations campaign for the second anniversary of Obamacare and the Supreme Court oral arguments that will take place later this month. A four-page strategy memo obtained by The Heritage Foundation outlines the strategies and messaging planned for the coming weeks. The memo, which is published below, includes a day-by-day breakdown of how the White House and liberal advocacy organizations want to frame the debate. The New York Times first reported on the Obama administration’s coordination efforts, including a White …
As gas prices continue to climb, approaching a nationwide average of nearly $4, lawmakers in Washington turned their attention to the drilling slowdown in the Gulf of Mexico. The House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources held the oversight hearing Thursday examining how the Obama administration’s policies have put a strain on businesses, causing economic instability and even forcing some employers to leave the area. “The economic impacts of this permit slow-down or de facto moratorium are diverse and far reaching, affecting individuals and businesses in various industries across the …
Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake, a massive jolt to the country that caused widespread damage and had ramifications on the economy and energy sector. Japan is still recovering a year later. This week on Scribecast, we spoke to Japan’s ambassador to the United States, Ichiro Fujisaki, who visited The Heritage Foundation to discuss the state of U.S.-Japan relations. He’s in Washington to mark the 100th anniversary of Japan’s gift of cherry blossom trees. Listen to the interview with Ichiro Fujisaki on this week’s Scribecast …
Food-stamp fraud and the government’s failed attempts to stop it were the focus of a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing yesterday. Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) called the hearing in response to a Scripps Howard News Service investigative report exposing widespread abuse. The investigation revealed that retailers who lost authorization to accept food stamps were still conducting business despite their restrictions. “[D]ozens of individuals who had been banned as food-stamp vendors nonetheless remained in the business in New York; Los Angeles; Phoenix; San Diego; Tulsa, Okla.; West Palm Beach, …
UPDATE: In a story for ABC News, Jake Tapper asks the White House about Derrick A. Bell’s visits. “The answer from a White House official: this was not the same Derrick A. Bell,” Tapper reports. “He (sic) one had a different birthday than the late law professor, whose birthday was November 6, 1930.” Scribe attempted to confirm this information with the White House yesterday, which was noted in our original report. Click here to view the visitor records. Visitor logs show that Derrick A. Bell visited the White House twice …
Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) is the ranking Republican on the Appropriations subcommittee dealing with environmental issues. He is currently working to end subsidies for wind power, an energy source that he dubs “a scam.” “We don’t have the money” to continue the subsidies, Alexander told Heritage in our latest segment of In the Green Room. “It’s a puny amount of electricity,” he added, “and it’s destroying the environment in the name of saving the environment.” Alexander agreed that subsidies for other energy sectors should also be eliminated, but he stressed …
Environmental activists and liberal politicians are fond of bemoaning the supposedly disproportionate tax benefits that go to the fossil fuel industry compared to its renewable energy competitors. The president specifically has made “ending tax breaks for oil companies” a pillar of his paltry efforts to reduce the federal deficit. But a new report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) handily debunks the myth that oil companies uniquely or excessively benefit from the tax code. One devastating chart sums up CBO’s key findings: As the chart shows, renewable energy is far …
