The Foundry

Posts Tagged ‘big government’

• Something Fishy in the Ministry of Defense

  Posted January 8th, 2010 at 3:43pm in American Leadership with 3 comments

  American commentators, like Michael Barone, are starting to focus on the fact that, while the recession has hurt the private sector, it’s helping the public one. A Rasmussen poll found that 46 percent of government employees say the economy is getting better while just 31 percent say it’s getting worse. In the private [...] More

• Outside the Beltway: Tea Parties Aren’t Stopping for Holidays

  Posted November 30th, 2009 at 5:39pm in First Principles, Health Care, Ongoing Priorities with 17 comments

  While Americans prepared for Thanksgiving feasts and hit the malls on Black Friday, the Tea Party movement lived on in the streets of St. Louis and in the small towns of Arkansas to protest Obamacare, rampant government spending, and the massive expansion of the federal government. According to the St. Louis Conservative Examiner, 4,000 “Tea Partiers” [...] More

• In the Green Room: Michael Barone & Ramesh Ponnuru on the Rising Tide of Conservatism

  Posted November 19th, 2009 at 11:40am in First Principles, Ongoing Priorities with 17 comments

  For Michael Barone and Ramesh Ponnuru, conservative principles remain empirically true despite elections. The growing revolt against tired tax-and-spend policies embodied in the Tea Party movement and recent electoral wins for conservative candidates seem to indicate Americans are remembering their conservative heritage, the one that understands the growth of government inherently restricts personal freedoms. “I’d say conservatism [...] More

• In Pictures: The Big Labor Takeover of Big Government

  Posted November 17th, 2009 at 11:25am in Enterprise and Free Markets with 24 comments

  As we reported last week, 2009 will mark the first time ever in American history that the majority of union members work for federal, state, or local governments. The percentage shift has been staggering. In 1973 only 17.3% of union members worked for government. Today that number is 51.2%. When unions depended on steel plants, coal [...] More

• Big Labor and Big Government Are Officially the Same Thing

  Posted November 12th, 2009 at 2:25pm in Ongoing Priorities with 12 comments

  Who do the words “union members” bring to mind? United Auto Workers building cars in Detroit? Teamsters truckers hauling freight? Steel workers in Pennsylvania? Not any more. Newly released numbers show that the actual face of today’s union movement is the teller at your local Department of Motorized Vehicles. Preliminary estimates of union membership this year show [...] More

• Obamacare: Day Three of Senate Finance Committee Hearings

  Posted September 25th, 2009 at 4:48pm in Health Care with 6 comments

  Obamacare: Day Three of Senate Finance Committee Hearings On Thursday, September 24th, the Senate Finance Committee continued to vote on amendments to the “Chairman’s Mark” of the America’s Healthy Future Act of 2009. As the committee continues to consider more than 500 amendments, it is becoming clear that Senators are directly undercutting the high profile promises [...] More

• President Obama’s War on Civil Society

  Posted August 20th, 2009 at 3:16pm in Ongoing Priorities with 31 comments

  First came President Barack Obama’s proposal to reduce the tax deductions for charitable contributions. Now Cash for Clunkers, as predicted, is also hurting charities nationwide. USA Today reports: Charities across the country are concerned that the popular “cash-for-clunkers” program will entice people to junk old cars for credit toward new ones rather than donate them. “We know [...] More

• Guest Blogger: Congressman Pete Olson (R-TX) on the Increase in Minimum Wage

  Posted July 24th, 2009 at 11:45am in Enterprise and Free Markets with 18 comments

  Today, another burden is being placed on America’s small businesses. Effective on this date is the third installment of the increase of the minimum wage that was passed in 2007. Once again, our federal government has provided not a help, but a hindrance to our economic recovery. When the three-phase minimum wage increase was initially signed [...] More

• Guest Blogger: Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) on ‘Recovering Ronald Reagan’

  Posted June 17th, 2009 at 1:59pm in American Leadership with 6 comments

  Why Government Still Doesn’t Have the Solutions Political irony has experienced a profound illustration in the early days of the Obama administration. Seldom has a president rendered such thoughtful tribute to a predecessor whose values his every legislative effort was certain to undermine. Case in point: Two events on Capitol Hill during the first week of June [...] More

• Government Employees Never Get Voted Off The Island

  Posted May 22nd, 2009 at 12:11pm in Ongoing Priorities with 7 comments

  If you need another reason to not let bloated government run wild, watch this video and read this paper: …the federal civilian workforce has become an elite island of secure and highly paid workers, separated from the ocean of private-sector American workers who must compete in today’s dynamic economy. More