Every day, more Americans get trapped by big government. In addition to groups targeted by the IRS, upstanding citizens going about their normal lives are suddenly targeted by law enforcement authorities and charged as criminals. Just a few examples: A young girl was fined $535… for rescuing a wounded woodpecker. …
The Treasury Department’s release of $100 million from the Hardest Hit Fund last week amounts to a federal bailout of five Michigan cities without congressional oversight or approval. The Hardest Hit Fund, part of the 2008 Troubled Asset Relief Program, was intended to provide assistance to homeowners in states particularly …
Any conservative who takes his bearings from America’s founding principles can’t help but miss the candor with which the early Progressives dismissed our founding documents as antiquated relics of a bygone era. Unlike liberal politicians from FDR onward who couch their statist agenda in the rhetoric of the Founding, Woodrow …
Congress is turning its attention to the farm bill this week, and if there’s ever a reason to unite against big government, this is a good time as any. Heritage Action’s Drew White reports the bill is chock full of special-interest handouts, market-distorting subsidies, and hundreds of billions of dollars in …
As commencement season winds down, it’s discomfiting to think that almost half of new graduates know exactly where they’re headed when school’s out: Back to their parents’ homes. The Pew Research Center reports that 45 percent of college grads younger than 25 are “living with family.” That percentage is almost …
President Obama nominated Representative Mel Watt (D–NC) as new chief regulator to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), replacing the current acting director Edward DeMarco. Watt has strong support from liberals in both the House and the Senate as a longtime member of the House Financial Services Committee and advocate …
Conservative members of Congress are adding their voices to a rising chorus of bipartisan opposition to the Internet sales tax. At last week’s Conversations with Conservatives, a monthly event co-hosted by The Heritage Foundation, Representative Raul Labrador (R-ID) said the Marketplace Fairness Act allows large retail businesses to impose new taxes on …
Thin Mints and Tagalongs might be a little hard to swallow now for those concerned with centralization of education—and now, civil society institutions. The Girl Scouts of America now boasts that every merit badge is fully aligned with the Common Core State Standards Initiative—an effort to nationalize the content taught …
Politeness is engrained in civil society. But sometimes, in order to make progress, you’ve got to dare to ask the questions that make people uncomfortable. Do Federal Social Programs Work? is the provocative title of a new book by Heritage’s David Muhlhausen. He holds a magnifying glass to Washington’s vast …
