As Americans continue to feel the effects of President Obama’s anti-oil agenda at the pump, defensive liberals are circling back to a familiar line of counter-attack: blame Bush. The media vacuum on gas prices has made this line of attack all the more promising with very little national coverage being given to the president’s destructive domestic drilling agenda. Unfortunately it misses an obvious point. President George W. Bush was mostly attacked for wanting to drill too much (or being “cozy” with the oil industry), while President Obama’s policies are rooted …
Americans are endlessly paying taxes–on their income, on their property, on almost anything they purchase. But the heavy burden that the U.S. government places on its citizens does not stop there. It continues with a slew of hidden taxes imposed by an ever-larger number of government regulations. These regulatory taxes do not appear on any balance sheet, yet cost Americans about $1 trillion every year. The recently released Heritage Backgrounder, “Red Tape Rising: Regulation in the Obama Era,” measures the regulatory impact of the outgoing Bush Administration and the new …
According to (confirmed) reports this morning, President Obama will send a bipartisan delegation led by former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush to assist recovery efforts in Haiti. The United States has already launched a robust aid operation including Coast Guard and Naval ships and deployed Marines. The U.S. also has floating military hospitals, doctors and medical supplies on the way. President Obama has ordered a “swift, coordinated and aggressive effort to save lives” and by all accounts, that is what is occurring. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary …
On New Year’s Eve, the White House received the preliminary assessment from federal agencies detailing the shortfalls of a terrorist bomber got on a plane bound for Detroit. The president admitted the government had more than enough information to justify keeping Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab off the aircraft. Obama concluded the system failed. Here is what the president did not explain: This is the same system that stopped the London-based terrorist plot in 2006. On that occasion, intelligence connected the dots; counterterrorism agents penetrated the conspiracy; Homeland Security developed countermeasures; and …
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman was less than honest when he totally misrepresented my 2001 essay, “Taking Charge of Federal Personnel.” My point was simple: To achieve significant change, a president needs key appointees dedicated to pursuing his vision and mandate, not entrenched D.C. “wise men” intent on pursuing policies that reflect their own “expert” views. To promote his own “expert” view that the Bush Administration was unqualified to govern, Krugman lifts a sentence fragment from my essay and places it in a false context. Yes, I urged then …
With the Senate’s rejection of a bailout for Detroit’s ailing automakers, there now comes word that President Bush is actively considering using funds allocated by Congress for the Trouble Asset Relief Program (TARP) to prop up the automakers for the time being. Such action would be wrong legally, wrong economically, and counterproductive to turning around these troubled businesses. And by opening the door to such open-ended use of taxpayer money for virtually unlimited uses, a unilateral decision to employ TARP funds would jeopardize George W. Bush’s legacy as a friend …
There is no doubt that past government intervention in the market, particularly by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is largely to blame for the current financial turmoil. And while past government intervention cannot be used to justify further government interference, we also have to ask how much unnecessary pain the economy must bear. Absent action along the lines proposed by Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, capital markets at home and worldwide would eventually normalize. But how many large and small companies are going to have to fail to make payroll because …
As a general principle, conservatives believe government should not intervene to protect those who have made poor business decisions — even if those decisions have been influenced by excessive government regulation. But there can be rare situations where the cumulative effect of many bad decisions in one sector of the economy can threaten everyone. In these rare cases, government has a critical role in keeping the market’s infrastructure functional. We are in such a situation today. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has presented Congress with an outline of an expensive and …
This week’s debate over the Medicare bill (H.R. 6331) ranks as the biggest battle over health care policy since last year’s bitter debate over the reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). President Bush, vowing to oppose any bill that would curtail the personal choices or benefit options of seniors enrolled in Medicare, vetoed the Medicare Improvement for Patients and Providers Act. Earlier this week, however, the House voted 383 to 41 to override Bush’s veto, and the Senate followed suit, overriding the veto by a vote of …
All of us at The Heritage Foundation are deeply saddened by the loss of Tony Snow. The former White House press secretary, radio talk-show host, “Fox News Sunday” anchor and current CNN contributor was always full of energy and optimism, even as he battled cancer. Snow died early this morning at the age of 53. The Associated Press reports on the mark he left on Washington: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-BXBihOUlY[/youtube] Snow’s death came as a surprise to many people at Heritage who had recently seem him. Rebecca Hagelin, vice president of communications and …
