This week, nearly 100 policymakers, practitioners, and administrators met in Washington, D.C., to discuss new solutions for the complex issue of poverty. Among the topics discussed was the nation’s foster care and adoption system. Roughly 400,000 children languish in today’s system, in which they will likely experience multiple, periodic placements …
The Government-as-Caretaker State got a regrettable boost this week. But that hasn’t put a stop to the demonstrations of why civil society is so important to this country’s past and future. This weekend, with Thanksgiving approaching, Boy Scouts will visit neighborhoods throughout the nation. They will collect a bounty of …
On Tuesday, citizens in Maryland, Minnesota, Washington, and Maine will consider ballot questions on marriage. While The New York Times doesn’t want citizens deciding the civic meaning and purpose of marriage for themselves, Sherif Girgis and I argue on National Review Online that “we the people” should decide it for …
It’s not every day that a Heritage scholar offers to help comedian Stephen Colbert make sense of how Christians, especially young evangelicals, can apply biblical principles to politics in our pluralist culture. But it’s good to share the burden of a neighbor — even one so “befuddled” as Colbert — …
A key component to effectively address poverty is recognizing and reducing barriers to the work of neighborhood organizations that are the lifeblood of our nation’s civil society. The Center for Neighborhood Enterprise (CNE), led by Bob Woodson, recognizes and supports a nationwide network of thousands of grassroots leaders, whose impassioned …
In his speech today at Cleveland State University, Representative Paul Ryan (R–WI) laid out a vision for reforming the nation’s approach to poverty. “With few exceptions, government’s approach has been to spend lots of money on centralized, bureaucratic, top-down anti-poverty programs,” Ryan stated. “The mindset behind this approach is that …
Yesterday’s shooting at the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the Family Research Council (FRC) stunned the nation. FRC’s long-time security guard, Leo Johnson, was shot in the arm by a gunman carrying a box of ammunition in his backpack trying to gain access to the building. Law enforcement hailed Leo a …
The Supreme Court decision yesterday on the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare, or ACA) offered only one hope of answering social issue concerns about the sweeping law: a ruling that the ACA is both unconstitutional in part and non-severable as a whole. That is, if the Supreme Court had dispatched the …
The number of Americans dependent on the federal government has exploded over the past five years, reaching a record 67.3 million people, according to Heritage’s annual Index of Dependence on Government. That means 1 in 5 Americans (21.8 percent) today receive some level of assistance from the federal government. This …
