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    Yet Again, Obama Calls for Reducing Charitable Contribution Deduction

    Like past budget proposals, President Obama’s new budget plan calls—again—for lowering the charitable contribution deduction. The current tax code allows individuals to deduct their giving from their overall tax liability at a rate equal to their tax bracket. Obama wants to cap the charitable deduction at what it would be … More

    The Obama Budget in One Infographic

    President Obama released his 2014 budget more than 60 days late. Heritage’s team of policy experts spent the better part of yesterday combing through it to discover proposals that impose new taxes on Americans, expand the size of the federal government, and further erode individual freedom and our national defense. … More

    Small Business Owner? You Could Be Unintentionally Breaking the Law

    Today, a growing number of small business owners are unintentionally finding themselves on the wrong side of the law. Under a statute aimed at identifying organized crime, small businesses and farmers are being prosecuted for ordinary business transactions. Fortunately, Congressman Andy Harris (R–MD) is attempting to fix that. The federal … More

    Obama Ignores 85,933 Ideas to Save Money

    President Obama asked federal workers to suggest ways for the federal government to save money, and American citizens responded – with 86,000 suggestions. But his administration picked only 67 of those ideas, most of which are either minute or simply take credit for savings that have already been implemented, according … More

    VIDEO: Government Red Tape Leaves Illinois Man on Verge of Bankruptcy

    Government regulations cost Steven Lathrop decades of his life and pushed him into financial ruin, according to a new video released by Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI). Lathrop’s home of Granite City, Illinois, regularly suffered from storm flooding that damaged his neighbor’s homes, and even cost the taxpayers money in federal … More

    Heritage Experts’ Reaction to Senate Continuing Resolution

    The massive spending bill, or continuing resolution, released by the Senate this week continues spending on programs which are inappropriate or wasteful and fails to adopt good policies in many areas. Here’s a rundown of some of the worst offenders in the Senate bill: Obamacare. The CR fails to stop … More

    The Legend of Abraham Lincoln: Fact or Fiction?

    Representative Joe Courtney (D–CT) recently penned an open letter to the man who wrote the movie Lincoln. The film depicts a divided Connecticut state congressional delegation, with three members voting to uphold slavery. Courtney declares that cannot stand. He clarifies that, in 1865, Connecticut’s representatives voted unanimously to abolish slavery. … More

    Morning Bell: Get the Federal Government Out of the Natural Gas Business

    In North Dakota, people have jobs. That state led the nation in job creation last year, and its unemployment rate is only 3.2 percent (compared to the national rate of 7.9 percent). Why? One word: energy. As Nicolas Loris, Heritage’s Herbert and Joyce Morgan Fellow, writes in a forthcoming paper: … More

    Morning Bell: Getting a Meddling Government Out of Our Lives

    The next time a cashier asks “paper or plastic?” think of Abbie Schoenwetter. He spent more than six years in federal confinement for shipping lobster in plastic instead of cardboard. There’s no American law against doing so. But thanks to a vague, overly broad, and otherwise unjust federal criminal law, … More

    Transparency in Government: Finding Out How Much the Government’s Mistakes Are Costing Us

    One of the little known costs that taxpayers unwittingly pay is the Judgment Fund administered by the Treasury Department. This fund is used to pay “judicially and administratively ordered monetary awards against the United States” when it loses lawsuits, as well as settlements by the government of threatened or actual … More