Heritage economist Salim Furth gave testimony last week to the Senate Budget Committee, reminding the Senators that economic research shows that deficit reduction should be pursued through spending cuts, not tax increases. Now he has responded to written questions in detail and explored the exemplary 1990s budget cuts. There is …
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) spent eight minutes berating me at a Senate Budget Committee hearing yesterday. He disliked the facts I presented on austerity, so he called into question my professional honor and integrity. My testimony pointed out that structural reform and well-designed spending cuts are the best policy for stabilizing …
Last Thursday’s revisions to the first-quarter growth estimates showed little change: Gross domestic product (GDP) had grown at a 2.4 percent rate, not 2.5 percent as reported in the initial estimate. For those who mistakenly equate GDP and “the economy,” this is bad news—and an excuse to kvetch about sequestration. …
H.R. 1724, the Kids First Research Act of 2013, sponsored by Representative Gregg Harper (R–MS), would end the Presidential Election Campaign Fund (PECF). That’s the good news. But then the bill would authorize spending existing PECF funds on a new 10-year pediatric research initiative via the National Institutes of Health …
After dreadfully low growth in the last quarter of 2012—just 0.4 percent—gross domestic product (GDP) returned to a healthier rate of growth of 2.5 percent in the first three months of 2013. The autumn’s drop in private inventories was reversed as companies stockpiled more goods in anticipation of future consumer …
As Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion is being debated in the states, many myths are being perpetuated by its advocates. Here, Heritage provides the research to debunk such myths: 1. Myth: Expanding Medicaid is “free money” for the states. Reality: The expansion adds an estimated $638 billion in new government spending from …
The life of the late Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, offers many interesting and instructive examples of statesmanship. Not only for what the Iron Lady did, but what she did not do—her ability to resist the prevailing winds of peer pressure and public opinion in favor …
In the latest issue of the journal Democracy, Michael Wahid Hanna identifies Seven Pillars of the Arab Future. First on his list: economic growth and equality. Among the troubling Middle East economic indicators highlighted by Hanna are low economic growth, inequality, and high unemployment, especially for youth. He identifies five …
