President Obama’s economic stimulus was supposed to revive America’s economy and put people back to work. But nearly three years after Democrats rammed the bill through Congress, it’s a clear-cut failure. The nation’s 8.6 percent unemployment rate stands out as one of consequences. Then there is the high-profile Solyndra scandal …
Scribe has reported extensively on the tendency of large government spending projects to reward the politically connected. It’s a virtual constant of federal interventions in the market, and perhaps nowhere is it more evident than in the Obama administration’s “green jobs” push. Writing on National Review Online today, I detail …
One of the most crucial issues confronting the nation is the debt and spending crisis. Standard & Poor’s downgraded the nation’s credit rating in August, while Moody’s put the U.S. on watch for a possible future downgrade. America is hemorrhaging debt, and bold steps are needed now to get spending …
President Obama unveiled the details of his jobs plan last week, including a proposal to offset the new government spending with tax hikes. It’s a bizarre strategy for a president who says he wants to create jobs. As the above chart from Heritage’s 2011 Budget Chart Book illustrates, Americans are …
Social Security took center stage at last night’s Republican presidential debate, emerging as a key issue among candidates at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California. Not since President Bush’s ill-fated attempt to reform the social insurance program in 2005 have Republicans talked this much about Social Security. Of course, …
Be sure to listen to last week’s Heritage Libertad radio show, both in English and Spanish. The show included segments on President Obama’s upcoming jobs speech, the role of religion in politics and, as always, a segment answering Heritage member questions. Questions included: Is the United States a democracy or …
The concept of a Keynesian stimulus never seems to tire among politicians eager to grow the economy artificially by spending other people’s money. Recently, Obama’s Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack encouraged expanding SNAP, the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program aimed to help the poor, as a way to stimulate the economy. …
Proponents of government spending are fond of citing 1937 as an example of when government implemented sharp austerity, and the economy derailed. This argument is dead wrong. On Thursday, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman argued that fiscal austerity right now would make our economic crisis worse. “Even if we manage to avoid immediate catastrophe, the …
