Increasing spending on the State Department and international affairs while freezing discretionary domestic spending is probably not likely to endear President Obama further to constituencies on either side of the Congressional aisle. Yet, the State Department is one of the few winners in President Obama’s FY 2011 budget request, continuing a five year commitment made last year to increase capacity at Foggy Bottom. The way the funding request is structured tells you much about the President’s priorities in foreign policy, which hold fairly closely to traditional Democratic priorities. It certainly …
The front page of the business section of the New York Times today notes recent Chinese state intervention in trade. The Times is right to make this observation, if six… or eight… months late. But recent Chinese moves are neither new nor particularly important. The intervention in trade is long-standing; recent steps are minor extensions of previous policy. The announcement that government departments must buy local goods and services whenever available is just a restatement, the third or fourth one, of existing practices. Unfortunately, it also follows on our own “Buy …
Heritage’s Sally McNamara discusses the concerns for the West now that Russia invaded Georgia. In the video she highlights three main reasons why we need to be concerned: 1. The Invasion was illegal and immoral 2. Europe’s response has been wholly inadequate 3. The West should stress to Russia that actions have consequences. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtqvpb_KzgI[/youtube] Read more about this conflict: Russia’s Recognition of Independence for South Ossetia and Abkhazia Is Illegitimate: They Are Not Kosovo The EU Must Express Solidarity with Georgia at Its Emergency Summit
