Senator Jim DeMint (R–SC) and 12 of his Senate Republican colleagues recently introduced the Retirement Freedom Act. The bill would allow senior citizens to buy a better health plan than traditional Medicare, if they wish to do so, without having to give up their Social Security benefits. Today, if a person who is retiring does not wish to enroll in traditional Medicare’s hospitalization program and instead wants to buy his or her own health care coverage, the federal bureaucracy forces that person to give up Social Security benefits as well. …
South Carolinians for Responsible Government has produced a new video featuring Senator Jim DeMint (R–SC) on the importance of school choice. DeMint outlines the keys to achieving educational success not just in South Carolina but in the rest of the country: If we want true innovation in education to reach the widest range of student interests, aptitudes and learning styles, we need to follow the model of other states like Pennsylvania, Florida, and Arizona who have made school choice for families a reality.
The President has been co-opted by the tea party!” declared Senator Paul Rand (R-KY) to a boisterous crowd of tea party activists that braved the snow to attend the Senate’s public first meeting of the new Tea Party Caucus yesterday. Senator Paul kicked off the event on a humorous note, joking about speculation before the election that he and other Tea Party-backed candidates would be “co-opted” by Washington. With a wry smile, he joked that it seems that the Tea Party has been the one co-opting Washington: Some said that people who …
Playing politics with national security is reprehensible. But it’s nothing new. In 1794, Congress passed a law authorizing construction of ships that would form the backbone of the first United States Navy. The politics started almost immediately. Saving “a few thousand dollars in expenses will be no object compared with the satisfaction a just distribution would afford,” proclaimed Secretary of War Henry Knox as he ordered the six frigates be built in six different shipyards in six different ports. “It was an early example of pork barrel politics, before the …
The Obama Administration has stated on numerous occasions that there is “no way, no how” the New START treaty, a nuclear arms control agreement between the Russian Federation and the United States, will limit U.S. ballistic missile defense options. However, ongoing exchanges of opinions on this question show that the issue is far from clear. Reporter Josh Rogin, in his recent critique of an amendment that Senator Jim DeMint (R–SC) offered to the resolution of ratification for New START in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC) disparages the Senator’s effort. …
The New START Treaty, a treaty signed between the U.S. and Russia, is promoted by the Obama Administration as a means toward a reduction of nuclear weapons between the nations. Senator Richard Lugar (R–IN), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told C-SPAN (according to The Hill) that “a ‘large majority’ of members in his party will back [the treaty] and that it will be ratified.” Lugar is the only Republican to pledge support to date, and any prediction of this controversial treaty passing in a lame duck session …
The New START Treaty, a treaty signed between the United States and Russia is promoted by the Obama Administration as a means toward a reduction of nuclear weapons between the nations. The problem is that President Obama was a terrible negotiator and made concessions that will harm American national security. The most important factor in assessing whether a Senator should support the idea of a treaty is whether the treaty will increase or decrease the national security of the United States. Sadly, this treaty would devastate missile defense and provide …
The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) between the U.S. and Russia is a throwback to the Cold War and does not address the greatest threats the U.S. faces today, namely ballistic missile attacks by rogue nations, according to Sen. Jim DeMint (R–SC). Far from addressing emerging threats, the treaty would actually prevent the U.S. from defending against them and lock the U.S. into the old Cold War adversarial relationship with Russia of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)—or “balance of terror.” By taking on the logic of advancing the old …
The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations met on May 18 to hold a hearing with Secretaries Clinton and Gates and Admiral Mullen on the new U.S.-Russia Strategic Arms Reduction (New START) Treaty. The three officials gave testimony and urged ratification saying the treaty will enhance U.S. security and aid nuclear non-proliferation efforts. In a near-herculean effort, the witnesses, over and over, sought to persuade lawmakers that divergent views with Russia on the key issues of missile defense should not be an obstacle to ratification, reiterating that nothing in New START …
Yesterday, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) clashed head on with Obama administration officials in the first hearing over New START, a proposed nuclear arms control treaty that the White House has submitted to the Senate for ratification. DeMint hammered home the point that the treaty would limit how future presidents could pursue missile defenses. Secretary Gates brushed off the concerns as did the Committee Chair John Kerry dismissing the notion that the White House has come up with anything but the perfect missile defense plan. But others argue the White House …
