Heritage and the Wall Street Journal released the 2012 Index of Economic Freedom on Thursday, ranking 179 countries on 10 benchmarks that gauge their economic success. This year Heritage introduced a new interactive feature that gives you the opportunity to create a comparative graph. This week’s chart shows how the United States stacks up against Canada and the United Kingdom. As recently as 2009, the United States led both countries in economic freedom. But after four years of decline, the United States is heading in the wrong direction. This year …
Last week, the independent California High-Speed Rail Peer Review Group recommended that the state legislature not proceed with funding the proposed Los Angeles–San Francisco project. Its argument was grounded in concerns about “the California High-Speed Rail Authority’s plan to start construction without any assurance of future funding from the federal government,” according to The Wall Street Journal. The California High-Speed Rail Authority responded with a “you’ll be sorry” statement, asserting that it will cost Californians more not to build the system. It argued that the cost of expanding airports and …
President Barack Obama loves to talk about “teaching moments” (so much so that a member of his own party in Congress has criticized him for it.) The latest lesson the Obama Administration is trying to teach? That its overregulation isn’t costly or unusual, despite all evidence to the contrary. Today’s Wall Street Journal takes that assertion head on. Here are three key takeaways: 1) The White House is picking and choosing numbers in order to understate its regulatory record. The WSJ reports that, according to an analysis of the Federal Register …
Congressional passage of three free-trade agreements yesterday marked a rare victory for economic freedom in America. But the United States has a long way to go before it regains its status as a leader in economic freedom, according to a new video from the Charles Koch Institute. Government regulations and rapidly rising federal spending have curtailed economic freedom in the United States. The result is a poor economy with high unemployment. The Koch Institute bases its findings on the latest Economic Freedom of the World Report. Heritage’s annual Index of …
Liberals have spent the past two weeks asking Congress to write a blank check for federal disaster funding. They’ve concentrated their attacks on House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) for seeking offsets in other areas of the budget to cover the additional aid. They’ve portrayed Cantor as a callous conservative, suggesting that his stance is extreme and hypocritical. The facts tell another story. The Wall Street Journal reveals that it’s actually congressional Democrats, not Cantor, standing in the way of additional disaster funding. House Republicans have offered a plan that …
Catching you up on clips, commentary and news of the day. Sign up for the daily email update from Scribe. The Year of School Choice – Ed Feulner, The Washington Times Beware: New Obamanomics Plan Ahead – Brian Darling, Human Events Health insurance mandates threaten everyone’s freedom – Chuck Donovan, Daily Caller More Regulation Is the Last Thing Economy Needs – Ramesh Ponnuru, Bloomberg DOJ’s Expanding Power to Seize Assets Sparks Concerns – Nathan Koppel, Wall Street Journal Hugo Chavez Goes for the Gold – Ray Walser, FoxNews.com America is forfeiting …
The Wall Street Journal recently reported on bureaucratic barriers for patients covered by both Medicare and Medicaid. These two programs serve the elderly and the poor, respectively, and people who fall into both categories—the “dual-eligibles”—should get better-quality care with more efficient taxpayer spending. According to the WSJ, an estimated 9.7 million Americans fall under the dually eligible criteria. They account for 16 percent of the Medicare population but 27 percent of Medicare spending, and 15 percent of Medicaid’s population but 39 percent of its spending. More efficient financing for this …
A couple of weeks back I wrote a post revealing that the EU has been giving millions of euros to anti-death penalty groups in the United States. As The Wall Street Journal subsequently commented in an editorial on my Telegraph piece: European countries may need bailing out, but you’ll be pleased to know that the European Union has enough money to promote human rights and democracy—in America. Don’t laugh. American states are free to decide their own penal codes, which vary widely and change as facts and public values evolve. Europe won’t …
Following the Civil War, the Republican Party won elections by characterizing their opponents as the party responsible for the conflict. These fear tactics carried the GOP to several successes over the course of about 20 years. This election strategy is still alive and well today. Now, it’s liberals who are “waving the bloody shirt,” this time through wild exaggerations of conservatives’ plans for Social Security reform. This is nothing new. The Wall Street Journal, in an article detailing this “Social Security Bait and Switch,” writes that scare tactics centered around the threat …
The administration is launching a full-scale defense of the new START Treaty, as evidenced by two days of testimony in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and an op-ed out this morning in The Wall Street Journal by Michele Flournoy and Ashton Carter. Ms. Flournoy and Mr. Carter rightly point out the successes of the missile defense program over the past few years. Over 10 tests conducted since 2006, the Standard Missile (SM)-3 interceptor has had a 90% success rate. Missile defense is effective and a key component in our national …
