Last year, President Obama swept into office on a promise to confront tough choices–and then released a budget proposing the largest debt-and-spending spree in American history. With Washington having committed itself to more government than its taxpayers could realistically afford, basic fiscal responsibility suggests that the President scale back his expensive proposals. Instead, this year’s budget is even more fiscally irresponsible. (more)
Abstract: In the real world, as opposed to what French President Nicolas Sarkozy calls President Barack Obama’s "virtual world," America faces the reality of Iran’s intransigence and aggressiveness; China’s headlong pursuit of its own national, regional, and global interests; Russia’s determination to regain its Near Abroad; the Arab states’ refusal to accept any kind of a reasonable settlement of the kind that Israel has already offered under several governments; Syria’s designs on Lebanon; and Hugo Chávez’s designs on the weaker countries in Latin America. President Obama’s foreign policy agenda of gradual American retreat will have inexorable consequences: When erstwhile allies see the American umbrella being withdrawn, they will have to accommodate themselves to those from whom we were protecting them. If Obama proves impervious to empirical evidence and experience, all these accommodations, the weakening of alliances, the strengthening of centers of adversarial power in Moscow, Beijing, Tehran, Caracas, and elsewhere will continue until we are awakened by some cataclysm. (more)
President Obama has proposed a new plan to cap student loan payments at 10 percent of the borrower’s discretionary income. Borrowers with incomes below 150 percent of the federal poverty line (or approximately $33,000) would be required to make no payment, and the balance of a borrower’s loan would be forgiven after 20 years for a private-sector worker and 10 years for a government employee. (more)
An excerpt from The Heritage Guide to the Constitution (more)
At the Bucharest Summit in April 2008, NATO affirmed that Macedonia would become a fully fledged member of the alliance once its bilateral name dispute with Greece is resolved. Nearly two years later, Greece continues to block Macedonia’s NATO membership and has extended its obstructionism to Skopje’s ambitions to accede to the European Union, despite widespread support in the region and from the broader Euro-Atlantic community. (more)
Abstract: "The fall of the [Soviet] empire," former Czech president Vaclav Havel wrote, "is an event on the same scale of historical importance as the fall of the Roman Empire." It is true that Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev repudiated the Brezhnev Doctrine–that the Soviet Union will use force if necessary to ensure that a socialist state remains socialist–and in so doing undercut the Communist leaders and regimes of Eastern and Central Europe in the critical year of 1989. But why did Gorbachev abandon the Brezhnev Doctrine? One Western leader above all others forced the Soviets to give up the Brezhnev Doctrine and abandon the arms race, brought down the Berlin Wall, and ended the Cold War at the bargaining table and not on the battlefield: President Ronald Reagan. (more)
The U.S. government’s primary job is to provide for the common defense. The most important element to protecting vital national interests is the U.S. military, which reinforces America’s diplomatic initiatives, acts to deter threats, and, when necessary, fights and wins the nation’s wars. (more)
What Is the Davis-Bacon Act? (more)
Abstract: Russia‘s interests in Iran fundamentally diverge from those of the United States. Russia considers Iran a partner and de facto ally in its plans to reshape the power balance in the Middle East and dilute U.S. influence in the region. The U.S. should expect only token assistance from Russia in countering the Iranian nuclear threat. Instead, the U.S. needs to develop a broader policy that convincingly argues that Iran will lose–even if it obtains nuclear weapons and that clearly demonstrates to the Russians that the risks of betting on Iran outweigh the potential rewards. (more)
America’s response thus far to the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12 has been far too mute, creating an unexpected vacuum of leadership in a critical region. Haiti is the most impoverished nation of the Americas. The government under President Réne Préval is weak and literally now in shambles. Cuba and Venezuela, already intent on minimizing U.S. influence in the region, are likely to seize this opportunity to raise their profile and influence in a country that is already battling drugs and corruption. (more)
Abstract: Cargo must be checked–but it is impossible to screen 11.6 million containers every year without bringing the global economy to its knees. How to avoid the paralyzing cargo clog of the Department of Homeland Security’s mandate for 100 percent cargo screening? Heritage Foundation homeland security policy analysts Jena Baker McNeill and Jessica Zuckerman lay out a smart plan for risk-based screening–which can keep the country safe and prosperous at the same time. (more)
Abstract: The federal budget of the United States is on a disastrous course. Entitlement spending threatens to drive up federal spending in the next decades to an unprecedented proportion of gross domestic product. A budget commission, in conjunction with other steps, may be needed to jolt the legislative process into addressing the looming fiscal crisis, but the Conrad-Gregg commission as proposed is fatally flawed. Instead, a bipartisan budget commission must include the American people fully in the discussions and must not override appropriate protections for the minority in Congress. (more)
Abstract: Virtual or online learning is revolutionizing American education. It has the potential to dramatically expand the educational opportunities of American students, largely overcoming the geographic and demographic restrictions. Virtual learning also has the potential to improve the quality of instruction, while increasing productivity and lowering costs, ultimately reducing the burden on taxpayers. Local, state, and federal policymakers should reform education policies and funding to facilitate online learning, particularly by allowing funding to follow the students to their learning institutions of choice. (more)
As 2009 drew to a close, a senior Chinese naval officer raised the idea that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) might be interested in establishing a permanent base in the Gulf of Aden area in support of anti-piracy missions. Admiral Yin Zhuo, a senior researcher at the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Equipment Research Center, suggested that such a base would facilitate a sustained Chinese presence in the region as part of ongoing anti-piracy efforts. (more)
As the President, the House Speaker, and the Senate Majority Leader continue closed-door negotiations on a final health care reform bill, they should reacquaint themselves with the crippling impact the employer mandate penalties would impose on small businesses. (more)
The post-mortem on the attempted airline terrorist attack on December 25, 2009, demonstrates the importance of continually honing and refining U.S. intelligence capabilities and systems to meet ongoing terrorist threats. President Obama should ensure that American domestic and foreign intelligence agencies as well as U.S. military, diplomats, and domestic law enforcement agencies remain on a war footing in order to prevent future terrorist catastrophes. (more)
Abstract: What do conservatives want? To be free, to live virtuous and productive lives, to be secure from threats beyond and within our borders, and to live in a society that sustains and encourages these aspirations: freedom, virtue, safety–goals reflected in the libertarian, traditionalist, and national security dimensions of the conservative movement and coalition. But to achieve these perennial goals, conservatives must communicate in language that connects with the great majority of the American people in all stations of life. Virtually all conservatives hold in common the conviction that there is indeed an "eternal meaning." The recent past has been unsettling to American conservatives, but in the words of William F. Buckley Jr. nearly 50 years ago, "the wells of regeneration are infinitely deep." (more)
The labor market continued to shrink in December, shedding 85,000 jobs. However, the unemployment rate was unchanged at 10.0 percent because so many people exited the labor force, which dropped the labor force participation rate to the lowest level since 1985. (more)
In the past week, at least three different House and Senate committees and subcommittees have announced intentions to hold hearings to examine the security failures that led to an attempted Christmas Day bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight landing in Detroit, Michigan, by suspected al-Qaeda operative Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. (more)
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