Research -- The Heritage Foundation

Across the United States, policymakers are increasingly adopting education policies that give families the power to choose their children’s schools. Nonetheless, the idea of providing school vouchers to allow children to attend private schools remains controversial (more)

In 2004, the congressionally mandated Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack released an unclassified executive report on its broader study of the U.S.’s vulnerability to EMP weapons strikes (more)

From the beginning of the national health care debate, President Obama made major Medicaid expansion–already a rapidly growing entitlement–a core element of his health policy agenda. Fortunately, results of this approach already exist from the state of Tennessee (more)

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is embarking on a tour of Latin America with the intention of shoring up flagging ties with U.S. partners in the region. During her five-day, six-nation trip, the Secretary should enlist key players–notably Brazil–in a campaign to convince Iran’s leaders to abandon their nuclear weapons ambitions (more)

The Federal Reserve’s actions to stabilize financial markets and the U.S. economy during the recent credit crisis created a mountain of excess reserves owned by banks and held at the Fed. If released into the economy too quickly, these excess reserves would trigger a burst of inflation forcing the Fed to raise the Fed funds rate quickly and likely triggering yet another recession (more)

The Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act could be considered an excellent piece of legislation–if, that is, the goal of the legislation was to ensure massive Social Security deficits without creating a single new job. Yet another attempt by the federal government to coerce companies into hiring more workers, the HIRE Act also signals two fundamental and likely permanent shifts to the Social Security system (more)

Abstinence education is back in the headlines, prompted by a new study that shows such intervention can reduce teen sexual activity in the long term. (more)

The January jobs report is notable for its annual revisions and the divergence of the two different unemployment surveys. First, the household survey showed a drop in the unemployment rate from 10.0 percent to 9.7 percent. The payroll survey showed continued job losses of 20,000 for January. (more)

This week, President Obama submitted his fiscal year (FY) 2011 defense budget request to Congress. The budget seeks $580 billion for the core defense budget in 2011, the majority of which maintains the building blocks to support a comprehensive defense posture with a special emphasis on developing and deploying the next generation of weapons and equipment that U.S. forces will need to fight effectively in the future. (more)

President Obama is proposing, and Congress is considering, a temporary tax credit to encourage businesses to hire new workers. Given that 7.2 million workers that have lost their jobs since the recession began in December 2007, efforts to reduce government-imposed obstacles to hiring are commendable. The proposed tax credit, however, will not create the sustainable jobs needed for long-term recovery and will likely create no jobs on net. (more)

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  (more)

Abstract: China‘s economic growth has been accompanied by growing misinformation about its economy. Contrary to conventional wisdom, China is not leading the world out of a recession, is no longer moving toward a market economy, is not America’s banker, and may never surpass the U.S. Heritage Foundation Asia expert Derek Scissors debunks 10 leading myths [...] (more)

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; (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  (more)

Modern debates about the meaning of the Second Amendment have focused on whether it protects a right of individuals to keep and bear arms or, instead, a right of the states to maintain militia organizations like the National Guard. This question, however, was apparently never even discussed for a long time after the Bill of Rights was framed. (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 (more)

"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  (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)

While Congress continues to debate the merits of climate change legislation, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been steadily moving forward with a process to regulate greenhouse gases (GHGs) under the ill-suited framework of the Clean Air Act (CAA). On January 14, the first major step of that process–a final rule concluding that GHGs endanger [...] (more)

Abstract: Iran‘s nuclear weapons ambitions are ominous in light of its hostile foreign policy and longstanding sup­port for terrorism. But Iran’s repeated threats to annihilate the state of Israel while it develops the world’s most dan­gerous weapons have created an even more explosive situ­ation. If diplomatic efforts to defuse the situation fail, Israel may see [...] (more)