Yet Again, Obama Calls for Reducing Charitable Contribution Deduction

Tetra Images Tetra Images/Newscom Like past budget proposals, President Obama’s new budget plan calls—again—for lowering the charitable contribution deduction. The current tax code allows individuals to deduct their giving from their overall tax liability at a rate equal to their tax bracket. Obama wants to cap the charitable deduction at what it would be for […]

Full Story

Heritage Analysts: What We Saw in Venezuela

LEO RAMIREZ/AFP/Getty Images/Newscom The situation encountered by Heritage analysts on the ground in Venezuela last week was of a country that has been looted and is falling apart—literally and figuratively. The once thriving nightlife of downtown Caracas is but a distant memory. These days the streets are deserted, surrendered to gangsters and narcotraffickers. People are […]

Full Story

Conservative Chileans Appreciated Margaret Thatcher

Newscom The death of Margaret Thatcher received extensive media coverage in Chile, proving that the “Dama de Hierro” (“Iron Lady”) is still capable of stirring powerful emotions among Chileans—of irritation among her opponents and admiration from her supporters. Her passing occurred while Heritage economic experts were in Santiago to present results for Chile in the […]

Full Story

Trade Agreements Can Advance Economic Freedom

Kenichiro Seki/ZUMA Press/Newscom The United States is currently engaged in Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade negotiations designed to reduce barriers to international trade and investment. The latest text from these negotiations shows how trade agreements, if properly designed and implemented, help advance economic freedom around the world. Among other things, the draft text calls for: No […]

Full Story

Energy Secretary Nominee Faces Tough Natural Gas Decision

Rick Friedman/Polaris/Newscom If confirmed as the next Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary, Dr. Ernest Moniz will take over an agency that has increasingly injected itself into making investment decisions with taxpayer money that would be more efficiently made by the private sector. The Heritage Foundation disagrees with many of the policy recommendations Dr. Moniz has […]

Full Story

New GAO Report on Weapons Acquisitions Fundamentally Skewed

Newscom On March 28, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its annual assessment of the performance of the Department of Defense (DOD) in purchasing specific new weapons in a cost-efficient manner and reducing the overall cost to the taxpayers of a wide variety of weapons purchases. This year’s assessment was generally more positive regarding the […]

Full Story

Federal Disaster Relief Spending Out of Control

Newscom The world’s second-largest reinsurer, Swiss Re, reports “that natural catastrophes and man-made disasters cost the insurance industry $77 billion in 2012.” The report noted this figure covered “more than 300 catastrophes and disasters caus[ing] the loss of 14,000 lives and $186 billion.” These disasters included many of the 112 events for which the Federal […]

Full Story