On September 8, 2011—well after the enactment of Obamacare—President Obama told Congress: “Millions of Americans rely on Medicare in their retirement. And millions more will do so in the future.… But with an aging population and rising health care costs, we are spending too fast to sustain the program. And if we don’t gradually reform […]
US lawmakers are considering an aid allotment of $680 million to strengthen Israel’s Iron Dome short-range rocket shield. The move by Republican lawmakers comes in the face of previous attempts by the Obama administration to prune defense aid to Israel. Senior Republicans Howard McKeon (R-CA) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) criticized Obama for his lack of […]
This weekend, Formula One’s Grand Prix will be held in Bahrain. Despite the escalation in protests by Bahrain’s Shia opposition, F1 head Bernie Ecclestone has stated that unless the race is cancelled by the national sporting authority, it will go on as scheduled. Cancelled last year because of unrest, the F1 race is a major […]
Talk-radio host Neal Boortz is no fan of the nation’s capital. “The place gives me the creeps,” he said on this week’s Scribecast. Boortz, a self-described libertarian who first visited Washington, D.C., in the 1950s, said federal bureaucrats have given the city a bad reputation. “I came to know Washington as a symbol of freedom, […]
The European euro/debt/growth/banking/identity crisis is entering its third year. With so many summits, toasts, tense conference calls, and self-congratulatory pronouncements of ultimate success by Europe’s brightest lights, why won’t the crisis just go away? Instead, it is ramping up as interest rates on Spanish and Italian debt rise to critical levels, signaling the end of […]
Senate Budget Committee chairman Kent Conrad, D-N. Dak., holds a news conference on Tuesday, April 17, 2012, to preview the Budget Committee’s budget resolution markup. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call) The Senate Budget Committee stretched a few definitions in announcing yesterday’s “Mark-Up of the Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2013.” Turns […]
Standing before a mural of Eva Peron Duarte (wife of Argentina’s legendary strongman Juan Domingo Peron and the “first lady of populism”) Argentina’s recently re-elected President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner unveiled a plan to seize majority ownership in Argentina’s chief energy company YPF and return it to state control. “We are the only country in […]
The Coast Guard needs to call more attention to its undersized fleet, according to Congressional Research Service expert Ron O’Rourke. While the sea service has publicized its requirement list, “the other part [of the discussion] is the extent to which that program of record will permit the Coast Guard to perform its projected missions. That’s […]
New research suggests that legislators should cut spending and enact growth-inducing policies. The reasoning? According to the study, spending cuts can positively affect economic growth and are the only historically reliable way to lower deficits and debt. The authors of the study, Alberto Alesina and Francesco Giavazzi, write that “spending-based consolidations [spending cuts] accompanied by […]
Americans who are scrambling to pay their taxes by Tuesday’s deadline are in store for more depressing news: The tax burden on American families has risen dramatically and will continue to climb into the future without action from Congress. This week’s chart outlines the growth of taxes over the past 45 years. Large tax increases […]
