WASHINGTON (AP) — You don’t see this very often: a majority of Senate Republicans voting to make people who buy stuff on the Internet pay state and local sales taxes. Anti-tax guru Grover Norquist isn’t happy about it and the conservative Heritage Foundation is questioning the senators’ conservative credentials. But the issue of taxing Internet […]
A cup of coffee at Starbucks won’t buy access to Iran’s official Press TV website, the media outlet claims, based on a blogger. The website, a propaganda mouthpiece for the government, was blocked at a Starbucks outlet last year, according to the blogger, named by Press TV as “N. Salem.” He supposedly asked Press TV, […]
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D–NV) is proposing not one but two old budget gimmicks to spend $85 billion more in 2013 than allowed under sequestration. Contrary to Senator Reid’s claim that “it wouldn’t add a penny to the deficit,” this spending would in fact add every single penny in foregone cuts to the deficit. […]
Newscom The Highway Trust Fund (HTF), which funds most surface interstate transportation programs, from roads to bridges, faces insolvency in a few short years. In a House Budget Hearing today, one witness—Robert Poole of the Reason Foundation—offered lawmakers a near-term solution akin to what The Heritage Foundation has proposed: Recommit HTF revenue to funding highway […]
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — In a move that would capitalize on provisions under President Barack Obama’s health care law but could cost the federal government millions of dollars, Washington state lawmakers have found a creative way to pass a large chunk of their health care expenses along to Washington, D.C. — and analysts say others […]
As Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion is being debated in the states, many myths are being perpetuated by its advocates. Here, Heritage provides the research to debunk such myths: 1. Myth: Expanding Medicaid is “free money” for the states. Reality: The expansion adds an estimated $638 billion in new government spending from 2013–2023. New spending at the […]
The U.S. Senate is debating the so-called Marketplace Fairness Act. It’s a bill that would result in the taxation of Internet sales, driving up costs for consumers. The legislation cleared a procedural hurdle Monday and could have a floor vote by Thursday. This is a classic case of where the interests of big business and […]
The Ministry of the Interior will invest an estimated 15 million shekels in protecting mosques and monasteries from vandals, IDF Radio (Galei Tzahal) reports. Currently, there is no plan to provide Jewish holy places with similar protection. Minister Gidon Saar has reportedly approved funding for extra security, including security cameras, for dozens of Muslim and […]
EU foreign ministers, among them Britain’s William Hague and Laurent Fabius of France, have said they will back EU efforts to label products from Israeli communities in Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem, according to a letter obtained by AFP on Friday. “We warmly welcome your commitment to work with fellow commissioners to prepare EU-wide guidelines […]
Saudi Arabia is hoping to wean jailed Al-Qaeda terrorists off religious extremism with counselling, spa treatments and plenty of exercise at a luxury rehabilitation center in Riyadh, AFP reported on Friday. In between sessions with counselors and talks on religion, prisoners will be able to relax in the center’s facilities which include an Olympic-size indoor […]
