In Japan, the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) exceeded even the most optimistic predictions by winning a landslide victory in Sunday’s lower house election. LDP Leader Shinzo Abe’s conservative foreign policy views and the Japanese public’s growing concern over China provide an excellent opportunity for Washington to achieve several policy objectives critical to the health […]
Kicking the can is the least repugnant remaining resolution to the fiscal cliff. The only alternatives appear to be the Republicans’ unconditional surrender on income tax rates (and conceding their principles) or simply going over the cliff. The story is now a familiar one. Congress and the President conspire to delay every conceivable difficulty until […]
Faced with a court-ordered deadline, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized more stringent rules for National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Particulate Pollution (PM2.5), more commonly known as soot. The new standard lowers the standard from 15 micrograms per cubic meter of air down to 12 micrograms, and counties must meet the standard by 2020 […]
In just a little over a decade, the U.S. federal debt will exceed 100 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), an “economically damaging” level, according to analysis from The Heritage Foundation based on numbers provided by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget and the Congressional Budget Office. To the numbers: Fiscal year (FY) 2012 […]
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), proposed a “bar exam” for public-school teachers in a Wall Street Journal op-ed last week. Modeled after the bar exam for aspiring lawyers, the new test would be intended to produce highly effective teachers. But it would do nothing of the kind. As we have […]
Photo: Garry Gay/Stock Connection Worldwide/Newscom Not all surprises are good. When it comes to Obamacare, the original projections are turning into unfortunately different realities. For the next 12 days, Heritage is going to highlight one of the various changes in Obamacare projections (i.e. cost, enrollment, etc.) from when the law first passed until now. One […]
Much of the debate over wind subsidies this past year has been over the extension of the wind production tax credit. But even if the subsidy expires at the end of the year (as it is supposed to), that does not mean all wind subsidies are disappearing, even though they should. The wind industry receives […]
China’s largest auto-parts maker just won the bidding for A123 Systems, the bankrupted electric car battery company. It’s time to back the car up and remember where the American taxpayer started with A123. A123 received a $249 million grant as part of the 2009 stimulus. By the time it went bankrupt in October 2012, the […]
The State Department wants your opinion. No, not on weighty matters like the Arab Spring/Winter, relations with Russia, the state of NATO, or Chinese free-trade violations. The pressing question of the day is whether it should rename its blog DipNote. To tell the truth, the options are not exactly mind-blowing, a reflection of State’s […]
The Federal Reserve Board today announced the introduction of yet another hyper-aggressive monetary policy, dubbed “QE4” by some for the fourth round of quantitative easing. Three times a dud, fourth time a charm? Not likely. The Fed’s concerns for the economy are well-founded. The economy continues to struggle badly under President Obama’s economic policies of […]
