David Fernandez/Newscom Voters go to the polls on Sunday, April 14, to elect Venezuela’s next president. Snap elections followed the March 5 death of the authoritarian populist Hugo Chavez. It appears likely that voters will choose Nicolas Maduro, interim president, and Chavez’s handpicked successor, over opposition candidate Henrique Capriles. A dying Chavez defeated Capriles on […]
Newscom Most Americans believe “work is the best solution for poverty,” according to a recent Rasmussen Report. A full 80 percent of Americans agree with this statement (9 percent disagree and 11 percent are undecided). Using work to fight poverty was the driving force behind the welfare reforms of 1996. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families […]
ALEJANDRO ERNESTO/EPA/Newscom What are we to make of Jay-Z and Beyonce’s trip to Cuba? And can we really expect a better U.S.–Venezuela relationship now that Hugo Chavez is out of the picture? Wonder no more because we’ve got some answers in this month’s installment of the Heritage Libertad podcast. Joining us is The Heritage Foundation’s […]
(CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama’s proposed budget would simultaneously compel Americans to enroll in a tax-deferred retirement account and “prohibit” them from saving more than $3 million in such accounts. That sum, Obama’s budget argues, is all that is “needed to fund reasonable levels of retirement saving.” Under current law, American who save money in […]
MICHAEL REYNOLDS/EPA/Newscom Yesterday, Education Secretary Arne Duncan testified before the House Appropriations Committee about Obama’s fiscal year (FY) 2014 budget request for the Department of Education. Congressman Andy Harris (R–MD) took the opportunity to question Duncan about a glaring omission from the budget: funding for the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (DCOSP). The DCOSP provides vouchers […]
World History Archive/Newscom In the latest paper in the Makers of American Political Thought series, Colleen Sheehan looks at the long career of James Madison. In it, we see that “diversity” was a key component of the American Founding. Of course, Madisonian diversity had nothing to do with tallying up racial, ethnic, or sexual identity. […]
Questions over North Korea’s nuclear capabilities have again skyrocketed into the headlines—not because of another threat by Pyongyang but instead by a U.S. intelligence assessment. The existence of a new classified Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report was disclosed during a congressional hearing by Representative Doug Lamborn (R–CO). According to Lamborn, “DIA assesses with moderate confidence […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
