SAT scores among the nation’s test-takers are at a 40-year low. As The Washington Post reports: Reading scores on the SAT for the high school class of 2012 reached a four-decade low, putting a punctuation mark on a gradual decline in the ability of college-bound teens to read passages and answer questions about sentence structure, […]
While other events may compete for our attention this fall (baseball playoffs, football, national election campaigns), next Monday, October 1, marks the beginning of a new Supreme Court term. The Court’s last term also reminds us that the judiciary sometimes plays an outsized role in our republic. Thus, as Heritage’s Elizabeth Slattery explained last week, […]
Trade policy is once again in the spotlight with President Obama’s announcement this week of a new suit against China in the World Trade Organization (WTO). The President announced the action—which argues that China unfairly subsidizes parts of its automotive industry—during a speech on Monday in Ohio. In announcing the action, the President claimed that […]
Federal spending concentrated on the 47 dependence-creating government programs that include housing, farm subsidies, and entitlements now comprises more than 70.5 percent of total federal expenditures as of 2010, according to Heritage’s Index of Dependence on Government. This represents the fourth year in a row that the Index of Dependence on Government has risen, increasing […]
Photo credit courtesy of NREL The first underwater turbine to make use of tidal energy went live last week in Maine, supported by a $10 million investment by the Department of Energy. The Ocean Renewable Power Company Maine’s Cobscook Bay Tidal Energy Pilot Project received the Energy Department money to build, install, and operate the […]
It’s an odd feeling to see your name on the list of individuals targeted by the Justice Department. Especially when you used to work there. The DOJ’s Office of Public Affairs appears to have enlisted Media Matters to serve as its unofficial PR wing — the one responsible for running smear campaigns too dirty for […]
A Syrian defector, who was formerly involved in Syria’s chemical weapons program, charged that the Assad regime has mulled using chemical weapons against opposition forces and predicted that the regime would not hesitate to do so as a last resort. Major General Adnan Sillu, who defected to the opposition three months ago, also contends that […]
In recent weeks, liberal politicians, editorialists, and policy analysts have vigorously attacked reform of Medicare based on a defined contribution financing. In fact, this approach to reforming Medicare has a long bipartisan tradition, going back to the 1980s and Representatives Richard Gephardt (D–MO) and David Stockman (R–MI). In fact, much of this criticism is distorted, […]
By Sam Fellman – Staff writer Posted: Tuesday Sep 11, 2012 17:16:10 EDT On the last night of the Democratic National Convention, a retired Navy four-star took the stage to pay tribute to veterans. Behind him, on a giant screen, the image of four hulking warships reinforced his patriotic message. But there was a big […]
This afternoon, the House voted to restore the work requirements that the Obama Administration has attempted to gut from the 1996 welfare reform law. The breakdown: 250 Republicans voted for restoration and 164 Democrats voted against the resolution. The 1996 reform inserted work requirements into the largest federal cash assistance welfare program, replacing the old […]
