Chinese government subsidies—as much as $35 billion—were responsible for the downfall of Abound Solar, not a flawed federal government loan-approval process, according to testimony delivered before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee today. Executives from the bankrupt solar panel manufacturer pointed to predatory pricing by Chinese solar companies underwritten by the Chinese government subsidies […]
Last Thursday, the Obama Administration quietly issued new bureaucratic rules that overturned the popular welfare reform law of 1996. This was an illegal move, and it completely undoes years of progress that helped millions of Americans. What Welfare Reform Accomplished The 1996 reform replaced the old Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program with […]
With the commander in chief refusing to address the crippling, automatic cuts to national defense scheduled to start on January 2, Congress is appropriately stepping up and demanding answers. That is the aim of the Sequestration Transparency Act of 2012 (H.R. 5872), which is being taken up in the House this week. It requires the […]
The latest attack on voter ID is occurring in Minnesota, where on Tuesday, the state Supreme Court will hear a case filed by the League of Women Voters (LWV). In League of Women Voters Minnesota v. Ritchie, the LWV is trying to convince the court to remove a referendum question from the November ballot. Its […]
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has a General Counsel and legal staff to ensure that the agency’s actions are lawful. Did they take the day off last Thursday? We have to question whether the department lawyers were consulted at all about the “Information Memorandum” issued by HHS last Thursday that invites states […]
Unless the President and Congress change current law, the men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces will soon face an indiscriminate, across-the-board cut of more than $500 billion over the next decade. Known as “sequestration,” this massive reduction in defense spending comes in addition to the $487 billion in long-term military cuts already proposed […]
House Cloakroom Analysis: This week the House will turn its attention to defense funding. The major bill on the floor this week will be the Defense appropriations bill, which provides the funding for the nation’s military. Additionally, the House will take up a bill to establish strict transparency requirements for the Obama Administration’s process of […]
There is some confusion in Foggy Bottom as to how the United States ought to define Boko Haram, an Islamic militant group based in northern Nigeria. Last week, Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson testified in front of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, calling Boko Haram a “terrorist organization.” Yet he defended the Obama Administration’s […]
The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s embattled regime is moving chemical munitions out of storage depots. It remains unclear whether the regime is deploying these weapons in the field or is trying to keep them from falling into the hands of rebels, who have gained considerable ground in recent […]
The bad news: This week the Dutch parliament voted to scrap Dutch participation in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program. The good news: Since the Dutch government dissolved back in April, and there will be a general election later in the year, the vote is non-binding. Nevertheless, this should serve as a wake-up call […]
