California’s Plight Confirms the Founders’ Fears

California is teetering on the edge of economic and social collapse. According to an Economist special report, this is largely the result of decisions to implement direct democracy reforms during the Progressive era, such as poplar recall, initiatives, propositions, and referenda — reforms that have “inflamed” the passions of the people — “James Madison’s worst […]

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Stop Sending Jobs Overseas

Today, the Labor Department released its monthly jobs report showing that the U.S. economy added 216,000 jobs in March and unemployment fell to 8.8 percent. Despite these encouraging numbers, Americans still consistently tell pollsters that jobs and the economy are the most important problems facing the country. And yesterday, Gallup released a poll showing that […]

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Foreign Aid Does Not Guarantee Security (Human or Otherwise)

In the midst of Congress’s roaring debate over budget cuts, Assistant Secretary of State Eric Schwartz weighed in last week to decry any talk of cutting foreign aid in a letter he titled “Human Security Is National Security.” Civilian and humanitarian foreign aid, he argued, supports our national security interests and “reinforces our nation’s role […]

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Estonia’s Love Affair with Ronald Reagan

While members of Congress, former cabinet members, long-time aides and assorted VIPs were celebrating Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday at the Reagan Presidential Library in sun-baked Simi Valley, California, I was nearly 6,000 miles away in snow-bound Tallinn, Estonia, a small Baltic country bordering on the former Soviet Union. As a Reagan biographer, I was invited […]

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Gov. Scott Walker Sits Down With Heritage and Answers the Tough Questions

MADISON, Wis. — Teachers’ unions and representatives of every liberal interest group in the country may have taken over the streets of Madison for demonstrations, marches and speeches, but inside the Wisconsin governor’s mansion its chief tenant remains calm and resolute. The Badger State’s budget will be balanced, Gov. Scott Walker (R) assured The Heritage […]

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F.D.R. Warned Us

“It is impossible to bargain collectively with the government.” That wasn’t Newt Gingrich, or Ron Paul, or Ronald Reagan talking. That was George Meany — the former President of the AFL-CIO — in 1955. Government unions are unremarkable today, but the labor movement once thought the idea absurd. The founders of the labor movement viewed […]

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