When Members of the 112th Congress took the oath of office just over a month ago, the leaders of the House brought new meaning to their duty to “support and defend the Constitution.” As promised in their “Pledge to America,” they passed a rule requiring members to cite the specific constitutional authority in each bill […]
While the economy obviously remains the most important issue in American politics, another issue, immigration, refuses to fade away. Opponents of illegal immigration have continued their fight in the legal and legislative arena. Arizona’s Republicans, who previously led the fight by passing a bill that would mandate police to verify whether a suspect was in […]
Ambassador Susan Rice, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, gave the first of a series of scheduled speeches last week in Portland, Oregon. The focus of the speeches is “Why America Needs the UN” and was inspired, apparently, by congressional efforts to include U.S. payments to the U.N. among efforts to cut the U.S. […]
If there existed a company that for nearly half a century had failed to improve upon its product, had watched as other companies passed it by in its ability to be innovative, and all the while had more than tripled its overhead costs, it’s unlikely that company would be in business much longer. And let’s […]
No matter how things shake out in Egypt, one thing has become depressingly clear: Something is very wrong with the American intelligence services. First it was CIA Director Leon Panetta, telling a House committee there was a “strong likelihood” that Mubarak would step down Thursday night — an erroneous prediction that, the CIA later admitted, […]
Before passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), President Obama made several promises to the American people in an attempt to build support for his health care plan. Among them was a promise that “nothing in our plan requires you to change what you have.” However, since the PPACA was signed into […]
Senator Orrin Hatch came to The Heritage Foundation on Friday to present his forthcoming immigration bill—“The Strengthening our Commitment to Legal Immigration and America’s Security Act.” His remarks, and the content of his bill, are a step in the right direction on immigration and border security—given that President Obama used his State of the Union […]
One of the most common arguments for an individual mandate is that “free-riders” – the uninsured who consume emergency room care with no way to pay for it – are jacking up health care costs for everyone else. The argument begins by pointing out that sickness and emergency can strike anyone at any time, and […]
The U.S. Commerce Department today reported that the country’s 2010 trade deficit was $497.8 billion, an increase of $122.9 billion from 2009. Exports increased from $1.57 trillion to $1.83 trillion, and imports increased from $1.95 trillion to $2.33 trillion. Increased imports are often a sign that the U.S. economy is growing. Imports typically fall during […]
Egypt’s beleaguered President Hosni Mubarak announced tonight in a televised speech that he refuses to step down, but he promised to launch an investigation to hold officials of his regime accountable for fomenting violence against protesters since the political turmoil began on January 25. Mubarak promised that he would transfer some undefined leadership responsibilities to […]
