Entries for 'Heritage Foundation'

According to the Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released today, only 26% of voters think the economy is going to be better in the next year, and 61% think the country is on the wrong track. Desperate to show Americans he's fighting "every single day, every single hour, every single minute" to turn the economy around, President Barack Obama unveiled yet another economic stimulus spending plan yesterday. This time the President is promising to spend $50 billion over six-years....

This Labor Day marks a milestone in the history of the U.S. union movement. It is the first Labor Day on which a majority of union members in United States work for the government. In January the Department of Labor reported that union membership in government has overtaken that in the private sector. Three times as many union members work in the Post Office as in the entire domestic auto industry. The face of the union movement is not a worker on the assembly line but a clerk at the DMV.

Yet, as important as this their influence is, most Americans have no say in choosing their child’s teacher. Parents don’t have a choice when it comes to their child’s education, despite the fact their tax dollars pay for the public schools, and their children’s futures are at stake.

Parents in Los Angeles are getting some new transparency about their children’s schools this week.  The Los Angeles Times recently released the names of 6,000 elementary teachers and data showing how much each teacher’s students improved on standardized tests....

...the U.S. economy lost 125,000 jobs in June and then the August report found another 131,000 jobs were lost in July. Today the Labor Department released the September jobs report, showing nonfarm payrolls decreased again by 54,000 and that the nation's unemployment rate rose to 9.6%.

The President again evinced the impression that he viewed Iraq as a distraction, and he twice said he wanted to "turn the page" to other issues. As forgettable as the address was however, once placed into the broader context of foreign policy speeches and actions, a clear Obama Doctrine can now be defined, as James Carafano and Kim Holmes do in a new paper released today....

Instead of uniting the country behind our effort in Iraq, this is how President Obama chose to open his remarks: "As a candidate for this office, I pledged I would end this war. As President, that is what I am doing. We have brought home more than 90,000 troops since I took office." The President's love affair with first person singular pronouns aside, this is just plain false.

New Jersey was not the only state to lose out because of the Obama administration's slavish devotion to teacher union votes and cash. Proven education reform leaders like Louisiana and Colorado also lost points and finished out of the money because their state's chosen reforms threatened union priorities. Meanwhile Hawaii (which the Data Quality Campaign ranked 17th for education data systems, which the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools ranked 34th for the strength of their charter laws, and which got a D- from the National Council on Teacher Quality) finished third and will receive $75 million. Oh, but they had 100% "buy in" from the unions.

Last Thursday, a who's who of the progressive movement met for a conference call organized by Families USA and hosted by the advocacy group for government-run health care, The Herndon Alliance. The Alliance's partners include AARP, AFL-CIO, SEIU, MoveOn and La Raza, among many others. Democratic pollsters John Anzalone, Celinda Lake and Stan Greenberg were the call's main event, and they were there to deliver some bad news.

Since taking office the Obama administration has used the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and other initiatives to buy one car company, give another to union allies, punish non-union workers, undermine the bankruptcy code, enrich Wall Street at the expense of Main Street, bail out Mickey Mouse, keep unionized zombie firms from dying and generally terrorize the world economy. That is why, for the first time ever in 2010, the United States fell from the ranks of the economically "free," as measured by The Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom.

Regardless of whether one agrees with the result, structurally sound opinions always confront binding legal precedent. Walker's is a clear exception because the U.S. Supreme Court has spoken on whether a state's refusal to authorize same-sex marriage violates the equal protection and due process clauses of the 14th Amendment. In 1972, Baker v. Nelson, a case over whether Minnesota violated the Constitution by issuing marriage licenses only to opposite-sex couples, was unanimously thrown out on the merits, for lack of a substantial federal question. The Supreme Court's action establishes a binding precedent in favor of Proposition 8. But Judge Walker's ruling doesn't mention Baker, much less attempt to distinguish it or accept its findings.

On every issue, the left has only two answers: more federal spending and more federal control. Conservatives have not, and should not, shy away from opposing these policies. But conservatives also must offer an alternative vision of America's future; one that is consistent with our nation's founding principles and empowers the people to compete in the 21st century. Today, The Heritage Foundation is releasing just such an alternative: "Solutions for America".

Today the House of Representatives is expected to approve yet another bailout for those states that have proved incapable of controlling their spending on government worker pay, benefits and pensions. The $26.1 billion price tag will be funded in part by $11 billion in tax hikes on U.S. companies that compete internationally.

Last Friday, some 19 months after the stimulus bill became law, the Labor Department issued its monthly jobs report showing the U.S. economy shed 131,000 jobs and unemployment tread water at 9.5% as 181,000 workers left the workforce entirely. These numbers are so terrible that the Federal Reserve is expected to downgrade its assessment of the U.S. economic outlook when it meets tomorrow.

This Tuesday voters in Missouri, by a 40-point margin, approved a ballot measure rejecting the individual mandate at the core of President Barack Obama's health care law. Asked what the vote meant to the White House, press secretary Robert Gibbs said: "Nothing." Yesterday in San Francisco, federal judge Vaughn Walker gave the exact same weight to a California ballot measure that affirmed marriage as an institution between one man and one woman. Specifically Judge Walker overturned the California Marriage Protection Act after concluding, as a matter of fact, that the majority of Californians who voted to protect marriage were bigots who had no rational basis to define marriage on their own terms.

Adoption of national standards by states appears to be only an attempt to gain federal grants—not real reform. But in taking Washington’s money, are states sacrificing their educational autonomy for short-term budgetary security?

President Obama has quietly been reworking the country’s education system, doing an end-run around normal legislative procedure. With the U.S. Department of Education’s (DOE) funding doubled thanks to the so-called "stimulus," the Administration has little need or incentive to bother negotiating its education agenda through Congress. Instead, the DOE is using that windfall of funding and power to stage a significant overhaul of local schools; dangling grant money before cash-strapped states on the condition they adopt key pieces of the Obama education agenda.

The debate surrounding the redefinition of marriage in Hawaii centers on the nature of family and its role as “a prime institution in civil society.” According to Heritage Foundation Senior Fellow Chuck Donovan, the “family is not the creature of the state” but is “both natural and pre-political” in its origins. As such, the consequences of a redefinition for the whole of the state are weighty. A change of this magnitude should not “be made by one person sitting in her office or by members of the Majority Party,” but, as Governor Lingle suggests, “by all the people of Hawaii.”

USA Today reported that Federal employees earn higher average salaries than private-sector workers in more than eight out of 10 occupations that exist both in government and the private sector. Instead of taking the news as an opportunity to save taxpayers money, the Obama administration pushed back against the news and dispatched Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag to defend government employee pay. Orszag told reporters: "I think the key thing to remember about that is the federal workforce is more highly educated than the private workforce. ... Basically the entire delta between private sector and public sector federal government average pay can be explained by education and experience." The problem is, this is just not true.

When Linda O’Boyle was diagnosed with bowel cancer, her doctors told her she could boost her chances of survival by adding the drug cetuximab to her regimen. But the rationing body for Britain's National Health Service, the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), had previously ruled that the drug was not cost-effective and therefore would not be paid for by the government. So O'Boyle liquidated her savings and paid for the drug herself. But this is not allowed under NHS rules. When government bureaucrats found out that O'Boyle had purchased the drug with her own money, she was denied NHS treatment and died within months.

Remember 9/11. Remember Katrina. Remember Haiti. Often, after a disaster of epic proportions, we are urged to remember the victims and the lessons of how to avoid a similar catastrophe. These reminders are necessary because after the moment of impact passes, people’s attention is drawn to other major events. Rarely ever, however, is the phrase used while the crisis continues unabated; while the administration that the media needs to hold accountable flounders in a sea of ineptitude, red tape and finger pointing.

Yes, we’re talking about the Gulf oil spill. It may be the first time in U.S. history that a president and the national media’s attention need to be refocused on a crisis while it is still, in fact, underway. Remember the Gulf.

As a practical matter, the Declaration of Independence publicly announced to the world the unanimous decision of the American colonies to declare themselves free and independent states, absolved from any allegiance to Great Britain. But its greater meaning-then as well as now-is as a statement of the conditions of legitimate political authority and the proper ends of government, and its proclamation of a new ground of political rule in the sovereignty of the people.

More than two years ago, then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton launched a campaign ad that took direct aim at Senator Barack Obama's inexperience. It painted the picture of a telephone ringing in the White House at 3 a.m. and asked the question, when there is a crisis in the world and your children are safe and asleep, "Who do you want answering the phone?"

Now, two years later, there are several crises confronting America, that telephone is ringing, and President Obama isn't quite sure what to do about it.

The Washington Post reports today that Gen. Stanley McChrystal, U.S. commander in Afghanistan, apologized for an upcoming article in Rolling Stone magazine that portrays him and senior officials on his team as dismissive of top Obama administration officials. As a result, General McChrystal has been summoned to the White House to explain his comments. It is a case of poor judgment on the part of the general and his staff to air comments on the character of senior civilian leaders to a reporter, but both the White House and the brass need to put this media gaffe aside and focus on the real problem - destroying al Qaeda, defeating the Taliban and helping establish an Afghanistan that can govern itself.

Alaska and Texas chose not to apply for Race to the Top funding because of the provision requiring adoption of national standards.

Both Minnesota and Virginia argue that their state standards are stronger than the proposed national standards supported with federal dollars.

But if the Obama administration has its way, states might not have a choice in the matter. The U.S. Education Department recently released a "blueprint" for reauthorizing No Child Left Behind. The blueprint language indicates the administration will try to tie $14.5 billion in money for low-income school districts to a state's adoption of national standards.

To reinvigorate marriage in lower-income neighborhoods, Rector suggests, government could start by providing facts on the role of healthy marriages in reducing poverty and improving the well-being of children. Why not teach skills for selecting a wife or husband? Why not explain the importance of developing a stable marital relationship before bringing children into the world?

Nothing could be further from government practice. In social service agencies, welfare offices, schools and popular culture across America, what Rector calls "a deafening silence" reigns on the topic of marriage. The welfare system actively penalizes low-income couples who do get married. He adds:

For most on the Left, marriage is, at best, an antiquated institution, a red-state superstition. From this viewpoint, the real task is to expand government subsidies as a post-marriage society is built.

Nearly 31 years ago, on July 15, 1979, President Jimmy Carter told the American people from the Oval Office: "Energy will be the immediate test of our ability to unite this nation, and it can also be the standard around which we rally. On the battlefield of energy we can win for our nation a new confidence, and we can seize control again of our common destiny." Last night the American people heard almost the exact same speech from President Barack Obama....

Joel Benenson, a pollster for the Democratic National Committee and Obama’s presidential campaign, circulated a memo on Capitol Hill arguing that a comprehensive energy bill "could give Democrats a potent weapon to wield against Republicans in the fall." Politico reports that Benenson’s recommended “messaging architecture" includes the slogan “Making BP Pay Isn’t Enough” and adds: “frame the opposition” as “Big Oil and corporate polluters who have blocked energy reform for decades” and “politicians protecting the special interests that fund their campaigns.”

If the federal government managed to return to the per-household spending level of the Reagan administration, the budget would be balanced by 2012 without any tax hikes. Or just returning to the per-household spending levels that existed before the current recession would balance the budget by 2019. But first we must stop the bleeding: the government bailouts must end.

But unlike the federal takeover of the banking and health care industry, this time around Obama and his liberal allies are shrewdly avoiding another public fight by moving their education agenda forward without even going through Congress. The administration is supporting a move to implement national education standards, using the $4.35 billion Race to the Top grant program to secure those ends. National standards will give the federal government – not parents – more power over education. Now, instead of petitioning their local schools boards for curriculum changes, parents will have to trek to Washington to lobby D.C. bureaucrats for input in the content taught at their children’s school.

According to one Dutch newspaper, European firms could complete the oil spill clean up by themselves in just four months, and three months if they work with the United States, which is much faster than the estimated nine months it would take the Obama administration to go it alone. The major stumbling block is a protectionist piece of legislation called the Jones Act which requires that all goods transported by water between U.S. ports be carried in U.S.-flag ships, constructed in the United States, owned by U.S. citizens, and crewed by U.S. citizens. But in an emergency this law can be temporarily waived as DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff did after Katrina.

It is not every day we get to agree with the Obama administration. But after Sen. Blanche Lincoln defeated Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter in the Arkansas Democratic Senate primary runoff election, after the AFL-CIO, SEIU, AFSCME poured millions of dollars into Halter's campaign, a senior White House official told Politico: "Organized labor just flushed $10 million of their members' money down the toilet."

But it wasn't just "their members" money that those unions were wasting....

the latest Pew poll shows that for the first time ever, more Americans now believe that the president's economic policies have made economic conditions worse than made them better.

This morning on MSNBC, former Rep. Joe Scarborough (R-FL) pressed prominent Keynesian economist and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University Jeffrey Sachs on whether it was too early to declare President Obama's stimulus a failure. Scarborough had to ask the question twice, but Sachs finally relented: "Obama’s stimulus failed."

This Wednesday in Pittsburgh, President Barack Obama defended his administration's economic policies telling the audience at Carnegie Mellon University: "Now, I've never believed that government has all the answers. Government cannot and should not replace businesses as the true engine of growth and job creation." But that is exactly what the President's big government policies are doing.

Early Monday morning in the international waters of the Mediterranean Sea, helicopters lowered Israeli Commandos onto a Turkish-flagged ferry carrying 600 passengers determined to break Israel's blockade of Gaza. Beset by activists armed with poles, knives and guns, the Israelis defended themselves, and the resulting violence left at least nine dead. Hours later, the International Atomic Energy Agency released a report claiming that Iran now has enough nuclear fuel, with further enrichment, to make two nuclear weapons. These two stories are not unrelated. And they ought to serve as a signal to the Obama administration that it is time to change its approach to the region.

A fudgelike goo coating Louisiana's marshes. A thick oil slick stretching across the Gulf of Mexico. A plume of oil miles below the ocean surface. A tragic loss of life. Reverberating economic consequences. Throw in a poll that shows that 53 percent of Americans rate President Barack Obama "poor" or "very poor" in his handling of the Gulf oil spill, and it's no wonder the President yesterday broke his 308-day self-imposed press conference moratorium in hopes of conveying some semblance of leadership amid an environmental, economic and human catastrophe that has spiraled out of his control.

It isn't easy being Arizona these days, especially when President Barack Obama puts politics before Americans' interests, a foreign head of state before the United States, and an agenda of apology before much-needed, sensible reforms.

But that's just what happened this week when Mexican President Felipe Calderon visited Washington, DC. President Obama extended a warm hand to Calderon and demagogued Arizona’s illegal immigration law all in the name of politics.

On Sunday, columnist Ross Douthat described the Dodd bill as just one example of "the real story of our time. From Washington to Athens, the economic crisis is producing consolidation rather than revolution, the entrenchment of authority rather than its diffusion, and the concentration of power in the hands of the same elite that presided over the disasters in the first place. ... If Robert Rubin’s mistakes helped create an out-of-control financial sector, then naturally you need Timothy Geithner and Lawrence Summers — Rubin’s protégés — to set things right. ... But their fixes tend to make the system even more complex and centralized, and more vulnerable to the next national-security surprise, the next natural disaster, the next economic crisis. Which is why, despite all the populist backlash and all the promises from Washington, this isn’t the end of the 'too big to fail' era. It’s the beginning."

Savvy liberal political strategists and worried Democratic primary voters, moreover, have had ample time to adapt to the demands of an angry and increasingly conservative electorate. Few Democrats in swing or conservative districts will run as Pelosi or Obama liberals. Instead, expect their rhetoric to morph the populism of Joe Sestak into the conservatism of Mark Critz.  As Rand Paul said last night:

I have a message, a message from the Tea Party. A message that is loud and clear and does not mince words: We’ve come to take our government back.

On March 26 the White House released a fact sheet on the New START Treaty. It claimed that the agreement signed by President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev "does not contain any constraints on testing, development or deployment of current or planned U.S. missile defense programs."

But the Russians seem to have a different interpretation of the document they signed.

CBS News' Chip Reid points out: "Mr. Obama's been president for nearly 16 months. Does he get at least a little piece of the blame?" Pointing to President Obama's staunch defense of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Reid answered his own question: "Not a bit. ... He portrayed his administration as valiantly fighting the good fight against the oil companies from day one. ...So while the president is pointing the finger of blame, he's also working hard to make sure that over time the finger doesn't do a 180."

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) once said that the "most basic responsibility of governing is to pass a budget." Yesterday it became clear that Congress has decided to shirk that responsibility, as word broke that the House likely will not pass a budget resolution for the first time since the modern budget process was created in 1974.

The Treasury Department announced yesterday that the federal deficit for April soared to $82.69 billion, more than twice the $40 billion deficit that Wall Street economists had predicted. An April deficit is rare for the federal government (there has been a surplus in 43 out of the past 56 years) and the announcement marked a record 19th consecutive month that the Treasury has posted a shortfall. Like those who said there was no housing bubble, some on the left who crave an ever larger federal government are still saying that Americans have nothing to worry about--that we can borrow and spend forever.

"We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it," Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told us just weeks before Congress passed President Barack Obama's health care plan. Well, the nation's post-passage Obamacare education continued yesterday when the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) confirmed that the federal government will have to spend an additional $115 billion implementing the law, bringing the total estimated cost to over $1 trillion. . . .

On March 15th, appearing with labor and environmental leaders, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa unveiled a new alternative energy plan that he said would ensure the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power would meet his goal of securing 20% of its energy from renewable sources such as wind and solar by December 31st. At the time, he claimed it would create 16,000 jobs and only raise consumer electric bills between 8.8% and 28.4%. But less than two weeks later those energy rate hike estimates had skyrocketed with the DWP saying it needed to raise rates by 37% in order to meet the renewable energy standards. Los Angeles' already shrinking business community revolted and by April Mayor Villaraigosa's plan had been soundly defeated.

The U.S. economy has now lost a net of 2.6 million jobs since President Barack Obama signed his $862 billion stimulus plan. We are 7.6 million jobs short of the 137.8 million he promised the American economy would support by 2010.

In April 2009 in Strasbourg, France, President Barack Obama was asked at a press conference if he "subscribe[d], as many of your predecessors have, to the school of American exceptionalism that sees America as uniquely qualified to lead the world, or do you have a slightly different philosophy?" President Obama then responded: "I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism."

Whether Saturday's failed attack turns out to be connected to Islamic radicalism or is the work of a lone wolf, there have now been 31 foiled terrorist attacks in the United States since 9/11, eleven in New York City alone. Yesterday's plot was foiled by sheer luck and quick-thinking civilians. But luck is not an adequate strategy for protecting a nation.

According to the Fed research, “states with greater economic freedom – defined as the protection of private property and private markets operating with minimal government interference – experienced greater rates of employment growth.”