Barack Obama News

The seizure of the city of Ramadi by the Islamic State (or ISIS) on Sunday was a major setback for the Iraqi government and for the Obama administration. Although U.S. officials downplayed the significance of the defeat, saying that Ramadi was not “strategic” in a military sense, Ramadi is a very important political symbol because…

Our class warrior in chief was at it again last week complaining about our “ideological divides that have prevented us from making progress” in solving problems like poverty. Just when you thought you’d heard it all. Our most ideological president perhaps ever is arguing that there is too much ideology in Washington. Wow. Apparently an…

What do restaurant menus, refrigerators, community banks and escalators have in common? All were subjected to yet more federal regulation last year. No fewer than 184 “major” new rules have been imposed since the start of the Obama administration, costing Americans about $80 billion per year in additional regulatory costs. And many more regulations are…

One of the unhappy truths of life is that you can get a pretty good idea of your power and popularity by the number of invited—even more so, uninvited—guests who show up at your personal party. The same might be said of international diplomatic meetings. So you can imagine how Team Obama must feel about…

The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general, John Roth, has dealt a serious blow against the Obama administration’s defense in the lawsuit filed by 26 states against the immigration amnesty plan announced by President Barack Obama on Nov. 20, 2014. That plan is currently on hold due to a preliminary injunction order issued by Federal…

The Obama administration has zeroed-out funding for any new scholarships in the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, meaning the program, which provides scholarships to children from low-income families to attend a private school of choice, will slowly atrophy over time. On Thursday, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing on the program….

The major regulations imposed by the Obama administration now cost Americans more than $80 billion a year—twice as much as the rules issued by the Bush administration at the six-year mark, according to a Heritage Foundation report released today. Lawmakers must act on a range of reforms in order to stem the massive expansion of…

Here’s some advice to the White House: it might be time for President Obama to cancel the rest of his economic “mission accomplished” tour and help figure out how to get the U.S. growing again. The Department of Commerce delivered the miserable news Wednesday morning that economic growth nearly ground to a halt during the…

In “Courts’ War on FDR Continues With Obama,” Noah Feldman argues that the courts have played an outsized role in opposing President Obama’s policy agenda. Feldman claims that Obama, unlike past presidents, is dealing with a “conservative wing of the judiciary [that] has been experimenting with activism.” From Obamacare to net neutrality to immigration action,…

A year after the Ebola outbreak began in West Africa, the Obama administration has yet to publicly assess its response to the crisis. Given the inaction by the administration, a task force I co-chaired undertook an independent review and recently published our findings as a Heritage Foundation special report: “The Ebola Outbreak of 2013–2014: An…

Is the Obama administration about to wage war on religious schools? One of the more startling portions of oral arguments today at the Supreme Court was the willingness of the Obama administration’s Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, to admit that religious schools that affirm marriage as the union of a man and a woman may lose…

Over this past weekend, I spoke to constituents in the eastern part of Nebraska. The one topic that came up every single place we went was the President Obama’s attempted Iranian nuclear deal. Not one time did we hear from anybody who thinks the Obama administration’s plans with regard to Iran are in the United…

I have some bad news for Americans and our allies around the world: President Obama is quite good at making bad deals, particularly with dangerous regimes and groups. The nuclear negotiations with Iran are but the most recent example. A nuclear “framework agreement” has been reached, but the latest deal coming out of Switzerland is…

Is the Obama administration deliberately releasing crucial information about Iran’s nuclear capabilities at politically opportune times? First, let’s look at some history about the Obama administration and Iran. In 2010, Congress passed the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act. This law imposes one of the most comprehensive sanctions regime on Iran to date. The…

With the “historic” clasp of hands in Panama City, Panama last week with Raul Castro, President Obama took the next fateful step toward normalizing relations with the Western Hemisphere’s most repressive regime. Seemingly desperate to move beyond a series of foreign policy flubs such as Iraq, Russia and Libya, cozying up to Castro’s Cuba—now officially…

“It is my strong belief that if we engage, that that offers the greatest prospect for escaping some of the constraints of the past. I think the Cuban people are extraordinary and have huge potential. And what’s encouraging is, is that the overwhelming majority of Cubans are interested in ending … the last vestige of…

The Heritage Foundation's David Kreutzer wrote about President Obama's attitude toward oil in a column earlier this week: Though environmental impact statement after environmental impact statement from his own Department of State concludes that the Keystone XL Pipeline would not have a significant environmental impact, President Obama said the impact “could be disastrous.” The alleged…

On Tuesday, President Obama suggested he would support legislation passed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee requiring congressional review of any deal with Iran. We talk to Heritage’s Steven Bucci about what that means.  Was this a victory for those who feel Congress should have a larger voice on the issue? Unfortunately no. The mark…