Daily news coverage of politics, policy, and issues shaping the nation.
Three high-ranking Democrats this week asked President Obama to impose more sanctions on Russia. Now, a conservative Republican is offering one way for Obama to cut off support: immediately end the Export-Import Bank’s deals with Russia. House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, said Russia’s repeated attempts to undermine Ukraine and its connection to the…
Newt Gingrich has a message for supporters of President Obama’s decision to give up U.S. oversight of the Internet: “Go to China and try to use Twitter.” While speaking at The Heritage Foundation on Tuesday, the former House speaker warned, “We’re seeing the decay of the Internet as a free, open, world-wide system into a…
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has answered the call to shelter immigrant children, but Cape Cod residents aren’t having it. Last week, the Democratic governor announced his offer to house up to 1,000 children at Camp Edwards military base on Cape Cod. Concerned for the children’s wellbeing, Patrick declared, “I think we are the kind of…
As the Export-Import Bank’s future continues to be a topic of intense debate among lawmakers on Capitol Hill, two of the most prominent voices for and against the bank went head-to-head this week to debate whether the government agency should be ended for good. Tim Carney, a columnist at the Washington Examiner, and Tony Fratto,…
Josh Barro, a writer for The New York Times, wants to stamp out what he considers to be “anti-LGBT” attitudes from communities “ruthlessly.” Barro was writing in response to a speech Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, gave where he mentioned he was in support of marriage as union of a man and woman. In a tweet…
One of the Export-Import Bank’s biggest beneficiaries is working to solidify a deal to sell airplanes to Iran. Unrelatedly, Boeing is also asking for more than $200 million in financing from the bank for exports to China. “These two deals reflect the problematic nature of so many of Ex-Im’s deals,” said Diane Katz, a research…
Looking to require U.S. lawmakers to “play by the same rules” with Obamacare, this week U.S. Rep. Daniel Maffei, D-N.Y., introduced legislation that would eliminate taxpayer-funded subsidies for members and their staffs to buy insurance on the health law’s insurance exchanges. The bill, which is co-sponsored by Reps. Ron Barber, D-Ariz., and John Barrow, D-Ga.,…
Hillary Clinton has no regrets about the Russian reset. Clinton told NPR’s John Harwood in an interview Thursday that she believes “that the reset worked.” The former secretary of state argued that she designed the strategy with specifically then-president Dmitry Medvedev in mind. With Vladimir Putin’s return to power, however, Clinton explained that the policy…
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, is blasting the Food and Drug Administration for its “job-killing” regulations on the premium cigar industry. Rubio cited the J.C. Newman Cigar Co., a 119-year-old family-owned cigar business based in Tampa, as a primary loser of the FDA’s regulations. “A government agency that is now more known for its excruciatingly slow…
Wind industry insiders call it a “turbine collision,” though the feds prefer “non-purposeful take.” But critics such as Sharon Klemm get real on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife website: “Why don’t you call it what it is? Shooting eagles. Killing Eagles. Murdering Eagles.” The backlash over a controversial 2013 government rule exempting wind farms from…
Italian gunmaker Beretta announced this week the company is relocating its U.S. headquarters from Maryland to Tennessee in response to gun restrictions passed last year. The company has been producing firearms in Maryland since 1977 but the Firearm Safety Act of 2013, which bans a range of firearms and places restrictions on gun owners, solidified…
Vice President Joe Biden warned members of the NAACP that Republicans are trying to stifle their ability to vote. Addressing the group’s annual convention on this week in Las Vegas, Biden demonized voter ID laws as nothing more than attempts “to keep people from voting.”
The latest unemployment report released this month revealed rare "good news" about the U.S. labor market. The 6.1 percent unemployment rate marked an all-time low since the 2008 recession. Although June’s report indicates an encouraging sign for the job market, that hasn't always been the case under President Obama. A series of interactive maps—from Jimmy Carter's…
According to Rep. Cory Gardner, natural gas production isn’t just beneficial to Americans back home. The Colorado congressman’s home state is the fourth largest natural gas producer in the United States. Not only has the industry provided more than 90,000 jobs, but Gardner also argues that energy expansion has the opportunity to have a “real…
President Obama promised he wouldn’t wait for Congress to combat climate change, vowing to use executive action wherever possible. One year later, are Obama’s actions helping or hurting? That was among the topics debated by David Kreutzer, research fellow in energy economics and climate change at The Heritage Foundation, and Daniel Weiss, senior vice president…
Those 45,000 Massachusetts students on waiting lists to attend charter schools will continue to wait. The state Senate has killed a bill that would have allowed more charter schools to open and expanded the reach of a program that has effectively turned around some of the state’s lowest-performing schools. A similar bill could return after…
Advocates of single-payer health care promise high-quality low-cost health care for all. But physicians in Vermont say the state’s move towards a single-payer health care system is driving independent doctors out of business and eliminating patient choice. Dr. Paul Reiss, a family practice physician in Williston, said only 20 percent of the doctors now in…
After spending several harrowing months in Sudan, Meriam Ibrahim Ishag, the mother of two who was sentenced to death for refusing to renounce her Christian faith, has left the African country for Italy. According to BBC, the Sudanese government granted Ishag permission to leave the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum. The 27-year-old mother, her husband, Daniel…
In conjunction with the 50th anniversary of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., unveiled a new plan today designed to fight poverty, expand opportunity for Americans nationwide and increase upward mobility. Ryan discussed his blueprint at the American Enterprise Institute. He said: Hardworking taxpayers deserve a break in this country….
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who voted against reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank in 1992 while serving in Congress, said lawmakers should let the bank’s charter expire this year. During a visit to The Heritage Foundation yesterday, Gingrich said, “The way it’s currently structured, it favors giant companies and doesn’t help small businesses.” Watch the full…