Opinion and commentary on news, politics, culture, and policy impact.
The Heritage Foundation is regrettably adding three more terrorist plots to the list of Islamist terrorists plots or attacks against the U.S. homeland since 9/11, bringing the total to 89. The first plot to be added was committed by 21-year-old Munir Abdulkader, who, according to documents recently unsealed by the Department of Justice, pled guilty…
We waved goodbye as Suri* and Maya,* two of the youngest girls at the Burmese trafficking restoration house, were heading to Rangoon to testify against their traffickers. The other survivors and employees at the house expressed high hopes but low expectations that maybe this time it will be different, maybe this time their traffickers will…
The new Republican Party platform suggests: “We need better-negotiated trade agreements that put America first.” Here are nine ways future trade agreements could really put America—or more specifically, Americans—first. Trade agreements should: Guarantee U.S. manufacturers have the freedom to buy low-priced inputs like steel and raw materials free of export duties imposed by foreign governments…
Last night, a 19-ton truck plowed into those watching the Bastille Day fireworks display in Nice, France. It drove 1 mile, zigzagging down the packed boardwalk at full speed, before the driver jumped out and was killed in a firefight with French police. Additional weapons were found in the back of the truck. The attack killed…
Since the 2008–2009 global recession, China has accounted for roughly one-third of global economic growth, by far the highest in the world. With a GDP of roughly $11 trillion (current prices), the second-largest in the world after that of the United States, any economic slowdown in this Asian juggernaut is bound to have enormous global…
It’s summertime in Washington, which means the Supreme Court justices jetted out of town as the ink dried on their final decisions of the term. Many justices observe summer traditions—Anthony Kennedy teaches classes in Austria, the late Antonin Scalia would travel out west to teach a continuing legal education class for The Federalist Society, and…
President Barack Obama is calling for the resurrection of his failed “public option” ( a “Medicare-like” plan) to compete directly against private health plans in his government-run health insurance exchanges. “The public plan did not make it into the final legislation,” the president writes in the Journal of the American Medical Association. “Now, based on…
The Russian government just turned the heat up a notch on U.S. officials in what is an already heated diplomatic climate. In the past few weeks, Russia and the U.S. have expelled several of each other’s diplomats. This past Tuesday night, U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) chairman Jeff Shell was summarily detained by Russian…
One of the best parts of representing my home of North Carolina in Congress is getting to welcome constituents and friends to our nation’s Capital and displaying the work we are doing on their behalf. This week, I was proud to welcome my good friend and fellow North Carolinian, Pastor Odell Cleveland. Cleveland and I…
An arbitration court accepted claims made by the Philippines against China in the South China Sea, however, China’s refusal to obey the court’s decision requires a swift, but measured response from the United States. On Tuesday, the Permanent Court of Arbitration based in The Hague, Netherlands, handed down its final decision in The Republic of…
A recently released congressional report shows the depth of American fiscal problems and the need for lawmakers to tackle the nation’s dire financial situation. On Tuesday, the Congressional Budget Office released its 2016 Long-Term Budget Outlook. The annual publication projects the levels of U.S. spending, taxes, deficits, and the debt for the next 30 years….
From its very beginning, our nation has been home, harbor, and refuge to a wide range of religious beliefs. No other country has been as tolerant and accommodating of religion and religious people as America. But in the wake of last year’s Supreme Court same-sex marriage case, Obergefell v. Hodges, our nation’s commitment to religious…
Wyoming produces 40 percent of the nation’s coal. That’s more than the next five largest coal-producing states combined. Yet, in a speech on the Senate floor Tuesday, Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., laid out why he opposes bailing out the United Mine Workers of America pension fund, and why taxpayers should too. The issue at stake…
One year after the negotiation of the nuclear agreement, Iran continues to pursue the hostile policies that make it dangerous to the United States and its allies. Iran persists in its attempts to: cheat on its nuclear nonproliferation obligations, export terrorism, threaten U.S. allies, provoke confrontations with U.S. naval vessels in the Persian Gulf, flout…
From the beginning, the nuclear deal with Iran was a bad one. President Barack Obama claimed it would make the world “safer and more secure.” But on the deal’s one-year anniversary, a review of Iran’s behavior should give little assurance to anyone not drinking the White House Kool-Aid that the U.S. is the one in…
Race relations in America, and in particular tensions between communities of color and domestic law enforcement, have seemingly reached a nadir not seen in decades. Tragic incidents, the facts of which are often misunderstood or exploited, have contributed to a growing sense of detachment by some within society. Feelings of “us versus them” have calcified…
President Barack Obama and his first attorney general, Eric Holder, called for an honest conversation about race. Holder even called us “a nation of cowards” because we were unwilling to have a “national conversation” about race. The truth of the matter is there’s been more than a half-century of conversations about race. We do not…
As the West develops its strategy to deal with a resurgent Russia, more must be done to focus on the so-called gray areas lying between the Euro-Atlantic community and Russia: Georgia, Ukraine, and Moldova. These countries, while not in NATO or the EU, strive to join these organizations someday. Russia is doing all it can…
Four days of heavy fighting in the South Sudanese capital of Juba between troops loyal to South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and Vice President Riek Machar has ended, for now. Well over a hundred soldiers and an unknown number of civilians were killed, while thousands of the latter fled their homes. The violence is the…
Internet freedom has been part of U.S. foreign policy since 2010, when the Internet had just emerged as a powerful political tool, fueling activism in Iran, connecting dissident communications in the Arab Spring, and challenging rulers in Russia, China, Cuba, and other authoritarian regimes. Challenges to Internet Freedom The principle of extending freedom of expression…