Opinion and commentary on news, politics, culture, and policy impact.
Today the House Transportation and Infrastructure committee will mark-up their “long-term” highway bill, the Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform (STRR) Act, with only a week left before the deadline. Spanning six years, STRR is the House’s response to the big-spending DRIVE Act that passed in the Senate at the end of July, just before Congress…
Republicans have voted to repeal Obamacare dozens of times. This week the House will try again using a budgetary tactic called reconciliation to repeal parts of the law. Reconciliation is the filibuster-proof tool Democrats used to pass the President Barack Obama’s signature health care law in March of 2010. Earlier this year, Republicans signaled they…
The House and Senate have voted multiple times to repeal, partially repeal, or defund Obamacare. But Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, says the best opportunity for Republicans to actually send such a bill to the president’s desk is now – using the same procedure, budget reconciliation, that Democrats used to pass Obamacare back in 2010.
The debt limit is upon Congress, challenging lawmakers to address rising spending and debt with serious budget reforms. While the administration and its supporters demand a “clean,” no-strings attached increase in the $18.1 trillion debt limit before Nov. 3, the GOP is struggling to maneuver. They’re in effect trying to save face before the American people…
Are inmates in state and federal prisons charged too much to make a phone call? The Federal Communications Commission thinks they are. On Oct. 22, the telecommunications regulator is expected to impose strict new caps on how much convicts can be charged for making phone calls from the big house. In so doing, the agency…
The late Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the outsized liberal senator from New York, is credited with saying “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.” The press and public may want to keep that adage in mind as President Obama threatens to veto the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) over, among…
The United States is facing an increasingly constrained fiscal environment, with the 2011 Budget Control Act (BCA) placing mandatory limits on spending. At the same time, all three legs of the U.S. nuclear triad—land-based, sea-based, and airborne—are due for extensive modernization. Further programs are needed to sustain the U.S. stockpile of nuclear warheads. These necessary…
When America’s 45th president enters the Oval Office in January 2017 he or she will inherit a superpower in decline, weakened militarily, floundering internationally, and facing an array of adversaries on the world stage keen to undercut America’s position. The harsh reality is that after nearly seven years of the Obama presidency, America’s allies are…
Not too long ago cops were seen by most as heroes deserving our respect and gratitude (picture the moments after 9/11). But recent incidents, such as yesterday’s killing of a New York City police officer, have left officers feeling like they are under siege. An increase in crime from a “Ferguson Effect” might be making…
Last month, President Obama and President Xi Jinping of China announced that “neither country’s government will conduct or knowingly support cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property, including trade secrets or other confidential business information, with the intent of providing competitive advantages to companies or commercial sectors.” When the agreement was announced, The Heritage Foundation was incredibly…
Republicans hold majorities in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. They got those majorities by making promises that, once elected, they announced they couldn’t keep. The ongoing leadership shake-up in the House is one outcome of broken promises. But another one may be in the works that has a much more significant and, in…
What is missed by the mainstream pundits about the conservative movement in America and in Congress? First, let us acknowledge that during the post-New Deal political era, Republicans have rarely been in control of one chamber of Congress, and even more rarely has the GOP controlled both the House and the Senate. During the reign…
Thought the litigation battle over Obamacare was over? Think again. Texas, Kansas, and Louisiana are about to file a new lawsuit against Obamacare, claiming that a fee being imposed by the IRS as a condition of states continuing to receive Medicaid funds is both unconstitutional and a violation of federal law. And they are in…
On Thursday, Hillary Clinton will make her long-awaited appearance before the House Select Committee on Benghazi. This will be a crucial moment in the Benghazi investigation, and without the testimony of the former secretary of state, the record will never be complete. We have had eight congressional investigations and one Accountability Review Board (ARB) report,…
The Liberal Party of Canada won yesterday’s election, giving them an outright majority in the Canadian Parliament. Justin Trudeau, the prime minister designate and son of former Liberal Party Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, led his party to victory with just under 40 percent of the vote. (Since there is a significant third party, the New…
The civil war in Syria rages on, hundreds of thousands of refugees continue to make their way onto European shores, and complicating matters further, Russia’s military is actively engaged in fighting in Syria, most disturbingly targeting the very groups backed by the United States. Calls for the U.S. and its allies to enforce a no-fly…
Jack Kemp arrived on the national political scene at a time when America was sinking economically and its spirits were fading. Against that backdrop, Kemp’s optimism and visionary “big ideas” had the power to transform the nation, as authors Morton Kondracke and Fred Barnes describe in their newly released book, “Jack Kemp: The Bleeding Heart…
The White House reportedly wants to shell out a whopping $700,000 for standing desks. While it’s true that sitting all day long can have adverse health effects and it’s smart business to keep employees healthy, it’s an extraordinary amount of money to pay for something that can be recreated with a free cardboard box. Additionally,…
States that accepted Obamacare expansions have had Medicaid enrollment increase 18 percent, and total Medicaid spending grow 17.7 percent, a recent report from Kaiser Family Foundation has shown. Alternatively, states that chose not expand under Obamacare had Medicaid enrollment increase 5.1 percent and total spending grew 6.1 percent. This is not particularly surprising. Obamacare has…
SACRAMENTO—If California flew a state flag that truly represented its popular culture, it’s possible we’d have not the Bear Flag, but a guy shrugging his shoulders and the word “Quicquid”—Latin for the state’s unofficial motto, “Whatever.” California residents have reacted to the state’s increasingly draconian water cutbacks with the well-known “whatever” spirit. They’ve significantly exceeded…