Opinion and commentary on news, politics, culture, and policy impact.
Today, The Heritage Foundation releases “Arresting Your Property: How Civil Asset Forfeiture Turns Police Into Profiteers.” This booklet highlights the important problem of civil asset forfeiture and tells lawmakers how states and the federal government can help fix these broken laws. The booklet reveals the dark side of civil forfeiture, where the government seizes your…
What do you do when one-third of your budget is limited by a spending cap? Shift funding to the part of the budget that is not capped, of course! That is, if you are a Member of Congress. The House Energy and Commerce Committee recently passed the 21st Century Cures Act (H.R. 6) with unanimous…
Garland Tucker is the author of a new book, "Conservative Heroes," which chronicles 14 leaders who shaped America—dating from the time of America's founding to President Ronald Reagan's administration. The author, who previously wrote, "The High Tide of American Conservatism: Davis, Coolidge, and the 1924 Election," spoke to The Daily Signal about his latest book…
President Obama’s engagement policy with the Castro regime, announced in 2009, has led to a massive increase in arbitrary detentions, violence against activists and the deaths of high-profile opposition leaders under circumstances that point to extrajudicial executions carried out by Cuban state security. The White House not only began to loosen sanctions on the Castro…
The Supreme Court will soon hand down its decision in King v. Burwell. That case asks the court to decide if the statutory text of the Affordable Care Act authorizes the Treasury to pay subsidies to individuals who purchased coverage through HealthCare.gov—the federally operated health insurance exchange for states that did not establish their own…
The debate over the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) bill backed by President Obama, House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has turned into a debate over just about anything except free trade. The easy interpretation is that if you’re pro-TPA you are pro-trade, and if you’re anti-TPA you are anti-trade. The truth…
Former Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet famously said when asked about so-called open source (unclassified) intelligence, “we only pay for secrets.” He spoke with the confidence of a man born and raised in the world of the 20th century spy and the Cold War. With the massive leak of government employee information from the…
Abortion rates continue to drop nearly everywhere in the United States—and by impressive amounts. The Associated Press reported last week on a new survey of state health agencies that found abortions in 45 states had fallen by 12 percent since 2010. The numbers—which stand in contrast to other cultural indicators, such as marriage and out-of-wedlock birth rates—reflect…
There is nothing social about using social networks to help slaughter innocents and disseminate murder porn. But that kind of activity is merely symptomatic of the fundamental challenge that social media poses to national security. The key to winning cyberwars has more to do with securing physical space than dominating cyberspace. Social networks are powerful….
Islamist terrorists are busier than ever trying to kill us. That’s a fact. Two years ago, The Heritage Foundation conducted an exhaustive review of publicly available U.S. court and federal and state government records. The researchers documented at least 60 terrorist plots related to Islamist extremism following the 9/11 attacks—all aimed at the U.S. And the pace…
President Obama recently acknowledged what every sane person knows to be true: The best anti-poverty program is a job. Obama said this at a recent conference on poverty. But he continues to repeat a falsehood over and over. This is the claim that the poor work just as hard as the rich do. Well, yes,…
Seventy years ago, the five victors of World War II and 46 other signatory nations ratified the United Nations Charter, thus making the U.N. an official international body. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon is using the anniversary to celebrate its accomplishments. He says, “The year 2015 is a once-in-a generation opportunity.” It is indeed. The year…
Imagine being able to create a tailored, made-to-order education for your child. Perhaps you know that the private school one neighborhood over has an excellent high school mathematics program. It allows students who don’t attend full time to take individual courses there, so your daughter takes an Algebra II class there three days a week….
A “tiger mom” might go ballistic if her child came home with a “needs improvement” on his kindergarten report card. But most adults wouldn’t panic. They know there is time to get the kid up to standard before the deadline for that Harvard application falls due. Defending America is different. A sub-par grade for military…
Congress does two things well: nothing and overreact. Well, I have some good news: Doing nothing when it comes to the Export-Import Bank is exactly what we need right now. That’s because the charter for the Export-Import Bank, which provides taxpayer-backed loans to foreign countries and companies to pay for U.S. products, is set to…
In Washington, a gaffe is defined as a statement in which a politician inadvertently tells the truth. President Obama has been roasted this week for a gaffe he made at the G-7 summit in Germany on Monday when he said “We don’t yet have a complete strategy” when asked about U.S. efforts to train Iraqis to…
This week, President Obama said of an Obamacare case set to be decided this month, "This should be an easy case. Frankly, it probably shouldn't even have been taken up." The Heritage Foundation's Hans von Spakovsky and Elizabeth Slattery wrote about Obama's comments in a column this week: It’s déjà vu all over again….
After nearly a decade of political deadlock, Nepal has finally taken steps toward landmark constitutional reform. On June 8, the four main political parties reached a 16-point agreement that charts the next steps of forming an eight-province federal system of governance. Earthquake and Public Pressure While the government has worked with the international community to…
Just over a week ago, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) revealed what is possibly the largest federal personnel data breach of all time. Specific details about the attack have yet to be released. Government representatives are now looking for a way to reassure concerned parties that the government is able to protect the personal…
Last week, the Missile Defense Agency conducted a successful flight test of the Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IIA. The SM-3 Block IIA interceptor is a key component of President Obama’s European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA). The EPAA was designed to protect the U.S. homeland and U.S. allies in Europe from short-range and medium-range ballistic missiles,…