Opinion and commentary on news, politics, culture, and policy impact.
“We’ve got to figure some way out of this.” That’s Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, referring to congressional deadlock over key provisions of the Patriot Act that are about to expire. The question, amid concerns over government data-gathering and the dramatic uptick in terrorist attacks, is what that way should be. Like it or not,…
What do you do if you’re pursuing unpopular interests that are contrary to the public good? How do you force change in a democratic republic when you can’t win everything you want through open debate? You rig the game. You ingratiate yourself to those who hold the levers of power and use your connections to…
A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals handed the Obama administration a huge defeat this week. It denied the government’s request for an emergency stay of a preliminary injunction blocking implementation of President Obama’s immigration amnesty program. This is not a decision on the merits of the lawsuit filed against the administration…
This week, the Environmental Protection Agency announced its biofuels targets for 2014-16 as part of the Renewable Fuels Standard passed in 2005. In the interest of forcing biofuels into the market, the agency now will require 17.4 billion gallons of biofuels be produced in 2016, 14 million of which can be corn-based ethanol. The proposal…
The Obama White House has embraced digital communication like none before it. According to The Washington Post, the White House Office of Public Engagement has no less than 14 employees whose job it is to push the President’s message out on new media and social Web sites. After all, this is a president who was…
Last weekend, I had the honor of attending a meeting of the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists in Winchester, England. The organization consists of members of the European Parliament from 15 European Union nations and Turkey and works with several “regional partners” including Canada, Australia and the United States. The Alliance opposes the centralized…
Yesterday, the North Carolina House passed a bill that would protect magistrates who object to performing solemnizing ceremonies for same-sex marriages and clerks who object to issuing same-sex marriage licenses. The bill, should it become law, would make it clear that no one can be denied a marriage license but magistrates or clerks could recuse…
Los Angeles recently hiked its minimum wage to $15 an hour. Los Angeles unions strongly support this move, with a catch. They want the increase to apply only to non-union companies. The Los Angeles Times reports local unions are now lobbying the city council to exempt unionized firms from the higher rate. If they get…
Last Friday, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan vetoed State Senate Bill 528, a civil asset forfeiture reform measure that had been passed nearly unanimously by the State Senate. S.B. 528 would have closed the “equitable sharing” loophole that perversely incentivizes Maryland’s law enforcement agencies to circumvent state forfeiture laws for financial gain. Property owners caught up…
On the evening of May 3, two men armed with rifles attacked the Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest in Garland, Texas. While both shooters were killed before they could get inside the exhibit, this attack is the 68th Islamist terrorist plot or attack against the U.S. since 9/11. The incident has raised significant questions about…
In my first two interviews with former Obama senior advisor David Axelrod, we talked about the growing divide among “Red” and “Blue” America and his predictions for the types of candidates and policy issues most likely to shape the 2016 presidential election. Now, in our final segment, we discuss the impact of racial tensions in places…
This week marks the end of Narendra Modi’s first year as prime minister of India. Elected with an unprecedented majority in Parliament, Indians had high expectations his economic reforms would resuscitate India’s economy and investment environment. In democracies, the first year of an administration is typically when the most dramatic political and economic reforms are…
As early as next week, the full Senate could take up legislation to establish the defense budget for the 2016 fiscal year. The Senate Armed Services Committee has finished its work, approving a 900-page bill on May 14 and releasing its text last week. The National Defense Authorization Act likely will be amended on the…
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., claims Americans are suffering from Stockholm syndrome, a condition in which hostages begin to have misplaced positive feelings toward their captors. The captors in this case are the federal regulators who impose some 2,400 new regulations each year, and the senator suggests Americans are not sufficiently wary of their resulting ill…
In 2009, the percentage of prime working-age U.S. residents who work 35 hours or more per week plunged to a 24-year low. Six years later, it remains five percentage points below its pre-recession level. So today, even though there are 1.3 million more people in the 25-54 age group than in 2007, there are 4.7…
In less than two years, transgender rights have gone from a non-issue to non-negotiable in the Democratic Party. Rather than dismiss this change as a politically irrelevant story that belongs in the tabloids, Republicans should view it as a case study in the political power of principle. For it was principle, not a political campaign,…
The Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists consists of members of the European Parliament who oppose the centralized power of the European Union; they favor “the exercise of power at the lowest practicable level—by the individual where possible, by local or national authorities in preference to supranational bodies.” On May 22, Heritage Foundation President Jim…
It’s increasingly rare these days to see two people from opposite sides of the political spectrum sit down and have a conversation—which is why I was happy to have the opportunity recently to do just that with former White House senior adviser David Axelrod. We both were guests on Bill Maher’s show a couple of months…
There’s now another issue with the controversial water rule proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers. The Environmental Protection Agency wants you to think there’s a lot of support for the proposed water rule that seeks to give the agency and the Army Corps jurisdiction over almost every water. Reportedly,…
After Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s successful trip to America, South Korean media and its people were up in arms. Seoul criticized Abe for not making unambiguous apologies for Japanese wartime brutalities during his speech to the U.S. Congress and critiqued his use of the term “human trafficking” in reference to Japanese soldier’s abuse of…