Opinion and commentary on news, politics, culture, and policy impact.
Last week, the House Armed Services Committee took a first step in ensuring that the government provides for the common defense and passed the fiscal year (FY) 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The bill now has to pass the full House, the Senate, and the President has to sign it. Managing a relationship with…
More than six years out from a government-driven housing bubble, the chief regulator at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Mel Watt, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development secretary, Julian Castro are respectively clearing a path to expand the “credit box” for government-backed home loans. Two recent examples: Fannie Mae recently started a program…
This monthly tax roundup series reviews some of the major stories making headlines in tax policy over the past month, with brief analysis and links attached. CONGRESSIONAL ACTION UNCLEAR AS HIGHWAY TRUST FUND DEADLINE APPROACHES: As the May 31 deadline looms closer, lawmakers are running out of time to resolve the Highway Trust Fund’s chronic…
This Thursday’s United Kingdom general election is shaping up to be one of the closest fought British elections in modern times. According to the latest opinion polls, the Conservative Party, led by Prime Minister David Cameron, is virtually neck and neck with the socialist Labour Party, headed by Ed Miliband. At present, no single party is…
ISIS has claimed responsibility for a failed attack that occurred on Sunday in Garland, Texas. At the “First Annual Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest,” two individuals using rifles opened fire just before nightfall. The individuals pulled up to the entrance, which had received enhanced security measures due to the controversial event, and according to Garland…
Thanks to hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling methods perfected at the end of last decade, production of crude oil in the United States has skyrocketed. This chart shows the swift takeoff in crude oil production. U.S. oil production is up 53 percent since 2010, but the increase has occurred almost entirely on non-federal lands. Production…
On Saturday, May 2, Secretary of State John Kerry travelled to Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo, and met with Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and other political leaders. During his visit, Secretary Kerry reaffirmed the legitimacy of the Sirisena government, encouraged Sri Lankans to continue strengthening their democratic system, and pledged that the U.S. would be…
Few political issues unite Americans more than congressional term limits. A Gallup poll from 2013 found that an astounding 75 percent of Americans—including huge majorities of Republicans, Democrats and independents—support limiting the number of terms that a member of Congress can serve. When American public opinion is this lopsided on an issue, one typically sees…
Nepal’s economy is almost entirely dependent on the service industry (including tourism) and remittances—49 percent and 28 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), respectively—and will take decades to recover from last month’s earthquake, in part due to the country’s lack of economic freedom. The 7.8-magnitude quake that hit the country’s capital, Kathmandu, early on April…
Like a moth to a flame, it’s easy to be drawn to issues in the Middle East (Yemen, Islamic State and Iran) or Eastern Europe (Russia, Ukraine), but it’s important to keep an eye on other emerging foreign policy and national security issues, too. For example, the Pacific isn’t really that “pacific.” Let’s start with…
One of the biggest problems in Washington is the overreach of federal agencies, many of which go far beyond their limited mandates. Instead of simply carrying out the duties assigned to them under federal laws, they invade the province of Congress, which is supposed to hold hearings, formulate public policy, and create the federal laws…
Here’s some advice to the White House: it might be time for President Obama to cancel the rest of his economic “mission accomplished” tour and help figure out how to get the U.S. growing again. The Department of Commerce delivered the miserable news Wednesday morning that economic growth nearly ground to a halt during the…
When it comes to assimilating immigrants, the Obama administration appears to have drawn a line under the day the president first took office and forgotten much that came before it. That’s a pity, as the country had learned a thing or two about acculturating immigrants since the first German Mennonites and Pietists settled in colonial…
Intelligence failure—it’s one of the most common mistakes in war. And recently we learned that it led to the deaths of two Western hostages—one American, one Italian—in January. Quite simply, the CIA drone operators didn’t know that aid workers Warren Weinstein and Giovanni Lo Porto were present at their target—an al-Qaeda compound near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. President…
In Washington, the conservative thing to do these days is to champion a balanced budget. Quite recently, in fact, Republicans have congratulated themselves for passing two budgets (one in each house of Congress) that, on their face, will achieve balance within 10 years. However, there is more to this story. When you remove the Enron-style…
Relations among political leaders, civilian agencies and the military blow hot and cold. At this point, things are rather chilly. For more effective coordination between civilians and soldiers, the next occupant of the Oval Office will need to instill a better leadership style, review the command at the Pentagon, and renew the ethical foundation of…
Ever since Sept. 11, 2001, whenever Americans seem especially polarized over a controversial issue, you hear pundits recall how united we’d became in the aftermath of that vicious attack. Why, they ask, can’t we be like that again? A big part of the reason, frankly, is a lack of leadership at the top level. The…
The emerging nuclear deal with Iran has numerous flaws that could dangerously undermine U.S. national security. It lets Iran maintain a huge nuclear infrastructure that already far exceeds legitimate civilian needs. That includes illicit nuclear facilities, built in violation of Iran’s nuclear nonproliferation commitments. Particularly worrisome are provisions allowing Tehran to continue using uranium enrichment…
Cindy woke up to a battering ram at her front door. She opened the door to a rushing mob of policemen, yelling and barging through her house with no explanation. She begged them not to shoot her barking dogs. Another had to wake her children with an armed policeman at the foot of their beds….
The Heritage Foundation's Lee Edwards wrote about Vladimir Putin's latest aggression earlier this week: Washington policymakers are overlooking a potentially serious foreign policy crisis: the mounting Russian pressure, economic, political and military, on the tiny but strategically located Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Within the Baltic states, all of which have sizeable Russian…