Opinion and commentary on news, politics, culture, and policy impact.
The amicus brief filed on behalf of Governor C. L. Otter of Idaho in the same-sex marriage case before the Supreme Court is remarkable for two reasons. Â First, aside from Alabama Governor Robert Bentley and the governors who are named parties (and thus had no choice), he is the only sitting governor with the chutzpah…
Five years ago this week a blowout of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig 40 miles from the Gulf Coast tragically claimed 11 lives and spilled 3 million barrels of oil from the damaged wellhead into the Gulf. It’s hard to forget the video images of thick oil day after day gushing into the region’s waters….
Labor unions have traditionally been the 800-pound gorilla of special interest groups. They have secured handouts and subsidies that other organizations’ lobbyists could only dream about. But that may be changing. This year a raft of Midwestern states have scaled back some of organized labor’s special privileges. States are starting to treat unions no differently…
The new Congress isn’t getting Washington’s crazy spending under control. In fact, it’s just made it worse. By enacting the Medicare Access and Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (H.R. 2), lawmakers increased the nation’s deficits by $141 billion over the next ten years and guaranteed even larger debt beyond that. So much for their formal commitments and resolutions…
Telecommunications policymaking has long been compared to a three-ring circus consisting of the Federal Communications Commission, the courts and Congress. Nowhere has that been truer than in the long-running debate over net neutrality regulation. For the past year or so, all attention has been on the FCC, led by Chairman Tom Wheeler, as it drafted…
Finding Americans fed up with governmental abuses isn’t hard. They wonder why we have politicians who spend too much, bureaucrats who regulate too much, and officials who limit our freedom at almost every turn. The answer, I believe, is mostly rooted in ignorance. They’ve either forgotten what they once knew about the U.S. Constitution and…
So much for those who were hoping that the recently concluded—but clearly unfinished—nuclear deal with Iran would serve as the basis for a replay of President Nixon’s historic opening to China. As the next phase of nuclear talks begins this week in Vienna, Tehran is on a tear. This time it’s in Yemen where news…
Earlier this week, The Daily Signal brought you the touching story of President George W. Bush’s visit to wounded veterans. It’s included in Dana Perino’s new book, “And the Good News Is…” However, during an interview with NPR, only part of the story made it on air. Perino recounts the full story for Fox News’ Megyn…
No part of our culture wars draws more heat than same-sex marriage. It is therefore noteworthy when vituperative tactics get so extreme that some members on one side of the debate call foul on their own comrades. Alas, that doesn’t happen in America very often anymore. The incipient revolt against the tactics prescribed by Saul…
Alexander Hamilton is often credited with being the most far-sighted of the founders, since he, more than anyone else, saw America’s potential to become a manufacturing and commercial powerhouse among the nations. Not even a man of Hamilton’s vision, however, could have foreseen that he would one day be the subject of a hit stage…
Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant (R) has just vetoed an “anti”–Common Core bill. He was right to do so. The bill didn’t do what its backers said it would do: withdraw Mississippi from Common Core. In remarks yesterday, Bryant stated, “I remain firmly committed to ending Common Core in Mississippi. This bill does not accomplish that…
On Thursday night, Ryan T. Anderson, the William E. Simon senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, participated in a debate about gay marriage. We’ve assembled some of the key moments and exchanges from that debate here. >>> Ryan T. Anderson will be on ABC’s “This Week” this Sunday to discuss gay marriage and the…
Jim DeMint, president of The Heritage Foundation, talks about why Americans should attend the March for Marriage in Washington, D.C., tomorrow.
Will the U.S. Supreme Court protect small raisin growers from the grasping hand of the federal government? On Wednesday, the attorney for California raisin growers Marvin and Laura Horne argued before the Court that the U.S. Department of Agriculture violated the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution by taking some of his clients’ raisin crop without…
Ryan T. Anderson, the William E. Simon senior research fellow in American Principles and Public Policy at The Heritage Foundation, wrote about the same-sex marriage case earlier this week: On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments about gay marriage. Here’s what you need to know. 1. There simply is nothing in the U.S….
Some conservatives are tempted to dismiss or regret the statesmanship and political thought of Alexander Hamilton, our nation’s first Secretary of the Treasury.  This temptation may arise as a reaction to the efforts of some progressives to invoke Hamiltonianism as a founding-era precedent for their own desire for an activist and expansive federal government. Uncritically…
President Obama announced earlier today that U.S. aid contractor Warren Weinstein, who had been held hostage by al-Qaeda in Pakistan since August 2011, was accidentally killed in a U.S. drone strike in January. The Obama administration must review its protocols with the drone program and consider changes that will prevent such tragic mistakes in the…
An estimated 550 slaves were rescued from the remote Indonesian island Benjina late last week. The International Organization for Migration believes there are at least 4,000 men that have not yet been rescued and may be victims of human trafficking. Events in Benjina are a reminder that the fight against human trafficking in Asia is…
Is the Obama administration deliberately releasing crucial information about Iran’s nuclear capabilities at politically opportune times? First, let’s look at some history about the Obama administration and Iran. In 2010, Congress passed the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act. This law imposes one of the most comprehensive sanctions regime on Iran to date. The…
Today is Earth Day and to hear the experts like Usher and Al Gore tell the story, the planet is in a miserable state. We’re running out of our natural resources, we’re overpopulating the globe and running out of room, the air that we breathe is becoming toxic, the oceans are rising and soon major…