Opinion and commentary on news, politics, culture, and policy impact.
There is little written about presidential announcements before the invention of TV. I envision a small audience, concise verbiage, and men in tights. Or perhaps I’m just remembering a scene from the HBO “John Adams” series. While I’m not a presidential historian, it’s clear that a lot has evolved over the years. The crowds are…
It took me decades to come to my views on same-sex “marriage” in light of my personal experiences. From infancy, I was unwittingly identified under the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual (GLBT) umbrella. During the first 30 years of my life, I garnered many personal, social and professional experiences with my father, whom I always…
Usually, domestic issues are front-and-center in presidential campaigns. Not so this year. From Islamist terror in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East to the growing Iranian nuclear threat, foreign and national-security policy is the hot topic among White House aspirants. That’s not a bad thing. The next leader of the free world must be able…
Poor Barbra Streisand. Just last month the renowned economist (who also describes herself as a “singer,” “actress,” and “activist”) penned an opinion piece titled “Have You Heard the Good News?” about how well the economy is performing under Barack Obama. It was a pep rally of sorts, and all that was missing were the pom-poms. “President…
The nuclear deal with Iran announced by President Barack Obama is a mirage—an agreement now to agree later. But it stands for something bigger: the belief that it’s better to have the bad guys inside the tent than out of it. As the president put it last year, he believes that, if only Iran would…
Teenagers who work enjoy numerous benefits. As Ron Lieber argues in his new book, “The Opposite of Spoiled,” they learn how to appropriately handle bosses, co-workers, and money, and they might learn something about what they’re good at. Lieber’s message is timely, because working teenagers are rapidly disappearing. Data from the Current Population Survey show…
“They won’t go to Indiana, but they will go to Saudi Arabia.” That’s Carly Fiorina speaking about Apple CEO Tim Cook and his well-publicized opposition to Indiana’s religious freedom law. Fiorina, a former CEO herself, was underscoring what she quite rightly views as hypocrisy. Here Cook is, excoriating Indiana lawmakers for protecting the freedom of business owners to…
With the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program heading toward insolvency before the end of next year, lawmakers are looking for reforms to help individuals with disabilities but the capacity to work to return to work. Why it is so hard to get them to do so? Olga Khazan explores the question in a new piece…
Nearly everyone is thinking about cancer these days thanks to the Ken Burns film on PBS, “Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies.” All of us, including Burns himself, who as a child lost his mother to cancer, know a family member or a close friend who has died of the Killer C. The film tells…
Let’s be honest, the joint comprehensive plan of action announced last week in Lausanne, Switzerland, between the P5+1 (U.S., France, Britain, Russia, China and Germany) and Iran is essentially a Rorschach inkblot test. People will see what they want to see. Some people, like Team Obama, see the deal as a flurry of white doves…
Congress could raise your family’s income by 10 percent, or maybe even more. And it could do it with a policy reform that has the support of 71 percent of the American people. Even better news is this is not some big-government spending program that would deliver a 10 percent raise. Instead, it’s tax reform….
As the congressional trade agenda ramps up, labor leaders and anti-trade groups are out bashing free trade and circulating misconceptions about globalization. At a recent event at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka led the charge, floating these five particularly egregious misconceptions about open markets. >>> In Depth: What Big Labor…
The Heritage Foundation's Walter Lohman wrote on President Obama's criticism of Republican Gov. Scott Walker earlier this week: In response to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s criticism of his Iran policy, President Obama suggested that the presumed candidate for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination “bone up on foreign policy.” In other words, anyone who disagrees with…
Medicare’s Chief Actuary released a report on Thursday confirming the Congressional Budget Office’s bleak assessment of H.R. 2, the Medicare Access and Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act, otherwise known as the House “doc fix” deal, to keep Medicare doctors from receiving a 21 percent pay cut. According to the Actuary’s report, net federal health…
A recently released poll by Univision/Fusion and The Washington Post would have you believe the iron curtain in Cuba has been lifted. That is definitely not the case. They claim that 97 percent of Cubans support the new policy of normalization between the U.S. and Castro regime. While I cannot speak to the beliefs of…
In a CNN report released yesterday, U.S. officials determined that Russian hackers penetrated the unclassified network of the White House, which serves the executive office of the President. According to the report, this attack stems from the State Department’s e-mail system breach that occurred over much of the last year. Although the information infiltrated was…
If Sen. Rand Paul wanted to keep his base flying high following Tuesday’s presidential announcement, then he accomplished his goal. Conservatives love it when one of their own takes on the big bad liberal media. But if he wanted to build momentum with undecided voters, especially women, then he failed. This pains me to write…
Later this week at the Summit of the Americas, President Obama is expected to announce Cuba’s removal from the State Sponsors of Terrorism List. The State Department has made the recommendation that Cuba be removed and  it is expected that Secretary of State John Kerry will recommend Cuba’s removal to the president. This comes to…
The Academic Partnerships Lead Us to Success Act (APLUS) proposal would allow states to completely opt out of the programs under No Child Left Behind (NCLB), but would it also empower teachers unions? This argument is being made against the APLUS approach by proponents of the massive rewrite of NCLB moving through Congress. For example,…
Florida is poised to become the new front in the civil asset forfeiture reform movement. State Sen. Jeff Brandes, a Republican from the Tampa area, has filed reform legislation, which the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Criminal and Civil Justice discussed in a hearing today. >>> The Heritage Foundation will co-host of an event next week…