Opinion and commentary on news, politics, culture, and policy impact.
Sen. Mike Lee has written a fascinating book about the six most important “lost” provisions of the U.S. Constitution, and how they need to be “restored.” According to Lee, a Republican who represents Utah, that is the key to reinvigorating our country and getting rid of “what the founding generation would never have ratified and…
COMBINED CORPORATE TAX RATES (2014) Source: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The U.S. corporate tax rate is the highest in the developed world—by a long shot. At 39.1 percent (35 percent federal rate plus the average of state rates), it remains substantially higher than the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development average…
When we hear the word “chimp,” most of us think of that fury primate at the zoo or the subjects of a Jane Goodall documentary. In Washington, CHIMPs are not animals, but a notorious budget gimmick. This budget gimmick, short for Changes in Mandatory Programs, has been used to avoid budget restraints by increasing discretionary…
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman once commented derisively on Ireland’s ongoing economic recovery: “It seems obvious to me that Ireland keeps being proclaimed a success because it’s supposed to be a success: they did the austerity thing forcefully, with a minimum of complaints, so there must be a pot of gold at the end…
States across the U.S. share the common goal of economic prosperity, but they differ vastly in how they set out to achieve it. The latest edition of the American Legislative Exchange Council- Arthur Laffer Rich States, Poor States competitiveness index examines policies that maximize economic growth and assesses which states are on the path to…
Revealing just how difficult it is for politicians to learn from even recent history, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Julian Castro, is campaigning for an expansive role for the federal government in support of increased homeownership and various community development initiatives—the exact same policies that played such a large role in the…
Who in America will earn the most money this year? You might as well ask who will win the Major League Baseball batting title. Each year, someone will have the top batting average, but the competition is fierce and the best performers are hard to predict. As in baseball, so in life: Data from 1991…
In an order issued late Tuesday, federal district court Judge Andrew Hanen refused to lift the preliminary injunction he had previously issued stopping the implementation of the immigration amnesty plan announced by President Obama last November. And in a second order, an obviously infuriated Judge Hanen said that the “attorneys for the Government misrepresented the…
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 the president on Iran’s nuclear program, or any other national security issue, is just not knowledgeable enough to…
At the close of the Constitutional Convention, when an elderly Benjamin Franklin hobbled out of the hall where delegates had debated the fate of the young nation for the length of the hottest Philadelphia summer in thirty-seven years, he was asked by a curious bystander, “Well, Doctor, what have we got—republic or a monarchy?” “A…
Does anyone really believe that China would have shelved its newly launched, $100 billion Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) if Congress had approved the International Monetary Fund (IMF) “Reform Package” negotiated by the Obama Administration in 2010? That’s what proponents of the IMF reforms would have you believe as they fired off a new round…
There are more than a few signals indicating President Obama has been a poor steward of the nation’s defense. “Continuing to slash defense invites greater danger to national security while shamefully asking the country’s military men and women to do their jobs with shrinking resources,” wrote the chairmen of the Senate and House Armed Service…
There’s wide support for many economic policy reforms, despite the perception (and often the reality) that there’s partisan gridlock. Of course, getting anything passed through Congress is difficult, but some reforms have a much better chance of getting passed than other reforms. They are the “low-hanging fruit.” Policy experts from Heritage’s Roe Institute have put…
South Carolina Rep. Mark Sanford has articulated with refreshing candor much of what is wrong with the U.S. Export-Import Bank, which provides subsidized financing to foreign firms for the purchase of American exports. The subject arose during a policy forum last week sponsored by the S.C. Chamber of Commerce. In discussing whether Congress ought to…
At almost the same time last week that the outgoing U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Ronald Machen, gave Lois Lerner a get-out-of-jail free card over her contempt of Congress citation, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service suffered a huge procedural loss in a court fight in Ohio. In litigation filed in…
Since the Obama administration announced in October 2009 that it would seek to negotiate an Arms Trade Treaty through the United Nations, Congress has regularly cautioned the White House that such a treaty is not in the interests of the United States. After Secretary of State John Kerry signed the agreement in September 2013, Congress…
In the wake of constant cyber attacks and acts of cyber espionage against the United States, the President signed an Executive Order effectively initiating the first program to impose sanctions on foreign individuals who engage in destructive and malicious behavior in the cyber realm. This “national emergency,” which President Obama deemed imminent, has created the…
The great conundrum of the U.S. economy today is that we have record numbers of working age people out of the labor force at the same time we have businesses desperately trying to find workers. As an example, the American Transportation Research Institute estimates there are 30,000-35,000 trucker jobs that could be filled tomorrow if…
April 15 is right around the corner, and millions of Americans will find themselves paying more in taxes than ever thanks to Obamacare. The law is more than a fundamental change to the country’s health care system. It also is a massive tax hike. As The Heritage Foundation’s Federal Budget in Pictures shows, according to…
It’s been five years since the Affordable Care Act became law, but only two since most of its provisions went into effect. As its detractors predicted, Obamacare’s implementation led to a large, immediate rise in health insurance premiums. This is hardly surprising: The law required that a broad swath of treatments be fully insured, thus…