Opinion and commentary on news, politics, culture, and policy impact.
There is something on which Democrats and Republicans agree: the Freedom of Information Act is broken. The law, known as FOIA, is intended to facilitate the timely release of public information. Instead, federal officials routinely use it to delay and obstruct the release of information. A bipartisan effort to reform the law died at the…
The grisly propaganda video issued by the Islamic State, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), showing a captured Jordanian air force pilot being burned alive has sparked a popular backlash in Jordan against ISIS. Like many Americans before 9/11, many Jordanians did not fully appreciate the threat posed by Islamist…
It is budget season in Washington and the debate is focused on who wants to increase spending and by how much. But the debate should be focused on how to reduce the size and scope of government. Across the country, Americans remain deeply concerned about growing deficits and debt. Washington’s obsession with increasing the size…
The headline in one Washington newspaper read: “Senate Dems block legislation reversing immigration actions.” That’s one way to see it. A more accurate headline would have been: “Senate Democrats block debate over legislation funding the Department of Homeland Security.” The latter is exactly what all 44 Senate Democrats (and two Independents) did Tuesday and again…
Conservativism is becoming hip. A new survey of adult Americans conducted by the American Perceptions Initiative, a project of The Heritage Foundation, found that in October 2014 Americans' perceptions of the conservative approach for America had improved from October 2013. The Issue Agenda Is Tipping Toward Conservatives In a rather significant change from October 2013,…
Will President Obama’s new drilling policy give the Arctic over to Russian domination? The anger, outrage and frustration in Alaska are palpable after the president stripped the state of vast stores of its oil and gas wealth. His reckless offshore oil and gas restrictions reduced Alaska’s Arctic Ocean presence to one exploration site each in…
One would think you can beat a dead horse only so many times. Using low oil prices this time, the Environmental Protection Agency is urging President Obama and the State Department to reconsider Keystone XL’s climate impact. The State Department’s environmental assessment concludes that Keystone XL’s contribution to climate change would be insignificant because the…
According to a Census Bureau report released last week, 20 percent of American children received food stamps last year. More than half these children, approximately 8.6 million, reside in a single-parent household. This report is a stunning reminder of the vital role marriage plays in combating child poverty and the expansion of welfare rolls. Children…
On Tuesday, Congress began educating the American people on how President Barack Obama’s decision to normalize relations will impact human rights in Cuba. The short answer seems to be “adversely.” State Department Kept in the Dark The hearing “Impact of U.S. Policy Changes on Human Rights and Democracy in Cuba” before the Senate Subcommittee on…
In several recent interviews, President Obama has attempted to put the fight against radical Islamist terrorism in perspective. The president’s personal style is indeed often laconic, but in this case, it is out of place. In his pre-Super Bowl interview with NBC, Obama said the U.S. needs to be wary of handing terrorists “the victory…
On Wednesday, the Senate Armed Services Committee will consider the nomination of Ashton Carter to be America’s next defense secretary. Most analysts find Carter to be a capable manager, knowledgeable defense expert and savvy bureaucrat. But the problem remains that he can only do so much while Obama and his exclusive National Security Council continue…
The U.S. House of Representatives has voted for the fourth time to repeal—in full—the Affordable Care Act of 2010. The margin was 239 to 186. Now, the national debate moves to the Senate. For the past five years, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the former majority leader, protected U.S. senators from such a recorded vote. Senators will now…
President Obama said in a YouTube interview last month that he wanted to focus, during his last two years as president on helping people get ahead. “In particular, how can I make sure that folks who are working hard…cannot just survive, but how can they thrive? How can they get ahead?” Obama said. Many think…
It’s true, economic projections are just that—projections. But overly optimistic economic projections, such as those contained in the president’s recently released 2016 budget proposal, can do more harm than good. The fact that economic projections will inevitably miss the mark to some degree or another does not render them useless. Just because investors cannot perfectly…
President Obama has proposed a fiscal year 2016 budget that raises $3.5 trillion in fiscal year 2016 and $45 trillion over 10 years. In his budget, Obama also proposes that over the next 10 years, tax cuts of $349 billion be accompanied by tax increases of $1.9 trillion, for a net 10-year tax increase of $1.6 trillion. >>>…
How serious are Republicans about their promise to stop President Obama’s executive actions granting work permits and Social Security cards to millions of people in the country illegally? We’re about to find out. When the president issued his latest royal decree after the mid-term election, it wasn’t the first time he had bypassed Congress in…
The House of Representatives is expected to vote on repealing Obamacare this week. Heritage has already laid out five of the biggest reasons for Congress to repeal the entire law but because the law and its effects are so far-reaching, here are five more: Obamacare’s tax credits are overly complicated. The premium tax credits used…
Andy Lack, the new CEO of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees U.S. international agencies such as Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, has identified Russia’s propaganda offensive as one of his job’s major challenges, along with the rise of ISIS on social media and Boko Haram. “We are facing a number of…
Today, the U.N. World Meteorological Organization repeated the results it previewed in December and declared 2014 the “hottest year on record.” As with the December announcement, which came in advance of U.N. climate talks in Lima, today’s announcement precedes more talks starting next week in Geneva. Climate alarmists will point to the report as evidence…
It is fitting that President Obama released his 2016 budget on Groundhog’s Day. Like Bill Murray’s character Phil Connors in the famous movie, Obama is stuck in an endless loop where he keeps pushing economically destructive tax hikes that have little chance of becoming law. This is the seventh budget he has released, and each…