Opinion and commentary on news, politics, culture, and policy impact.
Millennials don’t seem to think getting married and having children is very important to society. According to a recent Pew survey, only 29 percent of 18-24-year-olds and just 35 percent of those 25-34 agree that “society is better off if people make marriage and having children a priority.” Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean today’s…
Winston Churchill once said “an appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.” The U.S. has been negotiating a deal that will leave Iran—which the State Department calls the leading sponsor of international terrorism—on the threshold of becoming a nuclear state. This is not just bad policy. This is deeply dangerous…
Australia has become the first developed nation to repeal its carbon tax after the Australian Senate voted to dismantle the tax on Wednesday in a 39–32 decision. The carbon tax has been hurting Australian consumers and businesses since its implementation, so much so that Tony Abbott, Australia’s prime minister, made eliminating it part of his…
If they are taking odds in Vegas, bet on not getting a P5+1 deal with Iran over its nuclear program. The sides have an option of extending the talks for six months if they think they are close to an agreement. Government officials in both Washington and Tehran have sent signals that they are going…
“To what level is Russia, Moscow specifically … complicit in this? Was this a rogue commander of the Russian forces?”
According to a Center for Immigration Studies fact sheet, the majority of the massive influx of illegal immigrants flooding across the southern border of the United States originate in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. The infographic below breaks down the current Central American community in the United States.
USA Today reports that “[t]he Israeli military announced a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip late Thursday after 10 days of fighting between Israel and Hamas militants.” The Israeli incursion is not likely to lead to expansion of the conflict. More likely, it will be a limited operation targeted on further crippling Hamas. When all…
Hong Kong democracy activists have vowed further disobedience after learning that, despite large protests this summer and a campaign for electoral reform that attracted 800,000 signatures, China will impose its will and deny them democracy. Pro-Beijing officials in the former British colony submitted a report this week to the Chinese People’s Congress supporting selection of…
Has the United States possibly been rendered blind to an impending terrorist attack? A senior Obama administration counterterrorism official worries that that may be the case. In a thought-provoking article entitled “US Flying Blind To Looming Terror Plots,” writer James Kitfield quotes an unnamed senior Obama administration counterterrorism official. Speaking about the growing threat, in…
Congressman Randy Hultgren (R–IL) and seven original cosponsors introduced the Department of Energy Laboratory Modernization and Technology Transfer Act of 2014 on July 17. The bill would create a seamless pathway for private innovators to transition the basic research at America’s national labs to commercial success stories. Representative Hultgren remarked in his press release: It…
What most Americans—and the world—hear about the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas goes something like this: “125 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed by Israel’s relentless assault on Gaza. No Israelis have yet been killed.” This may be true, but there is absolutely no context to it. One must look at the…
Campaigning this week for more federal transportation spending, President Obama said, “There’s something called the Highway Trust Fund [HTF]—I suspect this crew is familiar with it. It helps states support transportation projects. If Congress fails to fund it, it runs out of money.” Indeed, the House just passed a $10.8 billion bailout of the HTF…
The Obama administration announced new rules this week that will effectively punish American companies who move facilities and jobs overseas to save on taxes. Labor union backed groups have denounced American businesses that move offshore to avoid the 35 percent corporate tax as "unpatriotic." The White House claims such moves cost the Treasury billions of…
Allan Sloan of Fortune recently wrote an article best summarized as a tirade at U.S. businesses that have, or are thinking about, inverting. Inverting is the process whereby a U.S. business merges with a foreign business and moves the new joint business’s headquarters to the foreign country. Inversions have been a hot topic recently because…
The extreme environmental agenda is popping up everywhere, including in areas that have nothing to do with the environment. The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) has been considering issues such as global warming and sustainability in developing their recommendations—issues that bear no relationship to the nutritional and dietary purpose of the Dietary Guidelines. The DGAC…
Taxpayer-funded rides for bourbon-swilling journalists and international trips for indie music executives—federal funding for obscure programs like these is one reason why Heritage budget expert Romina Boccia has proposed a new budget commission modeled on the Defense Department’s Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC). Such a commission would be separate from Congress and composed of…
One of the biggest contributors to the nation’s spending crisis is federal spending on government health care programs, according to the Congressional Budget Office’s Long Term Budget and Economic Outlook projections released this week. And Obamacare only exacerbates that problem. Here are the main takeaways: Health spending is projected to surpass all other government programs….
MADISON, Wis. — Hundreds of undocumented children may be headed from the Mexican border to Wisconsin. The federal government has asked officials in the Madison and Milwaukee areas to look for potential sites to house some of the children now flooding into the country from Central America through Mexico. Madison Mayor Paul Soglin told Wisconsin…
It was only a matter of time before some of the thousands of undocumented children flooding the United States border reached Virginia. But the organization that is housing those children was founded by a man familiar to virtually everyone in the Washington, D.C., area. Prince William County Board of Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart, R-Woodbridge, confirmed…
SANTA FE, N.M. — New Mexico’s war over the meadow jumping mouse is escalating and moving ahead on multiple fronts. Ranchers whose permits allow their cattle to graze in the Santa Fe National Forest object to a proposal to erect fencing covering 120 acres in a meadow where the mouse lives. They’re heading to Capitol…