Opinion and commentary on news, politics, culture, and policy impact.
After six years of pushing for a repeal of Obamacare, some on the right are now critiquing Congress’ effort for repeal. Their arguments do more to confuse the issue than to present a viable path forward for eliminating the harmful effects of this law. Congressional Republicans appear set to finally repeal Obamacare using reconciliation, a process…
Stopping the stream of federal funding to Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, will be part of the upcoming budget reconciliation package, House Speaker Paul Ryan said during a press briefing Friday. This important announcement maintains the strong policy stance Congress took in the 2015 reconciliation bill that would have repealed Obamacare and stopped…
Ghana, a West African country, has experienced peaceful transitions of power each time there has been a change in government since the country ended military rule in 1992. Solidifying its notable status as one of Africa’s most stable democracies, Ghana is about to embark on another handover of power from the sitting head of state…
The year 2016 will be remembered for many headlines: Donald Trump’s insurgent campaign and surprise election, the shocking and crushing collapse of the Clinton dynasty, and—because politics isn’t everything—the nail-biting end of the Cubs’ 108-year World Series drought. And then, there was the political left’s apoplectic post-election meltdown and the spectacular failure of Green Party…
The California Legislature is hiring former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to represent the state in expected fights with the new Trump administration over environmental, immigration, and criminal justice issues. But based on Holder’s track record, don’t expect to see California racking up legal victories. Although nobody is questioning the skills of the attorneys at…
As a new Congress begins, Republicans have made it clear that regulatory reform is a priority that puts the interest of all Americans first, especially concerning the economy. It’s been said that sometimes government rules “have gotten out of balance, placing unreasonable burdens on business—burdens that have stifled innovation and have had a chilling effect…
Leave it to the media, which spent the latter half of 2016 highlighting how outrageously expensive Obamacare premiums were becoming, to suddenly shift gears in 2017 and stress the health law’s many “pluses.” Such was the case in a recent interview with Heritage President Jim DeMint, in which CNN anchor Carol Costello suggested that lawmakers…
Good or bad, people have an opinion about President-elect Donald Trump. He’s been part of the national conversation for years and will continue to be for at least the next four. Now, it’s time to figure out how you want to engage with your neighbor, co-worker, or friend who may not like the incoming leader…
Last year, both the House and Senate introduced bills to reauthorize child nutrition programs, but reauthorization ultimately stalled by the end of 2016. This is good news though, because both bills would have simply doubled down on heavy-handed policies put into place by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. Congress should now take the…
We will never understand liberals and progressives until we recognize that they often see reality as a social construct subject to being challenged and changed. For example, throughout the world, boys and girls have different toy preferences. Typically, boys like to play with cars and trucks, whereas girls prefer dolls. Liberals explain this with the…
While family and friends were counting down to the new year, I was watching a different kind of countdown—whether doctors and health care providers would be forced to violate their medical judgment and provide procedures, including gender transition services and abortions, under a new government mandate. The mandate is a 362-page regulation that claims to interpret…
Over the last several years, an extreme and ideologically-driven environmental agenda has hijacked our national energy policy. Whether its goal is to keep fossil fuels in the ground or to electrify America based on a naïve belief that all electricity will be renewable within 30 years, or some combination, this bias is what we now…
Asking with a terseness normally associated with changing religions or declaring a new nationality, many people that know me have politely cornered me and demanded: “How could you—a lifelong, left-leaning, Obama-believing, Indy-Dem voter—vote for Donald Trump?” My answer to them is simple: Our nation is in the middle of a crisis. We are stuck at…
The overreaction to President-elect Donald Trump’s election—from campus “cry-ins” to Brandon Victor Dixon’s “Hamilton” rant—is more than just a left-wing tantrum. It displays a more fundamental development in American political culture. In it, we behold the first fruits of the administrative state. Although it was not clearly articulated in his campaign, Trump did represent an inchoate rebellion against what scholars…
In less than three weeks’ time, when Donald Trump becomes our next president, he will take an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. It is fitting, then, that Trump has committed to repealing and replacing one of his predecessor’s most infamous unconstitutional policies, the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare….
As the calendar year ends, minds quickly turn to losing weight, eating healthy, saving money, and spending more time with family. But just as 2016 caused us to rethink politics, it’s time to rethink this year’s New Year’s resolutions. The voice of the American voters has never been louder, and with unified Republican control of…
Following the presidential election, numerous stories surfaced about how “fake news” influenced the results. This prompted a reaction from the media and a concerted effort by the social media giant Facebook to crack down on the phenomenon—announcing that it would in part by using liberal fact-checkers to distinguish the “real” from the “fake” news. The…