November 20, 2009
O's China Kowtow
By Peter Brookes
If you were troubled by President Obama's "Wow Bow" in Japan, you won't be any happier with the "kowtow" during his just-concluded trip to the ...
November 20, 2009
Obama Has Achieved Nothing on the World Stage
By Nile Gardiner
No American president has spent more time abroad in his first year in office than Barack Obama. His trip to Asia this week is his ...
November 20, 2009
Criminalizing Health-Care Freedom: Obamacare Supporters Would Use the Brute Force of Criminal Law for Social Engineering
By Brian Walsh and Hans A. von Spakovsky
The "reformers" in the White House and the House of Representatives have made all too plain their vision of the federal government's power to coerce ...
November 20, 2009
New Bankruptcy Policy Can Avoid Mass Bailouts
By Stuart Butler
Maybe we can breathe a collective sigh of relief -- now that we've dodged the bullet of a catastrophic collapse of America's entire financial system. ...
November 19, 2009
Four Measures to Remake America: House Democrats are Split on the Most Important Pieces of Legislation
By Michael Franc
The Pelosi-Reid Congress, it's clear, fancies itself among the most consequential Congresses ever.
November 17, 2009
Missing in Action: Asian Nations Can’t be Found in US Trade Policy
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
Politics Down Under can be pretty upside-down. Kevin Rudd led his Labor Party to victory in Australia's 2007 election. Shortly after settling into the prime ...
November 17, 2009
Presidential Dithering, Dawdling and Defeat
By Brian Darling
While our indecisive Commander-in-Chief dithers about a troop surge in Afghanistan, Lawmakers are dawdling on funding the federal government. Congress didn't finish the nation's spending ...
November 16, 2009
Proposed Global-Warming Bills and Regulations Will Hurt, Not Help
By Ben Lieberman
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is moving forward aggressively to regulate fossil fuels in the name of fighting global warming. Recent agency proposals would start ...
November 16, 2009
America's Enduring Exceptionalism
By Israel Ortega
In any given year, countless men, women and even children die in the hot, arid U.S.-Mexico border region while trying to sneak into this country. ...
November 13, 2009
With Pelosicare DOA, Can Reid Rescue Obamacare in Senate?
By Brian Darling
With the House passing Speaker Pelosi's version of Obamacare by a 220-215 vote on Saturday night, the next arena for battle on an attempted government ...
November 13, 2009
Miscalculating Engagement
By Kim R. Holmes
Direct diplomatic outreach to America's foes and rivals defines President Obama's foreign policy. It underpins everything from "resetting" relations with Russia to making concessions to ...
November 11, 2009
International Letdown
By Helle Dale
Last year's U.S. presidential election sparked international euphoria. Americans had chosen the "anti-Bush"! The jubilation overseas reflected a belief that, as president, Barack Obama would ...
November 10, 2009
Why We Should Celebrate
By Lee Edwards
Why were people cheering and dancing and drinking champagne atop the Berlin Wall on the evening of Nov. 9, 1989?
November 10, 2009
Doubling Down on Defeat
By Brian Darling
The 2009 elections in Virginia, New Jersey and New York sent a strong message to elected officials. Yet many politicians may be willing to risk ...
November 10, 2009
Reagan and the Fall of the Berlin Wall
By Edwin J. Meese III
For years, it has been the fashion in many ideological precincts to argue the collapse of the Soviet Union -- at more or less the ...
November 10, 2009
Obama Court Nominee Looks to Extend More "Empathy"
By Jack Park
All presidents aim to leave a legacy through the judges they appoint to lifetime seats on federal appeals courts. That's why senators should be especially ...
November 9, 2009
Painting the Gulag: A Haunting Reminder of Soviet Atrocities, Courtesy of Nikolai Getman
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
My Russian father and German mother, who survived some of the worst wars and atrocities of the last century, came close to death many times. ...
November 9, 2009
Why We Can't Walk Away
By Peter Brookes
There is certainly a lot of hand-wringing, chin-rubbing and forceful exhaling going on these days over the increasingly challenging war in Afghanistan, where nearly 70,000 ...
November 9, 2009
Congressional Spenders Ignore Deepening Government Waste
By Brian Riedl
To get a handle on how out of control federal spending has become, consider this: It surged to $30,000 per household in 2009. That's up ...
November 6, 2009
New Priorities Require New Budget Process
By Brian Riedl
As federal spending soars past $30,000 per household, America finds itself at a fork in the road. Realistic budget estimates show unsustainable trillion-dollar budget deficits ...
November 6, 2009
A Healthy Reaction: Voters Say No to Big Government
By Michael Franc
"Contain the scope of the debate": This has been a key element of the Democratic strategy to enact Big Government health reform. As long as ...
November 5, 2009
What Iran Learned From the Hostage Crisis: Terrorism Works
By James Phillips
Today is the 30th anniversary of the beginning of the Iranian hostage crisis, America's first searing experience with Islamist terrorism.
November 5, 2009
With Karzai's Victory, Security Must Take Precedence
By Lisa Curtis
Now that the Nov. 7 runoff election in Afghanistan has been canceled and Hamid Karzai announced the official winner of the Aug. 20 vote, President ...
November 5, 2009
Why Spending Won't Grow Our Economy
By Israel Ortega
"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money" - Margaret Thatcher
November 5, 2009
Curbing a Constitutional Crisis
By Edwin J. Feulner, Ph.D.
These are the times that try conservatives' souls. A liberal president wants funding for defense slashed.
November 4, 2009
CIA Clash: The Left Assaults Langley--Again
By Peter Brookes
You would think with hot wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and on Terror, the Left would rule out declaring war on the Central Intelligence Agency, too, ...
November 3, 2009
Barack Obama: Media Sweetheart and Golf Addict
By Brian Darling
Barack Obama enjoys wide support from his liberal friends in the media. That allows them to ignore the growing discontent average Americans hold toward a ...
November 3, 2009
The Rediscovery of America: Here's the Best Ground from Which to Repulse the Whole Progressive Project
By Matthew Spalding, Ph.D.
By any measure, the United States of America is a great nation. Thirteen colonies are now 50 states covering a vast continent and beyond. The ...
November 2, 2009
Visit the War Zone, Mr. President
By Peter Brookes
Despite all the Obama administration's chin- rubbing and hand- wringing about how to proceed in Afghanistan, the president hasn't been to the war-torn country since ...
November 2, 2009
Union Dues: It's Your Money. Isn't It?
By James Sherk
For American workers, it is a telling tale of two cities. Last month, workers in Wheat Ridge, Colo., won a smashing victory, holding powerful special ...
November 2, 2009
Weathering Congress, Global Warming
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
Weather changed. People died. They called it the "Little Ice-Age," a period that spanned the mid-1600s. As global temperatures dropped, the number and frequency of ...
October 30, 2009
Massive Debt to Drive U.S. Decline
By Kim R. Holmes
America is a great nation. It enjoys unprecedented wealth. Its people are among the freest in the world. And, with the world's most powerful armed ...
October 29, 2009
Baucus Health Insurance Excise Tax Misses the Mark
By Curtis Dubay
The Senate Finance Committee proposes to substantially raise taxes on middle- and low-income taxpayers through a misguided excise tax on insurance plans in order to ...
October 29, 2009
Armed Forces May Count the Cost of Cutbacks on Defense
By Ted Bromund
The publication of Bernard Gray's much-leaked report on defence procurement gives all the parties a vital chance to commit to spending plans and sensible reforms ...
October 28, 2009
Exclusive: Soft Power Slump
By James Carafano
Obama's week finished with a soft power slump. The U.S. had high hopes for two meetings with Iranian officials on their suspect nuclear programs.
October 28, 2009
Biden's missile-defense missteps
By Peter Brookes
Vice President Joe Biden's trip last week to Poland and the Czech Republic may have helped soothe rattled allies after Team Obama pitched overboard the ...
October 27, 2009
History Lesson on Why '78 Should Not Be Repeated
By James Carafano
He followed an unpopular president. He received a strong election mandate. He changed the tone in Washington, D.C.
October 27, 2009
Enemies of the State
By Brian Darling
"Don't create an enemies list." Advice given years ago to President Nixon? No, a tip delivered just last week -- from Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) ...
October 27, 2009
A Tale of Two $250s
By Edwin J. Feulner, Ph.D.
This fall, as American families anticipate the holiday season and an uncertain economy in 2010, they're likely to decide to cut back. Maybe they'll stay ...
October 27, 2009
Turning Social Security into Welfare
By David John
Seems simple: Social Security recipients will get no cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) next year, so President Obama wants to give each of them $250. The Republican ...
October 23, 2009
Hill is Above the (Labor) Law
By Stuart Butler
Most Americans think that all citizens should have the same rights and privileges, and that the same laws should apply equally to all.
October 23, 2009
A Flood of Federal Disasters
By Rich Tucker
News flash: It often snows in Syracuse. And it rains. Even floods, sometimes. Another news flash: these are not federal disasters. Or, at least, they ...
October 23, 2009
Questionnaire May Shed Long-Overdue Light on Cap-and-Trade Legislation
By David Kreutzer
Reps. Henry Waxman and Ed Markey did a little digging last week. It was the kind of thoughtful investigative work our lawmakers should do more ...
October 21, 2009
Attack It If You Must, But Fox News Still Reigns
By Michael Gonzalez
The White House's attack on Fox News is ripe with irony. Supposedly, it was conservatives who famously stood athwart history shouting, "Stop!" Supposedly, the Obama ...
October 21, 2009
Another Broken Promise
By Israel Ortega
Shortly after being sworn in as the 44th president, Barack Obama said, "Let me say it as simply as I can. Transparency and the rule ...
October 20, 2009
Web 2.0 has anti-social networking, too
By James Carafano
Spies! They were all over Washington. Yes, they liked us. They were British, after all.
October 20, 2009
The Power of the Plaintiffs' Bar: Why Democrats are avoiding medical-malpractice reform at all costs
By Edwin J. Meese III and Hans A. von Spakovsky
The health-care bill the Senate Finance Committee approved makes a lot of promises. It will cost American taxpayers $829 billion, on top of an already ...
October 20, 2009
Congress and Obama Show Contempt for Americans
By Brian Darling
Congress is showing contempt for the American people by excluding them from the crafting of Obamacare The president promised in his campaign he'd deliver transparency, ...
October 20, 2009
Congress' Light Bulb Law: Not So Bright
By Ernest Istook
Thank goodness I'm not imagining it. Others also have big problems with the new-fangled light bulbs Congress is forcing on us.
October 19, 2009
If it's so urgent, why would two elections pass before health reform takes effect?
By Robert Book
The debate over health-care reform has sparked all sorts of controversy over costs, regulations and choices. But one 'feature' seems to have escaped notice: the ...
October 16, 2009
Obama Defines Success Downward in Afghanistan
By Kim R. Holmes
In March, President Obama thought that defeating al Qaeda and the Taliban was critical to national security. "[I]f the Afghan government falls to the Taliban ...
October 15, 2009
Angling for Senate Approval, Labor Nominee Plays Fast and Loose with Facts
By James Sherk
Of course, you can’t mislead an interviewer in a job interview. Unless, apparently, you’ve been nominated for a government position that requires high ethical standards. ...
October 15, 2009
Tax the Wealthy Even More? That's Rich
By Ed Feulner, Ph. D
Your parents probably told you that you can't get something for nothing. But your government is sending a very different message. For now, at least. ...
October 14, 2009
The Business of Global Warming
By Dan Holler
Soon, fast-talking Senators will take up the Kerry-Boxer bill to supposedly limit global warming. Meanwhile, corporate America is doing a global warming kabuki dance.
October 13, 2009
CBO Report Shows Baucus Bill's Problems
By Robert Moffit and Igor Volsky
Finally, a victory for Obamacare! Or so the media claims. According to reports, the CBO said the Senate Finance Committee's highly conceptual health care reform ...
October 13, 2009
Where's the Health Care Bill?
By Brian Darling
As you read this, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and officials of the Obama administration are in a room at the Capitol rewriting health ...
October 13, 2009
CBO Wrong on Health Bill's Cost to Taxpayer
By Brian Darling
Sen. Max Baucus (D.-Mont.) has received a score on his legislative outline for healthcare reform -- the Vapor Bill -- from the Congressional Budget Office ...
October 13, 2009
The Baucus Bill Grows Big Government
By Robert Moffit, Ph.D.
The Senate Finance Committee will soon vote on the big Baucus Health Bill. Because there is still no legislative language, tt is a "conceptual" bill. ...
October 13, 2009
Liberal Health Care Ideas: DOA
By Rich Tucker
It's one of the biggest myths in Washington, a powerful idea that hangs around year in and year out no matter how hard we try ...
October 13, 2009
Why China Won't Help Stop Tehran
By Peter Brookes
So why did President Obama opt last week to become the first president since 1991 to not meet the Dalai Lama during his visit to ...
October 13, 2009
Birthed In Blood, Somali Terror Group Goes Global
By James Carafano
In the summer of 2008, a battle raged about 300 miles south of Mogadishu. There, along the banks of the Jubba River, rival militias fought ...
October 9, 2009
Bank the Bucks First
By Stuart Butler
A classic "Saturday Night Live" skit sums up much of what's wrong with the financing part of health care reform and gives a clue how ...
October 9, 2009
Speaking Up About Afghanistan When It Counts
By Lisa Curtis
There are ways for senior officials to make their positions clear, without undermining the authority of the president. General McChrystal has done just that. And ...
October 9, 2009
Blood Brothers No More?
By Ariel Cohen
Is President Dmitri Medvedev of Russia trying to come out from under the shadow of his long-time political mentor and former boss Prime Minister Vladimir ...
October 9, 2009
Oslo's Decision Is Shortsighted
By James Carafano
Waking up to a Nobel Peace Prize may not have been what President Obama wanted. Here's why: The Nobel Committee awarded the prize on the ...
October 8, 2009
Defusing the Iranian Threat
By Ed Feulner, Ph. D
No wonder presidents seem to age so quickly -- dealing with the country's toughest problems every day takes its toll. Many of those problems seem ...
October 8, 2009
Disenfranchised by Dave
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
Why does New York's Gov. David Paterson keep disenfranchising military voters? The answer is obvious -- and ugly.
October 8, 2009
A Clear and Present Danger: QDR Must Recognize Need for Two-War Construct
By Mackenzie Eaglen and Jim Talent
QDR must recognize need for two-war construct. As Defense Secretary Robert Gates completes the Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), senior officials have indicated he will ...
October 7, 2009
Why China Worries the Pentagon
By Peter Brookes
Replete with Olympian fanfare, China just a few days ago "celebrated" the 60th anniversary of the founding and achievements of the People's Republic.
October 7, 2009
Obama Would Create $13 Trillion Deficit
By Brian Riedl
President Obama's budget office recently caused a stir when it projected that his tax-and-spend agenda would leave more than $9 trillion in new budget deficits ...
October 7, 2009
Son of START
By Peter Brookes
A move toward a nuke-free world or a pipe dream. Early in his tenure, President Barack Obama outlined a broad nonproliferation agenda in a Prague ...
October 6, 2009
Remembering Gulags' Victims
By Rebecca Hagelin
Three years ago, I witnessed the dancing eyes and exuberant smiles of fellow humans who were tasting freedom for the very first time. I was ...
October 6, 2009
At What Cost To Freedom?: Obama's Individual Mandate Is a Bad Idea
By Robert Moffit
Obama's individual mandate is a bad idea. In his address to Congress, President Obama made clear that he and his allies know how to spend ...
October 2, 2009
Obama's Foreign Policy Vision Not So New Age
By Kim R. Holmes
President Obama's speeches often claim "the time has come" for something, or "the days" of this or that "are over." It's as if his presidency ...
October 2, 2009
Where Government Fails, Room for Private Charities to Thrive
By Israel Ortega
According to a recently released federal government report, the U.S. poverty rate is at its highest level since 1987. Some 13.2 percent of Americans -- ...
October 2, 2009
Green Job Subsidies Will Destroy Far More Jobs Than They Create
By Ben Liebermen
Don't let the hype about "green jobs" fool you. The global warming bill approved earlier this year by the House of Representatives would destroy far ...
October 1, 2009
Panetta Right to Defend CIA Interrogators
By Edwin J. Meese III and Hans A. von Spakovsky
Score one for the case officers targeted by President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder's reinvestigation of interrogators that the Department of Justice previously ...
October 1, 2009
The G-20: Less Is More
By James M. Roberts
If the G-20 resists the statist temptation, it can actually do some good. Those who enjoy the endless rounds of televised high-level summitry that increasingly ...
September 30, 2009
Congress's Secret Plan to Pass Obamacare
By Brian Darling
President Obama and liberals in Congress seems intent on passing comprehensive health care reform, even though polls suggest it is unpopular with the American people. ...
September 29, 2009
Honeymoon is Over
By Brian Darling
It's been a rough few weeks for the Obama administration, and the president's honeymoon with the American people is clearly over. The left wing group ...
September 29, 2009
Congress Should Stop Playing Politics with E-Verify
By Jena Baker McNeill
On September 8th, the rule requiring E-Verify for federal contractors went into effect. A positive step forward for workplace enforcement, this rule shows that the ...
September 29, 2009
In Guns vs. Butter, Butter is Winning
By James Carafano
H. Rowen Gaither Jr. advised the great men of his era. He helped found RAND, the original U.S. think tank. He headed the Ford Foundation ...
September 29, 2009
The Politics of (In)Justice
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
Obama's patronizing Civil Rights Division. Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act may not look like a political weapon. But in the hands of certain ...
September 29, 2009
The PLA on Parade: There's More Than What Meets the Eye
By Dean Cheng
Perhaps the most prominent event marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China will be a massive parade showcasing the ...
September 28, 2009
Punting National Security to the Judiciary
By Charles "Cully" Stimson
The president won't release detainees; he'll sit back and let the courts to do it for him. In a stunning display of political cowardice, the ...
September 25, 2009
COOP d'etat: An acronym does not a co-op make
By Stuart Butler
"When I use a word," says Humpty Dumpty in Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass," "it means just what I choose it to mean."
September 25, 2009
Democrats Use Stealth Tactics on Healthcare Bill
By Ernest Istook
They still don't listen. Citizens cried out this summer for Congress to "read the bills" and understand the consequences of healthcare legislation before deciding and ...
September 25, 2009
Seven Things to Note on Iran
By Peter Brookes
What a shock: Iran has another undeclared nuclear facility that is likely supporting a nuclear weapons program!
September 23, 2009
Your Guide to Budget Reconciliation and Obamacare
By Brian Darling
The details of President Obama's push for comprehensive health care reform get more baffling every day. The debate recently became even more complicated with the ...
September 23, 2009
The UN Loves Barack Obama Because He is Weak
By Nile Gardiner
Barack Obama's Gallup approval rating of 52 percent may well be lower at this stage of his presidency than any US leader in recent times ...
September 22, 2009
The U.N.'s Anti-Israel Crusade Continues
By Nile Gardiner
The United Nations has come up with yet another spectacularly biased report, this time 575 pages long, accusing Israel of "war crimes" in Gaza and ...
September 22, 2009
Thank You, President Obama
By Brian Darling
I love President Barack Obama. No kidding. I love the guy. Barack Obama is the best community organizer of conservatives since Ronald Reagan.
September 22, 2009
Why are We Sending Mixed Messages to Honduras?
By Israel Ortega and Ray Walser, Ph.D.
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Although those words were first penned more than half a century ...
September 22, 2009
Home, Homeland security on the range
By James Carafano
Chicago's 1893 World's Fair was a 600-acre celebration of American exceptionalism. There, amid the wonders and marvels of the modern world, the American Historical Association ...
September 22, 2009
Should liability damage caps be a part of health care reform?
By Randolph Pate
Perhaps the most conciliatory moment in President Barack Obama's health care speech before Congress came when he acknowledged concern with the high costs of medical ...
September 21, 2009
Obama Is Blitzing American TV
By Ernest Istook
While the left celebrates President Barack Obama's full-court press for health care, the right feels differently about "all-Obama, all-the-time" network TV schedules.
September 18, 2009
National Defense as First Principle
By Kim Holmes
Ever wonder why "provide for the common defence" appears right in the preamble of the U.S. Constitution, signed 222 years ago Thursday?
September 15, 2009
How to Dismantle a Military Superpower
By Mackenzie Eaglen
Here we go again. Politicians, looking for places to save money, are wielding the defense budget ax. Civilian Pentagon leaders have ordered the services to ...
September 15, 2009
Beware of Obama's Healthcare Trickery
By Ernest Istook
When their direct path is blocked, politicians often resort to chicanery. That approach is evident in the healthcare debate.
September 15, 2009
Obama Buys Time
By Ernest Istook
President Obama had a national audience Wednesday night, but his key message was tightly focused -- to buy time with his fellow Democrats who hold ...
September 15, 2009
Too much at stake to abandon Afghanistan
By Peter Brookes
There's certainly a lot of hand-wringing these days on both the left and right over the war in Afghanistan. Among Americans, support for the fight ...
September 11, 2009
Learning from Sweden's school voucher success
By Stuart M. Butler
Late last month, I returned to Washington after attending a conference in Stockholm. In both national capitals, thousands of children and their parents were in ...
September 11, 2009
Understanding Poverty in America: What the Census Bureau doesn't count
By Robert Rector
Today, the U.S. Census Bureau will release its annual poverty report. The report is expected to show an increase in poverty in 2008 due to ...
September 10, 2009
At the Danger Point in the Obamacare Debate
By Stuart M. Butler
Now that many Americans realize the Obamacare bills in Congress herald a government takeover of U.S. health care, they can't afford to relax.
September 10, 2009
Reading, Writing and Rap Sheets
By Edwin J. Feulner, Ph.D.
The president has countless things to worry about, but at least he can be confident his children are safe. Whether the First Family is vacationing ...
September 9, 2009
What really remains of the day
By James Jay Carafano
It was July 4, 1916 ... or so the story goes. The world was at war. Americans weren't in the fight yet, but they knew ...
September 9, 2009
A school wake-up call
By Dan Lips
A new school year is under way, but we already can grade the condition of American education. Let's just say no "honor student" bumper stickers ...
September 9, 2009
Yet Another Foreign-Policy Fumble: Throwing Missile Defense Under Bus
By Peter Brookes
The Obama administration is getting ready to throw the proposed Eastern European-based US missile-defense system under the bus. The move is a sop to the ...
September 8, 2009
Presidents Walk Fine Line When Talking to Schools
By Chuck Donovan
The White House plan for President Barack Obama to deliver a national back-to-school address next week to elementary and secondary school students is unusual, but ...
September 8, 2009
The Crashing Liberal Agenda
By Brian Darling
After an adventurous and, at times, treacherous August recess, lawmakers return to Washington, D.C. this week. Liberals hope to jumpstart the President’s agenda, which has ...
September 8, 2009
Labor Unions on Health Care: Their True Motives
By James Sherk
Unions across the country are campaigning hard for Obamacare over Labor Day weekend. The AFL-CIO has made creating a government run "public plan" their top ...
September 4, 2009
The end of an era in Japan?
By Kim Holmes
Sixty-four years ago this week, the Japanese formally surrendered to Allied forces on the USS Missouri, ending World War II. Thus began a long era ...
September 4, 2009
What Did They Learn in August?
By Ernest Istook
During Washington's August recess, the floor collapsed beneath the left-wing agenda. Obama fell 16 points in the Gallup Poll and continues to slide.
September 4, 2009
Hurtling toward a train wreck
By Edwin J. Feulner, Ph.D.
Nobody could have been happier to see August end than the liberals pushing government-run health care. The month, to put it mildly, was not kind ...
September 4, 2009
Fear Shouldn't Interfere With a Child's Education
By Israel Ortega
Looking back on our school days, there were always some things we feared: bad grades, lousy lunches and hallway cliques.
September 4, 2009
A return to prosperity is light-years away if we follow Obama's road map
By Elaine L. Chao
On Labor Day, millions of Americans will consult their Rand McNally Road Atlas before hitting the highway. But those seeking the quickest route to Lost ...
September 2, 2009
Obama not smooth on Gdansk
By Helle Dale
What is the good will of a loyal allied country worth to the Obama administration? We are talking about a European nation that has stood ...
September 2, 2009
Drill, Comrade Drill?
By Ben Lieberman
If we won't drill into the vast energy reserves just off our shores, others will.
September 2, 2009
America's New Japan Challenge
By Bruce Klingner
The rumbling you heard across the Pacific Ocean over the weekend was Japan moving further from the United States -- and closer to China. Japan's ...
September 2, 2009
DPJ victory poses challenges for U.S. alliance
By Bruce Klingner
Japan's opposition Democratic Party of Japan fulfilled predictions by winning a landslide victory over the moribund ruling party. The change in government is historic: It ...
September 1, 2009
Don't Get Scammed By Russia Again
By Peter Brookes
American and Russian teams will start another round of talks as early as today on a new nuclear-arms-reduction pact to replace the expiring Strategic Arms ...
September 1, 2009
Renaming War Once More
By James Jay Carafano
Two veterans of the international think-tank community, Thomas Rid and Marc Hecker, have interwoven several themes to offer their vision of modern conflict. War 2.0: ...
September 1, 2009
Criminal Stimulus
By Brian Darling
The Boston Herald reported last week that 23 criminals in Massachusetts, including four murders and five rapists, received $250 stimulus checks from the Social Security ...
September 1, 2009
Obama, Gates are gutting America's defense industry
By James Jay Carafano
When Gen. William Snow arrived in Washington, D.C., to direct the buildup of the artillery for the Allied Expeditionary Force, he thought his office ought ...
August 31, 2009
Pumping to perdition
By Ben Lieberman
Labor Day signals the end of summer-vacation season. Will this summer also turn out to be the last cheap one for gasoline? The Obama administration ...
August 28, 2009
The Slippery Slope of Health-Care Reform: For liberal reformers, modesty is not an option
By Michael Franc
Each day brings another twist to the health-care-reform saga. Should the president heed the braying of his hard-left allies, manipulate Senate procedural rules, and push ...
August 28, 2009
Dust-Up: Torture and the CIA: Investigate White House higher-ups?
By David Kaye and Robert Alt
First, David, I need to address your claim from Wednesday, "Nothing in any of the reports released over the last several years ... demonstrates that ...
August 28, 2009
Playing Into the Hands of Burma's Junta
By Walter Lohman
In Wednesday's New York Times, Senator Jim Webb made his case for a new American policy on Burma. For someone so closely identified with opposition ...
August 28, 2009
Obama should be 'decider' on CIA interrogators probe
By Robert Alt
When questioned about the possibility of prosecuting Bush administration officials, President Obama has repeatedly claimed that he wants to look forward, not backward. Yet his ...
August 28, 2009
Immigration Distrust on Health Bill
By Ernest Istook
Nothing illustrates America's distrust of Congress quite like the illegal immigrant provision of the House health care bill, HR 3200.
August 27, 2009
Inquest of CIA None Too Smart
By Peter Brookes
The Obama administration's decision to release a previously classified 2004 CIA interrogation report and appoint a special prosecutor to look into possible misdeeds by personnel ...
August 27, 2009
Dust-Up: Will investigating possible abuses by agency interrogators damage their ability to do their jobs?
By Robert Alt and David Kaye
As we begin, it's worth noting that we're not discussing whether to investigate or prosecute allegations of abuse by interrogators. That has already happened. What ...
August 24, 2009
Government a health hazard?
By Robert E. Moffit
Washington likes to style itself as the center of the political universe, but this summer, the real action is in the states. At town-hall meetings, ...
August 24, 2009
Britain's Sacred Cow: The NHS and Daniel Hannan
By Ted Bromund
Daniel Hannan is in trouble. The young Tory European MP, who became a YouTube sensation earlier this year for his denunciation of British Prime Minister ...
August 24, 2009
Obamacare Would Shortchange Hispanics
By Israel Ortega
For most Members of Congress, the month of August is typically a time to relax, unwind and catch up on reading while taking a break ...
August 21, 2009
Myths You'll Hear at Town Halls
By Ernest Istook
Faced with angry constituents at town hall meetings, some congressmen and senators will say whatever it takes to calm things down. Even if it's misleading ...
August 21, 2009
Authoritarian arms
By Ariel Cohen and Owen B. Graham
President Hugo Chavez recently announced that Venezuela will purchase dozens of Russian tanks and other arms, signaling growing military ties between the two countries -- ...
August 21, 2009
Afghanistan's war, election challenge Obama
By Kim Holmes
President Obama this week called the war in Afghanistan one of "necessity," not choice. It is, he proclaimed, the "central front in the war on ...
August 20, 2009
The Road to Zero: Keeping Swords, Building Ploughshares
By James Jay Carafano
Every Washington wonk dreams that a new president will pick up his or her agenda. When it comes to advocates for nuclear arms control, that ...
August 20, 2009
Through the (North Korean) looking glass
By Bruce Klingner
Ironies abound in the current United States policy toward North Korea. Someone awakening from a long slumber could be forgiven for concluding that a naively ...
August 18, 2009
"Buy America" is bad for national security
By James Jay Carafano
Willis Hawley and Reed Smoot thought they had a great idea. Hawley chaired the House Ways and Means Committee. Smoot oversaw the Senate Finance Committee. ...
August 18, 2009
The Right's Ideas vs. The Left's Derision
By Dan Holler
The Left is acting as if its political dominance -- super majorities in both houses of Congress and, of course, the Presidency -- eliminates the ...
August 17, 2009
Success, but at what cost?
By Bruce Klingner
It would be heartless not to welcome the release of two U.S. hostages from North Korea's malevolent clutches. Pyongyang's imposition of a sentence of 12 ...
August 17, 2009
Left-wing proxy plays
By Elaine L. Chao
An awful lot of people who have never even run a lemonade stand are presuming to micromanage corporate conglomerates. General Motors Corp., now headquartered at ...
August 17, 2009
Rescuing democracy
By Rory Cooper
In November 2000, a small group of vote counters in Florida's Miami-Dade County protested the canvassing board's decision to move into a private room and ...
August 17, 2009
(Not) Providing for the Common Defense
By Edwin J. Feulner, Ph.D.
During the John Adams administration, Americans were offered a chance to bribe their way out of a war. Most responded by chanting, "Millions for defense, ...
August 14, 2009
The Purple People Beaters
By Ernest Istook
That would be the purple-shirted members of the SEIU--the Service Employees International Union--who (literally) swung into action outside a town hall meeting in Missouri and ...
August 14, 2009
Social insurance needs rethinking
By Stuart M. Butler
The U.S. is headed for a fiscal meltdown. Even before Congress began calling for a hugely expensive overhaul of health care, the federal government was ...
August 13, 2009
Level Playing Field For the Republican Plan? Fuhgeddaboudit!
By Robert E. Moffit
Liberals in Congress say they want a public plan to compete against private health insurance in order to give Americans more choice and competition. Ponder ...
August 13, 2009
Brown's red tape is separating Britain from its friends
By Ted Bromund
Yale University is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the United States, and is among its most Anglophile. Its Yale Centre for ...
August 12, 2009
Uncle Walter's ghost is still with us in Afghanstan
By James Jay Carafano
On the Vietnamese holiday of Tet in 1968, U.S. troops in Saigon woke not to the pop of firecrackers, but to the riddle of machine ...
August 11, 2009
Commercials help people get better care
By James Gattuso
We've all seen the television commercials for prescription drugs that come on during your favorite show. Some - for certain maladies rarely discussed at the ...
August 11, 2009
Assaulted by sex-ed
By Rebecca Hagelin
Much of what is being taught to our young girls and boys in sex-education classes is too graphic and vulgar to be quoted in the ...
August 11, 2009
Recess for Your Wallet
By Brian Darling
Congress has left town, so members can head back to the district or take some fancy, taxpayer-funded trip overseas. Your wallet may be safe while ...
August 11, 2009
Town Hall Showdowns
By Ernest Istook
Which is the real America that is cramming into town hall meetings during Congress' recess?
August 11, 2009
'Saving' at Americans' Expense
By Alison Acosta Fraser
Are the "savings" promised for health-care reform wise ones?
August 11, 2009
Chinese Foreign Investment: How Much and Where?
By Derek Scissors
Available data provide only a partial answer to the question of exactly how much China is spending overseas. We know that China's acquisition of overseas ...
August 10, 2009
Warning Sign: Russian Subs No Threat
By Peter Brookes
The Pentagon says it's not worried about a couple of Russian Akula-class attack submarines patrolling some 200 miles off the US Eastern coast -- that ...
August 10, 2009
Headed for a 'VAT' of higher taxes
By Curtis S. Dubay
No one can say President Obama lacks ambition. The speed with which he has pursued his agenda to radically change the relationship between Americans and ...
August 10, 2009
More Spending, Less Recovery
By Edwin J. Feulner, Ph.D.
If there's a parade going by, any good politician will jump in front and claim to be leading it. But it's especially brazen to do ...
August 7, 2009
Associated Press outsourcing to Leftist nonprofits is a bad idea
By Ken McIntyre
Never accuse the Associated Press of being hidebound by journalistic tradition. In a sharp break with past practice, the once-venerable news service is providing its ...
August 7, 2009
Cyber-Security Blues
By James Jay Carafano
The White House is having trouble filling its "cyber- security czar" slot? Big surprise.
August 7, 2009
Defense games and arms races: not what you think
By Kim Holmes
It's an alluring idea: If the United States disarms or restrains its military forces, other countries would do the same. The notion is gaining ground ...
August 7, 2009
Phase II for Obamacare: The new strategy
By Michael Franc
House Democratic leaders sent their rank-and-file members home for the August recess armed with a stunningly disingenuous memo that sets forth the Democrats' new strategy ...
August 6, 2009
Piling on the spending
By Edwin J. Feulner, Ph.D.
This year, millions of Americans accepted a salary freeze or even a pay cut so they could keep their jobs. They ought to be asking ...
August 5, 2009
No Negotiation with the Taliban
By Nile Gardiner
There are clear signs that the Labour government in London has begun to build an exit strategy for Afghanistan based upon the premise of negotiations ...
August 5, 2009
Culture wars and the political future of the U.S.
By Jennifer A. Marshall
American soldiers engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan remind us that our debates about the state of American culture are far from actual "wars." Unlike other ...
August 5, 2009
Democrats' health plan is 'voodoo economics'
By Brian M. Riedl
Satirist P.J. O'Rourke once noted, "If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free."
August 4, 2009
Foreign policy fizzling: Down south, things don't go better with Obama
By Peter Brookes
With dictators on the rise, democracy under assault and foreign powers making inroads in Latin America, it's not clear the Obama administration has a plan ...
August 4, 2009
Robert Gates: 21st century cold warrior
By James Jay Carafano
It is 50 years in the future. America's most distinguished historians (all arriving in carbon-free rocket cars) gather for a conference assessing "the secretary of ...
August 4, 2009
North Korea: Master of Mayhem
By Peter Brookes
Perhaps no country is in the news more these days for troublemaking than North Korea. Run by a diminutive dictator, the Stalinist police state is ...
July 31, 2009
Big Bang approach all wrong for health reform
By Stuart M. Butler
Momentum for the Obama administration's health care proposal seems to be dissipating as concern about the plan mounts. But why is it so difficult to ...
July 31, 2009
How Washington Is Spending Your Taxes in 2009
By Brian M. Riedl
You get itemized bills from your doctor, your car mechanic and your cell-phone provider. Why not from the federal government?
July 31, 2009
Myths of the Public Plan
By Nina Owcharenko
It's a critical week in Congress on the health care reform front, and members are ramping up the rhetoric for one of the sticking points ...
July 30, 2009
An Inconvenient Tariff
By Nick Loris
The current cap-and-trade debate is generating a lot of noise in the United States. Much of that noise is coming from the halls of Congress, ...
July 30, 2009
That Was Then: Exploding 'Health Reform' Costs
By Robert E. Moffit
President Obama and congressional leaders are desperately searching for a way to finance their fast-track power grab over the health-care sector. Both the House and ...
July 29, 2009
Seeking More than Financial Freedom
By Israel Ortega
Why did we come to this country? Rarely do we ever stop for a moment in our busy days at work to wonder why we, ...
July 28, 2009
Electromagnetic attack: Thinking the unthinkable
By James Jay Carafano
When the 9/11 Commission issued its report, it complained that federal agencies had a colossal "failure of imagination." Nobody could accuse Newt Gingrich of suffering ...
July 28, 2009
Bailout Fever Hasn't Disappeared
By Brian Darling
One reason for the parties is that many Americans oppose using tax dollars to bail out failing industry and failed government policies. Too bad our ...
July 28, 2009
What Obama Doesn't Know Can Hurt the Rest of Us
By Ernest Istook
President Obama admits he doesn’t know about major parts of the House health care bill, but he’s promoting the measure anyway. He's violated a cardinal ...
July 28, 2009
You're (Probably) a Federal Criminal
By Brian W. Walsh
Federal law now criminalizes activities that the average person would never dream would land him in prison. Consequently, every year, thousands of upstanding, responsible Americans ...
July 28, 2009
The Case Against: The public plan will unfairly crowd out private coverage
By Stuart M. Butler
I've spent the last 30 years trying to achieve affordable health coverage for all Americans, so it's frustrating to see the obsession with a "public ...
July 27, 2009
The Danger of Bad Foreign Policies
By Peter Brookes
Most Americans have noticed that President Obama's economic policies aren't getting the job done. Fewer, however, realize that the administration's foreign policies are flagging after ...
July 27, 2009
Open Markets, Improve Economy
By Israel Ortega
It's no secret that our economy is hurting. Here in Washington, the response has been predictable: increase federal spending. Beginning last fall and continuing through ...
July 27, 2009
Worth fighting for security, stability
By Lisa Curtis
A popular complaint about the war in Afghanistan is the lack of international coordination.
July 27, 2009
Minimum Wage, Maximum Trouble
By James Sherk
Imagine a small-business owner trying to survive the recession. What would he do if hiring workers suddenly became more expensive? What would you do? This ...
July 27, 2009
Public Health Plan: Your Only "Option"?
By Edwin J. Feulner, Ph.D.
Last month, House lawmakers set a new land-speed record by voting for the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade (or cap-and-tax) bill before they'd even seen the final copy. ...
July 24, 2009
O's foreign failures: bad guys refuse to be charmed
By Peter Brookes
Most Americans have noticed that President Obama's economic policies aren't getting the job done. Fewer, however, realize that the administration's foreign policies are flagging after ...
July 23, 2009
Barack Obama should become a Eurosceptic
By Nile Gardiner
The media coverage of Barack Obama's visit to Moscow this week has overwhelmingly focused on the arms control deal struck with Dmitry Medvedev and his ...
July 23, 2009
Surtax proposal sets off a fire bell
By Curtis S. Dubay
President Obama claims health care reform will lower costs. If that's true, reformers shouldn't be calling for painful tax increases.
July 21, 2009
Maintaining stability
By Walter Lohman and Rupert Hammond-Chambers
China and Taiwan are getting along much better these days. Considering the stake the United States has in their relationship, that's good news.
But ...
July 20, 2009
Tax, Spend and Disarm the Public
By Brian Darling
In May, President Barack Obama admitted, "The long-term deficit and debt that we have accumulated is unsustainable." This is the same President who railroaded through ...
July 17, 2009
These Plans Will Reduce Your Choice
By Robert E. Moffit
At the White House's urging, Congress is going to try to overhaul America's health-care system -- a sixth of the entire US economy -- in ...
July 17, 2009
Uncle Sam realty - Now's the time to sell
By Stuart M. Butler
At a budget meeting early in his administration, President Reagan pondered paying for part of the defense buildup by selling off other assets. "I wonder ...
July 17, 2009
What You Don't Know About Sotomayor and 'Ricci'
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
The Republican senators questioning Sonia Sotomayor about her decision in the Ricci v. New Haven case have done a fair job detailing the legal issues. ...
July 16, 2009
Citizens United for Free Speech
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
The Supreme Court did something very unusual and extremely rare on the last day of its term, June 29. It did not issue a decision ...
July 16, 2009
Sotomayor and the Sordid Business of Race
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
The Republican senators questioning Sonia Sotomayor about her decision in the Ricci v. New Haven case have done a fair job detailing the legal issues. ...
July 15, 2009
The Overstimulated Left
By Ernest Istook
America's left wing is in hyperdrive. Energized by last fall's ballot box success, they reject the increasingly popular notion that politicians in Washington are going ...
July 14, 2009
The Era of Obama, Pelosi and Reid
By Brian Darling
The saying "You break it, you own it" applies to politicians in Washington, D.C. With the addition of Senator Al Franken (D-MN), liberals completely control ...
July 14, 2009
Newt gnaws on nation's security
By James Jay Carafano
He was a fixture of national politics for decades, a commanding presence on the national stage. He led conservatives out of the wilderness to the ...
July 14, 2009
Conservatives Right to Oppose Section 5 of Civil Rights Act
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
In a recent New York Times column, Ramesh Ponnuru criticized conservatives for "deep inconsistency" in their arguments on two race-related Supreme Court cases. Conservatives had ...
July 14, 2009
Americans Deserve American Laws
By Edwin J. Feulner, Ph.D.
When a Supreme Court justice decides a case, should he or she look exclusively to the Constitution and U.S. laws? Or should foreign policies or ...
July 13, 2009
Sotomayor's Full Court Press
By Robert Alt
Tomorrow, the Senate begins confirmation hearings for Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court. Lawmakers have a duty to ask tough questions and to seek ...
July 13, 2009
Justice is not a popularity contest, Judge Sotomayor
By Steven Groves
Is a U.S. Supreme Court judgeship big enough to suit Sonia Sotomayor? Or will she settle for nothing less than a seat on the Supreme ...
July 10, 2009
Don't Let the Bean Counters Run the World
By James Jay Carafano
Robert McNamara was a great bean counter. But bean counters shouldn't try to run the world. That's the legacy Mr. McNamara leaves us.
July 8, 2009
Flashpoint: The Great Wall goes to sea
By Peter Brookes
Militarily, China has not been well-known for its navy. The army has long been the dominant service in the People's Republic of China (PRC), a ...
July 7, 2009
Killer pigs and politicians
By James Jay Carafano
When Mexico reported an outbreak of swine flu last April, fear of an epidemic quickly spread. One member of Congress claimed he knew exactly how ...
July 6, 2009
Government's Comedy of Errors
By Ernest Istook
Does anyone believe the federal government is a model of efficiency? Oddly enough, superior government efficiency is a core argument offered by President Barack Obama ...
July 6, 2009
The U.S. Agenda for the Obama-Medvedev Summit
By Ariel Cohen
On July 7, Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev will meet for their first full-fledged summit in Moscow. The two countries may have a window ...
July 6, 2009
Beware of the Not-So-Hidden Agendas In Honduras
By Ray Walser
The Obama administration faces its first real Latin American crisis. Let's hope Team Obama is aware of the goals of democracy's new-found but fickle friends. ...
July 3, 2009
Covering the Uninsured Shouldn't Cost $1.5 Trillion Dollars
By Israel Ortega
According to a recent analysis by the Census Bureau, about 2.5 million New Yorkers lack health insurance. This means they're living day to day, hoping ...
July 3, 2009
Time for 'real world' health budgeting
By Stuart M. Butler
What if Congress actually had to pay for any new program it wanted to start? It's a common-sense way to do business. And totally alien ...
July 2, 2009
Russia's New Scramble for Africa
By Ariel Cohen
The Kremlin has launched an ambitious project to restore Moscow's past glory on the African continent. Policy makers in the U.S. and Europe need to ...
July 2, 2009
Learning to Love Missile Defense
By Peter Brookes
The Obama administration is reacting to the anticipated launch of another North Korean long-range ballistic missile, expected to fly over the Pacific toward Hawaii sometime ...
July 2, 2009
What No Government Program Can Do
By Israel Ortega
Here in Washington, D.C., the formula almost never changes. Policymakers see a problem, throw money at it and hope it goes away. But this rarely ...
July 2, 2009
PAYGO is an unworkable gimmick
By Brian M. Riedl
President Obama is establishing a reputation for misrepresenting his own policies. He promoted his "stimulus" bill as an immediate, anti-recessionary cash infusion, even though most ...
July 1, 2009
A 'coup' to protect a constitution
By Ray Walser
On Sunday, the citizens of Honduras woke up with one president and went to bed with another. Manuel Zelaya was forced out of the country ...
June 30, 2009
Change views on marriage
By Rebecca Hagelin
From reality show stars like Jon and Kate Gosselin to politicians to the folks next door--what we thought were the most solid of marriages are ...
June 30, 2009
Sotomayor and racial identity politics
By Michael Gonzalez
Sonia Sotomayor has broken quite a few barriers in her life. If she is confirmed as a Supreme Court justice--as seems likely--she will become the ...
June 30, 2009
Smoke gets in your ice
By Nick Loris
Many Americans find the debate in Washington over adopting a "cap-and-trade" program to reduce carbon dioxide a bit confusing. That's understandable. Put simply, it's a ...
June 30, 2009
Court Leaves Intrusive Voting Rights Rule at Risk
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
Just as the Allied invasion of North Africa was a preliminary battle to the main fight in Europe, so the Supreme Court's decision last week ...
June 29, 2009
How U.S. should handle Iran's election results
By Kim Holmes
For decades, about the worst thing you could say to a politician was that he was behaving like Richard Nixon. A cunning "realism" and willingness ...
June 26, 2009
Principled American leadership for Asia
By Kim Holmes and Walter Lohman
At his June 10 confirmation hearing, Kurt Campbell said some encouraging things about the administration's Asia policy. President Obama's nominee for assistant secretary of state ...
June 23, 2009
What Is Obama Trying to Cover Up?
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
Saying one thing on the campaign trail and doing another after taking office is nothing new. President Obama has done it repeatedly.
June 23, 2009
Next-up in the terrorist-batter's box
By James Jay Carafano
In 1905, former Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg was dynamited. The bomb (the WMD of its day) was strapped to a gatepost on his garden fence. ...
June 23, 2009
A misguided quest to reform the Pentagon
By Mackenzie Eaglen and Rebecca Grant
Defense Secretary Robert Gates is on a quest to reform the Pentagon, and nearly everyone is cheering him on. Firing generals, slashing major defense programs ...
June 22, 2009
Korean Cargo-Ship Conundrum
By Peter Brookes
Hardly a week seems to go by without North Korean leader Kim Jong Il deciding to once again chest-thump President Obama in an increasingly dangerous ...
June 22, 2009
It's not right time to discuss OPCON transfer
By Bruce Klingner
The U.S.-South Korean 2007 decision to transfer wartime operational control, or OPCON of South Korea forces to Seoul in April 2012 continues to be a ...
June 19, 2009
Government Motors: a dead-end deal
By Edwin J. Feulner, Ph.D.
As a rock-ribbed conservative, I seldom agree with the socialist president of Venezuela. But it happened last week.
June 19, 2009
Giant Numbers Aren't Healthy
By Ernest Istook
First they said health care legislation would cost $1 trillion. Then they upped it to $1.6 trillion. It might as well be a made-up number ...
June 18, 2009
Borrowing 'Til The Nation Breaks?
By Brian M. Riedl
Millions of homeowners hoping to take advantage of government-guaranteed mortgage refinancing have gotten a rude awakening. In the last two months, mortgage rates have jumped ...
June 18, 2009
Why the Kennedy Health Bill Would Wreck Bipartisan Reform
By Robert E. Moffit and Stuart M. Butler
Based on the President's description of his health care agenda during the 2008 presidential campaign, Americans believe they were promised three things
June 17, 2009
Russian Paradox Forum
By Ariel Cohen
Cold and rainy days at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum earlier this month followed each other like waves on the Baltic Sea. The economic forecasts ...
June 16, 2009
Using God as father's guide
By Rebecca Hagelin
The facts are brutally painful -- More than 25 million children in America live in homes where fathers are absent. Millions more have experienced emotional ...
June 16, 2009
After Afghanistan, will we squander the victory?
By James Jay Carafano
"Victory deserves a future." That thought was a guiding light for one of the 20th century's greatest leaders -- Winston Churchill. He lamented the "wilderness ...
June 16, 2009
Breaking Down Government Motors
By Brian Darling
During a recent speech denouncing capitalism, Venezuelan strong man Hugo Chavez said, "Obama has just nationalized nothing more and nothing less than General Motors. Comrade ...
June 16, 2009
Many 'savings' will boost spending
By Nina Owcharenko
In today's economic climate, everyone is looking for places to save money. Health care now consumes one-sixth of America's economy. So it only makes sense ...
June 15, 2009
Drowning in Cash, Chinese Foreign Investment: Who, What and Why--Part 1 of 3
By Derek Scissors
China made headlines by becoming the largest foreign holder of US Treasury bonds at the end of September 2008, and it was already the largest ...
June 13, 2009
First -- and perhaps last -- Gitmo Inmate Brought to America
By Charles Stimson
Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani (aka Haytham al-Kini to his al-Qaeda "brothers") got a one-way ticket from Guantanamo Bay to Manhattan this week. He is the first ...
June 12, 2009
The importance of hard power
By Kim Holmes
"Next to Obama Beach, we join President Obama in paying particular tribute to the spectacular bravery of American soldiers who gave their lives."
Most ...
June 12, 2009
Renegade Streak: Accused inclined to follow his own policies
By Michael Gonzalez
Walter Kendall Myers, the State Department analyst accused of spying for Havana for 30 years, made me lose my innocence soon after I started working ...
June 11, 2009
The horrors of North Korea's gulags
By Peter Brookes
If there's a shred of good news in the sentencing of American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling to 12 years in a North Korean ...
June 11, 2009
An Independent Streak: Voters in the middle are growing fonder of Republicans
By Michael Franc
The hottest political growth stock these last six months has been that of "independents." A recent Pew Research Center study found that "the percentage of ...
June 9, 2009
The Constitution must trump racial politics
By Israel Ortega
Standing atop of the U.S. Supreme Court sits Lady Justice dressed in a Greco-Roman garment. She wears a blindfold, signifying an essential element of our ...
June 9, 2009
New, Convoluted Auto Bailout
By Brian Darling
The Senate is considering a so-called "Cash for Clunkers" program. The idea behind the legislation, offered by Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), is ...
June 9, 2009
Reliable dads deserve respect
By Rebecca Hagelin
Recently I saw a MasterCard commercial in which a preteen son arrogantly "teaches" the father environmental lessons while grocery shopping. Right.
June 9, 2009
Obama: 'Yes' to Bailouts, But 'No' to Defense?
By Ernest Istook
President Obama is not a totally profligate spender. But his selectively-parsimonious approach disturbs many who want to maintain a strong national defense.
June 9, 2009
What Scoop Jackson knew
By James Jay Carafano
There may never be another Scoop. Once upon a time Washington had many leaders who put national security before their politics. Henry "Scoop" Jackson stood ...
June 9, 2009
Holder Winks at Voter Intimidation
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
When Eric Holder became U.S. attorney general, he promised to administer the law in an objective, nonpolitical manner. So it's disappointing that the Justice Department ...
June 9, 2009
Russia's commodities strategy: While the West talks, Medvedev and Putin lock up resources for the future
By Ariel Cohen
The economic glitterati have descended on Russia's "second capital." President Dmitry Medvedev, vice premiers and ministers, CEOs of Intel, Nissan, Coca-Cola and other Forbes 500 ...
June 9, 2009
The Bear Is Back: We face increasing challenges from a resurgent Russia
By Peter Brookes
Both Russia and the United States insist one Cold War was enough. But considering the frosty rhetorical winds blowing back and forth between the two ...
June 9, 2009
Britain's Socialists Nothing to Admire
By Robin Harris
In response to Leftist criticism of her policies, Margaret Thatcher once tartly observed that, "what we need from these people is not advice, but an ...
June 8, 2009
Congress' Spending Spree
By Israel Ortega
President Obama recently told a packed auditorium that American consumers must stop seeing credit cards as "free money." Fair enough. And while he's at it, ...
June 8, 2009
Another Bad Idea from Washington
By Israel Ortega
Heard the news? Washington, D.C., has become the country’s ATM.
June 5, 2009
Obama Backpedals on the Uighurs
By Charles Stimson
There's an old saying among trial lawyers: "When you go into the woods and find a turtle high up on a tree stump, you know ...
June 5, 2009
Flashpoint: Satellite subterfuge
By Peter Brookes
The famous Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud is believed to have once said: "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar," meaning that at times you should ...
June 5, 2009
Congress, read it before voting
By Stuart Butler
Wouldn't it be nice if Congress actually knew what it was doing? Never mind what your politics are, there is something very wrong with a ...
June 5, 2009
Should Unions Prevent Your Next Raise?
By James Sherk
Suggest imposing wage caps on a few hundred highly paid executives, and you get plenty of attention. Highlight the federal law that imposes wage caps ...
June 4, 2009
Urgency vs. duty of Constitution
By Edwin J. Feulner, Ph.D.
In business, the urgent often crowds out the important. It's important to have a long-term business plan. But it's urgent to make this week's payroll. ...
June 4, 2009
Bad On Guns
By Brian Darling
President Obama's nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, 2nd Circuit Judge Sonia Sotomayor, owes the American people an explanation on her view of the Second ...
June 3, 2009
Barack Obama should stop apologising for America
By Nile Gardiner
No leader in American history has gone to greater lengths than Barack Obama to make amends for his own country. From condemnation of American "arrogance" ...
June 3, 2009
Barack Obama Must Heed the Lessons of the Holocaust
By Nile Gardiner
When President Obama enters the gates of the Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald on June 5, he will be sharply reminded of the evils of ...
June 3, 2009
Iran: Elephant in the Room
By Peter Brookes
Unfortunately, President Obama is likely to use this week's visits to Saudi Arabia and Egypt as stops on his Apology World Tour, repudiating Bush-era Middle ...
June 2, 2009
Contracting for the common defense
By James Jay Carafano
As first governor of the Louisiana Territory, Meriwether Lewis -- yes, of Lewis and Clark fame - asked Washington for money, weapons, and supplies. He ...
June 2, 2009
A Dangerous World
By Dan Holler
The world remains dangerous. Last week North Korea launched several missiles and detonated a nuclear device. Less than a week earlier, Iran tested a new ...
June 2, 2009
Nationalized Cheerios?
By Ernest Istook
Regular superheroes save us from villains. Liberal superheroes save us from ourselves.
June 1, 2009
A shock at the pump?
By Ben Lieberman
They're back. Rising gasoline prices, that is. Millions of Americans hitting the roads over Memorial Day weekend faced prices for regular gas averaging $2.35 per ...
June 1, 2009
Senators must contest Sotomayer's view that empathy, ethnicity can overrule law
By Robert Alt
In choosing a Supreme Court justice, President Obama--like any president--should look for someone who will apply the Constitution and the laws as written, and interpret ...
June 1, 2009
Cooling North Korea's Reactors
By Edwin J. Feulner, Ph.D.
Politics, they used to say, "stops at the water's edge." Not anymore.
May 29, 2009
What Obama should tell Muslim world in Egypt
By Kim Holmes
Next week, President Obama travels to Egypt to make a major address to the Muslim world. If past experience is any guide, he will continue ...
May 28, 2009
North Korean Nukes: O's Kick in the Teeth
By Peter Brookes
A North Korean nuclear- weapons test, taken in isolation, is bad enough. But put into a wider context, the underground blast over the Memorial Day ...
May 28, 2009
No progress? No relief
By Ray Walser
Yet many in Congress, the academic and business communities want to go further, faster. They've called on Obama to lift the ban on travel by ...
May 28, 2009
Sotomayor's and Obama's Identity Politics Leave Blind Justice at Risk: Can Sotomayor keep her biases in check? For the Constitution's sake, we'd better find out
By Robert Alt
My late constitutional law professor once offered the following hypothetical about a fishing dispute that made its way to court. On one side were Native ...
May 27, 2009
Cuba must fully restore political and economic freedoms
By Ray Walser
Even before his inauguration, President Barack Obama promised to improve relations with Cuba. He has since taken steps to let Cuban-Americans travel freely to the ...
May 27, 2009
Sotomayor Doesn't Live Up to Obama's Word
By Deborah O'Malley
President Obama wants Second Circuit Judge Sonia Sotomayor to fill Justice David Souter's seat on the Supreme Court. But her nomination paints a grim picture ...
May 27, 2009
Obama's Dubious Health-Care Claims
By Robert E. Moffit
President Obama may pretend otherwise, but if Congress passes his health-care agenda, America will be taking a giant leap toward Canadian-style, government-run health care. And ...
May 26, 2009
A Sure-Fire Economy Killer
By Edwin J. Feulner, Ph.D.
Some things, virtually everyone agrees on. We all want a cleaner environment. And we all want a booming economy.
May 26, 2009
Nothing new in Obama's speech
By James Jay Carafano
You would think it would be hard to argue that President Barack Obama’s Notre Dame speech and his speech at the National Archives on combating ...
May 26, 2009
Health Care Reform - A Giant Game of Tag Where Americans Are It
By Robert E. Moffit
Think about this for a moment: President Barack Obama says that we spend too much on health care (about $2.4 trillion annually) and that it's ...
May 26, 2009
To whom honor is due
By Rebecca Hagelin
Everybody loves a hero. But pop culture spends so much time worshipping athletes and Hollywood stars that many of our children don't know a true ...
May 26, 2009
Obama Is Costing You $1,300 Per Vehicle
By Brian Darling
Memorial Day is here, a time to commemorate Americans who died serving our nation. Maybe Americans should also pause to commemorate the end of free-market ...
May 26, 2009
Being Green is not the job of the U.S. military
By James Jay Carafano
It was a momentous year. In 1973, CBS sold the Yankees to some guy named George Steinbrenner... the Supreme Court issued its Roe v. Wade ...
May 22, 2009
Health care cure seen in tax code
By Stuart Butler
Call it Brewster's tax code. When it comes to health coverage, our tax system is a variation on "Brewster's Millions."
May 22, 2009
Cap and Trade vs. the American Dream: The House's bill is an economic disaster that keeps getting worse
By Michael Franc
The global-warming bill got a chilly reception when it was introduced in the House Energy and Commerce Committee's global-warming subcommittee. It was not only the ...
May 22, 2009
The Battle Between Cheney and Obama Does Nothing to Advance the Cause of Winning the War on Terror
By James Jay Carafano
There is far more continuity than change in detention and interrogation policies than either President Obama or Vice President Cheney care to admit.
May 21, 2009
Best Defense: The Left has allowed its ideology to distort its perception of global risk
By Jim Talent
In an editorial on Sunday, May 10, the New York Times took the Obama administration to task for not cutting defense spending more deeply. Now, ...
May 20, 2009
Waxman's Workover
By Ernest Istook
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) is the top dealmaker who wants to re-design America's economy -- and possibly destroy it -- under the guise of saving ...
May 19, 2009
Peace undivided in Jerusalem?
By Ariel Cohen
Will the decades-long alliance between the United States and Israel fall victim to the Obama administration's naive quest for instant peace in the Middle East? ...
May 19, 2009
Salvaging Social Security
By Edwin Feulner
Following the news from Washington has never been easy. But there's an added challenge today: the problem of large numbers. It's almost impossible for anyone ...
May 19, 2009
Fighting admen for teens' minds
By Rebecca Hagelin
Today's adolescents spend an estimated $200 billion a year of their own money. They are the most affluent generation of young people in the history ...
May 19, 2009
U.S., Canada bordering on stupidity
By James Jay Carafano
America's wide-open US-Canadian border seemed to beckon the terrorists. The hated enemy was so close. It would be so easy to strike, then slip back. ...
May 19, 2009
Fairy Tale Health Care
By Brian Darling
As children we loved to hear our parents read fairy tales with happy endings. Well, last week President Obama and Washington lobbyists penned a new ...
May 19, 2009
Reward Workers With Better Laws
By James Sherk
Over the past generation, the labor market has changed profoundly. Computers have automated many manual and repetitive tasks. The share of American workers employed as ...
May 19, 2009
Obama Would Centralize All Aspects of Health Care
By Robert E. Moffit
If you are waiting anxiously for Washington to begin the gigantic health care reform debate, you’re way out of the loop. President Obama, with his ...
May 18, 2009
Let U.S. move on from Jim Crow
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
On April 29, Justice Department lawyers told the Supreme Court that the South is still so permeated with racism that it cannot be trusted to ...
May 18, 2009
Is this the end of conservatism as we know it?
By Lee Edwards
America's modern conservative movement began as a Remnant with Albert Jay Nock and Frank Chodorov, grew into an intellectual movement with Friedrich Hayek, Richard Weaver, ...
May 18, 2009
7 Invisible Footnotes to State's Official Line
By Steven Groves and Brett D. Schaefer
Talk about trying to read between the lines. The Obama administration committed more than a few howlers in State Department spokesman Ian Kelly's press release ...
May 18, 2009
Deadly Distraction
By Peter Brookes
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a senior Democrat, and the White House-appointed CIA director, Leon Panetta, are having a tiff about "who told whom what when" ...
May 18, 2009
'Economic policy insanity': Obama's approach threatens to prolong recession, weaken recovery
By J.D. Foster
Last week the government reported 539,000 jobs were lost in April. As a sign of the times this was considered good news. Some are crediting ...
May 18, 2009
If members of Congress can choose, why can't we?
By Israel Ortega
Have you gone green? If not, chances are you're in the minority. Celebrities and companies alike are urging us all to go green by adopting ...
May 15, 2009
Free trade as a stimulus strategy
By Kim Holmes
Most people agree that, when it comes to economic recovery, more economic activity is better than less. When companies buy and sell more goods and ...
May 14, 2009
Obama puts Israel at risk
By Ariel Cohen
The world's leading experts who gathered at Columbia University's Harriman Institute for the conference, "The Architecture of Energy Export System of the Caucasus and Central ...
May 14, 2009
Obama's eight bogus budget arguments
By Brian M. Riedl
President Obama has proposed a historic expansion of spending, taxes and debt. His budget would increase real spending from $25,000 per household to $32,000 per ...
May 13, 2009
The High Cost of Being Green
By Israel Ortega
Have you gone green? If not, chances are you're in the minority. Celebrities and companies alike are urging us all to go green by adopting ...
May 13, 2009
Could 2010 Census Include Make-Believe People?
By Ernest Istook
Left-leaning groups want to include millions of pretend people in the real-life 2010 Census. It almost happened in 2000. This time, they might get their ...
May 13, 2009
The Obama Standard
By Brian Darling
Conservatives agree with the Senator Obama of 2006 and hope that President Obama's nominee to replace retiring Justice David Souter on the Supreme Court receives ...
May 13, 2009
Obama Should Stop Talking to Tyrants
By Nile Gardiner
The Obama White House has made a greater effort than any U.S. administration in history in extending the hand of friendship to unsavory regimes. There ...
May 12, 2009
Sex-ed texting threat to teens
By Rebecca Hagelin
There's yet another organized effort by sex "experts" to indoctrinate your children into their worldview without your permission or knowledge. Different from "sexting," where pre-teens ...
May 12, 2009
The Minnesota Senate Race: The Saga Continues
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
On June 1, the Minnesota Supreme Court will hear argument on the closest U.S. Senate race in the states history. Republican Norm Coleman is appealing ...
May 12, 2009
A REAL homeland security test
By James Jay Carafano
Congressional commissions come and go. Few make history. The 9/11 Commission was a remarkable exception. Its report became a bestseller. Its recommendations became "the" top ...
May 11, 2009
Death of Newspapers Does Not Mean the End of Journalism
By Ken McIntyre
Imperiled telegraph and horse-and-buggy operators would have appreciated a hand from Ben Cardin.
May 11, 2009
Obama's Expensive Energy Economy Is Totally Unnecessary
By Dan Holler
Sure, the current era of energy exploration -- oil, gas, coal and nuclear -- has been marred by lousy government policy and radical environmentalists. But ...
May 11, 2009
Is wind the next ethanol?
By Ben Lieberman
Repeating past mistakes has long been a part of Washington's energy policy, but Congress used to wait a while before making the same blunder again. ...
May 11, 2009
Misunderstanding Kemp
By Edwin Feulner
While mourning a close friend, it's interesting to hear what others have to say about him. As expected, the recent passing of Jack Kemp generated ...
May 8, 2009
Give union workers merit boost
By Stuart Butler
Not if you're one of 8 million union members working under a collective bargaining agreement. These agreements structure pay for all workers. They set a ...
May 8, 2009
David Miliband is wrong about the Lisbon Treaty
By Nile Gardiner
The Foreign Secretary has a bizarre article in this week's Spectator that suggests a referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon will wreck the Special Relationship ...
May 7, 2009
Obama Tries to Stop Union Disclosure: No more sunshine on how worker dues are spent.
By Elaine L. Chao
Fifty years ago, Congress passed the landmark Landrum-Griffin Act to protect rank-and-file union members from malfeasance by union leaders. Senate hearings had uncovered serious corruption ...
May 7, 2009
Threading the Needle: How to give Zimbabwe the boost it needs without propping up Mugabe
By Tom Woods and Roger Bate
Slowly but surely, Zimbabwe is showing signs of life. A unity government that married the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and President Robert Mugabe's ...
May 7, 2009
Homeland Security Grant Tail Wags State Spending Dog
By James Jay Carafano
What level of government really commits the most resources to protecting the American homeland? Heritage Foundation Visiting Fellow Matt Mayer looked at the numbers for ...
May 6, 2009
An Intelligent Decision
By Andrew M. Grossman
"Duh." That was former NSA Administrator Michael Hayden's apt response to the recent release of a court opinion upholding government surveillance under the Protect America ...
May 6, 2009
Don't Need Old Media to Know Which Way the Wind Blows
By Ken McIntyre
Don't fret. That's the headline for all the well-meaning taxpayers who don't like how the media covered their rallies against runaway government spending.
May 5, 2009
America, The World Is Watching
By Robin Harris
Speaking to the U.S. Congress in February, President Barack Obama proclaimed, "There is no force more powerful than the example of America." Had the statement ...
May 5, 2009
Culture Challenge of the Week? Minimalizing mothering
By Rebecca Hagelin
While no one in his right mind would dare degrade moms during the week we celebrate Mother's Day, the reality is that modern culture constantly ...
May 5, 2009
Free speech in defense of liberty is no vice
By James Jay Carafano
History often books a room at Washington, D.C.'s Mayflower Hotel. It was there that Franklin Roosevelt penned "nothing to fear but fear itself" for his ...
May 5, 2009
Don't Avoid Budget Discussion Like the Swine Flu
By Ernest Istook
Talking about the federal budget causes dizziness, headaches and confusion. That's why many Americans mistake it for the swine flu and try to avoid it. ...
May 4, 2009
Why Souter Matters
By Robert Alt
Following Justice David Souter's retirement announcement, pundits of all stripes came to a common conclusion: it just doesn't matter. Given Souter's reputation for voting with ...
May 4, 2009
How should the U.S. handle North Korea?
By Bruce Klingner
The United Nations' feckless defense of Security Council resolutions demanding Pyongyang abandon its missile and nuclear programs bodes ill for diplomatic efforts to denuclearize North ...
May 4, 2009
Liberalization in Reverse
By Derek Scissors
The year 2008 marked the 30th anniversary of the beginning of market reforms in China -- and perhaps the third anniversary of their ending. Since ...
May 4, 2009
A Cure Worse Than The Disease
By Edwin Feulner
Emily Morley got some very bad news in March 2006. Her cancer had spread, the doctor informed the 67-year-old Canadian. She would need to see ...
May 1, 2009
Moment of truth in Pakistan
By Kim Holmes
Next week, President Obama will meet the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan in the White House. He'll have his work cut out for him. Increasingly, ...
May 1, 2009
Eurasian pipelines - a forecaster's nightmare
By Ariel Cohen
The world's leading experts who gathered at Columbia University's Harriman Institute for the conference, "The Architecture of Energy Export System of the Caucasus and Central ...
April 30, 2009
Risky cuts
By Kim Holmes
The budget submitted by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has sparked a badly needed debate about America's future defense. Some hail it as prudent, but ...
April 30, 2009
Worse than Jimmy Carter
By Nile Gardiner
It is hard to think of a U.S. president who has done more to weaken his country on the world stage in such a short ...
April 30, 2009
Kudrin's Anti-Crisis Plan
By Ariel Cohen
Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin got a surprise gift on his recent visit to Washington -- a subpoena. The paper was served to him on April ...
April 30, 2009
SCOTUS Showdown: The Voting Rights Act-Will the justices let America move on from the Jim Crow era?
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
Today, in Washington, Justice Department lawyers will tell the Supreme Court that the South is still so permeated with racism that it cannot be trusted ...
April 29, 2009
Deng Undone
By Derek Scissors
The global crisis has prompted a great deal of talk about China. Most of it, however, starts from a faulty premise: that the People's Republic ...
April 29, 2009
The Cyberspy Threat: Foreign Hackers Target Military
By Peter Brookes
America needs to pay a heckuva a lot more attention to the cyberthreat. Now.
April 29, 2009
Keep courts out of it: National security policy belongs in the executive branch and Congress.
By Andrew M. Grossman
President Obama's embrace of the same legal doctrines as President Bush shows that, even between administrations of wide ideological divergence, the pendulum swings little, if ...
April 29, 2009
Porn targets kids
By Rebecca Hagelin
America is raising a generation of children on porn - and your child just might be one of them. According to the London School of ...
April 29, 2009
A Devastating 100 Days for America's Children
By Dan Holler
On the evening of November 4, a newly elected President said, "This is our time -- to put our people back to work and open ...
April 29, 2009
Harold Koh Is the Wrong Man For the Job
By Steven Groves
Ordinarily, a president should have a free hand in selecting a policy team. Winning elections means you set the agenda.
April 29, 2009
Health Care Debate: A Crisis in Four Acts
By Robert E. Moffit
If you are waiting anxiously for Washington to begin the gigantic health care reform debate, you’re way out of the loop. President Obama, with his ...
April 29, 2009
The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century
By James Jay Carafano
For a book that purports to tell the story of the upcoming 100 years, George Friedman’s The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st ...
April 29, 2009
A long hundred days for anyone seeking substance from Obama
By Ted Bromund
President Barack Obama marks the end of his first 100 days in office on Thursday. For those who didn't vote for him, it seems like ...
April 27, 2009
Durban II Circus: Ringmaster Ahmadinejad set the tone of the 'anti-racism' conference.
By Brett D. Schaefer and Steven Groves
United Nations conferences are often likened to "three-ring circuses." That description was more accurate than usual when the Durban Review Conference commenced here this week. ...
April 24, 2009
Donor logos for Congress?
By Stuart M. Butler
Americans are pretty cynical about politicians. And much of that distrust springs from the professional politician's love of money.
April 23, 2009
Taking School Choice for Granted: Political leaders send their kids to good schools, yet deny that option to the poor.
By Lindsey Burke and Dan Lips
President Obama, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, and most members of Congress have never known the sense of desperation that LaTasha Bennett feels.
April 23, 2009
Elephants in the Room: Of course the Pentagon cuts are about budget pressure.
By Jim Talent
It is always a hard thing to watch honorable and intelligent people torture themselves to avoid acknowledging the obvious. Unfortunately, the contradictions and incoherence of ...
April 22, 2009
Only 17?: Plenty of senators are just as far to the left as Vermont's proud socialist - or farther.
By Michael Franc
'Sen. Bernie Sanders wants Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.) to start naming names." So reports Politico's Glenn Thrush.
April 22, 2009
Earth Day: 'Amen, but...'
By Ryan Messmore
It's not easy being green, at least not as easy as some suggest. For almost 40 years, advocates of Earth Day have called on people ...
April 21, 2009
Secure allies in the battle
By Rebecca Hagelin
Each week in this new column, I will share a common cultural challenge, or a recent threat to you and your family, and then supply ...
April 21, 2009
Spending won't turn economy around this year but tax cuts, federal frugality just might
By Brian M. Riedl
The idea that government "stimulus" spending can lift the United States out of recession seems straightforward. Government spends money, demand increases, the economy grows and ...
April 21, 2009
Obama's cure worse than what sickens us
By Jason Fodeman
Lawmakers rushed to pass the $700 billion bailout bill ... the $787 billion "stimulus" bill ... the $400 billion "omnibus" appropriations bill.
April 21, 2009
Dispatches from Durban II: To the UN and the NGOs, any criticism of any Muslim is "racism."
By Brett D. Schaefer and Steven Groves
Americans are growing increasingly skeptical of the United Nations. A recent Rasmussen poll found that a mere 27 percent of American voters regard the U.N. ...
April 21, 2009
The ultralightness of smuggling
By James Jay Carafano
On the border, you expect strange things to happen. When the Yuma County Sherriff's Office got the call to report to a crash site--a lettuce ...
April 21, 2009
Keeping LOST Underwater
By Edwin Feulner
Some things are quintessentially American. Consider the rescue of Captain Richard Phillips by Navy SEALs.
April 21, 2009
'Donor states' must team up
By Rep. Jeff Flake and Ronald D. Utt
Arizona sure could use an extra $127 million a year to fix its roads and bridges. Well, guess what? It could get that much - ...
April 21, 2009
School Choice and a Lesson in Hypocrisy
By Edwin Feulner
Even for those of us who live and breathe politics, the workings of the U.S. Senate are often difficult to understand. It takes only 51 ...
April 20, 2009
China's Stimulus: More of the Same, and Not That Much More
By Derek Scissors
OK, it's only most of what you know that's wrong -- but that's as far as I'm going. A few investors and writers (including some ...
April 20, 2009
Two Steps Back on Labor Rights
By Elaine L. Chao
The Obama administration's zeal to not "waste a good crisis," as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton put it, has been stunning even for Washington insiders ...
April 17, 2009
Summit needs a strong Obama, not an apologetic one: Economic blame, Cuba, and Chávez, challenge new US-Latin American relations.
By Ray Walser
President Obama has promised to spend plenty of time listening to his fellow leaders this week at the fifth Summit of the Americas in Trinidad ...
April 17, 2009
Why American Leadership Still Matters
By Israel Ortega
President Barack Obama is taking his bully pulpit abroad for the second time in less than three weeks. This time he’s bound for Trinidad and ...
April 17, 2009
Embracing a trio of anti-American dictators won't advance U.S. foreign policy interests
By Ray Walser
The Obama administration says it's in the process of altering our nation's policies in Latin America. It promises modest steps to allow Cuban-Americans to travel ...
April 17, 2009
Why cut missile defense now?
By Kim Holmes
An enemy tests a weapon that could kill millions of your countrymen in the near future. Having worked diligently on a defense against such attacks, ...
April 16, 2009
Mending Fences with Mexico?
By Israel Ortega
This month, President Barack Obama will make his first visit to Mexico. For most people, such a trip might include visiting its beautiful beaches or ...
April 16, 2009
Keep the Embargo, O
By Peter Brookes
In another outreach to roguish regimes, the Obama administration on Monday announced the easing of some restrictions on Cuba.
April 16, 2009
President Should Merge Homeland Security Council with NSC
By James Jay Carafano and Jena Baker McNeill
On February 13, President Obama issued a directive requiring a review of whether the Homeland Security Council (HSC) should be integrated with the National Security ...
April 16, 2009
Nothing Stimulating about Defense?: On the cutting room floor.
By Jim Talent
Last week, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced he would ask Congress to cut a number of defense procurement and modernization programs. No surprise there. ...
April 16, 2009
'Celebrate' Tax Day
By Ernest Istook
A very rich man once told me how much he paid in income taxes the prior year. It was over $200 million. When I recovered ...
April 16, 2009
Let's take it slow on overtures to Cuba
By Peter Brookes
If you're hoping for major changes in Cuba following the White House's announcement Monday of the easing of some restrictions on interactions with the island ...
April 14, 2009
Obama's penny-wise, pound-foolish defense budget
By James Jay Carafano
It is the year 2019. A speechwriter rummages through a pile of reports and press clips, preparing to draft testimony for the Chairman of the ...
April 13, 2009
Anti-trade agenda a real economy killer
By Elaine L. Chao
The news media devoted considerable attention in the last election to the allegedly false patriotism of American flag lapel pins. Americans would be well-served in ...
April 13, 2009
Time to speak up for American oil
By Ben Lieberman
President Obama talks a lot about reducing dependence on foreign oil, making energy less expensive, and creating good jobs. Yet he's turning his back on ...
April 13, 2009
Turkey's dangerous shift
By Ariel Cohen
After attending three summits - of the Group of 20 richest countries, NATO and the European Union - President Obama ended his European trip in ...
April 13, 2009
Battle for the Border
By Edwin Feulner
Almost two years ago I visited southern California to watch the U.S. Border Patrol at work. The federal government was building a fence and, with ...
April 10, 2009
The risk of electromagnetic pulse devastation is greater than ever. Why does Washington dismiss it?
By James Jay Carafano
Sunlight fills the bedroom. It's past 8 a.m., and it's cold. Why didn't the alarm go off? The bathroom lights are out. The house is ...
April 10, 2009
The Humbling of a Superpower
By Nile Gardiner
It is hard to imagine a bigger slight to the memory of the more than 100,000 American soldiers who died liberating Europe than the image ...
April 10, 2009
Farmer bailouts must be revised
By Stuart Butler
Megabillion-dollar bailouts are in today's headlines. But let's not forget the longest-running bailout of all - the roughly $25 billion subsidy showered annually on just ...
April 9, 2009
Iran has ICBM power
By Ariel Cohen
Iran marked the 30th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution with a successful launch of its first indigenous satellite on Feb. 2. The Omid -- "Hope" ...
April 8, 2009
Protectionism, A Perilous Recipe for Sustainable Economic Recovery
By Anthony Kim
In light of market turmoil and slowing-down economic growth in many parts of the world, popular pressure for governments to intervene in order to fix ...
April 7, 2009
How to keep the war on terrorism out of America's backyards
By James Jay Carafano
No longer will federal officials speak of "the long war" and "the war on terrorism." The administration has banned these terms from the government lexicon. ...
April 7, 2009
CEObama: The Car Czar
By Edwin Feulner
As the saying goes, be careful what you wish for -- you just might get it. Just ask American car makers.
April 7, 2009
Slow Down Rush To Cut
By Mackenzie Eaglen
Completing President Barack Obama's U.S. defense budget request for fiscal 2010 means one thing: making difficult cuts. While specific decisions have yet to be made, ...
April 6, 2009
Don't be naive about Russia's real aims
By Ariel Cohen
At this week's G-20 summit in London, President Obama met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev for the first time. The two men share the burden ...
April 6, 2009
Europe's indifference is killing NATO
By Nile Gardiner
As the 28 leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization gather in Strasbourg and Kehl, the world's most important multilateral alliance is in crisis. 60 ...
April 6, 2009
Should taxpayers subsidize pols?
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
Sen. Richard J. Durbin's (D-Ill.) Fair Elections Now Act, introduced on Tuesday, purports to "reform" our political system by using public funds (tax dollars) to ...
April 6, 2009
Even Drunken Sailors Have a Credit Limit
By Brian Darling
The saying "spending like a drunken sailor" comes from the 1700s and 1800s, when sailors would come ashore from a long time at sea and ...
April 6, 2009
Uncle Sam's Car Lot and Repair Shop
By Ernest Istook
Government has not been able to repair our economy, but it has put taxpayers on the hook for billions to repair cars.
April 6, 2009
A tax by any other name
By Nick Loris
Many Americans find the debate in Washington over adopting a "cap and trade" program to reduce carbon dioxide a bit confusing. That's understandable. Put simply, ...
April 6, 2009
Five Things Obama Must Do at the NATO Summit
By Sally McNamara
When President Obama celebrates NATO's 60th birthday in Strasbourg and Kehl, he should raise a toast to the transatlantic security alliance, which has helped keep ...
April 3, 2009
Starting arms talks all over
By Kim Holmes
President Obama has started planning a new round of nuclear arms negotiations with the Russians. He apparently hopes to rid the world of nuclear weapons. ...
April 3, 2009
The West Must Stand Up to Tehran
By Nile Gardiner
It is not hard to see why President Obama decided to throw a bust of Winston Churchill out of the Oval Office. The great British ...
April 3, 2009
Obama, the Other Huey Long: The president is more like the Depression era's populist Louisiana governor than like FDR
By Michael Franc
The "Obama as FDR" meme emerged immediately after the elections. The November 20 issue of The Economist noted, in an article critical of the comparison: ...
April 3, 2009
North Korea Going Ballistic
By Peter Brookes
If you think reactions to President Obama's arrival on the world stage from the likes of the Russian, Chinese, Iranian, Venezuelan and even European leaders ...
April 2, 2009
Speedy bankruptcy for Chrysler, GM puts future at risk
By Andrew M. Grossman
The best option for General Motors and Chrysler, if they can't cut deals with the union and bondholders, is a fast "surgical bankruptcy," say Obama ...
April 2, 2009
Reversing habit of 'legal nihilism'
By Ariel Cohen
President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will meet Wednesday on the sidelines at the Group of 20 summit. Ironically, that's one day after the ...
April 1, 2009
Obama's Honeymoon with Europe: Will It Survive the Week?
By Nile Gardiner
With "tea party" protests drawing thousands, and even Democratic lawmakers questioning the scope of his unprecedented spending proposals, President Obama has now entered a rocky ...
April 1, 2009
Will David Cameron clash with Barack Obama over Europe?
By Nile Gardiner
As Toby Harnden first reported in The Daily Telegraph, the U.S. president will meet with David Cameron on Wednesday ahead of the G-20 summit in ...
March 31, 2009
The Claw-Back Calamity
By Edwin Feulner
The drive to "claw back" executive bonuses is waning in Washington. Lawmakers are softening a House-passed bill to tax away big-money bonuses paid at bailed-out ...
March 31, 2009
The Tragedy of Supremely Bad Law
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
The press hailed it as a victory for patients. People harmed by drugs can sue the manufacturers, the Supreme Court recently ruled, even when the ...
March 31, 2009
Uncle Sam: Absolute Monarch of Financial Markets?
By Brian Darling
In last week's press conference, President Barack Obama talked about Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's Public-Private Investment Program (PPIP) and about his own budget proposal before ...
March 31, 2009
Obama poised to show Europe why it's dangerous to get what you want
By Ted Bromund
When Barack Obama was elected President of the US in November, Europe got what it wanted. At the G20 summit in London on Thursday, and ...
March 30, 2009
Learning from Vermont on health care
By Dennis Smith
Several years ago Mitt Romney, a Republican governor, joined with a very liberal Massachusetts legislature to transform that state's health care system. They took advantage ...
March 30, 2009
The Perils of Protectionism
By Israel Ortega
A war with our neighbors to the South has broken out. Not a conventional war of armies, firepower, or weapons, but a trade war. And ...
March 30, 2009
Closing Gitmo-A Dangerous Decision: Are al Qaeda and Taliban coming to a prison near you?
By Peter Brookes
On only his second day in office, newly minted President Barack Obama promulgated an executive order closing the terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo Bay Naval ...
March 30, 2009
Avoiding a collision course in US-Pakistan relations
By Lisa Curtis
The long-awaited new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan that President Barack Obama will be in the process of unveiling by the time this comes into ...
March 30, 2009
For own good, newspapers should tell Sen. Cardin 'thanks but no thanks'
By Ken McIntyre
A brutal dictator cooperated with Islamist terrorists, including Osama bin Laden’s future No. 2 man. His own records show the dictator funded, trained and armed ...
March 30, 2009
How to keep America safe from Mexico's drug wars
By James Jay Carafano
He's the All-American general. Already a hero from one war, he has inherited another. It's a long war--fought in villages against an enemy that, when ...
March 27, 2009
Misplaced Anger on AIG: Yet another example of why Congress should not be running American businesses.
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
The proposed AIG bill, which would confiscate the bonuses and compensation of company employees, offers yet another example of why Congress should not be running ...
March 27, 2009
Perils of a public health plan
By Stuart Butler
There is a lot wrong with America's health system. People can lose their coverage if they switch jobs. Working families beset with chronic medical problems ...
March 26, 2009
Does the U.S. need a new call to public service? Two views
By Brian Brown
No: When government organizes public service, it cripples public spirit.
March 26, 2009
Restore and Expand Mexico Truck Program
By James M. Roberts
The Obama Administration should restore funding to the Mexico pilot truck program, expand it and make it permanent.
March 26, 2009
A Health Care Plan Fit for a Congressman
By Israel Ortega
Fixing the economy dominates today's headlines, of course, and may make repairing our broken health care system seem the least of our worries. And yet, ...
March 25, 2009
Shine a Light on Spending
By Edwin Feulner
Work in Washington long enough, and you're bound to agree with almost everyone at least once. Even socialists occasionally have good ideas.
March 24, 2009
A 21st Century Maritime Posture for an Uncertain Future
By Mackenzie Eaglen and Eric Sayers
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Representative Ike Skelton [D-MO] recently expressed his concern about the state of the United States Navy, noting that since the ...
March 24, 2009
Another crisis... and another misjudgment as Britain fails
By Ted Bromund
Over the past few months, Britain's armed services have been in crisis. Again.
March 24, 2009
U.S. must avoid half-measure wars
By James Jay Carafano
He's the All-American general. Already a hero from one war, he has inherited another. It's a long war--fought in villages against an enemy that, when ...
March 24, 2009
Obama budget would double the national debt
By Brian M. Riedl
Last fall, presidential candidate Barack Obama promised revolutionary change in Washington.
March 24, 2009
House and Senate Republicans Working on 'Bolder, Clear' Budget
By Brian Darling
Politicians are apoplectic that American International Group (AIG) executives received $165 million in bonuses. AIG's Financial Products unit engaged in credit-default swaps that put the ...
March 24, 2009
Beware of Russians bearing gifts
By Ariel Cohen
While the White House is understandably preoccupied with Russian policy, it should balance it with boosting missile defenses, engagement with America's European allies, and ongoing ...
March 24, 2009
Key Protection In Federal Criminal Cases Slowly Disappearing
By Andrew M. Grossman and Brian W. Walsh
Criminal intent -- what someone charged with a crime knew or was trying to do -- matters. At least, it should. Just ask Ignacio Flores-Figueroa, ...
March 21, 2009
Iran now on the brink of making the bomb
By Ariel Cohen
While the White House is understandably preoccupied with Russian policy, it should balance it with boosting missile defenses, engagement with America's European allies, and ongoing ...
March 20, 2009
New liberalism in foreign policy
By Kim Holmes
Once upon a time, American liberals loved to hate foreign-policy realists. Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger - the uber-realists of their day - were the ...
March 20, 2009
Russia's 'Reset': A Military Buildup
By Peter Brookes
From the looks of it, the Kremlin hasn't bought into the whole "reset but ton" gimmick the White House has put forward as a framework ...
March 20, 2009
Better Green Jobs: The One-Word Solution
By J.D. Foster
"Green jobs" are all the rage. Supposedly, we can strengthen the economy by government spending and regulating to advance the development of environmentally friendly, or ...
March 20, 2009
On the Front Burner No More: Why Economic Downturn Makes Global Warming Legislation Unlikely
By Ben Lieberman
There is little doubt that legislation to address global warming will be very expensive. Nonetheless, many had thought it to be inevitable in 2009. President ...
March 18, 2009
The Worst UN President in History
By Nile Gardiner
In a highly competitive field, Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann surely wins the award for worst ever President of the 192-member United Nation General Assembly. The former ...
March 18, 2009
Dictators in our Back Yard
By Israel Ortega
Authoritarianism is once again on the rise in our own hemisphere. Just last month, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez successfully amended his country's constitution, giving him ...
March 18, 2009
Barack Obama will back a federal Europe
By Nile Gardiner
Barack Obama heads to Britain and Europe in two weeks' time as the leader of the first U.S. Administration to wholeheartedly back the creation of ...
March 17, 2009
A Leadership of Cowards?: Why is Eric Holder embarrassed about enforcing civil rights in Noxubee County?
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
Attorney General Eric Holder calls the U.S. "a nation of cowards" because we "do not talk enough about race." I find this ironic, since the ...
March 17, 2009
Obama's defense budget offsets will ring hollow
By James Jay Carafano
Once upon a time, there was a president who promised to spend less on defense and give us more. And he did--in a manner of ...
March 17, 2009
House and Senate Republicans Working on 'Bolder, Clear' Budget
By Brian Darling
Congress is commencing a debate on the President's $3.6 trillion budget. It represents efforts by the left to radically expand the size and scope of ...
March 17, 2009
An Economic Fate We Can Avoid
By Edwin Feulner
It's not always enjoyable to look in a mirror. But we can learn a lot when we do. Perhaps it's time for the United States ...
March 16, 2009
China is a banker over a barrel
By Derek Scissors
Trade, human rights, North Korea, naval standoffs ... America and China have plenty to talk about.
March 13, 2009
China Tests--And Team Bam Blinks
By Peter Brookes
Just two weeks after the Obama Pentagon crowed that the recent US-China military-to-military talks were practically the best ever, Beijing's navy confronted a US ship ...
March 13, 2009
Dumping 'smart growth' is wise
By Stuart Butler
America is still trying to sort out the housing mess that helped trigger the recession. So far, most of the focus has been on how ...
March 13, 2009
Shunning free market, Obama’s economic vision ultimately means tepid growth, higher prices
By William W. Beach
The new buzz-word in Washington is "pivot," used to describe a fundamental change in public policy.
March 13, 2009
Will Al Qaeda Exploit the Shaky Situation in Pakistan?
By Lisa Curtis
Just one year after successful elections raised hopes for democracy in Pakistan, the country’s civilian leaders are falling back into confrontational, zero-sum politics. Coming in ...
March 12, 2009
Sleeping Blue Dogs
By Ernest Istook
It's not just conservatives who publicly doubt President Obama’s economic plans. Moderates and even some on the left have begun to speak up and sound ...
March 12, 2009
Capitalism Now: Down And Out, But Not Dead
By JD Foster
Capitalism is extremely resilient. Why? Because here, as in every democratic-industrial country around the world, it has always had to struggle to survive against encroachments ...
March 12, 2009
Staring Down Chinese Diplomacy
By Walter Lohman
Asia's corridors of power are full of pragmatists. But unlike in Washington, where realism has now come to include new post-sovereignty goals, realism in Asia ...
March 11, 2009
No Way To Treat A Prime Minister
By Nile Gardiner
There are three words to describe the White House's reception for the British Prime Minister last week: public relations disaster. Gordon Brown arrived in Washington ...
March 11, 2009
Bankruptcy best aids GM, Chrysler
By Andrew M. Grossman
The time has come to stop the fear-mongering and face facts: General Motors and Chrysler are racing fast toward insolvency and bankruptcy filings.
March 10, 2009
Dirty secrets about dirty bombs
By James Jay Carafano
It's an all-too likely scenario. Terrorists detonate a "dirty" bomb, an explosive device laced with radioactive material. Hundreds die--mostly because responders won't enter the contaminated ...
March 10, 2009
Explain It to the Children
By Dan Holler
This week, Congress will likely approve legislation that threatens to terminate the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. The $14 million program allows more than 1,700 children ...
March 10, 2009
Undue expulsion for D.C. kids
By Lindsey Burke and Virginia Walden Ford
"I told my mom not too long ago I would like to be president one day when I grow up," writes Fransoir, a seventh grader ...
March 9, 2009
Barack Obama must grow as a statesman if he is to lead the free world
By Nile Gardiner
One thing’s certain when President Obama arrives in London at the end of March - he’ll receive a far warmer and more cordial welcome than ...
March 7, 2009
Her Majesty dubs thee . . . Does Ted Kennedy deserve a knighthood?
By Helle Dale
"It's like giving Osama bin Laden a knighthood for services to Afghanistan." That was the reaction of one shocked British citizen to the news that ...
March 7, 2009
Quiet Amnesty
By Ernest Istook
Openly supporting amnesty for illegal immigrants may still be a loser.
March 7, 2009
Rendezvous with Russia mustn't be rollover
By Peter Brookes
While better relations with Russia, a resurging major power, are a laudable goal, we have to make sure that this notion of a reboot in ...
March 6, 2009
Economic Commission: Right Idea, Wrong Method
By David M. Mason
Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) want to get to the bottom of our current economic mess. To address our economic problems effectively, ...
March 6, 2009
Scrimpers and Savers being played for Suckers
By David John
President Obama's mortgage "rescue" initiative gets only four things wrong.
March 6, 2009
India should be policy linchpin
By Kim Holmes
As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama repeatedly charged that then-President Bush had "alienated" America from the rest of the world. He accused Mr. Bush of ...
March 6, 2009
US-Russia: Reboot or Rollover?
By Peter Brookes
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will get her chance to mash the Obama administration's "reset button" on US-Russian relations when she parachutes into Geneva to ...
March 5, 2009
Rolling Back Welfare Reform
By Israel Ortega
There are many disturbing features to the "stimulus" bill recently signed into law -- its massive $787 billion price tag, the fact that it empowers ...
March 5, 2009
Congress's Hammer: Another Criminal Law
By Brian Walsh and Tiffany Joslyn
As the saying goes, if the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. Case in point: Congress and the ...
March 5, 2009
Thousands of Earmarks in Omnibus Bill
By Brian Darling
President Barack Obama pledged to keep his so-called stimulus plan free of earmarks. Unfortunately, no such pledge has been made about the omnibus spending measure ...
March 5, 2009
Improving the International Marketplace of Ideas
By Helle Dale
Margaret Thatcher once said that America is the only nation in the world "built upon an idea." This idea--liberty--has transcended geography and ethnicity to shape ...
March 4, 2009
Leahy's un-American activities commission
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
For more than 200 years, the reins of America’s leadership have been peacefully handed over from one administration to another, regardless of party affiliation, in ...
March 4, 2009
Mexican mayhem: Narcotics traffickers threaten Mexico and U.S.
By Peter Brookes
Largely invisible to most Americans, just to the south, the security situation is worsening as a result of an intense conflict between the Mexican government ...
March 3, 2009
Stimflation: Tidal Wave of Debt to Hit America
By Ernest Istook
Trickle-down economics are out. The tidal wave is in -- a tidal wave of new spending. And new borrowing.
March 3, 2009
Back to the border for the National Guard?
By James Jay Carafano
Terrorists gave the police chief little choice. "Resign now," they said, "or we’ll kill one policeman every other day until you do."
March 3, 2009
Drill, baby, drill or drill, maybe drill?
By Ben Lieberman
Last summer, a public angry over high gasoline prices was shouting "drill, baby, drill," and Washington finally listened. But now, the Obama administration has downgraded ...
March 2, 2009
Preventing the Return of $4 Gasoline
By Edwin Feulner
You may have forgotten what you did on vacation last summer -- but you probably remember how much it cost to fill your gas tank ...
March 2, 2009
The Looming Fiscal Wipeout
By Israel Ortega
Before buying a new house and two new cars, most families would check their finances to make sure they could afford those purchases. Things operate ...
March 2, 2009
Bam's Budget: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
By Brian Darling
THE president's budget blueprint contains some good initiatives, more that are bad - and some truly ugly ideas that would dramatically expand the government's role ...
March 2, 2009
Barack Obama must preserve the special relationship: Great Britain is America's most reliable friend
By Nile Gardiner
Gordon Brown arrives in Washington this week as the first European leader to meet with President Obama at the White House. He has pipped his ...
February 27, 2009
Hidden Cuts in Defense?
By James Jay Carafano
By all reports, when President Obama's budget is released today, it will envision spending more money on defense. The figure thrown around most is an ...
February 27, 2009
Time for sequel to welfare reform
By Stuart Butler
It was the "end of welfare as we know it." Those were the triumphant words of then-President Clinton as he signed the bipartisan welfare-reform bill ...
February 26, 2009
Betray Your Principles, Get a Check!: Why state governors are turning down federal cash
By Michael Franc
This arcane provision appears about three-quarters of the way through the new stimulus law. It is part of the title that doles out $7 billion ...
February 26, 2009
Putting Parents Last in Education: Special interests are the reason Congress is taking a $14 million scholarship program away from poor children
By Dan Lips and Robert C. Enlow
Any doubts about congressional leaders’ priorities on education were erased Monday with the release of the new $450 billion omnibus bill. It includes a provision ...
February 26, 2009
Don't push the reset button yet
By Ariel Cohen
Vice President Joe Biden suggested at the Munich international security conference on Feb. 7 that America push "the reset button" on relations with Russia. But ...
February 25, 2009
Will China Keep Buying Our Debt?
By JD Foster
The China ATM has dispensed over a trillion dollars to the United States in this decade. But now Beijing faces serious troubles at home. How ...
February 24, 2009
Violating Their Sacred Honor: How the D.C.-Utah House Voting Rights Act
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
When the D.C. voting-rights bill comes up for a cloture vote in the Senate this Tuesday, senators will face one overriding question: Will they uphold ...
February 24, 2009
Nightmare on Stimulus Street
By Brian Darling
Why the big rush on the "stimulus" plan? President Barack Obama claims it’s because his plan would "create jobs for Americans" and place the "economy ...
February 24, 2009
One of our satellites is missing
By James Jay Carafano
Signals stopped Tuesday, Feb. 10. Silence was the sound of satellites colliding.
Hurtling forward at 17,500 miles an hour 500 miles above the earth, a ...
February 24, 2009
Atomic Ayatollahs: 10, 9, 8, 7...
By Peter Brookes
Get this: The Obama administration has put plans for our missile-defense system in Eastern Europe under review - even as fresh signs pop up that ...
February 23, 2009
Hispanic Families Must Make Their Voices Heard in the Fight for DC School Choice
By Lindsey Burke and Israel Ortega
Since 2004, many Hispanic children in D.C. have been given the opportunity of a lifetime: a scholarship to attend a private school. Five years after ...
February 23, 2009
Still Waiting for Open Government
By Edwin Feulner
"Today does not mark the end of our economic troubles," President Barack Obama announced as he signed the so-called stimulus bill. "But it does mark ...
February 21, 2009
Secretly ending welfare reform as we knew it
By Robert Rector
Welfare reform in the mid-1990s was a major public policy success, leading to a dramatic reduction in welfare dependency and child poverty.
Little-noted provisions in ...
February 20, 2009
U.S. backtracks on missile shield
By Kim Holmes
A Turkish general once said: "The problem with having the Americans as your allies is you never know when they´ll turn around and stab themselves ...
February 20, 2009
Chavez on despots' term-cutting edge
By Helle Dale
Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez must be the envy of aspiring despots the world over today. On Sunday, he received the endorsement of the Venezuelan people ...
February 20, 2009
Stimulus Bill Abolishes Welfare Reform Successes
By Robert Rector and Katherine Bradley
Welfare reform in the mid-1990s was a major public policy success leading to a dramatic reduction in welfare dependency and child poverty. Little-noted provisions in ...
February 19, 2009
The Blues Admidst Hope
By Ernest Istook
President Obama’s signing of his “stimulus” bill marks a beginning, not an end. The bill gives both the American Left and the Right cause for ...
February 18, 2009
Tough love for Tehran: Danger in a careless seduction
By Peter Brookes
Apropos of this Valentine’s Day just past, there’s a lot of flirting going on between the United States and Iran, leading some to day-dream of ...
February 17, 2009
Don't throw good tax money after bad
By Andrew M. Grossman
The first thing to do when you've lost $17 billion is to hire lawyers.
Expensive lawyers.
February 17, 2009
Obama pursuing Homeland Security Lite
By James Jay Carafano
A few weeks back, Osama Bin Laden emitted his latest address to the faithful, promising to “open new fronts” in his war against the West. ...
February 16, 2009
It's Washington's Birthday, Not Presidents' Day
By Matthew Spalding, Ph.D.
February 22 is the birthday of George Washington -- the man who, more than any other, made possible our republican form of government.
February 13, 2009
Crimes Need To Be Punished, But Is The ICC The Right Means?
By Brett D. Schaefer
The International Criminal Court (ICC) -- which was formally established in 2003 to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and the as-of-yet-undefined crime of ...
February 13, 2009
Show Us the Money
By Ernest Istook
With all eyes focused on how the Pelosi-Reid-Obama “stimulus” plan spends money, there’s been less attention paid to where government will get the money -- ...
February 13, 2009
Congress needs cover to reform entitlements
By Stuart M. Butler
The price tag is stunning. Pegged at nearly $800 billion - a figure that doesn't even include interest payments - the so-called "stimulus" bill sets ...
February 13, 2009
An Open Letter to the Congress and the President of the United States
By Edwin Feulner
An Open Letter to the Congress and the President of the United States
February 12, 2009
Swords and Shields: Russian nuke cuts
By Ariel Cohen
The Obama administration plans to negotiate an unprecedented strategic nuclear arms reduction initiative with Moscow. The drastic proposal, greeted by Russia, may result in cutting ...
February 12, 2009
Swords and Shields: Why Manas matters
By Ariel Cohen
Wanted: a large airport in Central Asia, preferably a former Soviet air base. With the clock ticking for the United States to close Manas Air ...
February 11, 2009
Back to basics in Afghanistan
By Lisa Curtis
Richard Holbrooke, President Obama's newly-appointed representative on Afghanistan and Pakistan, has his work cut out for him as he visits South Asia this week. The ...
February 11, 2009
Another Munich surrender
By Helle Dale
The annual Munich Security Conference, which took place last weekend, usually yields one or two memorable speeches, which help set the international stage for the ...
February 11, 2009
Honoring Lincoln
By Ed Feulner
“What is conservatism?” Abraham Lincoln once asked. “Is it not the adherence to the old and the tried, against the new and the untried?” It ...
February 10, 2009
Closing the tax gap
By JD Foster
Ever heard of the "tax gap"? It's the difference between what all of us owe the federal government in taxes each year - and how ...
February 10, 2009
The Power of Zero
By Ed Feulner
In Washington, politicians like to seek common ground. So let’s begin by noting that many from both parties agreed with President Barack Obama’s recent warning: ...
February 9, 2009
Obama's 'Extreme Team' on Energy
By Ben Lieberman
One of them wanted to see Americans paying $8 a gallon for gasoline. Another tried to block access to domestic oil reserves that could one ...
February 9, 2009
Building a US-Latin Partnership
By Ray Walser
In the face of multiple challenges from distant Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, it may be easy to forget that Latin America and ...
February 9, 2009
Iran, N. Korea Send Wake-up Calls for Missile Defense
By James Jay Carafano
The crash-and-burn of Tom Daschle's nomination to head the Health and Human Services Department wasn't the first bad news to hit the new administration. Nor ...
February 7, 2009
Iran’s situation explosive:It’s not just a satellite
By Peter Brookes
Normally, a satellite launch isn’t newsworthy. They happen all the time. But Iran’s launch of its first domestically built satellite this week is a very ...
February 6, 2009
Obama-Pelosi Plan Would Create Thirty-Two Government Programs
By Ernest Istook
The American people are waking up. The behemoth Obama-Pelosi "stimulus" bill rampaging through Congress is just another bailout: this time to rescue big government from ...
February 6, 2009
Deputy AG Nominee Should be Questioned on Importing International Law
By Deborah O'Malley
Today the Senate Judiciary Committee takes up the nomination of David Ogden to the position of Deputy Attorney General, the second-highest position in the Justice ...
February 6, 2009
Red faces about 'green' jobs
By Ernest Istook
It's red faces for those claiming government should subsidize "green" jobs for American workers.
According to new reports, they're not very well-paying jobs, and ...
February 6, 2009
Question David Ogden
By Steven Groves
On Jan. 6, then President-elect Barack Obama nominated David Ogden to be the next deputy attorney general of the United States, the second-highest position in ...
February 6, 2009
Mumbai Massacres: We Can't Respond Without the Facts
By James Jay Carafano
On a business-as-usual morning in March 2004, terrorists launched a coordinated attack on Madrid commuter trains killing 191 people and wounding 1,755. The government, with ...
February 5, 2009
Obama's Arab-TV interview
By Helle Dale
The Arab world remains in a tizzy of excitement over the interview given last week by President Obama with the Arabic news service Al-Arabiya. "Overwhelmingly ...
February 5, 2009
Empty 'Stimulus'
By Ronald D. Utt
The economy's worsening by the day and in need of a quick boost. Yet the $800-plus billion "economic-stimulus" bill now being rushed through Congress is ...
February 5, 2009
Remodel the housing plan: Don't ask responsible taxpayers to subsidize those who weren't
By Ronald D. Utt
Suppose you had $275 billion sitting on your table, and the instruction manual for this vast sum required you to devote it toward the relief ...
February 4, 2009
Swords and Shields: Russia's Abkhaz base plan
By Ariel Cohen
Russia plans to establish a Black Sea naval base at the Abkhaz port of Ochamchire.
Ochamchire is some 60 kilometers southeast of the Abkhaz capital ...
February 3, 2009
The paradox of public service
By Brian Brown
What if public service made you more selfish? It's a counterintuitive notion, to be sure. President Barack Obama, after all, has promised to make public ...
February 3, 2009
A Sham "Stimulus"
By Ed Feulner
If there's any good news from this recession, it may be ...
February 2, 2009
El Plan Que No Estimula
By Israel Ortega
Si estas esperando que la economía se mejore; no mires hacia el Congreso buscando por la respuesta. Porque si el proyecto de ley sigue siendo ...
February 2, 2009
The Stimulus Bill That Isn't
By Israel Ortega
If you’re looking for a boost to the economy, don’t look to Congress for the answer. If the proposed stimulus bill is the best possible ...
January 31, 2009
Voter ID Was a Success in November: Turnout was higher in states that took a simple step to prevent fraud
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
Remember the storm that arose on the political left after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Indiana's voter ID law last April? According ...
January 31, 2009
Help Mexico Beat the Narco-Gangs
By Peter Brookes
Mexico may be headed to hell in a handbasket as a result of grisly fighting between the federal government and drug cartels - and among ...
January 30, 2009
Nuclear power is true 'green' energy
By Stuart M. Butler
Never mind lower gasoline prices. Worries about energy security and the environment continue to boost pressure for alternative energy sources. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin´s ...
January 30, 2009
Populism: The Illusion that Won't Go Away
By Israel Ortega
Like the mirage of a spring in a sunny desert, the promises of a better life offered by populist politicians have been misleading people for ...
January 29, 2009
Obama's Gitmo lesson
By Helle Dale
Do actions really speak louder than words? Not always. Sometimes words speak louder than actions. In politics that is actually often the case. President Obama's ...
January 28, 2009
Obama-Pelosi Plan Would Create Thirty-Two Government Programs
By Ernest Istook
The proposed Obama-Pelosi "economic stimulus" would end the era of merely big government and replace it with leviathan government.
"It'll never go away," says ...
January 28, 2009
Time to Set Aside Set-Asides?: With the civil-rights race won, our government should embrace colorblindness
By Michael Franc
Barack Obama's inauguration is "a huge civil rights moment." So said the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who added that Obama "has run the last lap of ...
January 28, 2009
Pyongyang's shot across Obama's bow
By Bruce Klingner
You'd think North Korea would at least wait for Barack Obama to enter the Oval Office before testing his mettle. But through a series of ...
January 28, 2009
Will the Armed Forces Fail Next?
By James Jay Carafano
It's become a real trend: Big companies turn to the government to plead for hard cash. And politicians are listening — which is a problem. ...
January 24, 2009
Revenge of the Liberal Bureaucrats: A new report on Bush administration hiring practices at Justice
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine, himself a political appointee in the Clinton administration, has released his report on the supposed "illegal" political hiring at ...
January 24, 2009
Florida's Success Story
By Israel Ortega
For more than 40 years, politicians in Washington have been promising that they will improve public education. But decades of growth in federal expenditures and ...
January 24, 2009
Health care: Obama's pledge is far too costly
By Nina Owcharenko
President Obama campaigned on a pledge to "lower health-care costs and ensure affordable, high-quality health care for all." That's quite a tall order — not ...
January 23, 2009
Better security lies in defense funds
By Kim Holmes
One of the sleeper issues President Obama will need to address soon is how much to spend on national defense. Scarcely discussed in the campaign, ...
January 23, 2009
A two-step plan for economic success
By Ed Feulner
Just before Inauguration Day, President-elect Barack Obama refused to comment on Israel's battle with Hamas. The United States has only one president at a time, ...
January 22, 2009
The first full day
By Helle Dale
This is it, the first full day of a new administration in the United States. The country today wakes up to the leadership of the ...
January 21, 2009
Swords and Shields: Russia bets on PAK FA
By Ariel Cohen
Moscow continues to pursue a Sukhoi-based fifth-generation fighter. After five years of effort, Russia finally found an international partner for the development project. In 2007 ...
January 21, 2009
Obama Will Be Challenged by North Korea
By Bruce Klingner
Of all the foreign policy challenges that Barack Obama inherits from President George Bush, North Korea may prove to be the most intractable. Perceptions that ...
January 21, 2009
An Ominous First Vote
By Brian Darling
Conservative solidarity was in short supply last week as the Senate cast its first vote of the 111th Congress. President Bush requested another $350 billion ...
January 21, 2009
Get Over It: New Deal Didn't Do the Job
By William W. Beach and Ken McIntyre
“We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work.”
Sound like Rep. John Boehner ...
January 21, 2009
Toward the right path
By Michael Franc
Clearly, the single most important challenge for the Obama administration and the new Congress is to revive our ailing economy. Our arcane tax code, apparently ...
January 20, 2009
The Real World: Gaza's Five Rings of Fire
By Ariel Cohen
To understand the Gaza war, one needs to examine the five concentric 'rings of fire' Gaza presents: intra-Palestinian; Israeli-Palestinian; the Arab world; Iran; and the ...
January 20, 2009
End Hamas Hostage Strategy to Bring Gaza Peace
By James Phillips
The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas has turned Gaza into a hellish battlefield as part of its long-term strategy to destroy Israel. The militant Islamist group ...
January 16, 2009
Even Businessmen Deserve a Lawyer:How Eric Holder enabled federal prosecutors to bully defendants.
By Arlen Spector and Edwin J. Meese III
The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Eric Holder's nomination for attorney general has failed to focus on the threat to constitutional rights posed by what ...
January 16, 2009
Florida's school strategy a success
By Stuart M. Butler
Seven years ago, President Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act, billed as an antidote to what ails America's public schools.
But if ...
January 16, 2009
Contracting in Combat: Advice for the Commission on Wartime Contracting
By James Jay Carafano
In the wake of controversy over private military contracting, the National Defense Authorization Act of 2008 established the Commission on Wartime Contracting to investigate the ...
January 16, 2009
A trillion reasons we're in deep trouble
By Ernest Istook
My 6-year-old granddaughter Abby bragged recently that she could count to 20. She proceeded to demonstrate, and I praised her. Then she asked how high ...
January 15, 2009
10 Questions About the Economic Stimulus Bill
By Brian M. Riedl
The $800 billion economic "stimulus" bill may be more appropriately called the "Obama debt plan." It will, after all, dump $6,700 per household of new ...
January 15, 2009
Our economic answer is freedom
By Ed Feulner
A nation's economic situation can turn on a dime.
For example, in November 2007 the Federal Reserve expected the American economy to grow as much ...
January 15, 2009
While the U.S. expands government...
By Helle Dale
The irony of it all. The United States is currently faced with the prospect of the biggest government expansion in American history in the shape ...
January 14, 2009
Russia's gas war
By Ariel Cohen
Despite feverish negotiations with participation of the European Union, Russia and Ukraine failed to agree on resolution of the gas dispute between them. Mutual disdain ...
January 14, 2009
Opposing view: Don't crowd out insurers
By Robert E. Moffit
Government plan would encourage employers to drop health coverage. "If you have (health) insurance you like, you keep that insurance," President-elect Barack Obama has assured ...
January 14, 2009
Freedom Is Still the Winning Formula
By Terry Miller
It would be a shame if countries respond to the downturn with policies that further retard growth.
As former Texas Longhorn coach Darrell Royal liked ...
January 14, 2009
The Lasting Legacy of Fr. Neuhaus
By Ed Feulner
You know that relations between religious denominations are improving when a devoted Catholic is proud to have a former Lutheran pastor baptize his grandchild. In ...
January 13, 2009
Soak the Rich?: It's a Perilous Path for Democrats.
By Michael Franc
Liberals who want to extort untold billions in new taxes from the “rich” have been mugged by economic reality.
The president-elect has quietly ...
January 13, 2009
Daschle's details seem malpractice
By Robert E. Moffit
"Details kill."
That's Tom Daschle, President-elect Barack Obama's nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services and the nation's new "health care czar," explaining ...
January 13, 2009
Nuclear Deterrence: A Defensible Defense
By James Jay Carafano
With the “new” century now 8 years old (and counting), it’s time to finally shelve some expired ideas left over from the last years of ...
January 13, 2009
Pelosi to Republicans: You'll Get Nothing and Like It
By Brian Darling
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has ushered in a new Congress. The “change” she believes in includes making it easier to raise taxes, spend like a ...
January 11, 2009
Will S.C. House keep elections legal?
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
The results of the Minnesota Senate recount are still in doubt two months after the election because of questionable decisions being made by the Minnesota ...
January 10, 2009
Let's Not Follow Japan's Example
By Israel Ortega
Bailouts seem to have become commonplace as Americans endure one of the worst economic climates in recent times. And since New York is the epicenter ...
January 10, 2009
Turkey's Foreign Policy Plans in 2009
By Ariel Cohen
In 2009, expect to see a more active Turkey. It's planning to boost its foreign policy involvement in the Caucasus, Middle East, Europe and the ...
January 10, 2009
It's a Real Cold War
By Peter Brookes
Russia's decision to cut off natural-gas shipments to Ukraine - and essentially 13 other European states that receive gas via its pipelines - is a ...
January 10, 2009
Obama's Stimulus: Wrong Rx
By JD Foster
President-elect Barack Obama got one thing right in his speech yesterday: Our economy is in real trouble, and it needs help - the sooner, the ...
January 9, 2009
Analysis: NATO's 60th calls for change
By James Jay Carafano
President-elect Barack Obama should make history. Not just on Jan. 20, but on April 4, as well. The latter date marks the 60th anniversary of ...
January 9, 2009
Swords and Shields: Boosting Venezuela
By Ariel Cohen
Russia held joint naval exercises with Venezuela late last year to demonstrate its growing strategic reach and political clout, particularly in Latin America, which many ...
January 6, 2009
Lieberman: No time for an oil crackdown
By Ben Lieberman
How does $8-a-gallon gas sound? Few Americans would want to see that happen. Unfortunately, President-elect Barack Obama's choices for the governments two highest energy posts ...
January 5, 2009
School Choice: The Real Test
By Ed Feulner
It’s official: President-elect Barack Obama’s two daughters are attending Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C.
The decision comes as no surprise. That elite private ...
January 1, 2009
1989: The Year of Miracles
By Lee Edwards
It was a year of triumph and tragedy.
It was the year the Berlin Wall fell -- and joyful Berliners drank champagne and danced on ...
January 1, 2009
The new president's global security challenges
By Peter Brookes
With at least two ongoing wars, President-elect Barack Obama may well be entering the Oval Office facing the toughest national security landscape for any American ...
December 31, 2008
Health-Care by Committee
By Ed Feulner
A camel, they say, is a horse designed by committee. To take the expression further, let’s call it a committee of experts. After all, only ...
December 29, 2008
No More Waffling on Missile Defense
By James Jay Carafano
The president-elect and the Star Wars president share some common ideas. Both have blanched at the nightmare of America held hostage by the threat of ...
December 29, 2008
Bale up the bailouts
By Ed Feulner
So much for checks and balances. It looks as if the Bush administration intends to spend billions of dollars bailing out the American automotive industry. ...
December 29, 2008
Liberty Forum better than U.N. Rights Council
By Kim Holmes
Sixty years ago this month, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which some have dubbed a Magna Carta for mankind. Coming ...
December 29, 2008
A Christmas Tale -- 1919
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
It's easy to complain in the midst of a stressful holiday season. But my family has a unique remedy: We remember one special Christmas in ...
December 29, 2008
Holiday naysayers
By Helle Dale
Christians in the United States have finally started fighting back against the "Happy Holidays" movement. And about time it is; any public displays of the ...
December 27, 2008
George W Bush: winning the war on terror
By Nile Gardiner
Europe's political elites are no doubt salivating at the prospect of George W. Bush departing the White House in January.
December 25, 2008
Santa forced to evacuate North Pole
By Ernest Istook
Evacuation operations continue at the North Pole, as Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus, their reindeer and an estimated 5,000 elves are being relocated due to global ...
December 23, 2008
Nonprofits Don't Need A Bailout; Americans Give In Bad Times, Too
By John Von Kannon
Move aside, Motown. Make way, WaMu. There's a new mendicant bellying up to the bailout bar: America's charities.
December 22, 2008
Education: The Neglected Crisis
By Israel Ortega
With daily doses of bad news coming in the form of rising unemployment and business failures, the words "financial crisis" are everywhere. Meanwhile another crisis ...
December 22, 2008
The Star of Bethlehem and the Star-Spangled Banner
By Ryan Messmore
In recent weeks, Washington has gobbled up troubled institutions like they were Christmas cookies. Whether through bailing out businesses or nationalizing industries, Uncle Sam's shadow ...
December 22, 2008
Sovereign Wealth Funds And Protectionism
By Daniella Markheim
In October 2008, the International Working Group of Sovereign Wealth Funds (IWG) released a set of generally accepted principles and practices (GAPP) for the conduct, ...
December 22, 2008
How to prevent terrorists from using weapons of mass destruction
By Bob Graham and Jim Talent
Seven years after 9/11, we were en route to Pakistan when a bomb blast destroyed the Marriott Hotel there.
December 22, 2008
A reform-minded education secretary?
By Dan Lips
Would Chicago Public School CEO Arne Duncan make a good secretary of education? There are reasons to wonder if President-elect Barack Obama's nominee is the ...
December 22, 2008
Outside View: Iran talks trap
By James Phillips and Peter Brookes
There is no guaranteed policy that can halt the Iranian nuclear program short of war, and even a military campaign may only delay Iran's acquisition ...
December 22, 2008
Nuclear Industry Growing Without Federal Handouts
By Jack Spencer
Seems like the only way to get a business going (or keep it going) today is to get help from Washington. That is, unless you're ...
December 22, 2008
Grand Theft Class Action: Game Over
By Andrew M. Grossman
A July 30 decision likely spelled the end of a class-action suit against the makers of the popular Grand Theft Auto videogame series for a ...
December 21, 2008
Obama and the case for missile defense
By Baker Spring
A "kill vehicle" hurtled over the Pacific Ocean to intercept and blow up a missile 1,800 miles and 25 minutes into its flight from Alaska ...
December 17, 2008
To promote general growth, Obama needs to go further
By Alison Acosta Fraser
A centerpiece of Barack Obama's campaign was his promise to cut taxes for "95 percent of American workers." Middle-class voters, especially, responded strongly to that ...
December 15, 2008
Security oversight seen running amok
By James Jay Carafano
So why does Congress allow this? Because changing the oversight situation to fit with the commission's recommendation would rankle the many committee chairmen - members ...
December 15, 2008
Don't Count On Economy To Stop Illegal Immigration
By James Jay Carafano
They are leaving. Illegal immigrants, that is.
Analysts from both ends of the immigration debate, from the Center for Immigration Studies to the Pew ...
December 15, 2008
Economic Elixir: A Coded Approach
By Edwin J. Feulner, Ph.D.
Back in the 1990s President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair crafted what they called a “third way” of governing. Supposedly this approach ...
December 12, 2008
Bush's Better World: His Overlooked Successes on Foreign Policy and Security
By Peter Brookes
If you asked Americans to list President Bush's foreign policy and national security accomplishments, you'd likely get some laughs - surely some snarky comments. Perhaps, ...
December 11, 2008
Policy on Korea under Obama administration
By Bruce Klingner
This is the tenth in a series of articles assessing the effect U.S. President-elect Barack Obama will have on Korea-U.S. relations, politically, economically and socially. ...
December 11, 2008
Buccaneers are back: The challenges of modern piracy
By Peter Brookes
The thought of pirates usually evokes Hollywood blockbusters involving swashbuckling buccaneers, tropical isles and buried treasure marked on a tattered map with an “X.”
December 9, 2008
Civics Class: Gimme an F
By Ed Feulner
Americans are about to get a civics lesson -- and not a moment too soon
December 5, 2008
Why We Should Not Bail Out Detroit
By Israel Ortega
Now that the Christmas season is in full swing, it seems like everyone is busy working on their wish list for Santa Claus. Among them ...
December 5, 2008
Abnormal Regimes Don't Merit Normal Relations
By James M. Roberts
Hard-left groups in the United States want to "normalize" diplomatic relations with Venezuela and Cuba. They want Congress to lift the U.S. trade embargo on ...
December 4, 2008
Don't placate Russia
By Helle Dale
Now, U.S. NATO Ambassador Kurt Volker told the Financial Times, the U.S. position still favors Ukraine and Georgia in NATO, but "the Membership Action Plan ...
December 2, 2008
Liberalized center is 'Capitol' crime
By Matthew Spalding, Ph.D.
As an expert in the U.S. Constitution and America’s founding, I thought I had lost the ability to be shocked by politically correct distortions of ...
December 2, 2008
Was the Real Target Indo-Pakistan Peace?
By Peter Brookes
In the wake of the terror attacks that killed more than 180 people (including at least six Americans) and wounded another 300 in Mumbai, India, ...
December 1, 2008
Taking Time for Justice
By Ryan Messmore
“When you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.” So goes the rationale behind tax policies that redistribute income, at least as it was ...
November 28, 2008
Gratitude and the good life
By Jennifer A. Marshall and Jessica Prol
"Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices..." Lyrics of the old hymns of gratitude return to mind at this time ...
November 27, 2008
Russia, China, Move In on Latin America
By Peter Brookes
Medvedev, Chavez, Venezuela, China, Latin America, Russia
November 26, 2008
China: Not Quite a 'Lifeline'
By Derek Scissors
Fareed Zakaria 's Nov. 24 op-ed, "Lifeline from Beijing," included a number of popular misconceptions. To dispel the first: China did not become our largest ...
November 25, 2008
Conservative Nation: All is not Left.
By Michael Franc
One question surfaces repeatedly as the pundits obsess over the exit polls. Have Americans lurched to the Left in any meaningful way? If so, are ...
November 24, 2008
Competing health-care remedies
By Robert E. Moffit
About 47 million Americans lack health coverage. It's a huge problem. To their credit, both major presidential candidates have ponied up ambitious plans to deal ...
November 24, 2008
What Obama Will Do on Health Care
By Robert E. Moffit
Little guesswork is required to imagine what a liberal White House victory and bigger liberal majorities in the House and Senate would mean for health ...
November 21, 2008
President-elect Obama, we need a new kind of public diplomacy
By Kim Holmes
"More than half of this battle is taking place in the battlefield of the media. We are in a media battle, a race for the ...
November 20, 2008
Public diplomacy expectations
By Helle Dale
Expectations around the world for the incoming Obama administration have reached outlandish heights. Were the world a U.S. elections map, the entire globe at this ...
November 19, 2008
Stakes Rising on Prez-Elect's First Test
By Peter Brookes
Barack Obama campaigned on the promise of "change," but one change the president-elect may be planning on - not deploying a US missile defense in ...
November 19, 2008
Why Spending Stimulus Plans Fail
By Brian M. Riedl
Congressional Democrats are now demanding another economic stimulus package to "inject" as much as $300 billion into the economy. The package will fail -- just ...
November 18, 2008
Congress Declares War on Taxpayers
By Brian Darling
This week on Capitol Hill, we expect to see at least two specious ideas up for consideration -- a bad stimulus package and an ill-advised ...
November 18, 2008
Think Small
By Stuart M. Butler
In this installment of Health Care Watch, Stuart M. Butler and Ezekiel Emanuel talk about what President-elect Barack Obama should and shouldn't do on health ...
November 18, 2008
Ensuring That Only Citizens Vote
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
A report on FOX affiliate WFLD-TV in Chicago that aired just before the election showed how easy it is for non-citizens to register: They used ...
November 18, 2008
Rebuild economic confidence by reforming entitlements
By Robert Bixby, Stuart Butler and Isabel Sawhill
Washington may bail out Wall Street. But who will bail out Washington?
November 14, 2008
Conservatism's death: Greatly exaggerated
By Ernest Istook
The biggest problem facing America's conservatives isn't our "progressive" president-elect or the liberal leaders controlling Congress. It's defeatism.
November 14, 2008
Exchange We Can Believe In
By Stuart Butler
The president-elect didn't invent the idea of a health exchange. He came up with his own version of an idea that's been refined by people ...
November 14, 2008
U.S.: Why we are All Winners
By Israel Ortega
What are we to make of this epic election? Are we really, as some contend, a country torn between "red" and "blue" America. Are there ...
November 13, 2008
Plainspoken Pundits Ground Truth: The Future of U.S. Land Power
By James Jay Carafano
When T.R. Fehrenbach famously penned, "You may fly over a land forever; you may bomb it, atomize it, pulverize it and wipe it clean of ...
November 13, 2008
Moscow's next move: Bearing down on the president-elect
By Helle Dale
The inimitable Sen. Joe Biden has predicted that within six months of President-elect Barack Obama taking office, the world would see a major crisis, a ...
November 13, 2008
Ideal free-trade candidate
By Walter Lohman and Rupert Hammond-Chambers
Regrettably, trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea are stalled. But that doesn't mean President-elect Barack Obama should get out of the free-trade business. ...
November 13, 2008
China's Cyber Spies
By Peter Brookes
In the last few weeks, the media have been filled with reports of Chinese cyber spies penetrating the computer networks of both presidential campaigns and ...
November 9, 2008
Conservatism's death: Greatly exaggerated
By Ernest Istook
The biggest problem facing America's conservatives isn't our "progressive" president-elect or the liberal leaders controlling Congress. It's defeatism.
Liberal pundits such as the Washington ...
November 8, 2008
Conservatism's vital signs
By Ed Feulner
How fitting that, having campaigned on conservative themes throughout the fall, President-elect Barack Obama's acceptance speech concluded with words that should warm the heart of ...
November 8, 2008
Job 1 for Obama
By Michael Franc
Every new president understandably wants to avoid the mistakes of his predecessors. For President-elect Obama, that means one thing: Make sure you start off on ...
November 7, 2008
Kirchners Make a Grab for Private Pensions to Bail Out Argentina
By James M. Roberts
On Oct. 21, Argentina’s government, led by Peronist President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and her predecessor, Néstor Kirchner, announced their intention to expropriate $30 billion ...
November 6, 2008
Focusing on Afghanistan: The president-elect must not ignore realities on the ground
By Helle Dale
The two presidential candidates did not agree on much of anything, but they did on the importance of winning in Afghanistan, which has become the ...
November 6, 2008
Arctic security heats up
By Peter Brookes
By many accounts, the sea ice that covers much of the earth’s Arctic region is melting. The size — that is, the extent — and ...
November 5, 2008
Will This Election Be Stolen?
By Hans A. Von Spakovsky
In 1742, riots broke out in Philadelphia on Election Day over claims that German immigrants were being used to illegally increase vote totals. George Washington ...
November 4, 2008
Congress Can't Police Itself
By Israel Ortega
There's a reason football coaches spend so much time looking at tape of their team’s games. By looking back, they can identify mistakes and work ...
October 31, 2008
Don't Bail Out the States: Spendthrifts Made Own Mess
By Brian Riedl
New York's Gov. Paterson was in Washington yesterday, testifying before Congress on why Washington should send him some help. Indeed, state governments from New York ...
October 31, 2008
Memo to Congress: Make jobs, not work
By Stuart Butler
Time after time, Congress has used a recession to revive bad ideas, based on bad history. Meanwhile, good ideas of proven utility go overlooked.
October 31, 2008
Middle-Class Tax Cuts Could Disappear. Again.
By Ernest Istook
Campaign promises often wilt after the election. Tax-cut promises are a frequent casualty.
October 31, 2008
The Best Red Tape Your Tax Money Can Buy
By Ronald D. Utt
As the financial turmoil has worsened, many politicians have resorted to mutual recrimination in a “blame your opponent” exercise over who was responsible for the ...
October 30, 2008
Bush's foreign policy
By Helle Dale
This time next week, the U.S. presidential election will be over, and we will know the name of the next commander in chief. (This is ...
October 30, 2008
Obama may not be Bush, but he won't be what Europe expects
By Ted Bromund
In the presidential contest, Americans are leaning towards Barack Obama, but they remain divided. John McCain is the underdog – though as Churchill once remarked, ...
October 29, 2008
Slump at the Pump no Reason for Complacency
By Ben Lieberman
Seeing a sharp drop in gasoline prices -- over a dollar per gallon off summer highs -- is one rare piece of good news these ...
October 29, 2008
Obama's Ideas for a Radical Court
By Robert Alt
In a 2001 radio interview that's just come to light, Barack Obama discussed the Supreme Court's role in redistributing wealth. Call it Obama's "Joe the ...
October 29, 2008
Now El Loco's Pursuing the Bomb
By Peter Brookes
Russia's alliance with Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez just keeps getting tighter - and worse for America. Now, Moscow could be putting "El Loco" on the ...
October 27, 2008
Hot air about wind power
By Ernest Istook
The visuals are terrific. Imagine the Empire State Building with a windmill on top rather than King Kong. That's how the New York Post depicted ...
October 25, 2008
Misunderstanding the Role of Judges
By Deborah O'Malley
In his recent endorsement of Barack Obama, Colin Powell mused: "I would have difficulty with two more conservative appointments to the Supreme Court, but that's ...
October 24, 2008
Candidates' competing prescriptions for health care
By Robert Moffit
Approximately 47 million Americans lack health coverage. It's a huge problem.
October 24, 2008
A bad Biden benchmark
By Deborah O'Malley
Twenty-one years ago today, a cabal of liberal senators prevented one of the greatest legal minds of the 20th century from sitting on the Supreme ...
October 22, 2008
Plumbing the Candidates' Tax Plans
By JD Foster
Joe the plumber is on to something: If a President McCain had his way, Americans could expect to keep their tax cuts. They'd also see ...
October 22, 2008
Help ACORN Mess with Votes Act
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
In 2002, the federal government enacted the Help America Vote Act. The law, designed to prevent election fraud, set standards for voter eligibility, and its ...
October 22, 2008
Forced Into an Unhealthy Choice
By Ed Feulner
Can you imagine the government forcing you to take benefits you didn’t want? How about a situation where you'd have to sue the government to ...
October 22, 2008
U.S. Shouldn't Be Supporting ICC
By Brian Darling
Earlier this month a federal judge reminded us all of the immense power of the judiciary. He ordered the administration to release 17 Chinese Muslims ...
October 20, 2008
Turn terrorist detainees loose?
By Andrew Grossman
Importing terrorists hardly seems like a winning strategy to protect the nation's security. But that's what one federal judge says we have to do.
October 20, 2008
Setting a new course with North Korea
By Bruce Klingner
The Bush administration has careened between policy extremes in its attempts to denuclearize North Korea. Following an initial rejection of diplomacy as a viable means ...
October 20, 2008
What about Latin America?
By Israel Ortega and Ray Walser
Halfway through the season's presidential and vice presidential debates, it seems likely there’s going to be little discussion of U.S.-Latin American relations during this election. ...
October 17, 2008
Deflate balloon of entitlements
By Stuart Butler
The Wall Street meltdown has sent shock waves through the economy. But it's nothing compared to what's coming if Washington fails to address - properly ...
October 17, 2008
A new American mission
By Jim Talent
If you ask a foreign policy question of a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, ultimately he would say that the question is above ...
October 17, 2008
A Model of Successful Education Reform
By Matthew Ladner and Dan Lips
For years, education reformers have struggled to find strategies to improve opportunities for disadvantaged children and eliminate the achievement gap between minority students and their ...
October 17, 2008
False Alarm: What's really behind the drop in welfare office voter registrations
By Davis Muhlhausen & Patrick Tyrrell
Some people just refuse to accept good news.
October 17, 2008
Iran's 'world without America'
By James Jay Carafano
Which world leader is on record musing about "a world without America" - a goal he calls "attainable"? Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
October 17, 2008
Big-government fingerprints on murder weapon
By Ernest Istook
Multiple culprits deserve blame, but the Clinton administration stands out as a ringleader for diverting billions of dollars into junk sub-prime mortgages. Those loans have ...
October 15, 2008
Global perspectives
By Hell Dale
It has been no secret that the diplomatic and financial institutions of the 20th century are ill-suited for the needs of the 21st century. The ...
October 15, 2008
The CRA Cover-Up
By Ernest Istook
As always, it's the cover-up that sinks people. Liberals are working overtime to cover up their role in the mortgage meltdown. Not only did they ...
October 14, 2008
Big Brother is licking his chops
By Ernest Istook
America's liberals are gleefully pounding nails into Ronald Reagan's coffin. His life is beyond their reach, but his legacy is not. Their goal is to ...
October 14, 2008
U.S. needs new 'special' friends
By Kim Holmes
Since D-Day, when Americans and Britons stormed the Normandy beaches together, the United States and the United Kingdom have had a special relationship.
October 14, 2008
The Ideal Candidate for Free Trade
By Walter Lohman and Rupert Hammond-Chambers
New trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea have stalled. But that doesn’t mean President Bush and Congress should get out of the free-trade ...
October 14, 2008
Petraeus Lists Successes
By Brian Darling
If you asked Sen. Barack Obama two years ago for a strategy for Iraq, he would have recommended withdrawing all troops. The New York Times ...
October 14, 2008
California drilling
By Edwin Feulner
When it comes to energy, we're supposed to pick between a clean environment and affordable fuel. But what if we could have both?
...
October 14, 2008
Financial Forensics
By Ed Feulner
Two things should be clear to anyone trying to figure out the financial crisis. One is that we need to get to the bottom of ...
October 14, 2008
Balancing strategy and budgets
By Mackenzie Eaglen
"Five times in the last 90 years, the United States has disarmed after a conflict: World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam and then ...
October 9, 2008
Looking for Law in All the Wrong Places
By Deborah A. O'Malley
Some Supreme Court justices have taken to using international law as a reference point to interpret provisions of the U.S. Constitution. Yale Law School Dean ...
October 6, 2008
The Need for Missile Defense
By Peter Brookes
Despite iran’s runaway nuclear program, North Korea’s atomic assistance to Syria, and robust ballistic missile production and testing by Russia and China, a missile defense ...
October 6, 2008
Pain of credit crunch is likely to continue
By J.D. Foster
Financial markets are under enormous strain now, enduring an old-fashioned credit crunch the likes of which we haven't seen in decades.
October 6, 2008
Bringing Alaskan Energy To The White House Race
By Ben Lieberman
It’s understandable that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin emphasized energy issues during the vice-presidential debate. Her state is sitting on a lot of it — potentially ...
October 6, 2008
When whales trump security
By James Jay Carafano
It's a dangerous world out there. Iranian mullahs push forward their missile and nuke development programs while musing about a world without Israel ... or ...
October 3, 2008
Will new prez keep up crackdown on illegals?
By Ernest Istook
Will Mexico need a bailout? That country's second-largest source of income is money sent home by Mexicans living in the U.S. Most of that comes ...
October 3, 2008
Vouchers benefit foster children
By Stuart Butler
More than a half-million children are in foster care. By definition, they've had it tough. Social service agencies hesitate to remove children from their natural ...
October 2, 2008
A to-do list: Be proactive, build international institutions that work
By James Carafano
Our elected officials in Washington tend to worry about the danger of the day - competing with China, taming Iraq, reacting to Russia, reassuring skittish ...
September 29, 2008
$700 billion bailout? You ain't seen nothin'
By Brian M. Riedl
Think $700 billion to bail out Wall Street is expensive? Just wait. The mortgage meltdown is cheap compared with the coming fiscal firestorm fanned by ...
September 29, 2008
Don't Provide Medicaid Relief Without Demanding Reform
By Dennis Smith
Talk about a helpful prognosis: Cash-strapped states may well get some help from the federal government in meeting their Medicaid budgets.
Washington shares the ...
September 29, 2008
Heat's rightly on for coastal drilling
By Ben Lieberman
Gasoline prices have dropped a little since hitting $4 a gallon, but America’s total energy bill is going to increase as we enter the home ...
September 27, 2008
Gaining Health Care Coverage Without Losing Freedom
By Israel Ortega
Americans are anxious about the future of our health care system — and rightly so. They’re looking for a sensible way to extend coverage to ...
September 26, 2008
Economic freedom on a global scale
By Kim Holmes
The American stock market falls 500 points. The next day, markets in Europe and Asia follow suit. No surprise. The world economy is, well, a ...
September 26, 2008
The wheat and the tares
By Ernest Istook
You can't fix the mortgage mess if you don't understand what caused it. That's not finger-pointing. That's common-sense.
A Biblical parable offers insight into ...
September 26, 2008
The Wisdom of Warriors
By RebeccaHagelin
This election year has generated a lot of talk about the role of America’s military in the Middle East. Less frequently does the conversation turn ...
September 26, 2008
Conservative Victory on Energy
By Brian Darling
Under the command of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Congress rarely produces a decisive victory for the American people and ...
September 25, 2008
Nanny state foibles
By Helle Dale
The fate of British Prime Minister and leader of the Labor Party Gordon Brown ought to be a salutary example for American politicians advocating the ...
September 24, 2008
Mr. Smith Didn't Do This: How free market is Wall Street?
By Michael G. Franc
To liberals, the financial meltdown results from recklessness by Wall Street’s “big banking boys” who, as socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) explains, were “empowered ...
September 24, 2008
Nuclear crunch for U.S.-India
By Lisa Curtis
After three years of painstaking negotiations, dozens of congressional hearings, and the near fall of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government, the final stage of ...
September 23, 2008
A Tale of Two Hackers
By Andrew Grossman
Consider two cases. In one, a suburban housewife posed as a teenage boy on MySpace to learn more about her daughter’s on-again, off-again friend. In ...
September 23, 2008
A Free-Market Fix
By Ed Feulner
Nobody has ever lost money by betting on the federal government to overreact to a crisis. And as Congress weighs a bailout of the financial ...
September 20, 2008
Congress Must Act Now to Stop Sex Offenders
By Charles D. Stimson and Andrew M. Grossman
Members of Congress often justify their actions as being "for the children." So why is it proving so difficult to get them to fully fund ...
September 16, 2008
Voting Greene: Criminal politics
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
Almost everyone expects that this year’s elections will be close, but few realize that the margin of victory could be affected by fraudulently cast absentee ...
September 16, 2008
"Drill, Baby, Drill"
By Brian Darling
Less than two weeks ago, the Republican convention erupted with chants of “Drill, Baby, Drill.” In a recent Quinnipiac poll, 62% of likely voters support ...
September 16, 2008
Defenses for a Dangerous World
By Ed Feulner
It’s easy to get a bit complacent on the security front these days. We’ve gone seven years without a terrorist attack on U.S. soil, and ...
September 15, 2008
Nuclear proliferation endangers world stability
By Bob Graham and Jim Talent
During the first presidential debate in 2004, President Bush and Sen. John Kerry agreed -- as stated by the president -- that ''the single, largest ...
September 15, 2008
Dealing with Russia
By Ariel Cohen
On Aug. 8, Russia decided to rewrite the rules of post-World War II European security. It repudiated the Helsinki Pact of 1975, which recognized the ...
September 15, 2008
Class is in Session - What Will the New School Year Bring?
By Israel Ortega
Change is in the air. The leaves are changing colors, and there is less sunlight -- a sure sign fall is around the corner, bringing ...
September 15, 2008
Malpractice in Massachusetts: How Bay State Policy Undermines Health Reform
By Greg D'Angelo
Three years ago, faced with the prospect of losing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal Medicaid funding, Massachusetts made a deal with Washington. No ...
September 12, 2008
Can American socialism ever be reversed?
By Ernest Istook
Is socialism too entrenched in America to be reversed?
Sen. Jim Bunning is one lawmaker who has had it.
Even as others such as The ...
September 12, 2008
Time for 'Global Freedom Coalition'
By Kim R. Holmes
Conservatives should ask themselves one key question over the remaining months of the presidential campaign: What role should America play in the world?
September 11, 2008
7-Year Itch: GOP and No Child Left Behind
By Dan Lips
was always an awkward marriage. But it appears that after seven years together, the Republican party is preparing to leave behind No Child Left Behind. ...
September 11, 2008
Experience to judge: Lessons from war in Georgia
By Helle Dale
Does experience in foreign policy matter? Here this question is all the rage due to the American crop of presidential and vice presidential candidates. To ...
September 11, 2008
Forgotten Homeland Security Agenda
By David Heyman and James Jay Carafano
The presidential candidates have discussed quite a few issues in this campaign. Strangely, though, voters have heard little about homeland security.
September 10, 2008
Korean Conundrum: What if Kim's Kaput?
By Peter Brookes
NEWS reports that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il has had a stroke could certainly be true. At 66, he's no spring chicken, especially considering ...
September 9, 2008
India marches into modern era
By Ed Feulner
Mumbai, India -- When I told friends I would be visiting India, the immediate response was, "Why? China's the country of the future!" Well, I've ...
September 8, 2008
Why Our Schools Need to Run Like Businesses
By Israel Ortega
Would it make sense to give a Burger King the power to decide whether or not a McDonald’s may open next door? How about if ...
September 5, 2008
Partisanship is alive and well
By Ernest Istook
What politicians say and what they seek are still very often different things.
September 5, 2008
Reagan's Midnight Ride
By Edwin J. Meese III
During the 1980 Republican convention in Detroit, some Republican leaders — mostly from the East — were suggesting that Ronald Reagan should pick former President ...
September 4, 2008
The Eighth Defense Ministerial of the Americas End of the Line?
By Ray Walser and Roman Ortiz
From September 2 to 6, 2008, the Canadian government will host the 8th Defense Ministerial of the Americas (DMA) at scenic Banff in the Canadian ...
September 4, 2008
Making savings the default option
By Stuart Butler
Americans don't save anymore. The U.S. savings rate actually went negative in 2005 -- the first time that's happened since the Great Depression.
September 3, 2008
Bloom Where You're Planted
By Rebecca Hagelin
I don't know who said it first, but I'll never forget who said it first to me: my mother. It was an admonishment to look ...
September 2, 2008
No Retreat Now
By Brian Walsh and Stephanie Martz
The long fight to protect the attorney-client relationship against aggressive prosecutors can only end with legislation
September 1, 2008
Regaining foreign investor confidence in Korea
By Bruce Klingner
Lee Myung-bak's landslide election victory was greeted enthusiastically by foreign investors who expected growth-oriented business-friendly policies, rapid implementation of economic reforms, and Korean ratification of ...
August 30, 2008
Conservatism Isn't the Culprit
By Ed Feulner
Thousands of Republican politicians, activists and partisans are now lining up behind John McCain and preparing to advance into the fall campaign. If they hope ...
August 28, 2008
China's image
By Helle Dale
The Beijing Olympics are now part of history. The question is how they will be viewed. Olympic history has had some extraordinary highs and lows, ...
August 28, 2008
The China Delusion
By Thaddeus McCotter and John J. Tkacik
On Thursday, August 7, President George W. Bush spoke in Bangkok, Thailand about his vision for China’s future. "Change in China will arrive on its ...
August 28, 2008
Unions: What Works -- and What Doesn't
By Ed Feulner
"We must hang together, gentlemen," Benjamin Franklin warned his fellow colonists during the American Revolution, "else, we shall most assuredly hang separately."
August 27, 2008
Russia-Georgia War Highlights Need for Directed-Energy Defenses
By James Jay Carafano
For the second time in recent years, the United States has witnessed another wake-up call for the importance of fielding directed-energy weapons capable of shooting-down ...
August 26, 2008
Preparing the military for defeat
By James Jay Carafano
After the Vietnam War, respect for the military sank to an all-time low. In one survey, sanitation workers were the only profession Americans thought less ...
August 26, 2008
Socialism and the Cold War circa 2008
By Brian Darling
As Labor Day draws near, so too does the return of Congress, something every American should fear.
While the House of Representatives is clearly controlled ...
August 23, 2008
'Persistent Warfare' Not a Winning Strategy
By James Jay Carafano
The new term in the Army lexicon is "persistent warfare." In short, the Army argues that everything from terrorists to global warming will require lots ...
August 22, 2008
Jail could be the location of your next business meeting
By Edwin Meese
A recent brochure from the National Federation of Independent Business Legal Defense Fund depicts a business man, dressed in a jail-type orange jumpsuit, sitting opposite ...
August 20, 2008
A senator in the 'no'
By Ed Feulner
Some years back, a newspaper comic strip showed lemmings running toward a cliff. One said to another, "Don't worry, this was a bipartisan decision."
August 20, 2008
Social Security and Medicare reform: Grading the Wisconsin congressional delegation's proposals
By Brian Riedl
On July 13, the Journal Sentinel opened its pages to Wisconsin’s congressional delegation. Each member weighed in on how he or she would solve the ...
August 19, 2008
Washington running dry on a gas price fix
By Ben Lieberman
If only drivers could avoid high gasoline prices as easily as Congress has avoided doing anything about them.
Gas has dipped below $4 a gallon ...
August 19, 2008
Legislative Lowdown: The Do-Nothing Congress
By Brian Darling
For conservatives who have the stomach to monitor Congress, the 110th Congress has been especially unsatisfactory. Real Clear Politics has Congress with an average approval ...
August 18, 2008
Bad News Bear
By Peter Brookes
The good news is that nearly seven years after Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaida appears to be battered. The bad news is that like a prize ...
August 18, 2008
Arctic oil and the privileged few
By David W. Kreutzer
You hear a lot in Washington about the plight of the middle class. Politicians are often quick to condemn any policy they claim will help ...
August 18, 2008
Getting Government Out of the Way
By Ed Feulner
It’s time, as they say, for some good news and some bad news. First, to get it out of the way, is the bad news: ...
August 18, 2008
The threat of complacency, the hope of faith
By Walter Lohman
Long-time observers of Indonesia's politics and economy are a hardy, stubbornly optimistic crowd. That's because we've seen through too many dire predictions of collapse, disintegration ...
August 15, 2008
Pelosi's Great American con game
By Ernest Istook
Let's hear it for automobiles. They are the great American freedom machines.
August 15, 2008
Preparing the Way: Evangelicals and the election
By Ryan Messmore
Are evangelicals swerving to the left in American politics? Throughout the primary season, the mainstream media loudly trumpeted the idea that younger evangelicals’ attention to ...
August 15, 2008
Environmental Activists, Not Oil Companies, Blocking Domestic Drilling
By Ben Lieberman
It’s true: Hundreds of promising oil leases on federal lands are being stonewalled, contributing to lower supplies and higher prices at the pump. But the ...
August 14, 2008
Saving Georgia
By Helle Dale
World War II history has tragically made a comeback this week. Whether the world has learned any history lessons is critically important in several ways. ...
August 13, 2008
Americans Take Back the House
By Brian Darling
History was made in the House of Representatives on Aug. 1 at 11:20 a.m. when Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) lead a cadre of Republicans, including ...
August 12, 2008
America's Self-Weakening Security Syndrome
By James Jay Carafano
We're told that history repeats itself. Actually, it's people who do that. They repeat their mistakes all the time. That's the real human constant in ...
August 8, 2008
Al-Qaida Shifting Tactics, Finding New Recruits
By Peter Brookes
The good news is that nearly seven years after Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaida appears to be battered. The bad news is that like a prize ...
August 8, 2008
Protectionism 1 - Free Trade 0
By Israel Ortega
Trade's in trouble. With little time left in this year's legislative calendar and an unproductive meeting at the latest Doha Round, it's becoming painfully clear ...
August 7, 2008
Solzhenitsyn's legacy
By Ariel Cohen
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who died Sunday of heart failure at age 89, was a titan in Russian literature and politics of the 20th century. He survived ...
August 7, 2008
Immigration question
By Helle Dale
It never occurred to us that moving to Fairfax County from the District would be a bit like moving to a foreign country. During the ...
August 7, 2008
Hugo's Arms Spree
By Peter Brookes
While Colombia has gone great guns in quashing the narcoterrorist FARC insurgency here - including a daring July hostage-rescue raid - trouble is still brewing ...
August 6, 2008
Stall that slide to the '70s
By Ed Feulner
There aren't many who long for a return to the 1970s. Those of us old enough to recall that decade tend to think of gas ...
August 6, 2008
No Illusions
By Lee Edwards
Alexander Solzhenitsyn is best known for his epic trilogy The Gulag Archipelago, which revealed to the world the full scope of the Soviet Union’s infamous ...
August 4, 2008
Uranium mining: Securing America's energy future
By Jack Spencer and Nick Loris
What does uranium have in common with Arctic oil, off-shore natural gas, coastal wind and cellulosic ethanol? They're all sources of energy that government bureaucrats ...
August 4, 2008
What You're Not Hearing
By Israel Ortega
From rising gas prices and global warming to the war in Iraq and health care, the presidential hopefuls haven’t hesitated to bring up many of ...
August 1, 2008
Congressional self-control: An oxymoron
By Ernest Istook
Lay's sells billions of potato chips with that slogan each year. The U.S. government operates on the same principle, selling us record-high deficits by appealing ...
August 1, 2008
Aircraft Carriers Are Crucial
By Mackenzie Eaglen
On May 22, a serious fire broke out on the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier George Washington as it sailed to relieve the forward-deployed Kitty Hawk in ...
August 1, 2008
Ladies, Please
By Jennifer A. Marshall
A user's guide to growing up female in America.
July 31, 2008
Middle East going MAD?
By Ariel Cohen
The forthcoming Russian anti-aircraft system in Iran may precipitate an early Israeli strike - or promote the posture of mutually assured destruction (MAD) between Israel ...
July 31, 2008
On Teaching War: The Future of Professional Military Education
By James Jay Carafano
Dickens was right, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” No statement better captures the state of professional military education ...
July 30, 2008
The Real Meaning of the 4th of July
By Israel Ortega
Earlier this month our nation celebrated the 4th of July -- Independence Day. For American families, it’s a tradition that involves food, friends and fireworks. ...
July 30, 2008
GOP Fights for Military Voting
By Brian Darling
Sens. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas), along with Reps. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) are engaging in legislative combat for the ...
July 30, 2008
European tour or vacation?
By Helle Dale
Though much of the media likes to clamor about the importance of the "Fairness Doctrine," "fair" was not exactly how one would describe Sen. John ...
July 28, 2008
Job Market, Economy Is Better Than You Think
By James Sherk
Do you have a better job today than when you first started working? Most of us do.
July 28, 2008
Fannie and Freddie: Bail 'em out, then bust 'em up
By J.D. Foster
News that the Treasury is preparing plans to bail out housing finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (FM2) has infuriated the American people. And ...
July 28, 2008
Does Obama Ever Think of Us?
By Nile Gardiner
Barack 's brief visit to London coincided with the opening of the new Batman film in British cinemas. How fitting. On his journey through Europe ...
July 28, 2008
Kyoto Treaty: Pointless Promises
By Ed Feulner
Next month, the greatest athletes in the world will visit Beijing for the Olympic Games. Undoubtedly they’ll set new records in plenty of sports
July 28, 2008
Meet your new boss: Uncle Sam
By James Sherk
If Congress passes the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), it might not matter – the government could make every important decision for your company. ...
July 26, 2008
'Roll back the tax cuts': An exercise in shady financing
By Stuart Butler
It's an election year, so politicians are merrily promising voters all kinds of shiny new programs.
July 25, 2008
Nancy Pelosi: The new George Wallace
By Ernest Istook
There's a Hall of Infamy for politicians who try to obstruct progress.
Alabama Gov. George Wallace qualified for induction in 1963, by standing in a ...
July 25, 2008
Nuclear Power: Lighting the Future
By Rebecca Hagelin
Radical environmentalists didn’t like it when President Bush decided not to use the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions. And they hated his lifting ...
July 25, 2008
Marking the boundaries of weapon use in space
By Peter Brookes
China and Russia are seeking to update the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which, in its new form, would serve to hinder the US's space capabilities ...
July 24, 2008
Doing It Right in the House
By Michael G. Franc
For the first time in a while, House Republicans are on the offense on an issue of national importance: removing obstacles to the production of ...
July 24, 2008
Deja vu again: All aglow, anti-Bush in Europe
By Helle Dale
Did we enter a time warp and somehow miss the general election? Or are the numbers so overwhelmingly in Sen. Barack Obama's favor that he ...
July 24, 2008
IAEA indicts Iran
By Peter Brookes
New intelligence continues to blast away like a sledgehammer at Iran’s rocklike insistence that its nuclear program is purely peaceful and not a nuclear weapons ...
July 22, 2008
Republican Socialism
By Brian Darling
Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) has pledged to block a Bush administration proposal being steamrolled through Congress to grant the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve ...
July 22, 2008
The Wilting Anti-War Movement
By James Jay Carafano
Hearing a presidential candidate "nuance" his position on the war in Iraq seems to surprise some in the media. But it shouldn’t.
July 21, 2008
Bush administration decision weakens Taiwan’s position
By John Tkacik and Gary Schmitt
Not long after becoming president in 2001, George Bush said he would do "anything it takes to help Taiwan defend herself." But when he leaves ...
July 21, 2008
Uphill battle on drilling
By Ben Lieberman
With only six months left in office, President Bush has finally repealed presidential restrictions on oil drilling in American waters. Now it's Congress' turn to ...
July 21, 2008
Constitutional Confusion
By Ed Feulner
Every president, every senator, every member of Congress and every Supreme Court justice takes an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States.
July 17, 2008
Government Is Costing You a Bundle
By Rebecca Hagelin
Congratulations: The rest of your 2008 paychecks belong to you and your family. Enjoy!
July 16, 2008
Fannie and Freddie: Break 'Em Up
By David C. John
With the Treasury and Federal Reserve in effect promising to keep Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac afloat, the mortgage giants' crisis seems to be over. ...
July 16, 2008
Captive Nations Week: Never Forget
By Lee Edwards
Nearly two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism in Eastern and Central Europe, five nations remain “captive” to ...
July 14, 2008
Mortgage Monsters: Fannie, Freddie Will Cost You
By David C. John
The stock of mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae fell sharply this week. The drop not only shows how far they've fallen in investors' ...
July 12, 2008
The Real World: Between Iran and Poland
By Ariel Cohen
The recent Iranian missile tests demonstrate the need to deploy a missile defense capable of mid-flight interception of Iranian warheads, which in a few years ...
July 11, 2008
Power of the personal
By Ryan Messmore
How do we meet people's basic needs in America? The answer often depends on where we stand.
July 11, 2008
Nightmare for the Left
By Ernest Istook
Environmentalists thought they had a lock on the current "progressive" Congress.
July 11, 2008
American workers: Still getting ahead ... for now
By James Sherk
Where will you be in five years? Many claim the American dream has died. Earnings have supposedly stagnated, even while corporate profits boom and health ...
July 10, 2008
U.S.-Czech accord making progress
By Helle Dale
Good news from Europe this week. The cause of missile defense took a significant step forward when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice landed in the ...
July 10, 2008
Mullahs and Missiles
By Peter Brookes
It's not unusual for a state to conduct military exercises, but Iran had a lot more in mind when it literally went ballistic yesterday - ...
July 8, 2008
Champion of Freedom
By Edwin Feulner
Independence Day 2008 — like July 4, 1826, and July 4, 1831 — will long be remembered as a very special day in the history ...
July 8, 2008
No drilling? No excuses
By Ben Lieberman
With gasoline prices above $4 a gallon and no relief in sight, it makes perfect sense to open some of America's extensive off-limits areas to ...
July 8, 2008
Conservative Response to Death Penalty Ruling
By Brian Darling
On June 26, the Supreme Court struck down a death sentence in Louisiana for a man convicted of raping his eight-year-old stepdaughter. In a 5-4 ...
July 8, 2008
Our health, ourselves
Yet feds have HSAs under the knife
By Greg D'Angelo and Ryan Lynch
To get a clearer picture of the competing visions for health-care reform, Americans need look no further than the surgery some in Congress want to ...
July 7, 2008
Rise of the unelected
By Ernest Istook
America's future prosperity may hinge on who wins an internal fight within the Bush administration.
July 7, 2008
State Secrets? Who Needs 'Em?
By Andrew Grossman
If Congress needed a kick in the pants to get moving on intelligence reform, this is it: A San Francisco judge ruled Wednesday that the ...
July 7, 2008
Troubling Statistics for Hispanic Teens
By Israel Ortega
With the recent rise in gasoline prices, we’re all trying to cut corners to make our dollar last longer. For families with teens, this may ...
July 7, 2008
One New Crime a Week
By Brian Walsh
It used to be easy to avoid committing a federal crime. If you avoided murder, rape, robbery, kidnapping, assault, battery and theft, there were few ...
July 7, 2008
IAEA indicts Iran: Nuclear innocence claim is strongly contested
By Peter Brookes
New intelligence continues to blast away like a sledgehammer at Iran’s rocklike insistence that its nuclear program is purely peaceful and not a nuclear weapons ...
July 4, 2008
The American miracle
By Rebecca Hagelin
"Tell us about the American miracle." It was in 1983 when West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl spoke those words to President Ronald Reagan. They were ...
July 3, 2008
Preparing for the G8 summit
By Helle Dale
Next week, the leaders of the G8 countries will be meeting in Hokkaido, Japan, for their annual summit. Once again it will at least provide ...
July 2, 2008
Planned Teen Parenthood
By Daniel P. Moloney
Teenagers aren’t ready to be parents. Their parents would tell them this — if the government would let them.
July 2, 2008
No Room for Negativity
By Ed Feulner
We're about to mark another national birthday. But we don't seem to be in the mood to celebrate. Polls show 80 percent of Americans think ...
June 30, 2008
An Individual Right Rekindled
By Andrew Grossman
“Assuming that Heller is not disqualified from the exercise of Second Amendment rights [e.g., a felon], the District must permit him to register his handgun ...
June 30, 2008
Success of faith-based initiatives prove the power of the personal
By Ryan Messmore
How do we meet people's basic needs in America? The answer often depends on where we stand.
June 30, 2008
Should Terrorist Detainees Have More Rights Than Americans?
By Charles D. Stimson and Andrew M. Grossman
Last week the Supreme Court ruled that terrorist detainees held by the U.S. military in Guantanamo Bay can challenge their detention in federal court.
June 27, 2008
Korean nukes: Don't get giddy
By Peter Brookes
North Korea gave the world some good news this week - finally handing over a declaration about its nuclear program and promising to blow up ...
June 27, 2008
Clear signal needed on disputed isles
By John Tkacik
In March 2004, the last time controversy over the Senkaku (Diaoyutai) islands surfaced, the US State Department affirmed that the United States Mutual Security Treaty ...
June 26, 2008
Unleash America's Energy Potential
By Rebecca Hagelin
As any driver can tell you, the pain at the pump is pretty acute right now. It’s a simple matter of supply and demand. Demand ...
June 26, 2008
Opening America's Energy Potential
By Israel Ortega
Most New Yorkers rely on public transportation to get around. In an age of $4-a-gallon gasoline, they’re lucky.
June 25, 2008
Dueling Voices on School Choice
By Jennifer A. Marshall
The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program has survived the first round of its congressional appropriations gauntlet. But its fate after the full committee has its say ...
June 24, 2008
A Court Divided: Election Likely to Tip the Balance
By Robert Alt
All eyes will be on the Supreme Court this week, as it closes its term by handing down some of the most anticipated decisions of ...
June 21, 2008
The Real World: Iran and U.S. elections
By Ariel Cohen
U.S. President George W. Bush and Senator John McCain have called for an expansion of U.S. domestic oil drilling to Alaska, federal lands and the ...
June 21, 2008
Immigration Reform: A Two Way Street
By Israel Ortega
Immigration. Lately, speaking this one word alone is akin to stirring up a hornet’s nest. Nonetheless, our country needs to do something. Illegal immigration persists, ...
June 20, 2008
'Congressional common sense': An oxymoron
By Ernest Istook
new government claim reminds me of hucksters on late-night TV.
This week, we were told that America will reap $54 billion in benefits simply by ...
June 20, 2008
Why Polar Bears and Politics Don't Mix
By Israel Ortega
After months of relentless lobbying, environmentalists had reason to celebrate recently when the Bush administration named the polar bear a “threatened species.” Should we join ...
June 19, 2008
Who'll lead in Asia?
By Walter Lohman
Occasionally, a simple remark reveals far more about the state of American leadership than any speech, policy statement or white paper. During an official visit ...
June 19, 2008
Ireland's Move
By Helle Dale
Last week, voters in Ireland proved that while their nation has a reputation as romantics, the Irish also possess a great deal of common sense. ...
June 18, 2008
Time to get serious about energy
By Ed Feulner
About 50 miles off the coast of Florida, deep sea rigs are now drilling for oil. That makes perfect sense. For decades, the U.S. has ...
June 17, 2008
Ireland Saves Europe From Itself
By Nile Gardiner
Thomas Cahill’s history, “How the Irish Saved Civilization” may require a second volume after last Thursday’s historic Irish referendum. Ireland’s rejection of the Treaty of ...
June 17, 2008
McCain-Lieberman: Then and Now
By Brian Darling
Four and a half years ago, the U.S. Senate rejected a global-warming bill sponsored by Sens. John McCain and Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) by a decisive ...
June 17, 2008
Wages: It Pays to Look at the Big Picture
By Ed Feulner
Charles Dickens captured the spirit of an era in a single sentence: “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.” For ...
June 16, 2008
The Argentina Farmers' Strike
By James M. Roberts
It's quite a comedown for what was one of the world's wealthiest countries 100 years ago. Argentina's economic glory days are long gone, thanks to ...
June 13, 2008
Gitmo Inmates' Constitutional 'Rights'
By Charles Stimson
In a sweeping decision that will have myriad consequences -- foreseen and unforeseen --the Supreme Court found that the right of habeas corpus under the ...
June 12, 2008
Bush's trans-Atlantic tour: American contributions to European prosperity
By Helle Dale
Did you know that President Bush left on Monday for a week-long trip in Europe? Unfortunately, an outgoing president is not going to command as ...
June 10, 2008
Today's world, the reality of values
By Walter Lohman
In The Post-American World, Fareed Zakaria offers American policy makers an important perspective. He aims to illuminate the new world that U.S. foreign policy must ...
June 10, 2008
The UN Sinks to New Depths
By Nile Gardiner and Ray Walser
Last week’s unopposed election of Nicaraguan Reverend Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann as the next President of the 192-member United Nations General Assembly will further undermine the ...
June 10, 2008
Playing Politics with the Global War on Terror
By Brian Darling
May was a successful month in Iraq on many levels: Attacks in Iraq hit a four-year low, U.S. troop deaths are at their lowest level ...
June 10, 2008
Getting the Bulldozer Back on Track
By Bruce Klingner
President Lee Myung-bak confronts a deepening political crisis that requires a bold proactive strategy to overcome the country's factionalism and put South Korea back on ...
June 9, 2008
Save the Earth, Sacrifice American Workers?
By Ben Lieberman
It may be time to put American workers on the endangered-species list. For nearly 40 years, the environmental movement has all but declared war on ...
June 9, 2008
Road to Clean Air Runs Through Yucca Mountain
By Jack Spencer and Garrett Murch
Take their seemingly never-ending preaching over CO2. The world is in peril without major action, we’re told. According to Al Gore, we’ve never faced a ...
June 9, 2008
Oil: Open Up Federal Lands
By Ben Lieberman
The more we look for oil and natural gas in the United States, the more we find. If only we were allowed to go and ...
June 9, 2008
At This Restaurant, Taxpayers Are Cooked
By Ed Feulner
Recently, an attendant on my United Airlines flight drew groans when she announced that the price of our in-flight meal had gone up. Her captive ...
June 7, 2008
The Real World: Iran and U.S. elections
By Ariel Cohen
Iran is emerging as a key issue in the U.S. 2008 presidential campaign. In his speech to the pro-Israel American Israel Public Affairs Committee – ...
June 6, 2008
Lieberman-Warner: A State-by-State Snapshot
By Rebecca Hagelin
Well, isn’t it just like Congress to take the latest fad -- in this case, “global warming” -- and use it to try to usher ...
June 6, 2008
The not-so-final frontier
By Peter Brookes
China destroyed one of its own aging, low-Earth-orbit (LEO) weather satellites last winter while it was circling at 500 miles above the planet, using a ...
June 5, 2008
For the U.S., it's perception vs. reality
By Helle Dale
Rod Lamkey Jr./The Washington Times Marsha Deane, of Alexandria, pumps her fist, while David Petrella, of Cleveland, waves the American flag outside the Marriott Wardman ...
June 5, 2008
Mexico Needs Reforms
By Israel Ortega
Mexico should open its nationalized oil, natural gas, and electricity sectors to private investment and participation.
June 4, 2008
Carbon-Cap Conundrum Losing Legislation
By Michael Franc
Think the recent spate of Big Government initiatives on Capitol Hill is ambitious? You ain’t seen nothing yet. Move over, $307 billion farm bill. Forget ...
June 4, 2008
Big Money, Big Oil, Big Risk
By Ariel Cohen
Azerbaijan benefits greatly from the rising oil prices so far. Oil at over 125 dollars a barrel brings windfall profits to the country and allows ...
June 4, 2008
Soak the Rich, We All Get Wet
By J.D. Foster
A $1 Million 'Surtax’ Would Mean Less Money For NYC
June 4, 2008
Dealing With the Middle Kingdom
By Jim Talent
The foundation of any successful China policy is American strength.
June 3, 2008
Five myths about the Lieberman-Warner global-warming legislation
By Ben Lieberman
This week, the Senate debates America's Climate Security Act (S. 2191), sponsored by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I., Conn.) and John Warner (R., Va). The Lieberman-Warner ...
June 3, 2008
The Newest Trends in Terror
By Peter Brookes
The good news is that al Qaeda's in bad shape; the bad news is that the terrorist threat is evolving. If we don't adapt, the ...
June 2, 2008
Three Fronts, One Long War
By James Jay Carafano
Americans often are accused of talking to themselves — of seeing the world only through American eyes, American interests, American politics. Hubris runs in the ...
May 31, 2008
The Real World: Oil & shifting geopolitics
By Ariel Cohen
U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Henry (Hank) Paulson is heading to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, to ask the oil producers ...
May 28, 2008
Conservatives Concern with Earmarks, Iraq and Immigration
By Brian Darling
Earmark Reform is a big issue for conservatives, because the American people want to see members of Congress weed out waste, fraud and abuse from ...
May 27, 2008
S. Korea's Uncertain Path With China
By Bruce Klingner
President Lee Myung-bak has articulated policies toward the United States, North Korea, and Japan, but has been curiously silent on defining his administration's relationship with ...
May 27, 2008
War is Expensive, But Defeat Costs More
By Ed Feulner
It's one thing to put a price tag on something. It's another to figure out its cost.
May 26, 2008
Saluting those who serve
By Ed Feulner
For many Americans, Memorial Day marks little more than the start of summer. It's a day off to mow the lawn, go to the pool ...
May 26, 2008
$3.80 gasoline too low? Washington
thinks so
By Ben Lieberman
Millions of vacationers will pay record prices for gasoline as they hit the roads this Memorial Day weekend, and only those who've been in the ...
May 24, 2008
Runaway Oil
By Ariel Cohen
Many oil producing countries benefit greatly from the rising oil prices. Oil at $135 a barrel brings them windfall profits and allows social and economic ...
May 24, 2008
California's Self-Defeating Same-Sex Marriage Decision
By Robert Alt
Last week’s decision by the California Supreme Court, discovering a right to same-sex marriage in the state constitution, was greeted with glee by homosexual-rights advocates ...
May 23, 2008
The home-liest bill yet
By Ernest Istook
Congress continues grabbing every opportunity to expand government, while missing golden opportunities for reform.
May 22, 2008
Burma outside the U.N. umbrella
By Steven Groves
The body count continues to rise in Burma (or "Myanmar" if you accept the name used by the brutal military junta that rules the nation). ...
May 22, 2008
Raoul provides few changes
By Helle Dale
Today has been declared Cuba Solidarity Day by the White House to remind Americans that the citizens of that small island just 90 miles off ...
May 21, 2008
We're under investigation -- by the U.N.
By Nile Gardiner
While hundreds of thousands are dying due to the callous indifference of the military junta in Burma and millions are fleeing oppression and hunger in ...
May 21, 2008
The High Cost of Broken Families
By Israel Ortega
Between 1970 and 2005, the number of children living in two-parent homes has dropped from 85 percent to 68 percent. Essentially, one third of all ...
May 21, 2008
An Unacceptable Farm Bill
By Brian Riedl
With food prices soaring, it takes some gall to force Americans to pay billions of dollars to millionaire agribusinesses. Yet that’s what the latest farm ...
May 20, 2008
Media Ownership, Lieberman-Warner and Farm Bill Facing Congress
By Brian Darling
A week before Memorial Day, many Americans remain uneasy about their personal financial situation, partly because rising energy prices are putting a squeeze on family ...
May 19, 2008
McCain's Global Warming Plan Threatens Economy
By Robert Bluey
Exactly one year after angering conservatives with an amnesty bill for illegal aliens, Sen. John McCain managed to fire up the right again last week—only ...
May 19, 2008
Saluting Those Who Serve
By Edwin Feulner
For many Americans, Memorial Day marks little more than the start of summer. It's a day off to mow the lawn, go to the pool ...
May 17, 2008
Security Gone Wild
By James Jay Carafano
Weapons proliferation is a growing threat, but the spread of nuclear weapons technology and ballistic missiles may not be the gravest danger facing free people ...
May 17, 2008
Ensuring a Healthy D.C.
By Robert E. Moffit
Some things never change. Year after year, David Catania, an Independent at-large member of the D.C. City Council, proposes intelligent, innovative ways to achieve universal ...
May 17, 2008
The Danger in Appeasing Gay Rights Activists
By Ernest Istook
The law was just a plaything to California's Supreme Court, and the justices twisted logic into a pretzel as they legalized same-sex marriage by judicial ...
May 15, 2008
Climate Control: A Costly Proposal
By Rebecca Hagelin
Think energy is expensive now? Wait until Congress plugs in the "Climate Security Act of 2007."
May 14, 2008
DA Faces a Fielder's Choice
By Andrew M. Grossman
Concrete worker Gino Castignoli probably should have to face a few fastballs -- high and inside -- from New York Yankees pitchers Mike Mussina and ...
May 10, 2008
Obama Signals Less Union Oversight
By Robert Bluey
The Labor Department's seven-year effort to improve financial reporting and disclosure by unions could come to a screeching halt once President Bush leaves office.
May 9, 2008
Israel at 60
By Nile Gardiner
Few countries in modern times could claim the title "warrior nation". The United States and Great Britain definitely can, and Israel certainly qualifies for this ...
May 9, 2008
Congressional 'compassion' with your money
By Ernest Istook
Even for Congress, $330 billion is a lot to give away. But the House of Representatives is managing that this week, passing companion bills that ...
May 9, 2008
The Farm Bill and Other Bad Ideas
By Brian Darling
Need proof that Washington lawmakers are out of step with the American people? Consider the farm bill, a Depression-era relic that heavily subsidizes America's agriculture. ...
May 9, 2008
Looking beyond Iran's space launcher desire
By Peter Brookes
Iran's space programme may be about launching its communications or scientific satellites, but Peter Brookes warns of the intercontinental ballistic missile capability that could soon ...
May 8, 2008
Democratic Party of Elites
By Michael Franc
Pundits have feasted on Barack Obama's recent musing that Pennsylvania's rural citizens "cling" to their religion and guns out of embittered economic desperation. Thus far, ...
May 8, 2008
Soldiers, Civilians and 'The Great War'
By James Jay Carafano
Civil-military relations are back in the news. There could not be a better time for fresh views on this vital subject. Nancy Gentile Ford’s The ...
May 8, 2008
London drama
By Helle Dale
You can call him Red Ken -- or the canary in the coalmine of British Labor politics. On Friday, that canary took a nosedive from ...
May 8, 2008
Don't fall for a "windfall" profits tax
By David W. Kreutzer
"Excess profits." That's what oil companies are earning, Barack Obama says -- and he's not alone. Recent earnings reports from these companies have set off ...
May 7, 2008
Sarko Is No Reagan
By Nile Gardiner
When French voters swept Nicolas Sarkozy into the Elysee Palace in May 2007, he was hailed as a brave reformer, a radical free marketeer who ...
May 7, 2008
Food & Federal Fuel Follies
By Ed Feulner
"What could possibly go wrong?" That's what members of Congress probably thought when they started shoveling bigger subsidies at ethanol producers. Now, with food riots ...
May 7, 2008
Out of the Shadows?
By Nile Gardiner
The Labour party's crushing defeat in last week's local elections for England and Wales marks the beginning of the end for New Labour and the ...
May 6, 2008
Lieberman-Warner Climate Change Bill
By Brian Darling
As millions of Americans prepare to spend their “stimulus” checks, the Senate is getting ready to debate what can be described as an enormous anti-stimulus ...
May 6, 2008
Protect the People, Not Just the Bears
By Ernest Istook
Just when we need it most, more of our domestic oil and gas may soon be put off-limits due to yet another overreaction to the ...
May 6, 2008
Tax Hike on the Horizon
By Israel Ortega
There are some days (Christmas, the Fourth of July) that people look forward to, and there are some we dread. April 15 -- the deadline ...
May 5, 2008
High Gas Prices: Fuel for Thought
By Ben Lieberman
When it comes to soaring gasoline prices, we need a federal government that does less.
May 5, 2008
Stop the housing bailout before it undoes all of us
By J.D. Foster
Bailouts, subsidies and slush funds: Such are the main ingredients of the housing bill now stewing in Congress.
May 5, 2008
Polar Bear Politics
By Robert Bluey
Talk about bad timing. Gas prices are spiking and U.S. energy policy is contributing to skyrocketing food costs, yet environmentalists apparently want to make it ...
May 3, 2008
Abstinence: In the "No"
By Rebecca Hagelin
Who could argue with the idea that, when it comes to sex education, our teenagers should be taught to say “no”? Considering what’s at stake ...
May 2, 2008
Flattop Follies: Navy cuts back on carriers
By Peter Brookes
Check this: After cutting the number of active aircraft carriers from 12 to 11 last year, the Navy is now requesting Congress' permission to go ...
May 2, 2008
Gasoline ignites political firestorm
By Ernest Istook
Gasoline prices have hit Washington like a Molotov cocktail. Gasoline prices,
It may be the biggest factor in this fall's elections, so Washington, ...
May 1, 2008
Examining a 'Nation at Risk'
By Ed Feulner
It's all too easy for lawmakers to throw cash at a problem. After all, they're spending somebody else's money. Take the way they've handled (or, ...
May 1, 2008
Enterprise, not laws, will solve foreclosure mess
By Ronald Utt
The collapse of the subprime mortgage market in late 2006 set in motion a chain reaction of economic and financial adversity that has spread to ...
May 1, 2008
Law of the Jungle
By Nile Gardiner
It is hard to believe the United Nations' reputation as an international peacekeeping organization could sink any lower, but it just has. The BBC's flagship ...
May 1, 2008
Still 'A Nation at Risk'
By Dan Lips
Twenty-five years ago, the National Commission on Excellence in Education released the landmark "A Nation at Risk" report. It documented widespread failure in American schools. ...
May 1, 2008
NATO allies put pressure on Russia
By Helle Dale
What do you do when confronted by a bully? The first lesson you learn as a child in the school yard is that reasoning and ...
April 29, 2008
Blame Congress for soaring gas prices
By Ernest Istook
It's time for consumers to strike back against the real culprits behind rising gasoline and food prices.
April 29, 2008
Mind the Homeland Security Gap
By James Jay Carafano
As agencies go, the Department of Homeland Security is still a toddler. Less than half a decade old, it has served under only one administration.
April 29, 2008
Federally Mandated Health Care Ahead?
By Brian Darling
Are we getting closer to socialized medicine? Some in the Senate are pushing for a bill to replace our current flawed health system with one ...
April 28, 2008
Face the Nations: Handicapping the Players in a Multi-Power World
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
Voters interested in keeping America safe, free and prosperous have a choice. Option No. 1: They can follow the presidential race, which may provide some ...
April 26, 2008
Weapons Wal-Mart
By James Jay Carafano
Intelligence officials yesterday briefed key members of Congress on evidence that North Korea was helping Syria build a nuclear reactor like the one that cranks ...
April 26, 2008
Drug policy, from scratch
By Charles Stimson
What would the ideal U.S. drug policy be? What would you keep and reject from current laws?
April 25, 2008
Should poor defendants have the right to counsel in civil cases? No.
By Andrew M. Grossman
In a nation where about one in every 100 workers is a lawyer—where lawyers tout low flat rates in the phonebook and no-risk contingency fees ...
April 25, 2008
Blood weed
By Charles Stimson
Would softening drug laws alleviate or worsen drug violence in the U.S. and Mexico? Charles "Cully" Stimson and Jacob Sullum debate.
April 24, 2008
Let Reagan Go?
By Rebecca Hagelin
I have one question for anyone who would have us "let Ronald Reagan go": Are you kidding?
April 24, 2008
The Second Time as Farce
By Nile Gardiner
If further proof be needed of the terminal decline of the United Nations as a world body that purports to advance human rights, look no ...
April 24, 2008
Take your daughter to work, but talk about home
By Jennifer A. Marshall
April 24 marks the 15th anniversary of Take Our Daughters to Work Day. The Ms. Foundation launched the program in 1993 to introduce young girls ...
April 24, 2008
U.S. relations
By Helle Dale
In the course of presidential election politics, the present inevitably takes a beating. In the discussion of American global leadership, virtually no good news ever ...
April 24, 2008
Gateway to Washington
By Charles Stimson
The last two presidents and two of the current candidates have either used illegal substances or have had substance abuse problems. Does this show that ...
April 23, 2008
Moving Forward to Secure the Border
By James Jay Carafano and Diem Nguyen
Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff has issued two waivers of laws hindering barrier construction and security improvements on the border with Mexico. The Department ...
April 23, 2008
N-power is a fix for Utah energy woes
By Jack Spencer
Coined the Beehive State 160 years ago, Utah connects its beloved symbol with hard-working industry and pioneer virtues of thrift and perseverance. Considering the likely ...
April 23, 2008
Lee, Bush affirm strong bilateral partnership
By Bruce Klingner
The U.S.-South Korean summit meeting successfully emphasized the value of the bilateral relationship in maintaining peace and stability in Northeast Asia. Presidents Lee Myung-bak and ...
April 23, 2008
Raiding states' rights?
By Charles Stimson
Do federal raids of legal local marijuana dispensaries violate state sovereignty? Charles 'Cully' Stimson and Jacob Sullum debate.
April 22, 2008
Strengthening America's Military
Senator Clinton's "Solutions" would fail.
By Jim Talent
Senator Hillary Clinton recently gave a speech in Aliquippa, Pa., outlining her “solutions for strengthening America’s military.” She proposes a speedy withdrawal from Iraq regardless ...
April 22, 2008
Protectionist Congress Losing Latin America
By James Roberts and Ray Walser
In American election years, a theme sure to grab the nation's attention is who "lost" a certain country. In 1952, it was "Who lost China?" ...
April 22, 2008
Conservatives Must Be Aware of Liberal Agenda
By Brian Darling
Foreign Debt Relief. Last week the House passed the "Jubilee Act" to cancel debt for poor countries, a move that could cost Americans billions of ...
April 22, 2008
America on drugs
By Charles Stimson
What's the difference between drug legalization and decriminalization? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each? All week, Reason magazine's Jacob Sullum and attorney Charles ...
April 21, 2008
America's Perils in the Orient
By Peter Brookes
While the world seems ablaze with problems, no area or issue, including terrorism, will shape the course of the 21st century for good - or ...
April 21, 2008
Evangelicals...and Justice From All
By Ryan Messmore
When it comes to faith and politics, young evangelicals are getting a lot of attention these days. Several recent polls and a slew of new ...
April 21, 2008
Getting Defensive
By Ed Feulner
Think your life is a whirlwind? Try stepping onto the deck of an American aircraft carrier. It’s busier (and more efficient) than most major airports. ...
April 20, 2008
Clinton and Obama Fail Economics Test
By Brian Riedl
Wednesday’s Democratic presidential debate between Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama featured pointed barbs, exchanges and one-liners. What it lacked was accurate and articulate statements ...
April 19, 2008
Tough Love
By Israel Ortega
The sky is falling. At least, that’s what politicians who make a living out of pandering to the fear of the masses would like for ...
April 18, 2008
Ethanol: The political fuel
By Ernest Istook
Can it be that not everything green is good? Take ethanol. It's now under attack from its old buddies, the environmentalists. Some other former friends ...
April 18, 2008
The Real World: Putin in Libya
By Ariel Cohen
Russian President Vladimir Putin began a two-day visit to Libya on April 16, the first by a Russian president to the formerly shunned country. The ...
April 17, 2008
Congress & The Mortgage Madness: Leave Things A-Loan
By Rebecca Hagelin
Americans are a compassionate people. Faced with media reports about the rising tide of foreclosures, it’s understandable that many feel tempted to applaud federal action ...
April 16, 2008
Sabotaging Colombia
By Helle Dale
With friends like these, who needs enemies? This thought might well have presented itself to President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia in the last few days, ...
April 15, 2008
How Washington Will Spend Your Taxes in 2008
By Brian Riedl
When tax season rolls around, it’s only natural for taxpayers to wonder just what their hard-earned federal tax dollars pay for, anyway.
Washington will spend ...
April 15, 2008
Leadership event
By John J. Tkacik Jr.
U.S. leadership on human rights faces a severe test on Tibet. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicholas Sarkozy have — despite Europe's burgeoning ...
April 15, 2008
Whither the "Special Relationship"?
By Nile Gardiner
Gordon Brown flies into Washington this week a day after the pope does. The timing is unfortunate for the dour British prime minister, whose D.C. ...
April 14, 2008
War & Pieces
By Peter Brookes
New information continues to blast away at last November's controversial National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on the supposed dormant state of Iran's nuclear weapons program, which ...
April 14, 2008
America Loses by Changing the Rules on Trade
By Terry Miller and Daniella Markheim
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's sudden desire to change the rules on trade agreements carelessly throws into doubt a process that has brought unprecedented economic prosperity ...
April 14, 2008
We'd rather have a Winston
By Nile Gardiner
The US sees the prime minister as lacking the stomach for a war on terror
April 14, 2008
Congress Preparing for Another Spending Binge
By Brian Darling
Congress is on the verge of passing a $50 billion version of the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). This bill would triple the ...
April 14, 2008
Halt the bailout express
By J.D. Foster
Bailouts, subsidies and slush funds: Such are the main ingredients of the housing bill now stewing in Congress.
Bailouts to irresponsible borrowers, many ...
April 14, 2008
An Unexpected Ally?
By Israel Ortega
Now that the Eliot Spitzer administration is behind us, perhaps we can focus our attention again on tackling the most pressing issues facing New Yorkers. ...
April 14, 2008
Homing In on a Solution
By Ed Feulner
During a recent visit to the doctor, I noticed a sign on his wall: “First, do no harm.” That is, of course, part of the ...
April 13, 2008
Immigration Inertia
By James Jay Carafano
"I'm in favor of immigration," Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.) once said. "But we also need rules." Most Americans probably agree. So why are sensible rules ...
April 11, 2008
The Real World: Iran – N.Korea with oil?
By Ariel Cohen
Amid chilling rhetoric reminiscent of Europe of the 1930s, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has promised to give the West a "bloody nose" and "smash it ...
April 10, 2008
Liberals Push Big-Spend Farm and Budget Measures
By Brian Darling
Baseball’s not the only thing in full swing here in Washington. So is Congress’s post-Easter work period. And conservatives had better watch out for liberals ...
April 10, 2008
Dems Damn the Rules
By Brian Darling
Pelosi and Reid opened this Congress pledging a new openness and a respect for the rights of the minority party. Fifteen months later, their actions ...
April 10, 2008
Victims and villains
By Ernest Istook
The media have Mortgage Madness, and politicians have caught
April 10, 2008
Missile defense
By Helle Dale
The decision by NATO members last week in Bucharest to endorse American plans for a third missile-defense site located in Europe represents a huge step ...
April 9, 2008
Why We'll Still Need to Lead
By Kim R. Holmes
Conservatives should ask themselves one key question over the remaining months of the presidential campaign: What role should America play in the world?
April 9, 2008
Will your tax dollars go to mortgage cheats?
By Ernest Istook
These core teachings will be violated if Congress goes forward with plans to spend hundreds of billions to bail out people who lied to get ...
April 8, 2008
Supply, demand and gasoline prices
By David W. Kreutzer
During the summer, television networks don't seem to discriminate in airing re-runs. The miserable shows get re-aired along with the good ones. Washington seems to ...
April 8, 2008
Lee stumbles out of the starting block
By Bruce Klingner
There's a saying in New England: "If you don't like the weather, just wait 10 minutes. It is sure to change." The same can be ...
April 7, 2008
Costs will skyrocket as bureaucrats exert control over private health insurance
By Greg D'Angelo
Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama is mostly right when he says, "The reason people don't have health insurance isn't because they don't want it, it's ...
April 7, 2008
Separation anxiety
By Peter Brookes
While it was welcomed in some parts of the world — including Washington, London, Paris and Berlin — many other capitals viewed Kosovo’s declaration of ...
April 7, 2008
Keep Track of Crack Facts
By Andrew M. Grossman
A new federal law is letting thousands of federal convicts out of prison early, and no one is tracking who these felons are or what ...
April 7, 2008
An Enlightened Debate
By Ed Feulner
A flash of inspiration is known as a light-bulb moment. In an instant, things become clear, like items in a room when you flip on ...
April 3, 2008
Globalize NATO?
By Helle Dale
You have to wonder whether the leaders from the NATO countries, who will be convening Wednesday through Friday in Bucharest, will not feel just a ...
April 3, 2008
A Two-Tier Alliance
By Nile Gardiner
AS THE 26 leaders of the NATO Alliance gather in Bucharest this week for the organization's 59th summit, there will be simmering tensions between the ...
April 1, 2008
FISA Foes Fudge the Facts
By Andrew M. Grossman
It seems pretty simple: The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is the law that U.S. intelligence experts use to sniff out foreign terrorists. Considering that it ...
April 1, 2008
And Now for the British Surge
By Nile Gardiner
As the battle between Iraqi security forces and Iranian-backed Shia militias raged in the port of Basra over the past week, British troops remained largely ...
April 1, 2008
Do Americans today still need labor unions?
By James Sherk
Would you want to work for a company that treats all workers exactly the same, no matter how hard they work? What about one that ...
April 1, 2008
The Trade Two Step
By Israel Ortega
Have you learned the steps to the latest dance sweeping the halls of Congress and race for the White House? If you answered no, it's ...
April 1, 2008
A bear of a dilemma
By Ed Feulner
The drive from Washington, D.C., to Philadelphia isn't long, but it's certainly becoming expensive. On a recent weekend it cost me $65 to fill up ...
April 1, 2008
Deficient Proposal
By Nile Gardiner and Sally McNamara
French President Nicolas Sarkozy is expected to unveil a series of proposals for rejoining NATO’s integrated military command structure at the Bucharest Summit on April ...
April 1, 2008
The Anti-Churchill
By Nile Gardiner
When British Prime Minister Gordon Brown visits the United States next month he is unlikely to receive as enthusiastic a welcome as his predecessor, Tony ...
March 29, 2008
The Real World: OPEC, Master of Universe
By Ariel Cohen
Skyrocketing gasoline prices may be pushing the U.S. economy over the edge, but the oil-rich lords of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries oil cartel ...
March 28, 2008
Mismanaging the Mortgage Mess
By Ernest Istook
Bad decisions travel in pairs. Worse, they sometimes travel in mobs. Consider how government is overreacting to our mortgage mess -- proving the adage that ...
March 28, 2008
Public Housing Coming to Your Neighborhood?
By Ernest Istook
Public housing may be coming to your neighborhood. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., is leading a movement to spend billions of tax dollars to buy homes ...
March 28, 2008
Pack Journalists Miss Iraq Story, Again
By Ken McIntyre
A brutal dictator cooperated with Islamist terrorists, including Osama bin Laden’s future No. 2 man. His own records show the dictator funded, trained and armed ...
March 24, 2008
Perils From Across the Pond
By Peter Brookes
If asked, most Americans wouldn't say that Europe is going to be a big challenge for the next president, especially in comparison with the hotspots ...
March 24, 2008
Eliminating the Rogue Missile Threat
By Ed Feulner
The Sept. 11 attacks proved that even vast oceans can no longer protect the American homeland from a determined enemy. Terrorists are eager to kill ...
March 21, 2008
French Government, Sarkozy a Disappointment
By Nile Gardiner
In the immediate years following 9/11, the news media could always rely on a leading French politician for a sneering, headline-grabbing quote on America’s supposedly ...
March 21, 2008
Congress’ $3,000 per Household Tax Increase
By Brian Riedl
Washington has no budget problems that higher taxes cannot solve. So seems the message from Congress.
The House- and Senate-passed budgets would raise taxes on ...
March 20, 2008
Progress in Iraq
By Helle Dale
What impact would a Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama victory have on U.S. foreign policy, a foreign journalist wanted to know. How would the world ...
March 20, 2008
Old McDonald Had a Scam
By Brian Riedl
Should Taxpayer continue subsidizing millionaires? That's the question Congress is mulling over as it considers reauthorizing farm subsidies doled out by the Department of Agriculture. ...
March 20, 2008
Pakistan Election Rewards
By Lisa Curtis
Extremists may insist that Muslims have no choice but to engage in violent struggle with the West. Last week's election in Pakistan, however, proves otherwise. ...
March 19, 2008
In Iraq, a "Surge" Of Success
By Ed Feulner
Are we succeeding in Iraq? Look no further than the front page of your daily newspaper. What had been a steady barrage of bad news ...
March 19, 2008
Illuminating incident
By Dani Doane
Last year Congress passed a bill aimed at reducing energy consumption. That's a laudable goal. Who doesn't want to save energy?
March 17, 2008
When the Music Dies
By Bruce Klingner
Music may soothe the savage beast, but it won’t change Kim Jong-il’s intransigence in the stalled Six Party Talks.
March 17, 2008
Politics Doesn't Stop-Even for National Security
By Israel Ortega
Picture this: Two terrorists abroad are communicating over email/IM plotting a potential strike in New York City and the surrounding areas. The government knows that ...
March 14, 2008
Special-Interest Sympathy
By Michael Franc
Lobbyists, we hear this presidential season, embody all that’s wrong with Washington. “For seven long years,” Hillary Clinton tells us, “we’ve had a government of, ...
March 14, 2008
The Case for European Missile Defense
By Peter Brookes
After seemingly endless rounds of talks with its Polish and Czech counterparts about fielding a missile defense system in Europe, the United States made some ...
March 14, 2008
The West is Winning in Iraq
By Nile Gardiner
As the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq approaches, the United States has proved her critics wrong -- again. The U.S.-led surge in Iraq ...
March 13, 2008
Treading a Foreign Policy Tightrope
By Ed Feulner
After so many debates, primaries and stump speeches, it's difficult to believe Election Day is still eights months away. But it's probably good that political ...
March 13, 2008
Playing Fast and Loose with Free Trade
By Helle Dale
The longer the Democratic primaries go on, the more we learn about Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. This is obviously a very useful process. During ...
March 12, 2008
Paying the Price to Wipe Out the Enemy
By Rebecca Hagelin
The headline in my local weekly paper was strikingly idiotic:“Ending War through Diplomacy"
March 10, 2008
Disorder in the Court
By Andrew M. Grossman
"Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me," is an old saw, but there’s wisdom in it.
March 10, 2008
South Asia: Cauldrons of Chaos
By Peter Brookes
The next occupant of the White House better have an iron grip on the national-security challenges facing the United States in the geopolitical hotbed of ...
March 10, 2008
The Cyber Challenge
By Peter Brookes
It is no secret that modern warfare is increasingly dependent on advanced computers — and no country’s armed forces are more reliant on the digital ...
March 8, 2008
Prize in Eurasian Game
By Ariel Cohen
The Russian presidential election in which Dmitry Medvedev — Vladimir Putin's choice as his successor — was confirmed by the vast majority of Russian voters ...
March 8, 2008
35 Years of Achievements
By Israel Ortega
For many, “conservatism” is a dirty word. It brings to mind an image of a stubborn, rich, greedy businessman trying to exploit others. At least, ...
March 8, 2008
Health Care Solutions
By Robert E. Moffit
People will suffer needlessly and die before their time if lawmakers don’t fix the health care system.
That’s not clownish propaganda from lefty filmmaker ...
March 7, 2008
The Real World: From Sderot to Jerusalem
By Ariel Cohen
The terrorist who attacked Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva at around 8:30 Thursday night, murdered eight religious students and wounded at least 10, sent a message to ...
March 7, 2008
The Korea-U.S. FTA: Greater Partnership for the Future
By Anthony B Kim
About two years ago, Washington and Seoul jointly announced their intention to negotiate a free trade agreement (FTA).
March 5, 2008
Preserving "Liberty's Best Hope"
By Rebecca Hagelin
Listening to more than a few liberals, you'd think that the biggest problem in the world today is the United States. The "blame America first" ...
March 4, 2008
The Moral Costs of Socialized Medicine
By Connie Marshner
There are moral costs in socialized medicine. Anyone who considers Canada's health system a role model for the U.S. should consider the case of Samuel ...
March 4, 2008
A Better World, Because of Buckley
By Ed Feulner
In this vast universe, the powers of man are surprisingly limited. No one can command that the sun rise or set, that the winds blow ...
March 3, 2008
A Crack-Job on Jail Sentences
By Charles Stimson
Unless Congress acts quickly, on March 3 thousands of convicted felons will be allowed to petition federal judges to get out of jail early.
March 1, 2008
Why Tax Cuts Still Matter
By William W. Beach
Once again, presidential politics has turned to tax policy.
The candidates are debating not only whether the sluggish economy justifies another round of tax ...
March 1, 2008
Management Reshuffle?
By Ariel Cohen
Last December Russian President Vladimir Putin chose Dmitry Medvedev, a first deputy prime minister, to succeed him in the country's presidency. March 2 presidential elections ...
March 1, 2008
Managing Mayhem: The Future of Interagency
By James Jay Carafano
The U.S. Sentencing Commission recently issued new guidelines that make retroactive revised sentences for crack-cocaine possession. But all stakeholders in the criminal justice system — ...
March 1, 2008
Prince Harry The Hero Puts Europe to Shame
By Nile Gardiner
The revelation that Prince Harry has been courageously serving in Afghanistan for nearly three months (under a media blackout) should be applauded by all who ...
February 29, 2008
A New National Strategy for Korea
By Bruce Klingner
The United States welcomed the election of Lee Myung-bak, who they expect to improve strained relations with Washington, implement a more pragmatic policy toward North ...
February 29, 2008
Land of the free and home of the victims
By Ernest Istook
I wish I were a victim. Then people would give me things, and government would take care of me.
That's a dominant message on the ...
February 29, 2008
Osama bin London
By Nile Gardiner
The conviction in London this week of the Muslim fanatic known as “Osama bin London” and five of his followers is a significant blow to ...
February 29, 2008
Bill Buckley: The Founder of the Movement
By Lee Edwards, Ph.D.
Bill Buckley was the founder of the modern conservative movement. Others clearly made major contributions -- Russell Kirk, Milton Friedman, Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan of ...
February 28, 2008
Darfur First
By Helle Dale
It is not often that one has occasion to applaud political pronouncements coming out of Hollywood. It is usually enough to turn your opinion in ...
February 27, 2008
Mullahs in Space
By Peter Brookes
As the world continues to hem and haw about Iran's "peaceful" nuclear program, Tehran continues, slowly but surely, to present clues as to its likely ...
February 27, 2008
Big Labor & The Truth About Colombia
By James Roberts
Delays in approving the U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement is workers and their families in the United States and Colombia.
February 26, 2008
Green Light on Terrorism
By Andrew M. Grossman and Robert Alt
Ordinarily, we wouldn't alert international terrorists that the United States is easing its efforts to detect and dismantle their plots. But since Congress has already, ...
February 26, 2008
In Defense of Defense Spending
By James Jay Carafano
President Bush's proposed defense budget for next year - an inflation-adjusted $515 billion - stands as the most dollars ponied up for the Pentagon since ...
February 26, 2008
Ethanol policy threatens to starve the world
By Ernest Istook
These are leading causes of hunger, according to the United Nations. Soon we may add another. Ethanol.
February 25, 2008
Congress Operates in the Dark Ages
By Robert Bluey
A congressional Web site devoted to spending reform may soon fall victim to a nearly 10-year-old House rule governing online activity. If the Web site ...
February 25, 2008
Public broadcasting should at last spread wings, fly
By Ken McIntyre
Taxpayer-funded public broadcasting has been around almost as long as “60 Minutes.” No wonder it seems part of the family.
February 20, 2008
Dubya's Different Take on Africa
By Brett D. Schaefer and Anthony B Kim
President Bush's trip to five African nations (Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia) is the culmination of seven years of efforts to improve US relations ...
February 20, 2008
Heritage at 35: A Track Record of Success
By Rebecca Hagelin
Seen any liberals wearing black armbands lately? It wouldn’t surprise me. You see, it was 35 years ago this month that The Heritage Foundation opened ...
February 19, 2008
The Reid Doctrine
By Mike Franc
Back in December 2006 with his stint as Senate minority leader still fresh in mind, soon-to-be Majority Leader Harry Reid (D- Nev.) offered an olive ...
February 16, 2008
The Real World: U.S. Intel on Russia, Iran
By Ariel Cohen
What does the U.S. intelligence community really know about the Russian-Iranian axis? On Feb. 5, John Michael McConnell, Director of National Intelligence presented his Annual ...
February 16, 2008
Russia's deja vu parade
By Ariel Cohen
As Yogi Berra once said, "This is deja vu all over again." On May 9, heavy military equipment will once again roll down Moscow's Red ...
February 15, 2008
A Heritage of Conservative Victories
By Ed Feulner
Ask a conservative to name landmark dates in political history, and Jan. 20, 1981 (President Reagan’s inauguration) would be high on the list. So would ...
February 14, 2008
Islam, Britain
By Helle Dale
With all the elegance of a bull in a china shop, Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, last week made a foray into the difficult subject ...
February 13, 2008
Saving the Sailors: Greens vs. National Defense
By Peter Brookes
In spite of a presidential waiver, last week US District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper re-issued a January injunction against the Navy's use of active sonar in ...
February 13, 2008
House Does Terrorism Tap Dance
By James Jay Carafano
The day after the Pentagon announced it would be charging six of the detainees held at Guantanamo Bay with crimes (including plotting the 9/11 strikes ...
February 12, 2008
A Wish List for 2008
By James Roberts and Ray Walser
In 2007, parts of Latin America continued to backslide toward leftist, authoritarian political rule. However, mixed into the record were many positive developments for democracy ...
February 12, 2008
Israel vs. Iran: 1st Strike Strategies
By Peter Brookes
In late December, Tehran crowed that its 1,000-megawatt Bushehr nuclear plant, supposedly meant to produce peaceful nuclear energy, would be “online” as early as this ...
February 12, 2008
Maritime Defense: A Sinking Feeling
By Edwin Feulner
Even the strongest military powers are often paralyzed by an age-old weakness: They tend to focus on past threats rather than on future ones.
February 12, 2008
Future Combat Systems: Dispelling Widespread Myths of the US Army's Primary Modernization Program
By Mackenzie Eaglen and Oliver Horn
A year into the invasion of Iraq, then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld visited Iraq-bound soldiers in a remote desert camp somewhere in Kuwait. With the ...
February 11, 2008
The Link between Economic Opportunity and Prosperity
By Israel Ortega
What accounts for the economic success of some countries and the shortcomings of others? Why do some countries boast high per-capita income while in others ...
February 9, 2008
Fiscal Action Now
By Mike Franc
“Every member in this chamber,” President Bush said during last month’s State of the Union address, “knows that spending on entitlement programs like Social Security, ...
February 9, 2008
The Real World: Iran's space rocket launch
By Ariel Cohen
On Feb. 5, just a few days before the 29th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered the launch of a ballistic rocket ...
February 9, 2008
Heritage Foundation: Don't Burn the Byrne Grants
By Cully Stimson
Americans have a love-hate relationship with crime. We’re fascinated with it — as long as we’re not the victims. We love watching "Law & Order" ...
February 8, 2008
Standards must be urgent priority to keep nation secure after 9/11
By James Jay Carafano
Members of the 9/11 Commission suggested it. Twice, Congress passed laws requiring it. Yet, more than six years after the 9/11 attacks, America still lacks ...
February 7, 2008
Forward Progress
By Helle Dale
Last week brought the good news that an unfortunate dispute between the United States and one of its best allies in Europe found the promise ...
February 7, 2008
New Hope for Zimbabwe
By Tom Woods, Roger Bate, and Marian L. Tupy
Zimbabwe's economic meltdown and political repression just keep accelerating. Four million Zimbabweans have now fled the country, and most of the 8 million remaining there ...
February 7, 2008
Nuclear energy: Power play
By Jack Spencer and Nicolas Loris
Maryland's Allegheny Energy recently mailed two compact fluorescent light bulbs to each of its customers. Imagine the indignation when those customers noticed a $12 charge ...
February 7, 2008
GITMO's Secret Chamber
By James Jay Carafano
Since 9/11, the biggest disaster of the long war on terrorism has been the Bush administration's response to concerns about its wartime detention policies. This ...
February 6, 2008
Missile Defense Delay Undermines Security
By Peter Brookes
The US and its allies are leaving themselves dangerously vulnerable to attack if they fail to implement the ballistic missile defense system that has been ...
February 6, 2008
The Other State of the Union
By Mike Franc
His State of the Union address began with a focus on our government’s foremost responsibility -- national security. This, the first of many bold policy ...
February 5, 2008
Congress Will Send Billions To Tax Cheaters
By Ernest Istook
Cheaters never win? They’ll win billions from the “economic stimulus” package that’s rushing through Congress. Over five million people who file phony tax returns can ...
February 2, 2008
The Real World: Olmert's Reprieve
By Ariel Cohen
Amid a rare Jerusalem snowstorm the Winograd Commission, named after its chairman, retired Tel-Aviv district court president judge Eliyahu Winograd, has finally publicized its much-expected ...
February 1, 2008
Nuclear Safety Paranoia
By Jack Spencer
On January 4, The Washington Post ran a front-page story about guards found asleep at a nuclear power plant. The article also contained accusations that ...
February 1, 2008
School Choice for Foster Children
By Dan Lips
As a foster mother to 23 children, Rep. Michelle Bachmann appreciates the many challenges faced by foster children — and those who care for them. ...
February 1, 2008
Bush's Freedom Agenda
By Helle Dale
It was not exactly a farewell speech, but there was still a sense of the passing of the baton at President Bush's State of the ...
January 31, 2008
Uncle Sam's Latin Challenge
By Peter Brookes
MAINTAINING - or regaining - America's influence in our own neighborhood will be a key challenge for the next US president.
January 28, 2008
Nothing Stimulating About This Deal
By Robert Bluey
I wouldn't want Hank Paulson negotiating on my behalf. The U.S. treasury secretary did such a poor job representing the White House in negotiations on ...
January 28, 2008
Laying the Groundwork for a Military Victory
By Baker Spring
George W. Bush is in the last year of his presidency. Yet the greater war against terrorism will continue long after he’s out of office.
January 26, 2008
Risky Rate Cuts
By Rea Hederman
Faulkner's observation could easily apply to the Federal Reserve's recent move to stimulate the US economy and stem the precipitous downturn in many stock markets ...
January 26, 2008
Stimulating Bad Ideas
By Ernest Istook
Washington lawmakers are excited because they've found a formula that works. Not a formula to fix the economy, but a formula for how to spend ...
January 26, 2008
The Real World: Big powers, limp sanctions
By Ariel Cohen
A mountain of diplomacy has given birth to a molehill of sanctions. Аfter months of negotiations, the troika (United States, China and Russia), as well ...
January 24, 2008
Remarkable Progress in Iraq
By Helle Dale
Not every dark cloud has a silver lining, but $100 per barrel oil could have at least one: the boost it is providing for Iraq's ...
January 23, 2008
Encouraging a more creative, competitive America
By Terry Miller and Anthony B. Kim
America has a duty to further the cause of freedom, the president asserted during a major speech in the waning months of his second term. ...
January 23, 2008
Poverty and Hunger: Why the Government's Not the Answer
By Israel Ortega
Thanks to the endless media coverage of the upcoming Presidential election, there is no shortage of candidates talking about the plight of Americans facing tough ...
January 23, 2008
Bad News Bears
By Peter Brookes
The next American president will likely face an increasingly frosty relation ship with an increasingly mighty Mother Russia.
January 22, 2008
Government Handouts Won't Help Economy
By Robert Bluey
President Bush doesn't like to admit he's made mistakes. But if White House chatter about an economic stimulus package is true, the president is about ...
January 19, 2008
Economic Growth the Right Way
By Mike Franc
Whenever Congress assembles an economic “stimulus” package during a campaign year, the election season quickly degenerates into silly season.
January 19, 2008
Lieberman Exits Stage Right. Is Olmert Next?
By Ariel Cohen
Ehud Olmert's final hour as Prime Minister is getting a lot closer.
January 19, 2008
Don't make provocative statements
By Lisa Curtis
If the U.S. has good, actionable intelligence against Al Qaeda leaders in the tribal areas, it should certainly act on it — in coordination with ...
January 18, 2008
A Strategic and Moral Imperative
By Lisa Curtis
Let’s say the U.S. gets fed up with an undemocratic Pakistan and abandons its alliance out of principle. How would that affect the war on ...
January 18, 2008
Profiles in Change
By Edwin Feulner
The presidential campaigns have boiled down to one word: “change.” Candidates from both parties insist they’re agents of “change.” Elect me, each says, and our ...
January 18, 2008
We Can't Afford Congress Any More
By Ernest Istook
We can't afford Congress. It's driving America's cost-of-living through the roof.
January 17, 2008
The Link Between Freedom & Prosperity
By Rebecca Hagelin
If there's one thing the American experiment proves, it’s the power of freedom to transform lives. If you let people control their own destinies, there's ...
January 17, 2008
Stoneridge Sanity
By Robert Alt and Brian Walsh
In a refreshing act of judicial restraint, the Supreme Court yesterday resolved one of the most important business cases of this term. In a 5-3 ...
January 17, 2008
The Big Three
By Mike Franc
In deciding who would make the best president, conservatives should elevate a few issues above the others. Here’s my issues-based checklist:
January 17, 2008
The historic ties are deeper than any leader
By Lisa Curtis
Benazir Bhutto was no angel, but she may have been the savior Pakistan needed at this critical moment in its history.
January 16, 2008
Boost Pakistanis' confidence in elections
By Lisa Curtis
Most Pakistanis doubt that free and fair elections can be held with President Pervez Musharraf at the helm. He has squandered his credibility over the ...
January 15, 2008
A Race Everyone Wins
By Edwin Feulner
Every January, there's new proof that competition forces everyone involved to get better. That's when millions of Americans tune in to the NFL playoffs, where ...
January 15, 2008
"Good News" Headlines for 2008: 10 Positive Changes Washington Can Achieve This Year
By Mike Franc
For years, now, Congress has been collared with a "do-nothing" label. Gridlock born of bitter partisanship seems to be the nature of the beast.
January 15, 2008
Nicaragua: Daniel Ortega's First Year
By James Roberts
Daniel Ortega's renewed anti-American rhetoric, destabilizing economic policies, and friendship with Chávez and Ahmadinejad bode ill.
January 15, 2008
Public Elected Officials: Hispanics Want School Choice
By Israel Ortega
Here's a suggestion for a New Year's resolution for politicians -- listen to Hispanic Americans who support school choice. It's an issue of paramount importance ...
January 15, 2008
An alliance that has saved American lives
By Lisa Curtis
Brian, I agree that the U.S. fixation on supporting individual undemocratic leaders in Muslim nations has contributed in some cases to strengthening Islamist extremist movements. ...
January 14, 2008
Your Right to Vote on the Ballot
By James Sherk
As American voters go to the polls to select the Republican and Democratic presidential nominees, few are aware that their right to vote in private ...
January 14, 2008
A Pay Raise for Poor Performance
By Robert Bluey
Members of Congress return to Washington this week $4,100 richer. During their three-week vacation, the annual cost-of-living adjustment kicked in, bringing the salary of a ...
January 10, 2008
Changing the Middle East
By Helle Dale
How many times have we heard it, and how many times will we hear it again before November — this election is about change? Thanks ...
January 10, 2008
Tax Rebates Will Not Stimulate The Economy
By Brian Riedl
With slower economic growth raising fears of a recession, Washington is abuzz with talk of economic stimulus plans. President Bush may offer a stimulus package, ...
January 9, 2008
Economic Paradigm Shift
By Bruce Klingner
Contrary to assertions that the landslide victory of Lee Myung-bak represented a rejection of ideology; it was, in fact, a mandate for conservative principles, including ...
January 9, 2008
The Pakistan problem
By Peter Brookes
Perhaps no word better describes Pakistan today than "uncertainty." From questions about the security of its nuclear arsenal to its political turmoil, from the resurgence ...
January 8, 2008
Making 2008 A Year to Celebrate
By Edwin Feulner
Political reporters love a horse race. Bruising campaigns -- with their polls, promises and pandering -- offer endless excitement for scribes. By contrast, day-to-day governing ...
January 8, 2008
Parents, Do Your Homework
By Edwin Feulner
This is a time of the year when, as the popular holiday song goes, "Mom and Dad can hardly wait for school to start again." ...
January 7, 2008
Cracking the Code
By Edwin Feulner
To win votes, candidates highlight areas where they disagree. So throughout this election year, we’re sure to hear plenty about the differences between the presidential ...
January 7, 2008
Fighting Vote Fraud With Photo ID
By Robert Bluey
All eyes will be on New Hampshire Wednesday morning for the first true primary in the 2008 elections. But even as hardy New Englanders trudge ...
January 5, 2008
Earmarks Still A Problem
By Mike Franc
To better understand the never-ending policy struggles between the president and Congress, consider the uniquely different perspectives that both bring to the legislative process.
January 5, 2008
The Real World: Oil at $100
By Ariel Cohen
Is $100 oil a cause to celebrate? The answer is, yes -- in the short term, and no -- in the long term. The answer ...
January 4, 2008
San Diego Prosecutors Devise Welfare Fraud Strategy
By Charles Stimson
Imagine a government welfare program that is efficient, helps the needy by giving them money within 10 days of their application for benefits, and eliminates ...
January 3, 2008
Iran's Dangerous Nuke Game: Why Israel Might Rush to Strike
By Peter Brookes
Iran turned up the heat this week on still-simmering concerns about its atomic aspirations. It crowed that its 1,000-megawatt Bushehr nuclear-power plant would be "online" ...
January 3, 2008
Cover story
By Helle Dale
As the media does its traditional review of the past year, Time magazine's choice of "Person of the Year" once again comes as a puzzlement. ...
January 3, 2008
4,000 sacrificed to vindicate 3,000
By Tony Blankley
In Iraq, as military and security conditions continue to improve, American war politics enters one of its stranger moments in our history. Certainly it is ...
November 20, 2009
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