If there was any doubt where President Barack Obama’s ideological heart lies, yesterday he let it be known loud and clear in a wide-ranging speech in Osawatomie, Kansas. President Obama is at his core a dyed-in-the-wool progressive who sees the federal government as the answer to all of America’s problems. And he is charging full steam ahead on this far-left course toward Election Day 2012, despite the total failure of his big-government policies and an American people who have flatly rejected the message he is trying to sell. True to … More

Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman clarified his position on how policymakers should deal with climate change.  In a speech Tuesday at The Heritage Foundation he said, “There’s not enough information right now to be able to formulate policies.” Even if there were a consensus that there is global warming, and it’s man-made, then the United States  might still choose not to take unilateral action, he added. Premature political action, he noted, could jeopardize economic recovery for a potentially ineffectual attempt to tackle the issue.  “The scientific community owes us more,” … More

Another year, another hopeless climate talk. This time, the annual U.N. climate change summit is taking place in Durban, South Africa. It looks painfully like another misguided attempt to convince developed countries to shoulder global emissions targets while redistributing wealth to developing countries. This approach, again, is likely to fail—despite China’s recent announcement that it would consider accepting a legally binding agreement. For the past 17 years, one U.N. climate talk after another has failed over the same basic issue. While top-down international policymaking may sound appealing to those whose … More

Another round of leaked e-mails from the University of East Anglia’s (UEA) Climatic Research Unit have surfaced, once again illustrating why governments should not be making serious policy decisions based on mainstream climate science. Several of the following excerpts not only call into question conventional “climate change” wisdom but also suggest the selective use of information with an agenda in mind: Observations do not show rising temperatures throughout the tropical troposphere unless you accept one single study and approach and discount a wealth of others. This is just downright dangerous. … More

The Grumpy Troll Restaurant and Brewpub is one of over 22,000 companies that received $16,000 cash grants from the federal government to install solar panels on their roofs as part of the 1603 Treasury grant program, a 2009 stimulus bill provision that provides cash grants to help foot the bill of renewable energy projects, mostly wind and solar but also biomass, landfill gas, fuel cells and geothermal heat projects. The 1603 program was set to expire at the end of 2010 but was extended another year. The government has doled … More

Relations between the United States and the Philippines remain strong, said former President Fidel Ramos of the Republic of the Philippines at Heritage on Wednesday. He referred to the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) between the two countries, saying the people of the Philippines consider the U.S. a “strong ally,” “valuable partner,” and a part of the “extended Filipino family.” Ramos stressed the importance of the MDT during a time when China currently claims the South China Sea. The MDT calls on the U.S. to join the Philippines against “common … More

For the past few decades, the federal government has continuously increased its power over local schools, through funding with strings attached, with depressing results. Since the 1970′s federal spending on education has nearly tripled, yet student achievement has remained flat and graduation rates have not improved. However, that increased spending has had a major impact on the amount of red tape, paperwork and administrative costs imposed on local schools and teachers, taking valuable time away from their core mission – educating children. While federal policymakers are busy spending billions to … More

ABC’s political blog The Note included a comment from yours truly in a recent piece on the Solyndra scandal. We appreciate the folks at ABC reaching out, of course, but I’d just like to provide some context for my remarks. Here’s what ABC’s Amy Bingham wrote: “What Solyndra really speaks to is the large issue of how government intervention can sort of hide the normal profit-and-loss signals that direct private investors,” said Lachlan Markay, an investigative reporter with the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. He said the public nature … More

Sometime next week—we don’t quite know when—President Barack Obama is due to announce his latest jobs plan designed to lift America out of its unemployment doldrums. And though we also don’t know the exact details of the plan, there’s a pretty good chance it will include several key components we’ve heard before, one of which is the extension of unemployment benefits. Much like the President’s other likely initiatives, this idea isn’t a new one, and the White House has made the argument before that unemployment benefits are the best thing since … More

Driving the conversation: The east coast of the United States is bracing itself for a pounding from Hurricane Irene, expected to hit on Saturday. North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut have all declared a state of emergency. While the dangers to residents are worrisome, some commentators are wondering whether the economic damage wrought by the hurricane might make for its most devastating impact. Oil prices have already risen on the news that refinery closures could disrupt supply on the east coast. New York Times statistician Nate … More