What is President Obama's Education Agenda?
Yesterday, President Obama delivered a major speech on education in an effort to garner support for his Race to the Top grant program and his push for national education standards and tests. The President’s remarks came on the heels of a speech delivered by Education Secretary Arne Duncan on Tuesday at the National Press Club, during which Duncan attempted to paint the Administration’s policies as part of a “quiet revolution.”
After 100 Days, How Is the Gulf Faring?
Over the last four weeks, The Heritage Foundation sent multiple teams of respected energy, environment, homeland security and response experts to the Gulf to study the federal response to the oil spill. These three delegations, with more to come, have traversed the areas hit hardest by the crisis, talking to response workers, affected oil crews, fishermen, elected leaders and BP representatives. What we found is simple: President Obama’s administration has turned a crisis into a disaster, and someone needs to be held accountable.
What Are the Problems with the New START Treaty?
At the height of the debate over Obamacare, when the White House's leftist allies were in full panic mode, The Washington Post's Ezra Klein accused Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) of being "willing to cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people." Lieberman's crime? He opposed including an expansion of Medicare in the health regulation bill. Now that the President's signature foreign policy achievement, the New START nuclear agreement with Russia, is on the ropes, the left is again back to their hyperbolic ways. Ploughshares Fund president Joseph Cirincione told The Associated Press last week: "A delayed ratification with a close vote would be a blow to U.S. leadership around the world. People would doubt the President's ability to negotiate other agreements."
Member Questions of the Week of July 26
David Roetman of Sioux Falls, SD asks: "How does defense spending compare to GDP and non-defense spending? (The reason I ask is that many people I speak with insist that defense spending is much higher than 4.7 percent because of 'our overseas empire.'")
OUR ANSWER: You're right. Many Americans believe the U.S. government spends far more on defense than it really does. Defense spending is actually near historic lows, and the Obama Administration's budget would reduce it to levels unprecedented during wartime, according to this backgrounder by Heritage expert Mackenzie Eaglen. In a few years, even 4.7 percent will be too high a figure: Between 2010 and 2015, total defense spending is set to fall from 4.9 percent to just 3.6 percent of GDP. The administration defends these cuts with what Heritage expert Kim Holmes calls "disingenuous arguments of frugality intended to put conservatives on the defensive." Here at Heritage, we think the federal government has a constitutional responsibility to provide for the common defense. Defense budget cuts that will weaken future necessary modernization and other programs are not the way to do that. So much government spending is unnecessary, but defense spending doesn't fall in that category.
Other Recent Questions
- What Does the Decision About Arizona's Immigration Law Reveal?
- What is in the President's "Mid-Session Budget Review"?
- Would Ronald Reagan Sign the New START Treaty?
- What Does the Death Tax Teach Us About Obama's Tax Agenda?
- Why Is America's Relationship With Britain So Important?
- Member Questions of the Week of July 19, 2010