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The Obama administration is proposing to replace the only remaining Republican member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the body which oversees the U.S. government’s international radio and television broadcasts. This move is “a power grab that is as outrageous as it is brazen,” The Heritage Foundation’s Helle Dale writes.
Dale explains the BBG’s role in promoting America’s interests through public diplomacy: Continue Reading »
With the debate over the proposed Farm Bill heating up, The Heritage Foundation’s Daren Bakst and Diane Katz ask and answer 10 questions about the wayward bill.
The “farm bill” is a deceiving name name for this recurring piece of legislation. It is really just a food stamp bill mixed with numerous agriculture subsidies. Bakst and Katz note that “the vast majority of spending—about 80 percent in the 2008 bill—is dedicated to food stamps and other nutrition programs.” This isn’t really a farm bill — it’s a welfare bill.
The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the Gang of Eight’s immigration bill on Tuesday. It will go to the Senate floor after the Memorial Day recess.
Heritage Foundation experts created the infographic below to explain a principled alternative to this bad bill. Our plan secures the border and fixes the broken immigration system. Share this graphic with your friends on Facebook!
The Obama administration has dismissed questions about the Benghazi debacle as a purely political “sideshow.” A new The Heritage Foundation’s video, below, exposes the administration’s repeated dissembling on the terrorist attack that left four Americans dead.
Demand the truth. The American people deserve answers.
Apple executives were called in to testify before members of Congress yesterday. They were accused of “shifting” profits abroad to avoid paying taxes.
The fact of the matter, though, as Heritage Foundation tax expert Curtis Dubay told Fox Business yesterday, is that the money hasn’t been shifted at all because it wasn’t earned in the U.S. “I can’t go down to the Apple store here in Washington, buy an iPad, and have Apple then ‘shift’ that income abroad,” he said.
The U.S. corporate tax rate is the highest rate in the world. As long as it remains so exorbitant, successful businesses like Apple are going to keep their foreign income abroad.
Heritage’s Amy Payne has more:
The reason the Senate feigned indignation over an issue that had nothing to do with the U.S. is that some Members want Apple to pay more U.S. tax on all that foreign cash. They want Apple to bring all of that profit back into the U.S. and pay the U.S. corporate tax rate—the world’s highest—on it. But as long as we keep the U.S. rate the highest in the world, Apple and other multinational businesses are going to keep their foreign income abroad.
Apple has not done anything illegal by minimizing its tax liability. Because of America’s extremely high corporate tax rate, many companies don’t return to the U.S. what money they earn abroad. While other countries have been making efforts to cut their corporate tax rates, the U.S. has been making it more and more difficult for U.S. businesses.
Do you think Apple should pay more in taxes? Or should we fix the tax code to stop punishing successful firms?
He didn't know? Photo: Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images
President Obama says he didn’t know about the multiple scandals involving his administration, including the IRS harassment of conservative groups. But as the chief executive, shouldn’t President Obama be held responsible for these scandals?
If this were the business world, the answer would be “yes,” The Heritage Foundation’s Daniel Dew explains: Continue Reading »
“On May 19, the United States hit its debt ceiling after adding $300 billion in more debt since lawmakers suspended the ceiling in February,” Heritage’s Romina Boccia reports.
That’s $300 billion in new debt in less than four months.
Hitting the limit, she says, is part of an ongoing pattern: Continue Reading »
The IRS scandals are especially troubling since that’s the agency that’s in charge of administering much of Obamacare. “The scandals coming to light over the last week perfectly make the case for why Congress must eradicate the law from the statute books,” Heritage Foundation President Jim DeMint argues.
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Congress is currently debating the so-called “farm bill,” which Heritage Foundation experts Daren Bakst and Diane Katz call “a multi-billion-dollar tangle of agriculture subsidies, welfare payments, and environmental patronage.”
In fact, this legislation is really a food-stamp bill with farm programs tacked on. As Bakst and Rachel Sheffield explain, this approach allows urban and rural lawmakers to join forces to spend taxpayer money. Continue Reading »
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It’s no secret American leadership in the world is growing weaker. Our decreasing influence can be traced to the Obama Doctrine.
With his goal to make the United States “an equal partner” rather than an “exceptional” nation, President Obama has sought to remake American foreign policy. For years, The Heritage Foundation has explored and tracked the Obama Doctrine. Heritage’s Helle Dale explains the four main tenets identified by authors Kim Holmes and James Carafano. They are:
Becoming weaker in the world’s eye is not advantageous for the U.S.. Dale explains:
Soft power has not advanced the cause of political reform or peace in the Middle East following the Arab uprisings. And regimes like those of Syria, North Korea, and Iran display little fear of consequences from a U.S. in global retreat.
While the Obama Doctrine has made America weaker abroad, he has pushed for a stronger and more intrusive government at home. Recent scandals aside (IRS, AP spying, Benghazi), Obamacare is a prime example of a power-grab. As Heritage president Jim DeMint wrote in yesterday’s Morning Bell, Obamacare is a means by which President Obama can jockey for more power through the IRS: “ Obamacare grants it (IRS) massive new authority.”
Do you think President Obama needs to reevaluate his policy priorities?