Posts Tagged ‘Heritage Foundation’
The United States of America demoted to “Mostly Free”
by Terry Miller, Heritage Foundation blog, January 20th, 2010
The United States is losing ground to its major competitors in the global marketplace, according to the 2010 Index of Economic Freedom released today by the Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal. This year, of the world’s 20 largest economies, the U.S. suffered the largest drop in overall economic freedom. Its score declined to 78 from 80.7 on the 0 to 100 Index scale.
The U.S. lost ground on many fronts. Scores declined in seven of the 10 categories of economic freedom. Losses were particularly significant in the areas of financial and monetary freedom and property rights. Driving it all were the federal government’s interventionist responses to the financial and economic crises of the last two years, which have included politically influenced regulatory changes, protectionist trade restrictions, massive stimulus spending and bailouts of financial and automotive firms deemed “too big to fail.” These policies have resulted in job losses, discouraged entrepreneurship, and saddled America with unprecedented government deficits.
Read more at http://blog.heritage.org/2010/01/20/the-u-s-isnt-as-free-as-it-used-to-be
Ranking the countries at http://www.heritage.org/Index/Ranking.aspx
Hey, we’re Number Eight! (Behind Canada?)
U.S. Will Pay $2.6 Million to Train Chinese Prostitutes to Drink Responsibly on the Job
by Edwin Mora, Tuesday, May 12, 2009
(CNSNews.com) — The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAA), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will pay $2.6 million in U.S. tax dollars to train Chinese prostitutes to drink responsibly on the job. Dr. Xiaoming Li, the researcher conducting the program, is director of the Prevention Research Center at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit. The grant, made last November, refers to prostitutes as “female sex workers”–or FSW–and their handlers as “gatekeepers.” . . . Li said his study is being done in China rather than the U.S. because prostitution occurs with alcohol use in the United States like it does in China, Americans will be able to benefit from the project’s findings.
Read more at http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=47976
(The above is one of) 50 Examples of Government Waste
Read more examples at http://blog.heritage.org/2009/10/08/50-examples-of-government-waste/
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These are just a few examples of why we have a TRILLION dollar deficit (along with TARP etc.)
President Obama’s Agenda Would Bring $13 Trillion in Budget Deficits, Not $9 Trillion
September 22, 2009
by Brian M. Riedl
Heritage Foundation Backgrounder #2319
Abstract: President Obama’s budget will likely produce $13 trillion in deficit spending over the next 10 years–nearly $4 trillion more than forecast. The White House figures are based on unrealistic estimates of discretionary spending, interest payments, and interest rates. The White House also used budget gimmicks to hide the full cost of certain entitlements and failed to account for the full costs of cap-and-trade energy legislation and health care reform.
The White House’s mid-session budget review recently forecast that President Barack Obama’s budget would create $9 trillion in budget deficits over the next decade–more debt than America accumulated from 1789 through 2008 combined.[1] Yet even that figure likely understates the 10-year budget deficit by nearly $4 trillion. It completely excludes the proposed new health care entitlement, underestimates other costs, and fails to include the full price of major legislation that the President has endorsed. A more realistic budget estimate incorporating all these costs shows:
* An additional $5 trillion in spending, $1 trillion in revenues, and $4 trillion in deficits over the next decade;
* Budget deficits adding $13 trillion to the national debt over the next decade;
* The national debt held by the public surpassing $20 trillion by 2019, reaching nearly 100 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) (See Chart 1);
Read more at http://www.heritage.org/Research/Budget/bg2319.cfm
This has been a bi-partisan problem, as shown in I.O.U.S.A. (the movie)
Now its just getting out of hand. “At least the fall of the Republic is being televised in HD.”