The Foundry

Iran’s government announced that it was pushing ahead with plans to enrich uranium to 20 percent levels, ostensibly to fuel a research reactor.

The latest Iranian zig zag came only days after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed that Iran was open to a deal on exchanging some of its stockpile of low enriched uranium for fuel for a research reactor that the United Nations offered last year. Ahmadinejad suggested that he had made the decision to escalate Iran’s enrichment efforts because western powers failed to accept Iran’s counter-offer: “We gave them two-to-three months’ time for such a deal. They started a new game and now I (ask) Dr Salehi to start work on the production of 20 percent fuel using centrifuges.” Salehi was in the audience at the ceremony.

Iranian nuclear official Ali Asghar Soltanieh today told the Associated Press that Tehran will shortly begin to further enrich some of its 1.8 ton stockpile of low enriched uranium to produce fuel for a research reactor that it claims produces medical isotopes. Such a step would also bring Iran much closer to producing more highly enriched uranium that could be used to arm a nuclear weapon. Continue reading...

Last week, Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke delivered a speech at the National Press Club titled “Back to Basics: A Blueprint for Exports-Driven Job Growth,” and remarked that “[President Obama’s National Export Initiative] will correct an economic blind spot that has allowed other countries to chip away at America’s international competitiveness.” The secretary also stated that “The United States is the most open major economy in the world…And that’s not going to change!”

Well, unfortunately, “empirical reality” tells us a different story. According to the 2010 Index of Economic Freedom, a data-driven study by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. economy has fallen from the top tier “free” category. Recent years’ economic policies have dramatically accelerated this decadency. Falling behind Canada, the United States is now a “mostly free” economy.

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In what was seemingly an outlandish Super Bowl commercial, the “Green Police” could become all too real.  Though the cap-and-trade legislation appeared to die in the Senate after the passing the House, that doesn’t mean the war of environmental regulations is over. Liberals could still force draconian environmental restrictions on us anyway. Tucked into the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency (run by unelected bureaucrats) is money to enact “laws” that will force us to comply with new emissions standards. This commercial would be funnier if it wasn’t so true.

A year ago, President Obama warned the American people that the financial crisis was dire and required a whole new approach to government spending. Obama argued that the government must help America spend its way out of the recession, and his economists, using Keynesian multipliers, argued the “stimulus” would keep unemployment below 8.2 percent (PDF).

Conservatives were skeptical, and pointed out that many of the government jobs would take a year or more to materialize, but Obama replied that we must be patient and keep spending. Conservatives pointed out that many of the stimulus projects were wasteful, and pork-ridden, but the consistent response from supporters of the President’s plan was that any stimulus is better than no stimulus. The economist behind the administration’s theory of stimulus pending, the late John Maynard Keynes, argued that any spending is better than no spending, famously saying that the government could bury money and let people dig it up and this would be superior to not spending at all. Obama supporter and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman has publicly endorsed this position. Continue reading...

Hundreds of thousands of recession-induced retirements are proving to be terrible news for the Social Security Administration, leading to the total decimation of its annual surplus for the first time in 25 years, according to USA Today. But this morning’s headline really doesn’t qualify as “news,” per se, given that Social Security has been headed toward dark territory for quite some time.

The chief actuary for the Social Security Administration said of today’s “news” that, “Things are a little bit worse than had been expected.” He understates the true extent of the problem.

This year marks a tipping point for Social Security – for the first time in 25 years, Social Security outlays will exceed revenue, according to Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reports. What’s more, as The Heritage Foundation has warned, Social Security will begin running permanent deficits by 2016.

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The Pentagon’s release of the Ballistic Missile Defense Review confirmed that North Korea could be able to deploy a nuclear-tipped ballistic missile capable of striking the United States within the next decade.

The Washington Times reports that the review expressed serious concern over North Korea’s two underground tests and its attempt to develop a long-range missile.

The Pentagon’s review also highlighted U.S. intelligence’s concerns about the Iranian nuclear program and their pursuit of “long-range ballistic missiles.” The report comes a day after Iran announced that it had launched a rocket into space, calling attention to the regime’s serious efforts to gain this dangerous technology. Continue reading...

In an article today titled, “Cash-Strapped States Feeling Burden of Snow,” Delaware and New Jersey lament how much money they have spent on snow removal this winter.  With budget deficits hitting most states, those two states aren’t the only ones who will be looking for cash to pay for the snow removal. One source may by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) given its recent history of issuing declarations for these type of routine events.

In its entire 57 year history, FEMA has issued 293 declarations for “Winter Storms“. From 1953 to 1992, FEMA only issued 37 declarations for Winter Storms. These declarations accounted for only 13% of all Winter Storms declarations in FEMA’s history. As we have documented, starting in 1993, FEMA began issuing declarations for more and more events that historically had been handled entirely by the states.

The remaining 87% of Winter Storm FEMA declarations were issued over the last 17 years. Specifically, during Bill Clinton’s eight years in office, FEMA issued 108 declarations for Winter Storms; George W. Bush issued 128 FEMA declarations for Winter Storms in his eight years; and Barack Obama has issued 20 FEMA declarations in his first year in office, which would put him on track for roughly 160 FEMA declarations for Winter Storms should he serve two terms. Given the federal budget deficits, FEMA can’t afford to cover 75% of the costs of state snow removal either. It is high time for this federalization of routine events to come to a halt and for states to plan and budget for what are known events every year.

Although the feckless spending of successive Labour Governments has resulted in massive decline for Britain, there is one thing that Gordon Brown got right on the economics front: he denied Tony Blair’s plans to take Britain into the single European currency.

Launched in 1999, the Euro has been the bedrock of European elites’ dream for a United States of Europe. And there’s the rub: founding a major economic program on the basis of a supranational political dream meant there was surely trouble ahead. Nowhere is this more visible than in Greece today (and in Portugal and Spain), where their governments’ desperately need national monetary and fiscal controls to restore some semblance of confidence in their economy. Instead, Greece is forced to endure the same interest rate as Germany, Cyprus, Finland, France, and Slovenia among others; unable to devalue their currency or enact measures that will restore economic competitiveness.

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Right before the Super Bowl, President Barack Obama spoke about health care reform with CBS News’ Katie Couric: “I want to come back and have a large meeting, Republicans and Democrats, to go through systematically all the best ideas that are out there and move it forward.”

According to aides, the President envisions a half-day meeting on February 25th held in Blair House (a building across the street from the White House) presumably televised by C-SPAN. President Obama’s conciliatory rhetoric aside, everyone knows this publicity stunt has nothing to do with actually considering conservative health care reform ideas and everything to do with the appearance of transparency and bipartisanship. The New York Times reports: “In making the gesture on Sunday, Mr. Obama is in effect calling the hand of Republicans who had chastised him for not honoring a campaign pledge to hold health care deliberations in the open, broadcast by C-Span, and for not allowing Republicans at the bargaining table.”

And the reality is that Democrats have no intention of including conservative ideas this late in the game. The Washington Post reports that White House officials “said the president will come to the health-care summit armed with a merged version of the two bills that Democrats strong-armed through the two chambers with almost no GOP backing.” And The Post adds that Congressional Democrats show no signs of intending to listen to new ideas either: “In separate statements Sunday, Democratic leaders praised the president for calling the bipartisan summit but made clear they are not prepared to give up on the progress they made last year.” Continue reading...

House Cloakroom: February 8 – 12

Analysis:

Last week President Obama released his new budget which would spend an additional $1.7 trillion. Heritage budget analyst Brian Riedl breaks that down in his analysis of the budget here.  On top of that the House passed and sent to the President a $1.9 trillion dollar debt limit increase.

As the Senate moves to take up a supposed “jobs” bill, the House with pivot back to health care.  The final language is still being worked out but they expect to take up a bill to remove antitrust exemptions for health insurers, which is a provision that does have some bi-partisan support. This could be sign that Congress could pivot to taking up smaller portions of the broader health care reform bill.

Lastly, the House is also expected to take up an Intelligence Authorization bill. Continue reading...