Heritage experts unpack President Obama’s speech

By Nathaniel Ward

The Heritage Foundation's policy experts covered President Obama's address to the Congress live on the Foundry blog last night. They responded in real time to the points the President raised on issues such as foreign policy, energy, taxes, spending and education.

» Follow all the action on the Foundry.

Should D.C. be represented in Congress?

Lawmakers seem determined to grant the District of Columbia representation in the House of Representatives — in spite of the oath they took to defend the Constitution.

Writing in The Heritage Guide to the Constitution, legal expert Lee Casey explains that the Constitution is explicit: representation is limited to the states. And Heritage experts Joesph Postell and Nathaniel Ward take on activists for representation, explaining that "those who value the true interests of the District should defend the existing arrangement, which promotes the collective responsibility of Congress to preserve the welfare of the federal city."

» Read the rest of the article at MyHeritage.org

— David Talbot

Measuring the 'fiscal responsibility summit'

President Obama hosted a "fiscal responsibility summit" at the White House on Monday. On the campaign trail and as President, he has several times called for reducing the budget deficit and tackling runaway spending on entitlement programs.

These are important goals that The Heritage Foundation shares. Reforming out-of-control spending on entitlement programs will be "one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century," Heritage experts Brian Riedl and Alison Fraser said in a memo to President Obama. Current spending on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid is unsustainable, they explain:

In the coming decades, the cost of these three programs will leap from 8.4 percent to 18.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP)--an increase of 10.2 percent. Without reform, this increased cost would require either raising taxes by the current equiva­lent of $12,072 per household or eliminating every other government program. Funding all of the prom­ised benefits with income taxes would require rais­ing the 35 percent income tax bracket to at least 77 percent and raising the 25 percent tax bracket to at least 55 percent.

» Read the rest of the article at MyHeritage.org

— David Talbot

Heritage's response to the 'stimulus'

Over the last several weeks, Heritage Foundation experts worked tirelessly to highlight the flaws in the so-called 'stimulus.' Here are just a few of our successes.

• Heritage experts had over 42 meetings with members of Congress and their staff.
• Heritage experts were cited on the stimulus in more than 750 newspaper clips.
• Heritage analysts completed over 255 radio and TV interviews regarding the stimulus bill.

» Read about the rest of Heritage's impact on the 'stimulus' debate at MyHeritage.org

> Other Heritage work of note

• European Union legitimacy is disintegrating, writes foreign policy analyst Sally McNamara on Heritage's Foundry blog. President Vaclav Klaus of the Czech Republic, Polish President Lech Kaczynski, and the Irish people continue to resist the Lisbon Treaty, which McNamara says would "transfer vast powers from member states to the European Union." President Klaus compared attempts to silence opposition to the Soviet oppression of Eastern Europe: "With no opposition, there is no freedom."
  
• The automakers who recently received a massive government bailout are already asking for more — $22 billion of taxpayer dollars. (Only in an age of trillion-dollar debt plans does $22 billion seem like small beans.) Here is an update on the first round of bailouts from The Foundry blog.
  
• This chart from Heritage's Center for Data Analysis, which demonstrates how high corporate taxes are hurting America in the global market, appeared in today's Washington Examiner:
  
  

> In other news

• The Associated Press has the scoop on the cost to taxpayers of big-government health-care "reform": $634 billion.

• The House of Representatives has passed a massive $410 billion domestic spending bill for fiscal 2009. The AP reports that "the legislation would provide increases of roughly 8 percent for the federal agencies it covered"—a massive boost for government at a time when individual Americans are tightening their belts.

• President Obama nominated former Washington governor Gary Locke to be his Secretary of Commerce. Is the third time the charm?

• Al Gore pulled a dramatic slide from his famous and infamous global warming presentation after is was sharply criticized as misleading.

• Negotiations between the Treasury and Citigroup, the nation's third largest bank, are looking more and more like nationalization.

> Coming up at Heritage

To attend these or any other events at Heritage please RSVP at Heritage's website. Or you can view these events live online. All times are Eastern.

• On Thursday, February 26 at noon, author Indur Goklany will debunk myths popularized by global warming propagandists.

• On Friday, February 27 at noon, a panel of experts will discuss why bankruptcy is still better than a bailout for automakers.

Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation. David Talbot contributed to this report.