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January 31, 2006 | By Nathaniel Ward
The Senate pulls through
By a narrow and largely party-line vote, the Senate confirmed Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court this morning. Four Democrats joined 54 Republicans to vote for confirmation; 40 Democrats, independent Jim Jeffords (VT) and Republican Lincoln Chafee (RI) voted against.
Just yesterday, a handful of die-hard liberals in the Senate chose to “stand up for principle”—in this case a “principled” defense of a judiciary that rejects the Constitution as it’s written—and try to prevent an up-or-down vote on the nominee. Fortunately, almost half the Democrats broke with their extreme-Left colleagues and defeated the filibuster by a vote of 72-25.
Chief Justice Roberts, another strong Bush nominee confirmed last fall, swore in the 110th Supreme Court justice earlier this afternoon, allowing Justice Sandra Day O’Connor to retire after nearly a quarter-century on the bench. A ceremonial swearing-in will take place tomorrow.
Preparing for the State of the Union address
Tonight at 9 pm Eastern, President Bush will deliver his annual State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress.
Last week in The Chicago Sun-Times, Heritage President Ed Feulner outlined what President Bush should talk about:
- Remind America that we remain at war against terrorists and note that despite setbacks we are prevailing in this fight
- Explain the link between the tax cuts and the booming American economy and push for the cuts to be extended
- Vow to restore fiscal discipline and reduce government spending—which is vital if we are to preserve both short-term and long-term fiscal health
- And insist that Congress work to reform the broken entitlement systems before it’s too late
There are a few other things he should talk about too. For example, the President should push Congress to finally open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, thereby decreasing America’s dependence on foreign oil. As Heritage’s Ben Lieberman explains, this is a common-sense and essential step, especially when international oil supplies are in turmoil. And the President must lay out a solid foreign policy agenda, Helle Dale explains, including an endgame for Iraq, a strategy for the future of the war on terrorism, and a plan to deal with Iran’s hardliners.
Be sure to visit MyHeritage.org tomorrow to get our assessment of the President’s proposals in his State of the Union address.
Covering the uninsured
The President is also expected to address health care, an important issue as over 40 million Americans lack any health coverage at all. This lack of insurance, of course, makes health insurance costlier for the rest of us, since we have to pick up the tab for the uninsured when we visit the doctor.
Working with Heritage health care experts Bob Moffit and Ed Haislmaier, Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA) has developed an innovative solution to this problem that he hopes to implement in Massachusetts.
Speaking last Friday at The Heritage Foundation, Gov. Romney explained his program:
- Ensure that those eligible for Medicaid, the extremely poor, are all enrolled in the system
- Provide poor residents who do not qualify for Medicaid with state-subsidized insurance options from the private insurance market—plans with low co-pays, no deductibles and premiums along a sliding scale based on income
- Require uninsured Massachusetts residents—those who can afford insurance but chose not to purchase it—to purchase affordable private insurance through an “insurance exchange” which allows small businesses and uninsured individuals to purchase care with pre-tax dollars
As it turns out, all this would cost as much as covering the uninsured in the state, so there’s no expansion of government programs and no increase in spending.
Heritage’s Ed Haislmaier goes into further depth about this pioneering program on National Review Online.
Grading national security
It’s been more than four years since terrorists murdered 3,000 innocent Americans on September 11, 2001. So now’s a good time to step back and see how well we’ve improved our national security to address this and other threats.
To kick off the review effort, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) visited Heritage’s Lehrman Auditorium yesterday to discuss President Bush’s efforts to date. “The President has done a great job, and he deserves a good grade,” the second-ranking member of the Armed Services Committee said. “His accomplishments have been phenomenal.”
The Senator said President Bush took office with a military left in disarray and a number of threats that had been ignored for years, including terrorism. Since then, he said the President has done an admirable job of getting the nation back on course, though many challenges remain.
For further details on Sen. Inhofe’s remarks, including his full list of challenges and accomplishments, read the full account on MyHeritage.org.
In other news
Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.
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