The Obama campaign and liberal groups are suing to block Ohio legislation that would allow military personnel to vote more easily using absentee and early ballots. Heritage Foundation election law expert Hans von Spakovsky explains:

Ohio still allows the relatively small number of voters qualified under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) to vote early through the end of the day before the election. The essence of the Obama campaign’s complaint is that providing any extra time to such a special class of voters is “arbitrary and capricious” and therefore a violation of the Equal Protection Clause.

Continue Reading »

NATO should work to foster enduring and friendly relations with its countries outside of the North Atlantic region. After a tumultuous spring in North Africa and the Middle East, solid relationships in these regions are crucial to preserving security for America and our allies.

Heritage Foundation expert Luke Coffey explains:

NATO already has structures in place to better cooperate with partners in this part of the world, but little has been done to enhance these relationships.

Continue Reading »

Opponents of voter identification are quick to argue that requiring a valid ID discriminates against minorities and disenfranchises legal voters. However, new data from the Office of Kansas Secretary of State indicate that new photo ID requirements are making it “easy to vote and hard to cheat.”

According to a recent Heritage report by Hans A. von Spakovsky and Katie Beck,

Contrary to the assertions of opponents to voter ID laws that there are large numbers of American voters without a government-issued photo ID, Kansas has had to issue a remarkably small number of IDs to individuals who did not already have one since its new law became effective—just 0.002 percent of registered voters.

In other words, most registered voters actually do have valid forms of ID. Therefore, the new Secure and Fair Elections Act of 2011, which requires valid photo identification, has not placed an undue burden on voters. Kansas’s law allows for nine different forms of photo identification, special exemptions for those who object to photo identification for religious reasons, and free government-issued photo identification.

During the local elections that have taken place since this law went into effect, only 84 of 68,047 voters did not present a photo ID. Most of these people simply forgot. While opponents of voter identification laws believe otherwise, Kansas is proving that requiring a photo ID at elections  is not too much to ask.

Do you think voters should be required to present a photo ID in November?

The European Union believes that resuming aid to Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe and lifting certain sanctions will build momentum for long-term reform.

Such thinking is misguided, The Heritage Foundation’s Morgan Roach explains:

Under the unity government, Mugabe and his Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) have continued to abuse power and violate the rule of law. Considering that the draft constitution is viewed as a flawed document that makes too many concessions to ZANU-PF, the EU is rewarding the regime for complying with an action that it is not likely to contest in the first place.

No real reforms have materialized. For example, the government continues to stifle free speech and opposition political views. And the country’s proposed new constitution will not protect basic human rights or establish a representative government.

The United States should keep its current restrictions and discourage other nations from providing aid or removing sanctions. Until Zimbabwe demonstrates real commitment to reform, the US itself should continue to demand changes.

What do you thing the US should do about Zimbabwe?

Even before the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare, Medicaid was already “financially unsustainable and administratively unworkable.”

Now, with the Supreme Court’s ruling that Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion mandate is unconstitutional, the law is on an even “faster pace to collapse,” explains Heritage expert Nina Owcharenko.

And because “half of the reduction in uninsured ‘promised’ under the law was based on mandating that states expand Medicaid,” Obamacare will cover fewer people than advertised.

States “should not buckle under this pressure” to expand their Medicaid programs, Owcharenko argues.  Medicaid programs are already struggling in many states to cover costs and to provide quality services. Even with federal support, expanding programs will strain already tight state budgets.

Do you think states should expand Medicaid programs? 

At several key moments during the fiery debate over passing Obamacare, President Obama assured Americans that they could keep their current health care plans, “no matter what.” The promise seemed shaky then, and now even his own administration confesses that this just isn’t the case.

The Heritage  Foundation’s Alyene Senger explains that

Under Obamacare, grandfathered plans are not subject to preventative services mandate, a subset of which is the anti-conscience mandate that requires almost all non-exempted employers to provide and pay for abortion-inducing drugs, contraception, and sterilization.

In other words, your existing health insurance plan is not subject to Obamacare requirements, including the anti-conscience mandate. But there’s a catch. Continue Reading »

The Obama administration may have been thrilled with last week’s Supreme Court’s ruling on Obamacare, but they evidently weren’t satisfied with the ruling earlier in the week on Arizona’s immigration law.

“Immediately after the Supreme Court issued its decision, the Obama administration did the equivalent of taking its marbles and going home,” Heritage experts Matt Mayer and John Malcolm write.

The administration responded by terminating a successful joint federal-state immigration program– which amounts to “a childish slap in the face of the Supreme Court, Arizona, and any other state that might challenge its authority.”

The administration said it will end the so-called 287(g) partnership between the Department of Homeland Security and Arizona law enforcement that allows state officers to verify the immigration status of those in their legal custody.

The Supreme Court ruled that executive priorities concerning immigration cannot trump Congressional and state policies. Yet the Obama administration persists in violating Arizona’s power to enforce a state law that is entirely in line with federal law. While the Court has affirmed that the executive branch must respect state authority, it has yet to be seen whether this administration will respect the Court’s.

What do you think of the Obama administration’s actions?

Unions were originally created to give a voice to under-represented workers and to work in their members’ best interests.

Now though, many unions are doing just the opposite by refusing their members compensation for hard work. Not only do many union contracts set wage floors, they also establish pay ceilings. This prevents employers from offering wage increases without negotiating with the unions first.

Congress is now considering legislation that could improve this system. Heritage Foundation expert James Sherk and attorney Ryan O’Donnell explain: Continue Reading »