During his State of the Union address this month, President Obama called for a universal preschool program. The idea is that widespread preschool will boost students’ educational achievements later in life.

The fact is, however, that universal preschool–which is on the books in Georgia and Oklahoma–is costly and has not been demonstrated to improve educational achievement.

The Heritage Foundation’s Lindsey Burke explains that these programs don’t raise test scores as liberals suppose. “In fact, in Oklahoma, fourth-grade reading test scores have declined since 1998, when the state first implemented universal preschool,” Burke explains. Continue Reading »

Mike Needham

Mike Franc

Before last week’s State of the Union address, Heritage Foundation vice president Mike Franc joined Heritage Action for America CEO Mike Needham for a conference call with Heritage members.

Listen to a recording of this teleconference using the controls below or download in MP3 format.

Click to enlarge.

In his State of the Union address last week, President Obama shaped his rhetoric abound the ideas of fairness, particularly when it comes to taxes.

Yet 49 percent of U.S. households pay no federal tax at all. And a Heritage Foundation chart shows the top 10 percent of income earners paid 70 percent of all federal income tax in 2008.

Is that really fairness?

In President Obama’s  speech, he described his vision: “If you make more than $1 million a year, you should not pay less than 30 percent in taxes.” He dubbed this the “Buffett Rule,” named for billionaire Warren Buffett, who claims that he pays a lower tax rate than his secretary.

The Heritage Foundation’s Curtis Dubay explains the reality:

He pays a 15 percent rate on those gains when he realizes them. But before he enjoys those gains, the businesses that generate them pay the highest-in-the-world 35 percent corporate income tax rate. In reality, Buffett pays 50 percent on the income he earns- far above the rate his secretary pays.

Continue Reading »

In Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, President Obama declared the Taliban’s momentum broken and said some troops have already begun to come home.

Unfortunately for the President, his statement is wildly inaccurate and misleading. And we aren’t the only ones to note the discrepancy, according to The Heritage Foundation’s Robert Warshaw:

The President’s inaccurate statement was duly noted by the Associated Press’s SOTU fact check, which highlighted findings of the latest National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Afghanistan. The classified NIE, representing the consensus view of the U.S. intelligence community, reportedly declares the war a “stalemate” for the time being but also warns that as the U.S. precipitously withdraws, the Taliban will grow stronger, bolder, and more threatening. Continue Reading »

In this week’s Heritage in Focus, Heritage director of communications, Rory Cooper, discusses the president’s State of the Union address. Click here to listen.

What’s Heritage’s take on the State of the Union? What’s something Americans should have heard in the speech, but didn’t? What’s the best way to put our country on the right track?

Make sure to listen to hear answers to these questions and more!

Photo: White House

President Obama’s State of the Union address yesterday was essentially a repeat of last year’s speech, The Heritage Foundation’s Mike Brownfield writes in today’s Morning Bell.

He continues:

The speech was notable for the items he did not mention, including many of the failed spending programs and policies he undertook over the past three years, the foreign policy and defense challenges he has exacerbated, and the economic actions he failed to take that would have created jobs and spurred economic growth.

Heritage experts weighed in during and after the speech to provide principled conservative responses. The speech, they argue, promised ever more spending, failed to address long-term entitlement programs and failed to offer American leadership to the world. Read all these analyses and more on The Foundry. Continue Reading »

Dr. Ed Feulner, President, The Heritage Foundation

Thousands of Heritage Foundation members joined Heritage President Ed Feulner on a conference call during which he explained the challenges conservatives will face in the next two years. Held just hours before the State of the Union Address, Feulner’s remarks also previewed The Heritage Foundation’s expectations for the speech.

This town hall-style call was intended to be an open dialogue between Heritage members and our experts. Members came ready with great questions about the elections, Congress, politics in Washington, The Heritage Foundation – whatever they wanted to know about.

For those of you who missed our call or were unable to participate,   listen to the full audio of last week’s teleconference below.

Every Friday at noon Eastern, The Heritage Foundation holds a live chat with our experts on the day’s most important issues. This week, Heritage’s Director of Communications, Rory Cooper, will answer your questions about conservative alternatives to the proposals President Obama laid out during his State of the Union speech Tuesday night.

Tune into the chat today at noon Eastern.

From the moment President Obama began his State of the Union address last night, Heritage Foundation experts were on call, offering reactions based on sound research and conservative principles. While the speech was going on, the Heritage Twitter account offered responses in real-time, keeping our almost 100,000 followers informed about how Heritage research squared with the President’s statements.

Immediately following the speech, our Foundry blog posted a roundup of commentary from Heritage’s experts in fields such as education, health care, entitlements and family values. Today’s Morning Bell included additional analysis and reaction to the address. (Not a Morning Bell subscriber? Sign up today.)

Finally, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) will continue the discussion during a live webcast for Heritage’s Facebook fans at 11:30 a.m. Eastern. Heritage’s fans will be able to submit questions to the congressman by posting comments on the Facebook video.

Immediately following the speech’s airing, The Foundry posted a blog entry with commentary from Heritage’s top experts in fields such as education, health care, entitlements, and family values, to name a few.

Today’s Morning Bell was also devoted to Heritage’s response to the State of the Union, offering insights into what the President’s talking points should have included.

This morning at 11:30am, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) will offer his response to Heritage’s Facebook fans in a live webcast event. Heritage’s fans have the opportunity to comment on the post, and some of the questions posted will be asked during the event.

The State of the Union is scheduled for tonight at 9:00 p.m. Eastern.  Reps. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Michelle Bachmann (R-MI) will deliver responses after the speech concludes.

The Heritage Foundation and its experts, however, will be offering responses real-time. While the State of the Union is aired, Heritage experts in areas such as education, defense, economics, and foreign policy will be live tweeting their reactions, including links to Heritage research and analysis. Their tweets will be reposted by the main Heritage Twitter account.

Follow their comments live starting at 9:oo p.m.

In today’s Morning Bell, Conn Carroll previewed the State of the Union, warning not to believe the President’s rhetoric about a sudden desire for a decrease in government spending.