American Freedom and Enterprise Foundation

US Falls in Index of Economic Freedom

admin — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 18:59:56 +0000

Last week the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal released the annual Index of Economic Freedom. Thanks to burdensome government regulations, increased federal spending and government intervention in the free market, the US has fallen to number 10 - entrepreneurs are discouraged in this environment.

Heritage Event with Karl Rove in St. Louis

admin — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 12:00:20 +0000

The Heritage Foundation will host a Panel Discussion and Dinner featuring Karl Rove. The panel discussion will feature Heritage experts including Honorary Chair Jim Talent. The dinner will feature a keynote address by Karl Rove.

http://www.myheritage.org/events/

Sen. Jim Talent warns House Budget Committee on the Price of Weakness

admin — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 18:25:20 +0000

Hearing examined Budgeting for America’s National Security

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Former Sen. Jim Talent provided Chairman Paul Ryan and members of the House Budget Committee with an update on the grave condition of America’s military urging them to prioritize the government’s most basic responsibility: national security.

“There is unquestionably a cost to sustaining military strength, and the Budget Committee must take that cost into account,” Talent said. “But there is also a price to be paid for weakness; it can be very substantial and if the Committee is going to budget honestly you must take that into account as well.”

Talent’s testimony illustrated the need to fund the military at the level that gives the greatest chance for peace and security in the future.

“The good news is that making the right decisions now will expand the range of palatable alternatives in the future; the inherent resiliency of the volunteer force and the people who constitute it may make it possible to recover our strength sooner than might reasonably be expected,” Talent concluded.

The full text of Talent’s testimony will be available at http://budget.house.gov.

Talent currently serves as a Distinguished Fellow at the Heritage Foundation and was a member of the Quadrennial Defense Review Independent Panel. He represented Missouri in the United States Senate from 2002-2007. He served on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

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Sen. Jim Talent to Testify before House Budget Committee

admin — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 15:48:07 +0000

Testimony Will Focus on Budgeting for America’s National Security

Contact: Katie Smith 314-625-5107

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Former Sen. Jim Talent, a Distinguished Fellow at the Heritage Foundation and a Member of the Quadrennial Defense Review Independent Panel, will testify on Capitol Hill Thursday to address budget necessities to protect America’s national security.

Senator Talent will provide Chairman Paul Ryan and House Budget Committee members with an update on the condition of America’s military and its likely condition in the future if current trends continue.

The hearing will be broadcast live on the Committee website: http://budget.house.gov

To learn more about Senator Talent’s work on defense issues go to: http://bit.ly/JimTalent

Who: Senator Jim Talent

What: House Budget Committee Hearing on National Security

Date: Thursday, July 7, 2011

Time: 10:00 am EDT

Where: 210 Cannon House Office Building and live on the web at http://budget.house.gov

Jim Talent statement on Osama bin Laden

admin — Tue, 03 May 2011 15:46:12 +0000

Yesterday, former Senator Jim Talent issued the following statement on the death of Osama bin Laden:
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/266194/devil-has-companion-jim-talent

‘The Devil Has a Companion’

May 2, 2011 10:54 A.M.

By Jim Talent

When it was announced that Hitler had died, my grandmother commented: “The Devil has a companion.” Thanks to our heroic American special operations forces, the Devil has yet another companion.

Many people are commenting that this event, while satisfying, portends no major change in what President Obama refuses to call the War on Terror. But it could portend such a change if it triggered a long overdue examination of America’s goal in this War.

Strategic war aims should be clear, should address the imperative that led to the war in the first place, and should be something that a broad cross section of people can support.

The War on Terror began with an asymmetric attack on the United States by a fanatical group of Islamic extremists. The interest at stake in this war is the most fundamental a nation can have: defense of the homeland against an existential threat.

I suggest we celebrate bin Laden’s demise by agreeing on the first and most important national war aim: eliminate the danger that bin Laden’s followers and friends can successfully use asymmetric weapons against the United States again.

— Jim Talent is a distinguished fellow at the Heritage Foundation and served as a U.S. senator from Missouri.

Heritage Tavern Night Tonight!

admin — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 16:59:35 +0000

Please join Sen. Talent and Heritage expert William Beach at Mike Duffy’s in Kirkwood this evening for a discussion on the federal budget and the deficit.

More details here: http://on.fb.me/elT3HG

OpEd by Jim Talent: Luck as America’s Foreign Policy

admin — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 15:30:13 +0000

America’s leaders — of both parties — bounce from one impulse to another instead of formulating a coherent foreign policy.

Read the full piece by Jim Talent in National Review.

State of the Union Response from Jim Talent

admin — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 14:50:02 +0000

Last night, the President identified challenges facing our country, but his remedies missed the mark. He rightly pointed out that the “mountain of debt” was a threat to our competitiveness, but his solution of a freeze on non-security discretionary spending is hardly the answer. A freeze now will actually lock in the 25 percent expansion in these programs since 2007. To balance the budget, it is necessary to cut non-defense spending and also vigorously pursue a bi-partisan solution to the growth of entitlement spending. The President’s failure to call for that is part and parcel of the refusal to recognize reality that has brought us to the brink of bankruptcy.

On top of that, the President called for increased “investment” in a number of programs, showing both that he is not taking the spending issue seriously and also that he does not understand the importance of the private sector in driving economic growth. In 1995, President Clinton forthrightly recognized that big government was the problem. Last night — despite some rhetorical genuflections — President Obama showed he still thinks big government is the solution. It looks like the country is in for two more years of deficits and slow growth.

On defense, the President complimented the men and women who are fighting for us. But cheering from the sidelines will not increase the size of a Navy that is smaller than at any time since 1916, or recapitalize the aging inventory of the Air Force, or help the Army replace the two generations of modernization that have been lost by shortsightedness in Washington. Our country needs leadership, not words, from the Commander in Chief.

Veterans Day

admin — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 04:12:08 +0000

There are are literally billions of people around the world who live in freedom, or at least the hope of freedom, who would have lived in despair if not for American soldiers and sailors and airmen and Marines. God bless the American veteran and God bless America.

Uncharted territory

admin — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 02:06:07 +0000

For months we’ve known that we are are in uncharted territory politically. That’s because never before has an Administration pursued policies which so consistently flouted basic, common sense. It isn’t just that times are bad. It’s that this government has consumed the credit reserve of the United States without getting anything for it, used the uninsured as an excuse to interfere with peoples’ health care, frightened and alienated the private sector to no purpose, and acted internationally as if it was ashamed of America.

Barack Obama entered office on a wave of good will, and the people have given him every opportunity to honestly address their concerns. His failure either to defend or change his policies, in the face of growing public disapproval, has made voters even more determined to insist on a change of course.