Heritage Foundation

For decades, Turkey and the United States cooperated in the Mediterranean, the Persian Gulf, Central Asia, and even Korea. However, Turkish and U.S. interests in the Balkans, Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Middle East, and the Persian Gulf have recently diverged. On its current trajectory, Turkey’s traditional strategic relationship with the West could devolve into a looser affiliation while Turkey enters into a closer alliance with Iran and other Middle Eastern powers hostile to U.S. leadership. The U.S., in concert with its European allies, needs to address the serious differences that are emerging.

This study is part of a series of technical reports commissioned by The Heritage Foundation to examine programmatic issues related to ballistic missile defense. Since the George W. Bush Administration withdrew the United States from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty with the former Soviet Union in June 2002, the focus has turned to the best way to build and operate a missile defense system that lessens the vulnerability of the United States and its friends and allies to attack. First and foremost, this extends to lessening the likelihood of a nuclear-armed attack.

The death tax: What does it kill? Who does it affect? It affects hundreds of thousands of small-business owners across the country—as well as their employees and community residents who benefit from the senior and day care centers, playgrounds, charities, and learning centers that are built or supported by small-business owners. Like water and sunlight in an ecosystem, small businesses provide sustenance essential to building and preserving communities. So high is the death tax that a large portion of heirs to small companies cannot afford to pay it after the business founder dies, and see themselves forced to sell to giant corporations—which have no personal ties to the communities of their new acquisitions, and thus no incentive to commit to local institutions. What does the death tax kill? The best of American life and civil society itself. The death tax is simply antithetical to the core of the American dream.

There are many flaws in the notion of using the Chinese economy as a model.

On August 7, 2010, Juan Manual Santos will take office as the new president of Colombia. His election is a testimony to the Colombian public’s commitment to democracy and a strong U.S.–Colombian relationship. Over the past decade, the two countries have achieved an unprecedented level of cooperation on many fronts—from fighting drug-trafficking and narco-terrorism to advancing public safety and meeting human needs. The influence of the criminal FARC has been tumbling, and kidnapping and murder rates have been decreasing. Much of this progress has been possible thanks to the policies of outgoing President Alvaro Uribe, on which Santos can build when he takes office. Despite the many positive developments, Colombia will continue to be reliant on support from its American ally. Instead of courting the anti-American and FARC-friendly Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, the Obama Administration should reassess its global friendships and focus on aiding Colombia—including support of continued funding for Plan Colombia, urging Congress to approve the pending Colombia Free Trade Agreement, and building a comprehensive counternarcotics strategy. Heritage Foundation Latin America expert Ray Walser lays out the historical, political, and security significance of this critical U.S. ally.

Panama, like its neighbor Colombia, is waiting for the U.S. Congress to approve the pending free trade agreement and to increase security cooperation. Panama is a strong democracy and trade partner often ignored in Washington, despite decades of fruitful ties. The cornerstone of the U.S.–Panama relationship remains the path-breaking 1970s treaties that granted Panama sovereignty over the U.S.-built Panama Canal, a historic milestone in the peaceful evolution of hemispheric diplomacy. The Panama Canal plays a prominent and growing role in U.S. trade. Panama is ready to deepen its long cooperation and friendship with the U.S.—it is time that Washington embrace this opportunity to strengthen a vital alliance.

Proponents of Obamacare claim that it will simultaneously provide millions of Americans with health insurance and reduce the budget deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars. Yet Obamacare’s proclaimed budgetary discipline rests on unlikely assumptions and budget gimmicks—none worse than the CLASS Act, a national long-term-care insurance program. CLASS is essentially a Ponzi scheme that will run initial surpluses followed by massive deficits—virtually guaranteeing program bankruptcy or, more likely, massive taxpayer bailouts. The surest way to avoid this fate is to repeal the program—preferably before it enrolls participants on January 1, 2011. The Heritage Foundation’s Brian Riedl and Visiting Fellow James Capretta explain why repeal is the right action for Congress to take.

Former top White House strategist Karl Rove will speak about 21st-century challenges to American greatness Thursday, July 29, at a lunch event in Dallas sponsored by local supporters of The Heritage Foundation.

In 2006, the Dutch government implemented a universal insurance mandate. Many American policymakers are looking to the Dutch experiment as a model to fix America’s complex and costly health care system. But the Dutch reforms have not caused individual consumers to seek value, and the “managed competition” has led to a less competitive market. After just three years, the Dutch insurance market is a clear-cut oligopoly. Given the narrow, partisan enactment of President Obama’s health policy agenda, America appears to be on a similar path. Two health policy analysts, including one from Holland, explain why patients in the Netherlands do not have a significant choice among health insurance companies, nor can they access sufficient information about the health system and different options—and why this system would not benefit patients in America, either.

2010 is the only year since 1916 in which heirs to an estate will not have to pay the dreaded death tax. Victory for small businesses? Not yet—due to a legal quirk, the death tax is scheduled to come back to life in 2011. Studies, statistics, and real life have shown again and again that the businesses and families burdened with the death tax often see themselves forced to cut back on benefits, investments, and employees. The death tax keeps new jobs from being created, hurting not just the affected businesses, but the economy as a whole. Because it is a tax on capital, the death tax destroys as many as 1.5 million jobs that the economy needs as it struggles to recover. Heritage Foundation tax policy expert Curtis Dubay details a replacement for the death tax, and explains why Congress must kill the death tax—now.

Some same-sex marriage activists might wish to exclude certain moral and religious viewpoints from the same-sex marriage debate. Evidence shows, however, that religion and moral argumentation are often harnessed in support of same-sex marriage. Although support for the traditional understanding of marriage does not require belief in the religious teachings of any particular faith, the decision to recognize same-sex marriage in law involves inescapable moral considerations. Parties on both sides of the issue, therefore, should be free to bring their moral viewpoints to bear on the issues involved.

The U.S. should resist all efforts to turn the U.N.’s “Programme of Action” on small arms into a treaty.

The Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act would likely lead to the same conditions that caused the housing bubble of a few years ago.

Another federal bailout for education from Washington would ultimately help unions perpetuate the failed status quo.

The U.S. and the U.K. should reevaluate their foreign assistance agendas, which should be focused on advancing economic freedom.

Congress should not overtax all Americans to overpay the privileged workers in the federal civil service.

Ratifying the U.S.–U.K. Defense Trade Cooperation Treaty is in the best interest of the both the U.S. and the U.K.

Prime Minister Cameron and President Obama must use Tuesday’s White House summit to express full support for the war in Afghanistan.

More work is required from Congress if America’s cybersecurity challenges are to be successfully met.

The pretense that the European Union is successful and stable—and that the euro is a successful and stable currency—has been exploded by events surrounding the financial bailout of Greece. No one knows where the contagion will spread or how it may end. The world’s financial markets have occasionally teetered on the edge of panic. But the full implications of what has gone wrong still need to be grasped by euro-zone countries, European countries outside the zone, and the United States. The global lessons to be learned are both political and economic; they relate especially to the danger of allowing politics to prevail over economics, as has happened repeatedly in Europe. The crisis in the euro zone goes to the heart of the European project itself. That project needs to be rethought, and European institutions and arrangements need to be remodeled. America, which for decades urged European countries (including Britain) to create a Union that has turned out to be the opposite of what was hoped, has an interest in this. Today, America has only limited power to help put the difficulties right, but it can and should offer advice before events once again spiral out of control. It should also watch where it is going.