Ed Feulner

FEULNER: Restoring economic freedom

Suppose a quiz-show host were to ask: "What country enjoys the most economic freedom?" Most Americans probably wouldn't even hesitate before answering, "The United States." They'd be wrong.

January 18, 2011

FEULNER: Fight for the filibuster

''Filibuster" is not a dirty word. This may seem an obvious point, but it's worth noting, given the campaign under way on Capitol Hill to severely curtail a practice designed to ensure that legislation goes through a process of calm, reasoned debate.

January 10, 2011

FEULNER: The promise and pitfalls of 2011

It's an exciting time for conservatives. It's also a dangerous one. On the one hand, we have opportunities aplenty now, thanks in large part to liberal overreach. An overzealous majority in Congress, revved up by their 2009 Christmas Eve health care victory in the House of Representatives, opened 2010 with a far-left agenda far removed from the will of the American people.

January 3, 2011

FEULNER: Conservative solutions for all

Here's what you'll hear in many end-of-the-year retrospectives: 2010 emerged as the year of the conservative voter.

December 29, 2010

FEULNER: A hand up, not a handout

Whose job is it to help those in need? Some say it's the government's. That's certainly the view of Ebenezer Scrooge. When asked to contribute to the poor, he responds: "Are there no prisons? And the union workhouses? Are they still in operation?" Substitute "welfare checks" and "food stamps," and you find the same attitude prevails today: Let Uncle Sam handle the problem.

December 20, 2010

FEULNER: A misdeal on tax cuts

As tax-cut deals go, the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 was never a winner.

December 13, 2010

FEULNER: Reversing the trend to spend

A reporter once asked Thomas Edison how it felt to fail thousands of times while attempting to create a working incandescent light bulb. Edison replied that he hadn't failed - he'd simply found thousands of ways that didn't work.

December 6, 2010

FEULNER: TSA and security: The naked truth

Years ago, the biggest question you'd get while flying was "coffee or tea?" Now it's "naked body scan or aggressive pat-down?" Behind that dilemma is the real choice. It's the one too many Americans have been unwilling to face: Should we "profile" - i.e., concentrate our security efforts on the individuals more likely to pose a threat? Or do we continue with the absurd fiction that every man, woman and child stands an equal chance of being a terrorist?

November 29, 2010

FEULNER: The trouble with tax hikes

Want a surefire way to help the poor? Don't increase taxes on the rich.

November 22, 2010

FEULNER: The only sure cure for Obamacare

Ask any 10 voters what motivated them to go to the polls on Election Day, and you'll probably get 10 different answers. Taxes, unemployment, government

November 15, 2010

FEULNER: A checklist for Congress

The people have spoken. On Election Day, they cried out against Washington's reckless spending, stifling regulations, rising taxes, soaring debt and looming takeover of health care. For too long, Washington elites have assumed they knew best - that government was the all-purpose solution to every problem, real or perceived.

November 8, 2010

FEULNER: Red tape on the rise

Nobody enjoys paying taxes. Not the ones the government deducts from every paycheck. Not sales taxes. And certainly not the check millions of us write to the Internal Revenue Service every year.

November 2, 2010

FEULNER: Off to a bad START

The world is hardly becoming a safer place these days. Missile threats are proliferating at a disturbing rate in places such as North Korea. ("The danger from the North's nuclear program is now at an 'alarming' level," The Washington Post noted recently.) Now is hardly the right time to be tying our hands on missile defense.

October 25, 2010

FEULNER: From self-reliance to servitude

We use a variety of yardsticks to judge whether our country is on the right track. Is inflation up? Has unemployment dropped? What's the stock market doing today?

October 18, 2010

FEULNER: Shortchanging our national security

Good news: President Obama has discovered an area of the federal budget where he wants to spend less money. Bad news: It's defense.

October 12, 2010

FEULNER: Restoring the American compact

Even America's bitterest enemies understand why we mark July Fourth with parades, speeches and fireworks: to celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence. We're proud of our nation, and justifiably so.

September 16, 2010

FEULNER: Riding a tide of red ink

It's no secret what the average American family does when income drops: It spends less and saves more. In fact, we've seen just that during these past two recessionary years. The personal saving rate, barely 1 percent of income in the first quarter of 2008, reached 5 percent last year and remains above 3 percent.

August 3, 2010

FEULNER: Stop the New START

In the final season of the TV show "24," an idealistic president finds herself sacrificing her principles one by one in an attempt to preserve a "peace process." She eventually manages to hammer out a flawed treaty, but can't bring herself to sign it. In the real world, the Obama administration's overly idealistic pursuit of a reduction in American and Russian stockpiles of nuclear arms has led it to actually sign a woefully flawed treaty. The goal may be worthy. The pact is not.

June 9, 2010

FEULNER: Sapping our self-reliance

Sometimes a snapshot tells an entire story. Take one of the signs at last year's Tea Party rally in Washington: "Grandma's not shovel-ready." That summed up the anti-Obamacare, pro-smaller government movement in a single image.

March 10, 2010

FEULNER: Mapping out the mission

For more than two centuries, Americans have displayed a love of politics - and debate. Often the debates boiled down to a fundamental question: What's the proper role of government in a free society?

February 26, 2010