US Economic Freedom Drops for 5th Straight Year

The Heritage Foundation partners with The Wall Street Journal every year to publish the Index of Economic Freedom. The 2013 Index shows five consecutive years of continued decline in economic freedom in the U.S. The only other advanced economy to have as poor a performance is Ireland. The reason for this decline is excessive government spending, high corporate taxes, regulatory overload, and an erosion in the rule of law. It's important to note that the Index score lags behind current policy developments, so the 2013 tax increases are likely to drop the US out of the top ten freest countries next year.

2013 Index of Economic Freedom Trends
The graphic depicts the effect of increased economic freedom on a variety of measures of well-being. It's clearly in a country's best interest to adopt policies that increase their score to the greatest extent possible, which is why the negative U.S. trend is so disturbing.


The Next Fiscal Challenge is the Debt Ceiling
Treasury Secretary Geithner reported that the debt ceiling was reached on Dec. 31, but he is taking extraordinary measures to keep the government funded until mid-February. President Obama has called for an increase to the debt limit despite condemning such a move as a "failure of leadership" in 2006. According to fiscal policy expert J.D. Foster the federal government is not at risk of defaulting because it has enough money to pay the interest on the debt. The Morning Bell explains that the threat of default is a scare tactic, and conservatives should use the debt ceiling debate to force additional spending cuts.

Understanding American Liberty
The director of Heritage's DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society, Jennifer Marshall, discusses the role of liberty in American society in a very eloquent essay. Read it online here.

Hurricane Sandy Relief Package - Part Two
On January 4 Congress passed a $9.7 billion relief package to assist the victims of storm damage resulting from Hurricane Sandy. President Obama asked for $60.4 billion for the relief package, so the balance of his request is being voted on today. Ericka Anderson explains in her blog post how Congress may try to conceal $33 billion in unrelated pork-barrel spending in the bill. The @Heritage Twitter account started the #EndTheSpend hashtag to raise awareness.

Federal Head Start Program Continues to Fail
The Hurricane Sandy relief package earmarks $100 million for an unrelated federal program called Head Start, which spends $8 billion per year to prepare toddlers from low-income families for kindergarten. According to the federal government's own assessments, the program spent $180 billion over 48 years, but provided "little to no impact on cognitive, social-emotional, health, or parenting practices of participants." The performance of fourth graders has been so bad that "access to Head Start failed to have an effect for 69 out of 71 outcomes!" Read Rachel Sheffield's summary of Head Start's official performance report. Education policy expert Lindsey Burke analyzes the failures and offers alternatives in her Issue Brief.

Calendar of Upcoming Events*
Educational Policy Conference January 24-26 - St. Louis, MO
March for Life January 25th - Washington, DC
National Review Institute Summit January 25-27 - Washington, DC
CPAC March 14-16 - Washington, DC
*For more events please visit a more comprehensive calendar on InsiderOnline.com

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