Like an alarm clock, the debt ceiling offers a fiscal check on the government’s finances and encourages congressional deliberation of policies to control spending and debt. Congress must not suspend the debt ceiling again. Congress should enact fiscal controls to put the budget on a path to balance before raising the debt ceiling.

Heritage expert Amy Swearer writes that the Santa Fe Tragedy has helped perpetuate gun control and school safety narratives that are sliding further from the truth than ever before. "It is important that these false narratives be corrected—we do not honor those who lost their lives by calling for policies that won’t prevent future tragedies because they aren’t based on facts."

Although Tehran’s missile arsenal primarily threatens U.S. bases and allies in the region, Iran eventually could expand their range to include the continental United States. In its January 2014 report on Iran’s military power, the Pentagon assessed that “Iran continues to develop technological capabilities that could be applicable to nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, which could be adapted to deliver nuclear weapons ..."

Heritage's James Carafano joined Fox News' "The Daily Briefing with Dana Perino" to talk about Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's speech this morning on the United States new Iran strategy. "This is a counterpunch strategy," said Carafano. "This is pretty powerful stuff." 

"[In Washington] debt is continuing to pile up – $21 trillion to date, higher than it’s been at any point in our nation’s history – but no creditor calls or shows up. Lawmakers simply return the next year and make the problem worse," writes Heritage President Kay Coles James. "But that may be about to change, thanks to President Trump’s request that Congress cancel (or “rescind”) $15 billion that hasn’t been spent yet."