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Getting Beyond Bainton

Surrounded by Martyrs

The Gathering Storm: Chavez and the Blame Game

The Gathering Storm: Nigeria: A Key Bellwether in Africa

Entry from July 31, 2010

Inception

Entry from July 29, 2010

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The Ethics and Public Policy Center was established in 1976 to clarify and reinforce the bond between the Judeo-Christian moral tradition and the public debate over domestic and foreign policy issues. [Read More]

Latest News & Publications

Baked in the Cake Everything you needed to know about Obama could have been learned from his campaign. By Peter Wehner Thursday, July 29, 2010 Everything you needed to know about President Obama could have been learned from his campaign. Here are three moments that foreshadowed the Obama presidency.

Gazing Into CBO�s Budget and Health Care Crystal Ball By James C. Capretta Thursday, July 29, 2010 CBO's latest projections make it clear that the nation is rushing headlong toward a fiscal crisis. Federal spending on the main retirement and health programs will jump by 5.6 percent of GDP over the next quarter century.

The Pursuit of Happiness EPPC Summer Movie Series Tuesday, June 22, 2010 Follow the evolution of the pursuit of happiness in the movies from My Man Godfrey to The Pursuit of Happyness. EPPC Resident Scholar James Bowman, film and cultural critic of the American Spectator and author of the books Honor: A History and Media Madness, will host a summer movie series on Tuesday evenings at the Hudson Institute.

Getting Beyond Bainton By George Weigel Wednesday, July 28, 2010 Christians will best engage in the debate about the morally legitimate use of armed force if they liberate themselves intellectually from the simplistic and inaccurate schema that Roland Bainton taught us fifty years ago.

A Mid-Year Update on the President�s Plan to Spend, and Then Tax, in Epic Proportions By James C. Capretta Tuesday, July 27, 2010 President Obama has spent his first two years in office expanding government, and now he wants Republicans to give him cover for the tax increases he is seeking to pay for the bloated government he has erected. Republicans would be fools to go along with this game plan.

The CLASS Act: Repeal Now, or Face Permanent Taxpayer Bailout Later By James C. Capretta, Brian Riedl Friday, July 23, 2010 The CLASS Act -- a new government-run long-term care program -- hitched a ride on Obamacare because, on paper, it appears to generate a near-term surplus. But, as Senator Kent Conrad said, it's "a Ponzi scheme of the first order, the kind of thing that Bernie Madoff would have been proud of."

Obamacare's Political Future The more voters learn, the darker it gets. By James C. Capretta Thursday, July 22, 2010 As Obamacare's onerous and rising costs are imposed on Medicare beneficiaries and taxpayers in coming months and years, and as employers signal their intent to drop coverage, voters will see that their worst fears about the legislation are coming true.

Surrounded by Martyrs By George Weigel Wednesday, July 21, 2010 The 20th century was the greatest century of martyrdom in Christian history. The witness of these martyrs, the memory of which we must be kept bright, can be a rich and edifying source of encouragement to the Church today.

Why the Obama Health Law Is Not Entitlement Reform Thursday, July 15, 2010 On July 15, EPPC Fellow Jim Capretta presented a paper at a Capitol Hill event detailing how President Obama's health plan will make the entitlement and budget crisis worse, not better. Mr. Capretta argues that the consumer-driven reform proposal put forward by Congressman Ryan (the "Roadmap") is the way to push the health sector to deliver better care at less cost.

Papal Kudos for the Fourth Estate? By George Weigel Wednesday, July 14, 2010 Pope Benedict XVI's insistence that the "greatest persecution of the Church comes not from her enemies without but arises from sin within the Church," is hardly a ringing endorsement of recent press coverage.

Boldly Defending Marriage Few politicians have the courage to protect the institution from the courts. By Rick Santorum Wednesday, July 14, 2010 With the exception of a core group of conservatives, most politicians -- including the president -- continue to publicly back marriage while eagerly awaiting the day when judges will take this issue out of their hands. In this case, silence, as my former colleague Zell Miller once said, is not golden; it's yellow.

Israel: A Normal Country By George Weigel, Jose Maria Aznar, David Trimble, John R. Bolton, Alejandro Toledo, Marcello Pera, Andrew Roberts, Fiamma Nirenstein, Robert F. Agostinelli and Carlos Bustelo Thursday, July 8, 2010 The Friends of Israel Initiative has come together to encourage men and women of goodwill to reconsider their attitudes toward the Jewish state. It is in our own best interests that an increasingly jaded relationship between Israel and many of the world's other liberal democracies is rescued and reinvigorated before it is too late for us all.

EPPC President Ed Whelan's Testimony on Kagan Nomination

Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court, EPPC President Ed Whelan critiqued Senate Democrats' flimsy attacks on the Roberts Court and explained that "any sober assessment of the current reality and future risk of judicial activism provides further compelling reason to vote against the Kagan nomination." Read his complete testimony here, and watch his oral testimony here (initial presentation beginning at 01:56:06, and answers to questions at 02:18:13, 02:23:23, and 02:26:31).

EPPC Out and About

July 30, 2010: EPPC Fellow John Mueller will present a lecture on his forthcoming book, Redeeming Economics: Rediscovering the Missing Element in Wilmington, Delaware. The lecture, sponsored by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, is given in honor of Milton Friedman's birthday. For more information, please see here.

ObamaCareWatch.org

The next two elections provide a historic opportunity to repeal the massive folly of ObamaCare and to adopt sensible market-based health-care reforms that reward efficiency and innovation. To pave the way for repeal, EPPC health-care expert Jim Capretta is directing a new website, ObamaCareWatch.org, that is tracking news about Obamacare's implementation from around the country and that will be a repository of essential facts, statistics, and analysis. Read Jim's introductory essay.

Fred Barnes on EPPC's Faith Angle Conferences

In the Weekly Standard, Fred Barnes recounts the history of EPPC Vice President Michael Cromartie's Faith Angle Conferences for journalists and celebrates them as "a rare recent example of the quality of journalism being improved."

You can read the transcripts from the most recent of these conference here, here, and here.

The Tertio Millennio Seminar on the Free Society
Now in its 19th year

The Tertio Millennio Seminar on the Free Society will take place this summer from June 28 to July 15 in Kraków, Poland. To learn more, visit the seminar's homepage: www.eppc.org/tms.

EPPC Scholars Prominent in the Blogosphere

EPPC fellows have real-time impact by writing for influential blogs, including:

Peter Wehner writes frequently on politics and policy for Commentary magazine's blog Contentions and for National Review Online's The Corner.
Ed Whelan is a leading contributor to NRO's Bench Memos blog on constitutional law and judicial issues.
James C. Capretta's important analyses of health-care reform legislation are carried both by The New Atlantis's own Diagnosis blog and by NRO's Critical Condition.
NRO's The Corner also features Yuval Levin's insights on matters of public policy and political philosophy.