By Rick Manning — January 22, 2013 will be remembered for a number of things.  It is the first day after President Obama’s second inaugural, and it marks the second day of his final term in office.  Yes, only 1,458 days until he finally leaves. But there […]

By Rick Manning — Newly elected North Dakota Senator Heidi Heitkamp most likely solidified her re-election for life in the first week of serving in the U.S. Senate when she waded into the gun control debate by refusing to take the bait from those seeking to restrict […]

By Rick Manning — One staff person at Current TV expressed disdain for former Vice President Al Gore, Jr.’s decision to sell the television property to Al Jazeera saying, “Al was always lecturing us about green. He kept his word about green all right — as in cold, hard cash!” Another Current staffer is reported to have remarked, “He [Al Gore, Jr.] has no credibility.  He’s supposed to […]

NRD Editor’s Note: This column first appeared at TheHill.com . By Rick Manning — President Obama announced that he is appointing current Chief of Staff and former OMB Director Jack Lew to be the nation’s next secretary of the Treasury. Lew, whose signature featuring a bunch of loops […]

By Rick Manning — The percentage of the American workforce that is represented by labor unions has been falling precipitously over the past thirty years.  In 1983, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that union membership was 20.1 percent of the workforce and there were 17.7 million union workers nationwide. In 2011, only […]

By Rick Manning — Democrat political operatives are already sharpening their pencils to spin the fiscal cliff vote against Republicans who voted against it by claiming that they voted against a massive tax cut for the middle class. Hoping that no one will notice that their net […]

By Rick Manning — The Environmental Protection Agency has been rocked by two major scandals in the past weeks culminating with Administrator Lisa Jackson’s resignation this past week. The agency charged with responsibility for overseeing the nation’s environmental laws has become one of the most controversial federal […]

By Rick Manning — All the talk about fiscal cliffs and budget deficits has obscured one of the most important measures of our nation’s financial health — Christmas retail sales. After the hopeful press releases surrounding Black Friday, retailers are faced with having to sharply discount their […]

By Rick Manning — Our nation faces a national conversation about violence and what to do about it.  The events in Newtown, Connecticut are seared across our national consciousness, and it would be hard to find anyone who is sentient who doesn’t go into this Christmas with […]

NRD Editor’s Note: This column originally appeared at TheHill.com . By Rick Manning — The implementation of ObamaCare assumed that the states would do the work of setting up individual state exchanges to provide a clearinghouse of health insurance information for the public, and provide the mechanism that […]