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May 4, 2006 | By Nathaniel Ward
What would Ronald Reagan do?
President Reagan: “The answer to a government that’s too big is to stop feeding its growth.”
Twenty-five years ago last Friday, President Ronald Reagan made his first appearance before Congress after recovering from an assassination attempt. He spoke to a joint session of Congress about his economic recovery proposal:
The answer to a government that’s too big is to stop feeding its growth. Government spending has been growing faster than the economy itself. The massive national debt which we accumulated is the result of the government’s high spending diet. Well, it’s time to change the diet and to change it in the right way. …
Reducing the growth of spending, cutting marginal tax rates, providing relief from overregulation, and following a noninflationary and predictable monetary policy are interwoven measures which will ensure that we have addressed each of the severe dislocations which threaten our economic future. These policies will make our economy stronger, and the stronger economy will balance the budget…
These words surely resonate today as Congress faces ever-increasing spending and the prospect of painful tax increases. “To fail to act,” as President Reagan said, “will delay even longer and more painfully the cure which must come.”
Even though President Reagan’s proposals were promptly adopted, our leaders have since lost their way. Since 2001, federal spending has increased by 33 percent, as Heritage’s Brian Riedl reported in February (link in PDF). Federal spending grew eight percent last year alone, more than twice the rate of economic growth. And the future looks even worse: David John and Bob Moffit explain that without serious reforms, by 2030, half of all federal spending will go to Social Security and Medicaid, compared to seven percent today.
But despite this long streak of fiscal shenanigans from our elected leaders, there’s a glimmer of hope. President Bush has promised to veto the latest wasteful spending bill—and key lawmakers in the Senate and House have decried the waste and pledged to uphold the veto. Meanwhile, Congress is putting the finishing touches on a bill to extend the important 2003 tax cuts—preventing a catastrophic rise in taxes on investment.
As many readers have pointed out, there’s certainly no guarantee that Congress or the White House will do the right thing in the end. But that’s why it’s important that we take advantage of our leaders’ newfound level-headedness, keep the pressure on and remind them of the importance of fiscal responsibility.
Today in history
This week also marks the anniversary of two other important milestones:
- On May 4, 1979, Margaret Thatcher formed a Conservative government in Britain, foreshadowing President Reagan’s election 18 months later. Lady Thatcher, who served as Prime Minister for more than 11 years, enacted a number of important reforms in her country.
Since leaving office, Lady Thatcher has retained close ties to The Heritage Foundation, which last year established the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom with a gift from the Thatcher Foundation. She’s even known to stop by Heritage for surprise visits, as she did last month.
- On May 3, 2005, Iraq’s first-ever democratically-elected government was sworn into office, formally beginning the country’s transition to freedom after suffering years of tyranny under Saddam Hussein. The transitional government wrote a new constitution, ratified last October, and oversaw December’s general election.
Buy John Stossel’s book
On Tuesday, I reported on John Stossel’s funny but all-too-serious speech to Heritage members gathered at the spring President’s Club meeting about the media’s complicity in fostering big government. I thought you might be interested in Heritage Vice President Rebecca Hagelin’s review of his new book, Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity.
“If the ‘mainstream media’ were filled with more reporters like him,” Hagelin writes, “the evening news would be far less dramatic. But it also would be a lot more honest.” She continues:
Why is John Stossel probably the gutsiest journalist of all time? Because he’s a man of and for the people. He doesn’t hesitate to boldly proclaim such truths as “Capitalism is responsible for lifting more people out of the mud and mire” than any other force in history.
If you like the MyHeritage.org Myth Busters, you’re sure to like Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity, which comes out next week. So beat the crowds and pre-order this exposé of foolishness today!
Good news for originalism
Liberal interpretations of the Constitution finally seem to be taking a back seat to more straightforward interpretations of our Founding document. Even the reliably liberal Washington Post editorial page has taken to using the actual text of the Constitution to argue against the invention by judges of new “rights”:
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit discovered a new constitutional right yesterday: “the right of a mentally competent, terminally ill adult patient to access potentially life-saving post-Phase I investigational new drugs, upon a doctor’s advice, even where that medication carries risks for the patient” and has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. If you don’t remember reading those particular words in the founding charter, don’t kick yourself. An ideologically eclectic panel of the normally sober D.C. Circuit pulled this “right” out of thin air. ...
[S]ince when did access to experimental therapies become a “fundamental right”—defined in Supreme Court case law as a right deeply embedded in the fabric of American tradition and without which ordered liberty would not be meaningfully free?
More people should think this way.
Take our survey on immigration
MyHeritage.org is conducting a survey on immigration policy that will be presented to the Bush administration and to Congress.
In other news
Coming up at Heritage
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Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.
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