March 15, 2007 | By Nathaniel Ward

America remains a conservative nation

Politicians, Heritage President Ed Feulner writes in The Chicago Sun-Times, always claim to be paying attention to the wishes of the American people. “But if our leaders really were listening, we’d see lawmakers stampeding to enact the conservative policies the American people repeatedly say they want.”

Recent polls, for example, demonstrate that a majority of Americans believes government is a hindrance to economic development. And solid majorities want Congress to cut waste and object to government spending more on health care.

“Liberal lawmakers can’t be pleased by these results, which show a solid preference for conservative policies,” Feulner writes.

The UN a “willing dupe” of North Korea

“In what seems to be an annual tradition,” explain foreign policy experts in Heritage’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, “the United Nations is again embroiled in scandal—this time as willing dupe of the despotic tyranny in North Korea.”

According to news reports, the United Nations Development Program has been funneling cash to Jim Jong Il’s Communist regime “without even minimal safeguards or supervision.”

Heritage’s Nile Gardiner, Brett Schaefer and Steven Groves argue that “the United States must demand an immediate, fully independent inquiry into this latest scandal,” which they say is just the latest “depressingly familiar story of U.N. inefficiency and incompetence.”

They also recommend a series of steps America can take today, including an immediate freeze on U.S. contributions to the UNDP.

Federal budget chart book

Yesterday, Heritage released its latest Federal Revenue and Spending: A Book of Charts, which explains in graphical form the fiscal problems our nation’s government faces. The charts detail everything from the entitlement crunch to tax rates to the number of presidential vetoes.

Rob Bluey, who directs Heritage’s Center for Media and Public Policy, points out three charts that deserve particular attention.

• Anyone who follows the debate over congressional earmarks probably heard that the Pig Book shrunk in size this year. That’s because earmarks are down significantly thanks to a moratorium in Congress. Will it last? That’s a question only the Democrats can answer. Republicans certainly couldn’t hold back — particularly during the Bush presidency.
• It’s no secret the tax burden on individuals will spike sharply in just a few years — even if Bush’s tax cuts are extended. But did you know the United States is on course to exceed the highest tax burden in history in just about 10 years?
• The chart that surprised me most highlights defense spending as percentage of GDP — an issue I recently noted in the context of former Sen. Jim Talent’s National Review cover story. Despite the cost of the Iraq War, our defense spending today is below the 45-year historical average and falls significantly short of Cold War and Vietnam War levels.

Alternatives to big-government education

More than four decades ago, Heritage’s Jennifer Marshall explains in a new video, the federal government got involved with K-12 education with promises of improved schooling for all. Then in 2002, Congress tried again—and the problems persisted.

“Neither No Child Left Behind nor any federal program is capable of closing that achievement gap that’s so evident now in America,” Marshall says.

Click here to watch the video and find out what the alternatives are.

In a related commentary that appeared in Human Events, Heritage’s Rob Bluey looks at the need to return education to local governments. One bill, known as A-PLUS, offers what Bluey calls “an opportunity to establish clear-cut priorities that return more power to local schools and reduce Washington’s involvement in education.”

In other news

• The Senate this afternoon rejected a liberal proposal to withdraw troops from Iraq within a year.
• Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, confessed before a military tribunal to his complicity in that and other barbarities.
• France’s high court ruled in favor of traditional marriage on Tuesday, overturning the “marriage” of a same-sex couple. “Under French law, marriage is a union between a man and a woman,” the court held.
• Liberals have proposed that Congress spend no less than $450 billion on domestic discretionary programs next year. President Bush proposed spending no more than $390 billion.
• The Bush administration turned down a panel’s proposal to have government provide certain health coverage and increase regulation of health insurance.
• Were the Bush tax cuts really “for the rich” as liberals claim? New data from the IRS indicates that the top one percent of taxpayers “accounted for 36.9 percent of the total income tax reported, an increase from 34.3 percent in 2003.”

Coming up at Heritage

To attend these or any other Heritage Foundation events, RSVP at Heritage’s events website. Or you can watch these events live online at Heritage.org.  All times are Eastern.

• On Friday, March 16 at noon, economics scholar Barry Eichengreen looks at why America remains more prosperous than many European countries—and how the answer lies in economic structure.
• On Monday, March 19 at 12:30 pm, Edward Lazear, the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, will explore the policies that expand productivity and economic growth.

Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.

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