Giuliani at Heritage: Go on offense
May 8, 2007 | By Nathaniel Ward
The American government must go “on the offense” on both economic and national security policy, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani told Heritage Foundation members yesterday.
Drawing on his experience reforming the nation’s largest city, the mayor told the President’s Club meeting that ensuring economic growth and securing this nation against attack should be government’s highest priority.
The Heritage Foundation regularly sponsors lectures by prominent individuals to further discussion of conservative ideas and policy proposals. Invitations to speak do not imply that Heritage endorses these individuals.
Other happenings at President’s Club
Heritage members had the opportunity to hear other notable speakers at yesterday’s President’s Club meeting.
- Television host John Stossel argued for free-market solutions to health care and insisted that government intervention makes health care problems worse. The host of ABC’s 20/20 likened government-run health care to the auto industry in the old Soviet Bloc: just as the East Germans produced only a limited supply of their costly and low-quality Trabant line of cars, so would socialized medicine lead to service shortages, cost overruns and diminished quality.
A system where health insurance covered catastrophic care and not day-to-day expenses would encourage competition, thereby increasing the quality of health care and lowering costs, he said. The current system, by contrast, “distorts our behavior.” - Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), who serve as chairmen, respectively, of the Republican Steering Committee and the Republican Study Committee, explored what’s next for conservatives in Congress. Conservatives, they argued, lost their way and abandoned their principles and this contributed to their 2006 losses. Among other issues, they touched on health care reform and federal spending.
- Heritage policy experts briefed members on Iraq, immigration, energy and education policies in personal sessions.
An American friend in France?
On Sunday, reformer Nicolas Sarkozy decisively defeated his socialist rival to become the next president of France. Campaigning on a platform of reviving his nation’s anemic economy and clamping down on recent violence in the immigrant population, he went so far as to declare in his victory speech that America “can count on France as a friend.”
“Sarkozy’s electoral victory is a favorable change of leadership for the United States,” Heritage expert Sally McNamara writes in a post-election analysis. “With huge foreign policy questions such as Iran and Darfur taking center stage, America will undoubtedly benefit from a more cooperative approach from the Élysée Palace.”
How William F. Buckley shaped conservatism
At the end of the Second World War, liberalism appeared triumphant. Much of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal remained in place, and Harry Truman’s Fair Deal reinforced these policies. In Western Europe, left-wing parties were winning elections even as Communist armies marched into Eastern Europe and the Far East.
Many Americans were quite rightly appalled, but they had no leadership and no plan to undo the damage done or prevent future setbacks. Then there emerged in 1955 a new journal dedicated to “stand[ing] athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it.” But this magazine, National Review, was just the beginning of William F. Buckley, Jr.’s many contributions to the conservative movement.
- Click here to find out more about Strictly Right, the first biography of William F. Buckley by conservative authors.
- Purchase a copy of Strictly Right online from Amazon.com.
In other news
- Authorities arrested six suspected Muslim terrorists in New Jersey this morning on charges of planning attacks on Fort Dix.
- A Senate committee has approved an increase in the nation’s fuel economy standards for automobiles. Heritage research suggests that such regulations can have damaging and unintended consequences.
- The New York Times reports that the anti-war Left is stepping up its campaign to undermine the American effort in Iraq by advocating withdrawal.
- A radical British think-tank has said that it’s not merely the conveniences of modern life that are bad for the environment. Families, they insist, are also bad for the planet. Perhaps if they took more reasonable stances, stances not biased against human beings and their wellbeing, environmentalist proposals might do better.
- President Bush and Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II reaffirmed the Special Relationship between America and Britain at a formal White House ceremony yesterday. Heritage’s Rob Bluey attended the Queen’s arrival at the White House and took photos and posted them online.
- Republicans in Congress will look for the new strategy in Iraq to have measurable results by the fall, Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott (R-MS) said yesterday.
- Maryland’s governor today signed into law “living wage” legislation for government contractors. Intended to bolster the working poor by mandating that they be paid more, such a policy could well have the effect of causing job losses among this group as employers face markedly increased labor costs and cut back on payroll to save their bottom lines.
Coming up at Heritage
To attend the following 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 Wednesday, May 9 at 9:30 a.m., a panel of experts will discuss missile defense efforts in Asia and Europe.
- On Thursday, May 10 at 10:00 a.m., representatives of the Open House project will speak to Heritage about their efforts to bring transparency to Congress through use of the Internet.
Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.
