Hearing from Heritage experts
November 14, 2007| By Nathaniel Ward
Members had an opportunity to interact directly with Heritage experts during the President’s Club meeting.
On Monday, Heritage experts volunteered their time to take part in intimate “Ask an Expert” sessions with President’s Club members. Nile Gardiner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, addressed the U.S.-U.K. alliance, while media expert Khristine Brookes explained how conservatives can combat the spin and distortions from the mainstream media.
And during Tuesday’s sessions, Heritage experts briefed members on their ongoing policy work.
- Defending America. National security expert James Carafano highlighted the importance of devising programs that will effectively secure America while protecting individual liberties and maintaining national sovereignty. He outlined solutions for securing the border and said America should avoid creating a “hollow force” military by ensuring our troops have the resources and training they need. In response to questions from the audience, he discussed on the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, which he called humane and legal based on his recent visit there. And he advised policymakers to expand missile defenses for America and its allies to help contain possible Iranian aggression.
- Strengthening the military. Lawmakers, particularly at the White House, must devote sufficient resources to the nation’s military, said former Missouri Senator Jim Talent, a distinguished fellow at The Heritage Foundation. As a result of cutbacks in the 1990s, the American military has shrunk in its capabilities and much of its equipment is rapidly aging. But ensuring the nation’s long-term military strength is vital to long-term security, the senator said, citing President Reagan’s aphorism that “none of the four wars in my lifetime came about because we were too strong.”
Under the “Four Percent for Freedom” initiative, Talent explained, the government would spend four percent of the nation’s GDP on the military to ensure the armed forces can properly invest in equipment, modernization and training.
- Ensuring future prosperity. Heritage economist Alison Fraser said that unless Congress acts on urgently needed reforms to the country’s entitlement programs, taxes and spending would both rise while economic growth would decrease. The government’s unfunded liabilities, she said, amount to $175,000 for each American living today—a total of roughly $50 trillion, which is more than the net worth of the entire nation.
To combat the runaway spending and the chance of harmful and counterproductive tax hikes, she continued, Heritage is participating in the Fiscal Wakeup Tour, a joint effort with the nation’s comptroller general, the Concord Coalition and the Brookings Institution. The tour, which has visited 30 cities in 25 states, highlights the growing entitlement problem and the consequences of not acting promptly; the next stops are in Oregon, Iowa and Michigan.
- Bolstering family and religion. Heritage will maintain “a permanent commitment to the permanent institutions,” domestic policy expert Jennifer Marshall said, by helping build “an America worth defending” and strengthening institutions like religion and family. These institutions, she explained, serve vital functions in society by helping individuals achieve prosperity, shaping character and serving as a bulwark of freedom against dependence on government.
But these institutions are threatened, she continued. Many on the left are second-guessing the importance of traditional marriage; others seek to expand dependence on government by enrolling children in sub-par government schools at ever-younger ages instead of leaving them valuable family time; still others would abandon traditional morals and instead treat young kids as mere “slaves to sexual desire.”
Heritage is working to counter these challenges by compiling relevant social science research on FamilyFacts.org; by defending religious liberty; and by strengthening ties between all stripes of conservatives.
Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.
