Heritage’s response to the ‘stimulus’
February 25, 2009| By Nathaniel Ward
Over the last several weeks, Heritage Foundation experts worked tirelessly to highlight the flaws in the so-called 'stimulus.'
Meetings with members of Congress:
- Heritage experts had over 42 meetings with members of Congress and their staff.
- Bill Beach briefed 35 senators at a meeting of the Republic Caucus.
- Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) unveiled his conservative alternative stimulus bill here at The Heritage Foundation. His plan was modeled after Heritage recommendations.
Print Media:
- We produced 62 publications including ten one-pagers, which were distributed to and used by members of the House and Senate in media appearances.
- Heritage experts were cited on the stimulus in more than 750 newspaper clips.
- Heritage op-eds on the stimulus earned 66 newspaper placements and dozens more online, including in The Miami Herald, The New York Post, The Washington Times, and the Indianapolis Star.
- Heritage received comprehensive coverage through stories carried by the two major newswires: AP and Reuters. News stories citing Heritage were also penned by reporters from The Chicago Tribune, The Christian Science Monitor, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Politico, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Time, and U.S. News & World Report.
- Twenty-nine editorials cited Heritage on making the case against the stimulus. Among these papers were Investor's Business Daily, The Detroit News, The Orange County Register, The Washington Examiner, and The Washington Times.
Web Presence:
- Hundreds of websites, including Weekly Standard, The American Spectator, and Michele Malkin linked to our stimulus coverage in the Foundry.
- "Stimulus 101" was one of the most visited blog posts in Heritage history with over 30,000 unique readers. The stimulus overview blog posts that copied the one-pagers, elicited thousands of reader comments.
- The Republican Study Committee and other leadership offices forwarded our one-pagers as-is, to their entire distribution list.
- This year alone, Government Relations emails have been read over 25,000 times.
- Since January 1, the Economic Stimulus Rapid Response webpage has been viewed by more than 115,000 people.
Broadcast Services:
- Heritage analysts completed over 255 radio and TV interviews regarding the stimulus bill.
- Sixty-six interviews aired on cable, network, and local TV outlets across the country. Major highlights include PBS's "Now" and "Newshour with Jim Lehrer," CBS "Evening News," C-Span's "Washington Journal" and over 25 TV interviews on cable news with CNN, CNBC, Fox News, Fox Business, and Bloomberg.
- Conservative guests on Meet the Press, Fox News Sunday, and ABC This Week quoted our analysis verbatim.
- Heritage analysts appeared on nationally syndicated talk radio shows, such as The Diane Rehm Show on NPR, The Mancow Show on Talk Radio Network, Bill Bennett's Morning in America, and The John Gibson Show on Fox News Radio.
- Heritage's work was mentioned regularly on Sean Hannity's radio and TV show and the Rush Limbaugh Program.
Accolades:
- Syndicated columnist Deroy Murdock, writing to Brian Riedl, said, "Great work, as usual… these are EXACTLY the figures I need… And, lucky me, this landed in my email inbox Wed. afternoon. …you and your Heritage colleagues are churning out terrific stuff we can use to slow down the socialist steam roller a little so that maybe it won't kill us."
- "Thanks a million for all your help over the last of couple weeks as we were putting this economic plan together," said Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) in a call to The Heritage Foundation. "You guys were a great, great big help."
- Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) thanked Heritage in a February 14th Newsmax op-ed saying, "I want to thank all of you, from The Heritage Foundation and Americans for Prosperity to talk radio leaders to bloggers to the thousands of conservative activists who poured through every square inch of this bill to expose just a few of the ridiculous items in this bill."
