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Conservatives call for reform

May 2, 2006 | By Nathaniel Ward

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Ambassador John Bolton explained the need to reform the United Nations at Heritage's President's Club meeting.

Conservatives from across the nation gathered in Washington, DC, yesterday and today to call on the leadership in the nation’s capital to enact solidly conservative reforms. Joining the more than 500 members of The Heritage Foundation’s President’s Club were conservative luminaries and elected officials who echoed their cry for change.

Among the highlights of the President’s Club meeting:

  • Ambassador John Bolton insisted that Iran must not get nuclear weapons and that the UN needs urgent reform
  • ABC News’ John Stossel explained how the news media is complicit in the growth of big government
  • Columnist George Will spoke about “economic hypochondria” among the media and the public
  • Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ) said Republicans have abandoned the principles of the 1994 Republican Revolution
  • Plus: Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) laid out an agenda of reform for the Republican majority and Heritage’s top analysts explained what Heritage has done in the past six months to promote conservatism

Ambassador Bolton: No nukes for Iran

Iran’s radical regime should not be allowed to have nuclear weapons, Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said yesterday evening. America must remain firm against Iran and ensure that its leadership doesn’t carry out its plans to “finish the Holocaust” (which, he added, the Iranians also deny ever happened).

Ambassador Bolton also discussed the need to urgently reform the United Nations. The world body suffers from an inability to act, he said—except when the 130 countries who contribute least to the United Nations vote to take funds from the 20 or so countries who contribute most. The organization has never conducted a thorough review of its programs, he added, so it just keeps adding more and more “priorities”—none of which are ever accomplished.

Worse still, he said, many nations don’t recognize the need to reform. He described the recent vote—voting, he said, is rare in an organization that really wants to believe it operates by consensus—on the creation of an ineffective Human Rights Council to replace the ineffective Commission on Human Rights. Ambassador Bolton was joined in his principled vote against the “reform” by only three others: the representatives of Israel, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands.

John Stossel: The media encourages big government

John Stossel, host of ABC News’ 20/20 and author of the forthcoming Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity: Get Out the Shovel, told the afternoon session of the President’s Club meeting that the media has been complicit in the rise of big government. Its scare stories about the dangers of smoking, plane crashes and even terrorism encourage the public to accept big-government solutions to these problems.

Much of the problem is the misuse of statistics, he said. For example, stories about the number of deaths from plane crashes, he said, rarely cite the substantially higher risk of dying in a car crash. This focuses public attention on relatively minor threats, which are then subjected to endless government regulation.

But even more importantly, Stossel continued, the media often ignores the heavy costs of regulation, even the cost to human lives. New regulations on relatively minor killers like water toxins or second-hand smoke impose a tremendous economic cost, he said. Since the number one factor in American deaths is actually poverty, these well-intentioned rules actually do more harm than good by keeping more people impoverished.

George Will: Economic hypochondria

Award-winning columnist George Will, speaking to the Executive Committee of the President’s Club, explained that the United States seems to be suffering from a sort of “economic hypochondria,” where every minor economic hiccup is a cause for serious alarm.

He cited, for instance, liberals’ claims in 2004 that America was suffering from “the worst economy since the Great Depression,” despite the strong economic growth that year. Likewise, he said, Americans today believe today’s high energy prices spell economic doom, even though most other economic indicators show a sound economy.

Much of this, he said, stems from Americans’ increased dependence on government. Not only do many people believe that most people should have jobs and access to cheap energy and so forth, Will explained, but they believe the government has a responsibility to guarantee these things.

Rep. Shadegg: Get back to basics

Conservative Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ) told this morning’s session of the meeting that Republicans have lost their way since the 1994 Republican Revolution and that they must recommit to conservative principles in order to remain in power.

Republicans, he said, were elected to the majority because they promised to reduce the size of government and to change the way Washington works. Neither has been accomplished, said the former chairman of the Republican Policy Committee. While trimming government spending may be difficult, he explained, eleven years at the reins of government should allow a change in the political culture.

Rep. Shadegg concluded that getting back to basics is the only viable way to follow through on these promises, reduce dependence on government and end the corruption in Washington. Republicans should work to reform border security, extend the tax cuts, enact earmark reform and help expand the energy supply.

In other news

  • Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN) told the Raleigh News and Observer that he supports the abolition of the Electoral College because a president might be chosen without a popular majority. Sen. Bayh, though, is simply repeating a liberal myth; read the de-bunking of this myth on MyHeritage.org.
  • Congress may finally be waking up to the realities of its absurd spending practices. “We support the President's threat to veto the wayward spending bill,” House Majority Leader Boehner and Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) said in a statement. “The American people don't deserve a special interest shopping cart disguised as a supplemental.” 37 Senators last week promised to uphold a presidential veto of the pork-laden bill.

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.

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