Remembering President Ford
December 28, 2006 | By Nathaniel Ward
Ed Feulner, left, with then-Minority Leader Gerald Ford and Mel Laird, chairman of the House Republican Conference, in 1967.
On Tuesday evening, President Gerald Ford passed away. He was 93.
“During his service as the 38th president of the United States,” says Heritage President Ed Feulner in a statement, “Gerald Ford helped bind the wounds that had torn our nation apart.”
Click here to read more on President Ford’s passing from Ed Feulner.
Lessons from the last Congress
With some justification, many conservatives look back on the past two years and wonder what might have been. Had things gone differently, might Social Security today be on a path to reform? Might the death tax have been finally repealed and the 2003 tax cuts made permanent? Would traditional institutions like marriage be better protected? We’ll never know.
But we can draw lessons from what did happen. Heritage Vice President for Government Relations Mike Franc looks at conservative successes and what ill-conceived policy disasters they avoided—and what lessons they can draw.
Click here for Mike Franc’s analysis of what conservatives accomplished and what lessons to draw.
A Congressional agenda for 2007
“This year, the Republican Party lost its conservative soul and, consequently, lost control of both houses of Congress,” Heritage President Ed Feulner writes in The Chicago Sun-Times. “If the new Democrat majority has resolved to maintain its narrow hold on power, it will need to address three topics.”
- Enforce and improve the new Coburn-Obama open-government bill. The law allows for broader transparency about special-interest handouts in spending bills. Additional reforms will ensure the new spending database can be truly effective.
- Chart a course for victory in Iraq. Any policy lawmakers pursue must be one of victory. Iraqis must take a larger hand in their own security, but America must remain committed to protecting the country—and we must not “set a timetable for pulling out until the situation on the ground improves.”
- Deal with our entitlement crisis. Entitlement spending is surging out of control, so “lawmakers owe voters an explanation of how they’ll enact long-term reforms without increasing our tax burden.”
Feulner reminds us that these recommendations are for “lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.” He’s right: these reforms aren’t in any way conservative or liberal. They matter for all Americans.
Increasing the size of the military
President Bush has instructed his new secretary of defense, Robert Gates, to devise a way to expand the size of ground forces in the Army and the Marines. This is a prudent course of action, Heritage defense expert Mackenzie Eaglen writes. “The U.S. needs to have sufficient forces in order to maintain a trained and ready military and conduct operations around the world.”
Click here for more on the proposed increases and how we should go about them.
Happy New Year!
A happy new year to you and yours from all of us at The Heritage Foundation. We are ever grateful for your commitment to our cause and the support you give to our work.
You can help Heritage kick off 2007 right by making your tax-deductible donation here: http://www.myheritage.org/NewYear2007
In other news
- Ethiopian troops helped Somali government forces recapture Mogadishu from the radical Islamists who had seized control of the city.
- An Iraqi court has rejected Saddam Hussein’s appeal of his death sentence. He is to be hanged in the next 30 days.
- The New York Times reports that American authorities have linked Iranian agents with attacks on coalition forces in Iraq.
- The Wall Street Journal highlights a disturbing trend: states banding together to “harmonize” their tax schemes. “Harmonized” taxes keep rates equally high and discourage innovative economic policies, while states with more flexible economic policies can lower their taxes to stop penalizing work, investment and consumption.
- A federal court in Washington ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency is taking too long to implement its pollution-reducing regulations. I had understood it to be the role of elected officials, not judges, to decide policy questions such as this.
- The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has ruled that it cannot force the legislature to uphold its constitutional obligation to vote on a proposed amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. The same court in 2004 forced the legislature to rewrite its marriage laws and allow same-sex couples to wed.
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 Tuesday, January 9 at noon, author John Taylor explains how international finance has been used as a vital weapon in the war on terror.
- On Wednesday, January 10 at noon, author Mark Steyn will discuss his new book, America Alone, and the nation’s strategy in the war on terror.
Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.
