Don’t Legislate Defeat—Again
February 6, 2007 | By Nathaniel Ward
“Once again the U.S. Congress appears to be on the verge of deciding whether a war will be won or lost,” Heritage foreign policy expert Helle Dale writes. While it’s possible the war might be lost on the ground in Iraq, she warns that “it could also be lost on the home front if Congress persists in passing resolutions undercutting or limiting the President's ability to conduct the war.”
Rushing to judgment is always a poor idea—particularly when the lives of American servicemen and indeed the nation’s security are at stake. Congress should consider all the relevant information when coming to such decisions, and not make rash choices.
For example, Congress was recently given a copy of the new National Intelligence Estimate, which outlines the challenges American faces in Iraq and details the dire consequences of rapid withdrawal. “Members of Congress should give that [report] a good, hard read this week,” Heritage national security expert Peter Brookes argues, “before they take up any of the numerous Iraq resolutions floating around the Capitol.”
Yet the new liberal-dominated Congress seems all too eager to appeal to its anti-war base and cripple efforts to prevail in Iraq.
Several measures have been introduced in the Senate condemning President Bush’s plan to send additional combat troops to secure Iraq, and liberals sought to ram their favored resolution through without considering alternative proposals. Cooler heads prevailed, though, as independent Democrat Joe Lieberman yesterday joined forty-eight Republicans in successfully pushing to consider alternative resolutions before voting.
(While radical anti-war liberals clamor for a “discussion” of Iraq, they seem content only to debate the war on their terms. Working with their allies in the media, they twisted reality and said, in the words of The New York Times, that these Senators “blocked Senate debate” when they actually extended debate and allowed other proposals to be heard.)
The outcome of the Vietnam War should serve as a sobering reminder to members of Congress about the dangers of hastily sacrificing national security for the sake of political expediency. Unfortunately, Helle Dale writes, “the same kind of political animosity and fear that seriously impaired the judgment of Congress at the time of the Vietnam War is evident today in the debate over the Iraq resolutions.”
Real progress on entitlement reform
Yesterday, President Bush sent his new $2.9 trillion budget to Congress. While media reports focused on the drive to balance the budget by 2012, the real news was a long-overdue proposal to reform entitlement spending.
Bob Moffit, director of Heritage’s Center for Health Policy Studies, writes that the Medicare changes included in the budget “would reduce the enormous unfunded obligations of the program by an estimated $8 trillion, or one-fourth of the projected red ink.”
Click here to read more about these important reforms.
Conservatism’s bright future
“Conservatives have won the battle of ideas so completely that liberals seldom even bother attempting to engage us in that arena anymore,” Heritage Foundation President Ed Feulner writes in The DC Examiner. “Instead, they often rely on hot-button soundbites such as ‘tax the rich’ to drive policy.”
“If we can simply find better ways to express ourselves in the years ahead, conservative ideas will win the hearts and minds of a majority of Americans.”
In other news
Today would have been Ronald Reagan’s 96th birthday. May he rest in peace.
- Billionaire George Soros, who finances liberal causes, has called for “a certain de-Nazification process” to remove conservatives from the government.
- The Utah House of Representatives last week passed the nation’s first state-wide school choice initiative. This is an important victory for education reform.
- The New York Times has stooped to a new low: scoring political points off the Super Bowl. Noting correctly that some ads shown during the game used slapstick comedy, the paper went on to claim that this humor somehow reflects how the war in Iraq “linger[s] just below the surface of many of this year’s commercials.”
- On the opposite coast, there’s a new low in advertising. Some Seattle coffee shops are now using ill-clad waitresses and crudely-named drinks to entice customers to buy their products.
- Former Sen. John Edwards, a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President, used a Sunday talk show to announce a plan to hike taxes and increase government control over health care. Here’s a better plan: instead of raising taxes, reduce the tax penalty on individuals who purchase health coverage and allow individuals, not government bureaucrats, to make their own health care decisions.
- A new UN report significantly backpedals on earlier global warming alarmism—though despite the reduced threat the organization still calls for the same dramatic government controls on the economy.
- Iran’s government announced that it had achieved a cure for AIDS. The radical government seems to be emulating the bizarre propaganda of Communist North Korea, which in 2004 declared itself free of the disease.
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 Wednesday, February 7 at 11:00 am, Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter will discuss the complex process of transforming the Navy and the Marine Corps to meet 21st-century challenges.
- On Monday, February 12 at noon, a panel of experts will join moderator Lee Edwards to discuss why America has been unable to counter its negative portrayal overseas.
- On Thursday, February 15 at 2:00 pm, author Alena Ledeneva will discuss the informal business practices of post-Soviet Russia and how they simultaneously support and subvert formal institutions.
Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.
