Leading Senator praises Heritage
March 6, 2007 | By Nathaniel Ward
On Thursday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) spoke to hundreds of conservatives assembled in Washington for the 34th annual Conservative Political Action Conference. He opened his remarks with strong praise for The Heritage Foundation and Heritage President Ed Feulner.
Thanks Ed [Feulner] for that kind introduction. Few people have done more for the conservative movement than Ed. Conservatives were in the wilderness when the Heritage Foundation opened its doors in 1973. But in the three decades that Ed’s been there, Heritage has become the biggest think tank in town and a big part of the reason conservatives now drive just about every policy discussion in America.
And I’m not just saying that because my wife used to work there. If Heritage gets any bigger, it’s going to have a higher gas and electric bill than Al Gore. Ed, thanks for your commitment to the conservative cause and, especially, for doing so much to train the next generation of conservative leaders. Many of them, I’m sure, are here. Thank you.
Applying economics to business
The principles of economics teach us that in a dynamic economy, those industries that do not adapt to new developments will inevitably fail. To use one common example, the horse-and-buggy industry was destroyed by the fledgling automobile industry a century ago when the former was unable to adapt its manufacturing to meet the public’s demand for cars. This process is known as “creative destruction.”
But creative destruction is a rule not only for broad industries and national economies. As entrepreneur Charles G. Koch reminds us in his new book, The Science of Success, it applies to individual businesses as well. The most successful organizations, like his own Koch Industries or even The Heritage Foundation, are always adapting to new situations, whether a change in consumer preferences or a change in power on Capitol Hill.
Click here to find out how ideas of free enterprise apply to individual businesses.
Minding the nation’s finances? Hardly.
Congress has grown worse and worse when it comes to fiscal discipline, Heritage’s Ron Utt tells The New York Times:
Ronald Utt, a senior research fellow and expert in transportation financing with the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research organization in Washington, said that Congress was the culprit [for the increase in pet projects].
Mr. Utt said that such items, once known as pork and these days known by the more genteel term of earmarks, increased beginning in 1985. For example, Mr. Utt said that in research he did for a paper he will soon publish, he found only three earmarks for transportation projects, now a favorite of Congress, in federal budgets between 1970 and 1985. By 2005, he said, the federal budget had 900 transportation items among 15,000 total earmarks. In the interim lobbyists had begun to see earmarks as a way to satisfy clients, accelerating the increase, he said.
“They brag about it in their Web sites and their marketing to their clients,” Mr. Utt said. “It has become part of a commercial transaction.”
Doing immigration right
“Any legislation aiming to reform immigration should adhere to policy principles of national sovereignty, national security, rule of law, and patriotic assimilation, as well as economic efficiency,” writes Tim Kane, director of The Heritage Foundations’ Center for International Trade and Economics.
Congress is once again considering ways to reform America’s broken immigration system. Unfortunately, many of the leading proposals—like the plan proposed by Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA)—amount to amnesty, which is harmful to the rule of law and to American sovereignty and national security.
Click here to read about better solution to the nation’s immigration crisis.
In other news
- Lewis “Scooter” Libby, a former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was found guilty this afternoon on four of five charges arising from the investigation into the exposure of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson.
- A new documentary set to air on British television suggests that the science used by global warming scaremongers just might be a bit distorted.
- Left-wingers in Congress are threatening to vote against the liberal leadership’s Iraq funding bill, which imposes harsh restrictions on the President’s ability to win the war in Iraq. According to the Politico newspaper, they don’t think the bill goes far enough since it doesn’t fix a date for withdrawal.
- Congress has opened hearings into the quality of facilities at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. Secretary of the Army Fracis Harvey has already resigned in the scandal, which demonstrates the inefficiencies of government-run health care.
- Vice President Cheney is undergoing treatment for a blood clot discovered in his leg.
- Here’s a confusing plan: expand the size of government in order to collect more money, which would be used to—wait for it—offset the costs of expanded government. This is exactly what some Congressional liberals have proposed with their plan to add considerably to the number of IRS agents in order to collect more tax revenues.
- China has announced an 18 percent increase in its military spending.
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 Thursday, March 8 at noon, author Daniel Fine will speak about the tremendous oil reserves America has in the shale rocks beneath the Rocky Mountains.
- On Wednesday, Match 14 at noon, scholars Anthony Cordesman, Frederick Kagan and Kenneth Pollack will join Heritage’s Jim Phillips to discuss American policy in Iraq going forward.
Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.
