Vetoing the irresponsible Iraq bill
April 12, 2007 | By Nathaniel Ward
President Bush must veto any unconstitutional and irresponsible war funding legislation, Heritage Foundation President Ed Feulner argues in an important new Heritage paper sent to members of Congress and the White House.
“The President is right to threaten a veto of Congress’s legislation,” Feulner writes. “Anything that falls short of the standards of constitutionality and responsibility must face a Presidential veto.”
Take our poll: Should President Bush veto the war funding bill if it contains unconstitutional measures and irresponsible spending?
Read on for more about Congress’ irresponsible and unconstitutional Iraq bill.
Congress’s hidden tax hike
The Senate recently passed a budget resolution, an outline of federal tax and spending policy for the next few years. In it, the liberal majority inserted hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending and, though they strenuously deny it, a massive tax hike.
Heritage budget expert Brian Riedl brought these tax increases to light two weeks ago when he exposed “the largest peacetime tax increase in American history.” He revealed that the liberal budget plan would raise the average household’s taxes by $2,641 a year and bring tax revenues to their highest level since World War II.
Read more about liberals’ “sneaky” plan to raise taxes.
Iran after the hostage crisis
Now that Iran’s radical government has released the 15 British sailors and marines it kidnapped, what should America and its allies do next? Foreign policy expert Sally McNamara of The Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom answers that question in a new Heritage video.
Click here to watch the video.
Are our children less patriotic?
How patriotic are American children? According to a recent poll by the DC-based polling firm, The Winston Group, 70 percent of Americans said they believed children are growing up less patriotic today than in earlier generations. A new book by Myrna Blyth and Chriss Winston, How to Raise an American, addresses this growing problem, which they call the “Patriotism Gap.”
Co-author Myrna Blyth will be speaking at The Heritage Foundation during the April Conservative Women’s Network luncheon at noon on Friday, April 13. The luncheon will be held at the Heritage Foundation’s headquarters, located at 214 Massachusetts Avenue NE in Washington, DC. For those of you unable to attend in person, the event will be replayed on C-SPAN’s “Book TV.”
In other news
- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) suggested Tuesday that she might follow her inappropriate diplomatic excursion to Syria with one to Iran. Though it is the role of the executive branch, not the legislative branch, to conduct diplomacy, Pelosi said “it is important that we have a dialogue” with Iran’s dictators.
- Many Iraqi militia members are learning the art of terrorism in Iran, a military spokesman said yesterday.
- Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) has introduced legislation to replace America’s muddled tax code with a flat tax of 20 percent on income. According to a press release from his office, the reform “would eliminate taxes on estates, dividends and capital gains” while maintaining deductions for mortgage payments and charitable giving. Heritage research supports a flat tax.
- The Senate passed two bills on stem cells yesterday. One, which President Bush promised to veto, would expand federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. The other would support research on adult stem cells.
- National Review’s Kathryn Jean Lopez notes that former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA) has often turned to The Heritage Foundation for advice on issues ranging from health care to religious freedom and national security.
- Venezuala’s socialist dictator, Hugo Chavez, recently announced plans to nationalize still more of his nation’s energy industry, confiscating facilities even from American and European firms.
Coming up at Heritage
To attend the following 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 Monday, April 16 at 10:30 a.m., a panel of experts will discuss the role of Islam in Indonesia’s politics, and what this might mean for U.S.-Indonesia relations.
- On Wednesday, April 18 at 11:00 a.m., visiting experts will discuss the impact of liability lawsuits on the nation’s ability to develop technologies to detect and counter terrorist activities.
- On Wednesday, April 18 at 6:00 p.m., Steven Hayward of the American Enterprise Institute will present a special screening of his new documentary, An Inconvenient Truth...or Convenient Fiction: Sorting Out Sense from Nonsense on Global Warming. To attend, please RSVP to Cindy Chin at the Pacific Research Institute.
Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.
