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35 years of conservative reform

February 21, 2008 | By Nathaniel Ward

“In a matter of just 10 years,” reported Soviet newspaper Pravda in the early 1980s, “The Heritage Foundation has covered a mind-boggling distance.” But two and a half decades later, Heritage President Ed Feulner writes, “the original Pravda isn’t around to wish us a happy 35th.”

Support Heritage on its 35th anniversary and receive a free copy of Ed Meese’s With Reagan

In fact, it was 35 years ago last Saturday—on Feb. 16, 1973—that The Heritage Foundation first opened its doors. Since then, Feulner explains, “The Heritage Foundation has helped propel the conservative movement” to a number of its most important victories.

  • The Reagan revolution. “We published ‘Mandate for Leadership,”’ explaining how to rebuild American military and economic power. President Reagan read it. He gave it to his cabinet members. And he acted on it. Within a decade, the Iron Curtain fell, and former satellite states claimed their freedom.”
  • Missile defense, “another policy long championed by Heritage, is advancing. Poland recently agreed to allow the U.S. to base missile interceptors on its territory. The military has also conducted successful interceptor tests over the Pacific Ocean, and installed defensive weapons in California and Alaska. The system is far from complete. But Americans are safer from missile attack than they’ve ever been.”
  • Welfare reform. Heritage experts proposed an alternative to the failed policies of the “war on poverty.” “Reward work; encourage families to stay together, and put a reasonable limit on how long people may receive public assistance. These reforms worked. Millions of people left the welfare rolls and landed jobs. Others entered training programs or finished their education.”

» View a complete list of Heritage successes.

These successes are just part of the story, though. There have been setbacks, to be sure, and many critical reforms remain uncompleted. We conservatives have our work cut out for us on issues like federal spending, health care, Social Security, national defense and so much more. None of these lend themselves to easy or quick solutions.

But Heritage is in it for the long haul. “Changing the direction of the country is like changing the direction of a ship,” Feulner concludes. “We have to push the wheel hard, for a long time, before we see any changes. The Heritage Foundation is dedicated to doing just that.”

A conservative agenda for the Senate

Sen. Jim DeMint speaks at Heritage

“The American people are looking for common-sense solutions to today’s problems,” Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) said last week at The Heritage Foundation. “Conservatives have long been the source of these ideas.”

Watch the videos of his presentation

DeMint, chairman of the conservative Senate Steering Committee, outlined a ten-point agenda for his conservative colleagues: 

  1. Make the tax cuts permanent and enact fundamental reforms to the tax code;
  2. Rein in runaway government spending and halt the practice of pork-barrel earmarks;
  3. Make health insurance more affordable by ending the tax preference for employer-based health care and creating a national market in insurance;
  4. Demand accountability in the United Nations;
  5. Increase American competitiveness in the international economy by cutting corporate tax rates, increasing energy supplies and cutting back government red tape;
  6. Secure the borders;
  7. Fully fund our nation’s armed forces by spending at least four percent of GDP on the military;
  8. Enact a Constitutional amendment to require a balanced budget and limit tax increases;
  9. Stop spending Social Security surpluses on other government programs; and
  10. Give parents more flexibility in their children’s education and work to restore federalism in education policy.

The senator praised Heritage for our work on issues like immigration and government spending. “Groups like Heritage have really put the numbers out there and helped us track the problems,” he said. 

Other Heritage work of note

  • Leadership for America. Heritage’s message continues to draw attention—even from left-leaning media. As a key intelligence-gathering tool was about to expire last week, Heritage experts created an online countdown clock to illustrate how little time remained before the legislation lapsed. For our efforts on this important national security issue, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann named “the lunatic right-wing Heritage Foundation” a runner-up for his “worst person in the world” award.

    » Watch the video on MSNBC’s website.
  • Entitlements. The first baby boomer has started receiving Social Security payments, setting the stage for a rapid decline in the program’s financial health. To help provide some perspective on this defining moment, Heritage’s Foundry weblog provides an interview with one boomer, who believes that while current retirees should count on Social Security, it should really be understood “as a supplement, not a retirement.” He adds that for future generations, the program should “become voluntary, part of a plan where you’re either in the Social Security system or in an investment plan or both” Read more about Heritage’s proposals to reform Social Security.
  • American Leadership. Communist despot Fidel Castro announced Tuesday that he has resigned as Cuba’s leader. While this would normally be welcomed as good news, Heritage’s Jim Roberts and Ray Walser note that “all signs point to a continuation of the status quo in Cuba,” as Castro’s brother Raul is expected to maintain effective if not formal control. “The United States should keep existing policies in place until Cuba makes real progress on political reforms and human rights issues,” they argue.
  • American Leadership. Following the advice of Heritage experts Nile Gardiner and Sally McNamara, the United States has recognized Kosovo as an independent state. “It is important at this highly volatile time that the West remains united in fully supporting Kosovo’s efforts to gain complete independence from Serbia,” explain the two analysts in Heritage’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom.

In other news

  • Many on the Left attribute the recent dramatic rise in home prices to the supposedly irrational forces of the free market. But a new study finds that in Seattle, 90 percent of the real price increase of the average home between 1989 and 2006 resulted not from market forces but from government controls on land use.
  • Britain’s government recently mandated that National Health Service hospitals leave emergency patients waiting no more than four hours for treatment. So how did the government-run hospitals meet this requirement? By leaving patients outside the emergency room, still in their ambulances—because the four-hour clock starts running only once they move indoors.
  • Secular and democratic parties won the most votes in Pakistan’s parliamentary elections Tuesday, with the biggest winner being assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s PPP party.
  • Military officials successfully hit an aging satellite in orbit this week in what was viewed as an important test of America’s missile defense capabilities.

Coming up at Heritage

To attend these or any other events at Heritage please RSVP at Heritage’s website.  Or you can view these events live online.  All times are Eastern.

Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation. Chris Albright contributed to this report.