Skip ahead to page content

federal_budget_and_spending.jpg

Playing politics with national security

July 9, 2008 | By Nathaniel Ward

The radical left won a major victory last week when a San Francisco judge ruled that a program to spy on America’s terrorist enemies is not protected by secrecy rules.

“This means that government officials and companies that helped to implement the program may be forced to testify about its structure and operations,” Heritage Foundation legal analyst Andrew Grossman explains.

“Now things stand to really get dangerous,” he continues. That’s because the courts could soon start to “legally siphon top-secret information from the government and its private-sector helpers.”

On top of that, the courts could punish private companies that cooperated with a national security program in good faith. “It’s not fair to hold these companies liable for trying to help protect the nation,” Grossman writes.

But this national security information doesn’t necessarily have to become public. Congress could “pass legislation that pulls these super-sensitive suits out of federal courts.” Grossman laid out the case for modernizing our intelligence programs this way back in April.

“Enough is enough,” he concludes. “It’s time to stop playing politics with intelligence and national security.”

Jesse Helms, R.I.P.

Jesse Helms, a conservative stalwart in the Senate for 30 years, passed away last Friday at age 86.

It’s fitting he passed away on the Fourth of July, Heritage Foundation president Ed Feulner writes in the Washington Times, because he did so much to advance the cause of freedom. An early supporter of Ronald Reagan and a fierce advocate of conservative ideas, he tirelessly fought bad legislation and championed the cause of United Nations reform.

“Today’s conservatives remember and admire Sen. Helms above all for his independence of spirit and unwavering dedication to principle,” Heritage vice president Michael Franc writes on National Review Online.

Much of his success derived from his work to expand the conservative movement. “Jesse Helms was absolutely indispensable” to the conservative cause, Heritage scholar Lee Edwards told the Charlotte Observer.

Because of these and other traits, Helms was “one of the most consequential figures of the 20th century,” Feulner tells the Wall Street Journal.

In 2002, Heritage recognized his achievements by awarding him the Clare Booth Luce Award, our highest honor.

Other Heritage work of note

  • Energy and Environment. The unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats at the Environmental Protection Agency are preparing to enact an economically ruinous economic plan that even the liberal-controlled Congress rejected. In what Heritage’s Ernest Istook calls a “power grab,” they are looking to implement a costly program to regulate carbon dioxide and “exert new powers to regulate and control our lives.”
  • Entrepreneurship. A sloppy and unscientific government tool used to determine wages paid for federal projects under the Davis-Bacon Act distorts labor markets around the country, a Heritage analysis has discovered. “Nationally, Davis–Bacon wages are 22 percent above market wages, meaning that taxpayers overpay for construction projects,” Heritage economists James Sherk and Patrick Tyrrell write. “In Florida, however, the unscientific WHD process results in Davis–Bacon rates that are an average of 25 percent below market wages. The WHD methodology depresses construc­tion wages in Florida.” They also conducted analyses of the law’s effects on labor markets in Nebraska, South Dakota and Virginia.
  • Entrepreneurship. The latest government jobs figures indicate that the economy has entered a period of weakness. “Most economists agree that the government should not raise taxes during times of economic weakness,” Heritage economists Rea Hederman and James Sherk point out. “Yet that is what many in Congress are proposing.” Raising taxes, they explain, “reduces the incentive to work, save, and invest. It discourages the wealth-creating activities needed to bring the economy out of the doldrums.”
  • American Leadership. “The safe rescue of Ingrid Betancourt and three Americans,” Heritage Latin America expert Ray Walser writes in the Latin Business Chronicle, “is a stunning success for Colombia's armed forces and President Álvaro Uribe. It symbolizes the huge gains made under Uribe in partnership with the U.S.-funded Plan Colombia program and is a major black eye for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and their rogue insurgency.”

In other news

  • A confidential World Bank study suggests the increased use of biofuels has driven up the cost of food by 75 percent, Britain’s Guardian reports. Many biofuels are economically unviable and produced only with heavy government subsidies.
  • The deal to place key missile defense interceptors in Poland is on shaky ground. Unless a deal is reached soon, Heritage’s Baker Spring tells the Washington Times, “it is unlikely that the administration will be able to conclude a deal before President Bush leaves office.”
  • “Iraq’s national security adviser said Tuesday his country will not accept any security deal with the United States unless it contains specific dates for the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces,” the AP reports. Visit Heritage’s Progress in Iraq page for the latest on developments in Iraq.
  • The Politico tells the story of Shona Robertson-Holmes, a Canadian unable to receive life-saving surgery in her home country. Canada’s socialized medical system placed her on a months-long waiting list. She survived because she sought treatment at private expense in the United States.

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.