Heritage’s first president passes away
December 19, 2008 | By Nathaniel Ward
Paul M. Weyrich, chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation and the first president of The Heritage Foundation, died yesterday morning at age 66.
In a statement, Heritage President Ed Feulner called Weyrich "a truly visionary leader," with an "unerring eye for spotting the path to victory in the midst of seeming disaster."
"America has lost a great patriot with the passing of Paul Weyrich," Heritage Vice President Becky Norton-Dunlop wrote in the Wall Street Journal. "He was an individual who understood the miracle of America and believed it was worth investing a major part of his life in protecting and preserving it. So, he became a committed warrior for the principles that had undergirded the United States of America since its Founding and provided opportunity for the millions of individuals who are part of the fabric of our nation."
Writing on National Review Online, Heritage scholar Lee Edwards paid tribute to Weyrich's humor. "Paul may have had the fastest wit in Washington. Right after the operation to remove his two legs, he was visited by a delegation of young men from his church where he served as deacon. Looking at their long faces, he looked up from his bed and said, 'Well, I've been trying to think of something cheerful to say, but frankly I'm stumped.'"
Watch a memorial slideshow and read tributes from Weyrich's friends in the conservative movement on The Foundry, Heritage's blog.
» Read more Paul Weyrich tributes on MyHeritage.org
— David Talbot
New Heritage memos: immigration, Pakistan, spending and religion
President-elect Barack Obama should strengthen border security and immigration laws, work with Pakistan to fight terrorists, hold to promises to cut the budget and uphold religious freedom. That's according to four new memos Heritage Foundation experts sent to the incoming president and his key staff members.
As a candidate, the President-elect campaigned on several issues important to conservatives, but it remains to be seen what policies he will ultimately enact. Seeking common ground, The Heritage Foundation is reaching out to him with specially designed policy memos on subjects where his words line up with our vision of how to solve the most critical issues facing America.
Here are the four most recent memos in the "Change We Believe In" series:
- Fixing Border Security and Immigration
by Jena Baker McNeill and James Carafano
President-elect Obama said, "And I will make it a top priority in my first year as President not only because we have an obligation to secure our borders and get control of what comes in and out of our country. And not only because we have to crack down on employers who are abusing undocumented immigrants instead of hiring citizens. But because we have to finally bring undocumented immigrants out of the shadows. Yes, they broke the law. And they should have to pay a fine, and learn English, and go to the back of the line."
Heritage experts remind the President-elect that "securing our borders is simply one step toward protecting American and fixing our broken immigration system." He needs to recognize that "over the past several decades immigration policy has become confused and unfocused" and devise "a clear, comprehensive, meaningful, and long-term policy concerning immigration, naturalization, and citizenship."
» Read more memos to Barack Obama on MyHeritage.org
Other Heritage work of note
- Writing in the New York Post, Heritage's Peter Brookes explains that the collapse of the Six-Party Talks about North Korea's nuclear program should come as no surprise. Not only is a continued nuclear program a way to keep the country relevant—"without it, North Korea is little more than an impoverished third-world country"—but dictator Kim Jong Il is reportedly ill and could be waiting for a new foreign policy direction from Washington.
- New York's governor, David Patterson, has announced plans to pay for his state's lavish spending with new taxes on everything from sodas to gym memberships, movie tickets and cable TV. "The governor's ideas actually are not new," Heritage's Ernest Istook explains. "Just bad. America has become fertile ground for bad ideas about how government should manage our lives."
- To get the economy back on track, some on the Left want to throw taxpayer money at the problem and "create" jobs, a policy which hasn't worked in the past. Another proposal would temporarily suspend certain taxes, a better approach but just a short-term fix. The best solution, Heritage Foundation President Ed Feulner writes in the Washington Times, would be to lower tax rates permanently, which "encourages greater economic growth by improving the long-term rewards for investing in job-creating enterprises. The best way to stimulate the economy is to make changes that will last for years, so people know they can count on those changes well into the future."
In other news
- Another crack opens in the supposed "consensus" that global warming is man-made: a CNN meteorologist calls the theory "arrogant."
- The Obama administration is planning a special outreach to Iran to dialogue with Tehran without preconditions.
- The Bush administration has announced plans to prop up the failing Big Three automakers with a $17.4 billion bailout using money specifically earmarked to rescue the financial system. This use of the financial bailout money is contrary to the law. Because of such abuses, Heritage experts urge a repeal of the TARP bailout funds.
- Liberal activists in Minnesota are hoping to push through legislation allowing gay "marriage" in that state.
- The Department of Homeland Security reports that it deported 42 percent more Mexicans and Central Americans in the year ending September 31 than in the previous year.
- Members of Congress have raised their own pay by $4,700 a year, at a cost to taxpayers of $2.5 million annually.
Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation. David Talbot contributed to this report.
