Mandate for Leadership VI - Principles to Limit Government, Expand Freedom, and Strengthen America PDF
Preview Mandate for Leadership VI - Principles to Limit Government, Expand Freedom, and Strengthen America
Principles to Limit Government, Expand Freedom, and Strengthen America MAN DAT E/or LEADERSHIP Principles to Limit Government, Expand Freedom, and Strengthen America Visit mandateforleadership.org for updates, additional copies, or to download the book—for free. MANDATE>r LEADERSHIP Principles to Limit Government, Expand Freedom, and Strengthen America '^Heritage ’T’oundatiori © 2005 by The Heritage Foundation 214 Massachusetts Avenue, NE Washington, DC 20002-4999 (202) 546-4400 • heritage.org All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America ISBN 0-89195-114-8 Visit mandateforleadership.org for updates, additional copies, or to download the book—for free. CONTENTS Foreword.iii Introduction .vii Domestic Policy... 1 1. Limiting the Size and Role of the Federal Government_5 Curbing Federal Spending... 6 Reforming Regulation... 7 7 Restoring the Proper Role of the Courts... 77 Strengthening Federalism ...22 □ 2. Assuring Economic Liberty and Strong Economic Growth.28 □ 3. Strengthening Civil Society.35 Combining Sensible Immigration with Assimilation... 36 Protecting the Institution of Marriage ...41 Improving Education... 46 Strengthening the Role of Religion and Religious Institutions ...57 4. Combining Freedom with Responsibility.58 Building on Welfare Reform... 59 Reforming Medicare... 63 Achieving Health Care for Working Families... 69 Reforming Social Security... 74 n / Mandate for Leadership Foreign Policy ...81 5. Securing America Efficiently and Effectively.85 Fighting the War on Terrorism on Many Fronts... 85 Protecting the American Homeland... 92 Transforming the U.S. Armed Forces... 98 6. Creating Foreign Policy to Protect National Sovereignty and Security.104 A Policy for Europe That Reinforces National Sovereignty... 104 Utilizing Public Diplomacy for Security and Prosperity... 110 Creating Energy Security in the United States and Abroad... 116 Addressing Security in Asia... 121 7. Promoting Freedom Through Trade and International Cooperation.128 Protecting America's Interests Through International Institutions... 128 A Free Market Economic Development Strategy... 133 Promoting Economic Freedom Through Global Free Trade... 138 FOREWORD A LL AMERICANS ARE BORED WITH THE CLICHE THAT THE 2004 election was one of the most important of our lives. Nonetheless, I am struck by how crucial an election this was when I think of the many stark differences between the two presidential candidates. On one side, we had a continuation of the old welfare state as personified by the tax-and- spend liberal, and on the other, we had an individual who was willing to stand up for what is necessary to move the United States into the global economy. Yet it remains to be seen whether the rhetoric of the campaign will be manifest in Washington in the coming years. Sadly, commitment to principle has been missing in Washington’s politics for quite some time now. America is fundamentally a conservative nation, as the Economist's lohn Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge relate in their important book, The Right Nation. The American electorate has once again deliv¬ ered a mandate to Washington to govern conservatively; we must not shy away from doing so. The American public’s embrace of conservative solutions to issues ranging from free trade to Social Security reform to education has pro¬ vided our country with the opportunity to finally break free from the shackles of the welfare state. Americans understand that the world is changing, and this election once again confirmed that we have the courage to endorse the measures necessary for us to change with it. Around the world, we find clear evidence supporting the argument that The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal have presented iv / Mandate for Leadership for 10 years in our annual Index of Economic Freedom: The spread of eco¬ nomic freedom is the crucial step to creating growth and thereby increasing per capita income around the world. Take, for example, India, which has seen robust growth since it instituted bold economic reforms in 1991; or Tithuania, the second freest country in the former Soviet bloc, in which the private sector now produces about 80 percent of the country’s GDP. America has long been a global leader in the spread of economic and political freedom, but over the past several years, we have seen too many instances of the pupil passing the teacher. In the 2000 Index of Economic Freedom, America ranked as the world’s fourth freest economy. Howev¬ er, the rest of the world has begun to catch on to the dividends that free¬ dom pays, and in the past four years, we have seen Luxembourg, Ireland, Estonia, the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Switzerland all move ahead of the United States. Therefore, the United States has now slipped to tenth among the 155 nations that could be graded (of the 161 evaluated) in the 2004 Index of Economic Freedom. Free trade was a crucial issue in this year’s election, and the differ¬ ence between the two candidates was stark. Democratic Vice-Presiden¬ tial candidate John Edwards put it bluntly during his debate with Vice President Cheney: “The administration says over and over again that the o utsourcing of millions of American jobs is good. We’re against it.” Yet the threat to the American middle class does not come from, as John Kerry put it, “Benedict Arnold CEOs” or from free trade. Rather, in a thriving global economy, it is non-competitive Ameri¬ can labor costs that pose the greatest threat to our economic growth. The federal government continues to influence prices by purchasing excess production, over-regulating the economy, restricting imports, and providing subsidies to companies like Amtrak. Ronald Reagan’s summary of how the government thinks—“If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, sub¬ sidize it.”—remains very much alive today. To their credit, in this time of economic uncertainty, the American people have rejected the path of protectionism. Today, conservatives have a mandate to keep America’s middle class prosperous by leading the worldwide march of economic freedom. We must seize this opportunity. Conservatives have frequently criticized the Republican-controlled Congress and the Republican White House for their inability to rein in Foreword \ v government spending or shrink the size of government—and rightly so. Yet, as disappointing as it was to see Congress pass and the President sign the biggest farm bill and the biggest education bill in our nations histo¬ ry, as well as the largest entitlement increase since Lyndon Johnsons so- called Great Society, it is invigorating to see the potential we have today to return to an era of limited government. Social Security, for example, is no longer the third rail of American politics, though John Kerry’s statement in the third debate—”1 will not privatize it”—was clearly an attempt to return to those days. We conser¬ vatives have a plan that would secure Social Security while encouraging younger workers to take ownership of their future by investing in a nest egg for retirement. Traditional welfare state liberalism was rejected in the realm of health care as well. President Bush took a bold—and potentially unpop¬ ular—stand by declaring the truth about Medicare: As long as there was a disconnect between the consumer of health services and the entity pay¬ ing the bills, spending would be out of control. The conservative solu¬ tion of Health Savings Accounts for which individuals are personally responsible can help control the inflation of health care costs. It speaks to the self-reliant nature of the American electorate that they chose Pres¬ ident Bush’s vision for the future. Faced with an unsustainable status quo, the American people have chosen to confront the issue by giving themselves a stake in our society. President Bush’s concept of an “ownership society” as a solution to prob¬ lems in health care, retirement, education, and other issues seeks to limit government by reducing the people’s demand for its services. The clear¬ ly expressed preference of the American people has vindicated Alexis de Tocqueville’s observation that “The citizen of the United States is taught from infancy to rely upon his own exertions to resist the evils and the difficulties of life; he looks upon the social authority with an eye of mis¬ trust and anxiety, and he claims assistance only when he is unable to do without it.” Since the establishment of the New Deal, the American people have been given a virtually endless supply of government programs to address the difficulties of life. Now, burdened by the financial and inefficiency costs of these programs, the American people have embraced a conser¬ vative effort to reduce demand for government. vi / Mandate for Leadership President Bush and Congress find themselves with a mandate to roll back the welfare state and give the American people ownership in them¬ selves, their communities, and their country. I am proud to present to the Administration, both returning and newly elected Members of Con¬ gress, the national media, and all American citizens our proposals for moving the United States in a direction that will encourage ownership and freedom among all of our citizens. Edwin J. Feulner, Ph.D. President The Heritage Foundation January 2005
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