institute that is located in Washington, DC. It is a conservative "think
tank" that has had a significant impact on both domestic and foreign
United States government policies.
History of the Heritage Foundation
The Heritage Foundation was founded in 1973. The initial funding for the
formation of the Heritage Foundation came from Joseph Coors, who is the
politically conservative owner of Coors Brewing ...
The Heritage Foundation is a very influential public policy research
institute that is located in Washington, DC. It is a conservative "think
tank" that has had a significant impact on both domestic and foreign
United States government policies.
History of the Heritage Foundation
The Heritage Foundation was founded in 1973. The initial funding for the
formation of the Heritage Foundation came from Joseph Coors, who is the
politically conservative owner of Coors Brewing Company. Paul Weyrich,
who is a conservative activist, was the first head of the Heritage
Foundation. The president of the Heritage Foundation since 1974 has been
Edwin Feulner, Jr., who was the formerly the staff director of the House
Republican Study Committee.
Initiatives of the Heritage Foundation
The Heritage Foundation has been long known for its influential and
wide-ranging work. Its book Mandate for Leadership was published in
1981. This 1,000 page book forever changed the character of public
policy advice giving. It provided recommendations on budget, policy, and
administrative action for the incoming administration of President
Ronald Regan. These recommendations included action for every Cabinet
department, as well as for many other agencies staffed with political
appointees.
The Heritage Foundation was also the primary creator and advocate of the
Reagan Doctrine in the 1980's and the early 1990's. Within the Reagan
Doctrine, the United States government provided support, both overt and
covert, to anti-communist resistance movements in countries such as
Angola, Nicaragua, Cambodia, and Afghanistan. The Heritage Foundation
also supported global anti-communism throughout the Cold War. In fact,
the Heritage Foundation was active at the time in providing military and
political guidance to rebel forces in Angola, Nicaragua, and Cambodia,
as well as to dissidents in Soviet republics and Eastern bloc nations.
The Heritage Foundation also played a key role in the advancement of
President Reagan's belief that the Soviet Union was an "evil empire." It
further supported the belief that the former Soviet Union needed to be
defeated, not merely contained. The Heritage Foundation was instrumental
in helping to build support for Reagan's plans to build the Strategic
Defense Initiative, which was an orbital ballistic missile shield.
The Heritage Foundation is also an advocate of supply side economics,
which is an economic policy that maintains reductions in the marginal
rate of taxation can lead to economic growth. To assist in spreading
this belief, the Heritage Foundation partners with the Wall Street
Journal to publish an annual international report called Index of
Economic Freedom. This report measures the freedom of the country in
relation to its property rights and its freedom from regulation by the
government. The Heritage Foundation takes factors such as barriers to
international trade, corruption in government, corporate tax rates,
income tax, rule of law, government expenditures, the ability to enforce
contracts, banking restrictions, regulatory burdens, black market
activities, and labor regulations to calculate the index score for this
report. Any deficiencies in any of these areas lead to a lower score.
Financing the Heritage Foundation
The Heritage Foundation has a great deal of power on Capitol Hill, but
insists that it doesn't lobby to get its way. This allows the Heritage
Foundation to retain a tax exempt status as a charity. Due to its status
as a charitable organization, the Heritage Foundation was able to
collect $29.7 million in 2004. The majority of these funds are from
individual donors and conservative foundations.
No comments:
Post a Comment