The History And Power Of The Heritage Foundation
Author: Dave Klein

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.


About The Author: Dave Klein is an expert author at
http://www.foundationteam.com, a comprehensive information site
dedicated to foundations. Learn more about foundations at
http://www.foundationteam.com.