This has been an exciting week for me. As a Trustee of the Heritage Foundation, the preeminent Conservative Think Tank in the world today, I attended the 2007 Annual Meeting in Chicago April 11-15 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel downtown. The Heritage Foundation is dedicated to public policy research that supports limited government, lower taxes, personal responsibility and individual responsibility as the best ways to achieve all that is good, great and possible in America. At this meeting, as at each Heritage meeting, some of the best and brightest minds in America, if not in the world, come together to share their state-of-the-art observations and insights into the issues that concern us and our families. With Iraq on everyone’s mind, we had a retired general who explained that by the year 2001, and the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers, the US Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines had been “hollowed out” and reduced to a substandard military force. The United States Army alone had been reduced from 18 active divisions to 10 divisions, and those divisions were poorly armed and poorly supplied. This was why we have had to call up so many members of the Reserves for Afghanistan and Iraq, and to extend their tours of duty. In the 1990’s, the Administration of the day largely gutted the armed forces leaving President George Bush with a greatly diminished military with which to fight. This explains many of the problems we have had in the Middle East in the last couple of years. We had Brian Wesbury, one of the top economists in America, explain that the US today is prospering as never before, irrespective of what is reported in the newspapers. We have one of the fastest growth rates in the world, combined with one of the lowest rates of unemployment and inflation. We have 70% home ownership, one of the highest in the world, and steady growth in personal income and national wealth. Of course, there are many problems, especially in the entitlement area regarding social security and Medicare. But there are solutions to those problems, as simple as holding real growth in those areas to 3% or less per year for the indefinite future. This would allow us to grow out of our financial problems and achieve financial stability – which we all want. Gary Becker, the Nobel Prize winning economist from the University of Chicago, gave a moving tribute to Milton Friedman, his teacher and friend over the years. Vice President Dick Cheney chose the Heritage Foundation meeting in Chicago to deliver a major policy address with television, radio and news cameras covering it in great detail. Vice President Cheney flew with his Secret Service detachment from Washington especially to speak to our group at 10:30 on Friday morning. On Saturday night, Donald Rumsfeld was given the prestigious Clare Booth Luce Award, one of the most distinguished awards possible for Conservative thinkers, politicians and economists. His talk after dinner was gracious, insightful and enjoyed by everyone. As I have said before, we are living in the best country in the whole of human history, and in the very best time in all of human history for that country. We have lots of problems at the national and international level, but Americans are problem-solvers and action-oriented people. By and by, we will solve our problems and assure that our children will enjoy even greater opportunities and possibilities than we enjoy ourselves today. More to come.
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