Posted on 01/21/2014 9:23:53 AM PST by jimbo123
Edited on 01/21/2014 9:29:35 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
Stephen Moore, a member of the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board and founder of the Club for Growth, is returning to The Heritage Foundation as chief economist.
In an exclusive interview with The Foundry, Moore said he chose Heritage because he’s philosophically aligned with the think tank’s policy agenda and wants to have a real impact on policy debates.
“I really wanted to be on the front line of the policy debate and I thought Heritage would be the perfect place for that,” Moore told The Foundry. “I honestly believe that Heritage is the most influential of the think tanks in Washington. I don’t think there’s really any question about that.”
As Heritage’s chief economist, Moore said he will concentrate on advancing policies that increase the rate of economic growth in order to help the United States retain its position as the global economic superpower. He will also work on budget, fiscal, and monetary policy. In addition to his focus on federal issues, he plans to showcase states that are getting fiscal issues right.
Moore said states play an important role because President Obama is unlikely to address any of the long-term fiscal challenges in the remainder of his term.
We have a president who is not interested in compromise. He wants to advance a leftist, big-government agenda. That’s frustrating because he’s not like Bill Clinton. We could actually work with Bill Clinton to get things like welfare reform done, which was a big victory for Heritage and the conservative movement. I don’t see Barack Obama moving to the center in any way.
Next week during his State of the Union address, Obama is expected to once again talk about inequality. Americans should prepare for more of Obama’s typical redistributionist rhetoric, said Moore, who believes that approach won’t grow the economy.
“One of the projects I’m going to be working on is how Obama has discredited liberal ideas more than anyone,” Moore said. “Everything he’s done has been such a massive failure — from the stimulus to health-care reform to bailouts to green energy.”
Heritage Homecoming
Moore, 53, previously worked at Heritage from 1983 to 1987 as the Grover M. Hermann Fellow in Budgetary Affairs.
“I was here when Heritage literally moved into this building,” Moore said of the current Capitol Hill location on Massachusetts Avenue. “Everyone thought there’s no way Heritage is going to fill up this big building.”
The 1980s were a critical period in Heritage’s history and Moore said that made his job — focusing primarily on the federal budget — exciting.
“Heritage was Ronald Reagan’s think tank,” he said. “We had a president who was adopting a lot of our policies. And if not adopting them, paying attention to them.”
Today, Moore joins a think tank that’s grown in many ways. With hundreds of thousands of supporters and a team of 275 employees, Heritage is much larger than during Moore’s previous stint. However, he said the same concept that made Heritage successful in the early years — timely and high-quality policy research — is just as important today.
“Everything is so much faster and in real time now,” Moore said. “You have to be nimble and responsive to what’s going on day to day. Heritage pioneered that. And while we need to be an instant response team, we also need to work on big broad policy initiatives.”
Heritage Action for America is another change — a sister organization that was created in 2010 to advance conservative policy ideas in Congress. Last year, Moore was critical of the tactics to defund Obamacare — a campaign spearheaded by Heritage Action — but he said the activist group is clearly a valuable addition.
“One of the reasons I wanted to come here is because of the presence of Heritage Action, which can help put these policies over the goal line,” he said.
Last year in a Wall Street Journal column, Moore took issue with Heritage Foundation President Jim DeMint’s characterization of the late Milton Friedman’s view of immigration. Moore said he discussed the issue with DeMint recently.
Now, with immigration reform likely to be debated in Congress again this year, Moore said he welcomed the opportunity to work on the issue at Heritage.
Jim DeMint and I may not agree on everything about immigration, but what Jim wants me and others to do is develop a pro-growth immigration policy for the country. I don’t want Heritage to be viewed as anti-immigration. We all know immigration is vitally important to our economy. Our goal will be to develop an immigration policy that’s in the best interest of America, our economy, and allows the United States to get the best and brightest people to come here.
Career at a Glance
Moore said his career was shaped by three people who had a profound influence on his life: Julian Simon, a Cato Institute scholar until his death; Ed Feulner, founder of Heritage, and Art Laffer, the economist best known for the Laffer curve.
“What makes them so great is they were willing to take on the conventional wisdom. They were subject to a lot of criticism for doing that,” Moore said. “Those are the real change-makers. It takes a lot of courage to do that.”
Moore’s creation of the Club for Growth in 1998 fits that same model. He told The Foundry it was the defining moment of his career. The organization, which he left in 2004, helps elect conservative members of Congress, including DeMint when he ran for Senate.
“Helping elect Tom Coburn, Jim DeMint, John Thune, Jeff Flake, Steve King — there was some really great people who are here because of what the Club did,” Moore said.
After leaving the Club for Growth, Moore founded the Free Enterprise Fund before taking the job at the Wall Street Journal. In his role as the senior economics writer for the newspaper’s editorial board, Moore covered Washington policy debates and state issues. He said the job gave him a perspective that he thinks will help in his new role at Heritage.
“Because I’ve been a consumer of think tank material and policy research, I think I have a pretty good sense of what reporters want and how to get it to them in the way they want it,” Moore said. “Being timely — and not just offering opinion but giving them the facts and data is really critical.”
I'm going to wait until I see if the attitude of Heritage changes, and if Stephen Moore is officially an amnesty pimp before I write them off.
Sometimes the tendency to overreact on FR threads (I'm being nice......:-) takes all rationality away.....
A Strategic U.S. Immigration Policy for the New Economy
By Stephen Moore March 2001
America’s workforce ages, we need the infusion of young workers — yes, even unskilled workers fill vital niches in our workforce — to keep our economy prosperous and to avoid the kind of serious demographic crisis that may soon beset most other advanced developed nations. A policy of gradually bumping up quotas from the current level of about 800,000 per year to a range of 1-1.5 million would ensure that we have a steady stream of young workers to keep our economy prosperous when the baby boomers begin to retire.
Immigrants and Welfare
Studies at the Cato Institute, confirmed by other scholars, suggest that immigrants use welfare and other social services at about the same rate that U.S.-born citizens do, despite that the foreign born have higher rates of poverty. The taxes paid by immigrants typically cover the cost of public services used.
Family-Based Immigration
Family immigration is also an imperative of our immigration policy because if immigrant workers cannot get their family members into the U.S., many will not wish to come. If we want skilled immigrants, we need to allow them to bring their families. Although opponents of the family system argue that it encourages “chain migration,” reports by the U.S. General Accounting Office indicate that chain migration is not a major problem.
http://cis.org/articles/2001/blueprints/moore.html
That doesn’t tell me anything about DeMint’s reason for hiring him.
Heritage is the same boiler room operation that designed the cornerstone of romneycare and obamacare. Anyone paying attention has been ignoring anything that has come from them for a long time.
The dig made by Stephen Moore was that he didn’t want Heritage to be seen as, “anti-immigration”, when the issue is not immigration at all, but rather AMNESTY REWARDING ILLEGAL ENTRY.
Why open up his announcement with a dishonest premise?
Why avoid the obvious concern that an invasion from Mexico and South America is a ploy to overwhelm the Republic with socialist/Marxist-Democrat voters coming from the socialist southern hemisphere?
On the face of it, it is most difficult to find much comfort.
“what Jim wants me and others to do is develop a pro-growth immigration policy for the country. I don’t want Heritage to be viewed as anti-immigration. We all know immigration is vitally important to our economy. Our goal will be to develop an immigration policy that’s in the best interest of America, our economy, and allows the United States to get the best and brightest people to come here.”
I’m on-board if this means that only the top foreign scientists and inventors will be invited to immigrate, with such number to be limited to no more than 20 per year. All other immigration to be halted for at least 10 years while we eject the illegals already here and revoke the citizenship of those who came here merely to commit crimes or suck the government teat.
Otherwise, no only “no” but “HELL NO.”
Whatever happened to enforce the laws on the books?
Think tanks are money holes.. and pitstops on the way to the next political opportunity.. or disaster.
Exactly; if we keep alienating friends over one personal relationship even (notice that Jim DeMint) is not mentioned as supporting amnesty.
People get a grip, not everyone is a RINO (there are some that WE must oppose), but the goal is to WIN people and then win elections, not purge everyone!@!
And now you're running down the premier conservative thinktank in the country. Mission Accomplished.
I think DeMint wants to have an answer in place to come back at the Democrats before election time rolls around. It must be a prep for an alternative fiscal approach that addresses the burdensome taxpayer cost of illegals, a jobs plan of sorts that tracks toward capitalism and away from socialism’s foothold. Just a starting guess. ,!
“Scratch Heritage off the list”
I don’t think so. Thats a little too radical.
Hmmm. Will have to find out more about this. I also didn’t realize Heritage had a Spanish site.
The taxes paid by immigrants typically cover the cost of public services used.”
Not true for Texas according to a report from Federation for American Immigration Reform provided to Breitbart News. In 2013 alone FAIR estimated that Texans spent $12.1 billion on illegal immigrants whereas taxes paid were estimated to only be $1.27 billion per year. This did not include the payments of $1.9 billion per year from taaxpayers to fund Medicaid or the $1.1 billion to fund law enforcement efforts associated with illegal immigration.
Maybe you could set aside your wing and a prayer reaction, just long enough to come down to earth and deal with the basics— where simple question needs answer at #25. :)
My attitude is to wait and see.
What good is “winning” elections if the people you elect give you amnesty? You seem personally ok with amnesty and a punishing increase in legal immigration. Well then, put your cards on the table.
Wonder what Heritage thinks of THIS:
snip-”The US plans to resettle 30,000 Syrian Islamists displaced by the Syrian War, according to the Wall Street Journal. That’s not the story.
The story is that it hinges on their “receiving exemptions from laws aimed at preventing terrorists from entering the country.”
Why have counterterrorism laws at all then? If politicians are going to ignore them when taking in refugees from a country overrun by al Qeada, then we don’t need the laws. We should just let anyone come over.”
http://www.independentsentinel.com/here-come-the-30000-syrian-islamists-with-loosened-restrictions/
The individual mandate was a creature of heritage. Your boy romney and that Keebler elf gingrich picked it up and ran with it. If that is the work of the “premier” conservative think tank and two conservative standard bearers in the last election cycle, then you can keep what is passing for “conservative” today. The voters sure as hell aren’t buying it anymore, either.
And let's see you backup what you have to say about Heritage. Links, please.
Whenever they calculate the costs of illegal immigrants they NEVER include ALL the costs. That way they get the number they want.
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