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Heritage Foundation

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Bill Maher on the Heritage Foundation[1]

The Heritage Foundation is a neoconservative "think tank" founded by Joseph Coors (of Coors Brewery), Paul Weyrich, Edwin Feulner, and Richard Mellon Scaife. As such, it advocates economic deregulation and an overtly interventionist foreign policy. It publishes the quarterly Policy Review, for many years considered the preeminent conservative publication in Washington, D.C.. Like many conservative think tanks, it is full of unbelievable amounts of hot air, as evidenced in this quote, which also serves as a window into the corrupt quixotic soul of the organization:

Liberation is at hand.... A paradigm-shattering revolution has just taken place... This revolution has been so sudden and sweeping that few in Washington have yet grasped its full meaning... the entire human outlook... will change... Once this shift takes place... we will be able to advance a true Hayekian agenda, including... radical spending cuts,[2] the end of the public school monopoly, a free market health-care system, and the elimination of the family-destroying welfare dole. Unlike 1944, history is now on the side of freedom.
—former Republican Majority Leader Dick Armey, in a 1994 issue of Policy Review

Amazing! And is Jesus rising from the dead (again), too?


The Heritage Foundation was founded with donations from the Coors and Mellon fortunes. It cut its teeth during the Reagan administration in the 1980s, when it lobbied Reagan to take a hard-line stance against the Soviet Union (they were responsible for getting Reagan to famously call the Soviet Union an "evil empire"), jeopardizing international relations in the process. It also contributed heavily to the ideals embodied in the Republicans' 1994 Contract With America. Later, the foundation became a major proponent of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Its reputation has been only slightly tarnished by the fact that all of their predictions proved wrong.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the Heritage Foundation sought to turn the reconstruction efforts in New Orleans into a test bed for all its harebrained conservative ideas: suspension of all government welfare, distribution of school vouchers, and the repealing of all environmental and land use regulations in the New Orleans area.

Unthink tank[edit]

As a think tank, Heritage Foundation conducts studies on socioeconomic issues. Suspiciously, their results always support whatever they are already lobbying for. In one classic example, a study they conducted found that poor people aren't actually poor.[3] They then lobbied to end welfare for the poor.

The foundation also pushed lackadaisical policies about Iraq, stating that only 40,000 troops would be needed to take over and maintain order in Iraq, that the war would be over in a couple of years at most,[4] and that the Iraqis would greet us with open arms (which proved true, but not in quite the way it was intended), and that the Iraqis wanted democracy.

Yes, they do pull these studies out of their ass.

Climate denial[edit]

A number of their studies on global warming also come from the PIDOOMA department. One study they cite supposedly demonstrates that global warming will have no effect on the US economy.[5] They also enjoy quote mining statements on climate research,[6] parroting denialist PRATTs,[7] and hosting other members of the denialist echo chamber, such as E. Calvin Beisner's Cornwall Alliance.[8]

They're also unrepentant treekillers; if you wind up on their mailing list, expect to be swamped by bizarre and paranoid mailings featuring names of various conservative figureheads like Ed Meese, push polls, probably-illegal fundraising letters from out of state candidates, and weird, pro-war criminal propaganda allegedly written by the parents of misbehaving members of the US military. It's... not pretty.


The Heritage Foundation also promotes intelligent design. They have on several occations hosted lectures by people from the Discovery Institute such as Stephen Meyer[9][10] and John West.[11] They also hosted a press conference by the makers of the film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed announcing their intention to use the film as a platform to pass "academic freedom" model legislation.[12]

See also[edit]

External links[edit]