Two New Papers Are Latest in the ‘Roadmap for the 21st Century’ Multi-part Series
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL (December 14, 2016) – The Heartland Institute today released two new papers in a multi-part series titled Roadmap for the 21st Century, researched and written by Heartland Institute Senior Fellow Peter Ferrara, National Tax Limitation Committee President Lewis Uhler, and other members of several “working groups” who contributed over the past several months to the Roadmap Project. The timely series provides the incoming Trump administration, the 115th Congress, and every state legislator free-market reform solutions that will promote prosperity and give America energy independence.
All of the papers, including the first three papers in the series – Introduction, Budget & Tax Reform, and Health Care Reform – can be viewed here. The two newest papers address monetary policy, specifically calling for a return to the gold standard, and energy deregulation.
The “Monetary Policy” paper “describes how the gold standard made America great … and why it is essential to making America great again.” Authors Ferrara and Ralph Benko, a senior advisor on economics for the American Principles Project, explain why it would be worthwhile for President-elect Donald Trump to invest political capital in policies that would return the United States to the gold standard, which the country abandoned in 1971.
The “Energy Deregulation” document, by Ferrara and Uhler, puts to rest the myth that fears about climate change should drive the country’s energy policy. They write, “We must put behind us bogus ‘climate change’ claims that would mislead us to strangle development of our energy resources. Rather, we must unleash our energy industries to produce massive job creation and rapid national economic growth, returning America to the road of energy independence and world leadership.”
Read the whole series, so far, at Heartland’s Roadmap for the 21st Century page.
The following quotes may be used for attribution. To interview Benko, Ferrara, Uhler, or Heartland Institute President Joseph Bast, please contact Director of Communications Jim Lakely at [email protected] and 312/377-4000 or (cell) 312/731-9364.
Heartland Institute President Joseph Bast:
“The new Trump administration has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to turn the nation away from economic stagnation, racial and class division, and socialism and toward economic prosperity, harmony, and freedom. This is a second chance to avoid an abyss – a second chance the nation probably didn’t deserve but can now embrace. The stakes could not be higher.
“The Heartland Institute is proud to partner with the National Tax Limitation Committee, one of the oldest and most respected taxpayer organizations in the country, to produce this seminal report. Together, we will get this plan in front of every national and state elected official in the country and recruit thousands of grassroots leaders to rally behind those officials who support the Roadmap, and against those who try to stand in its way.”
Ralph Benko, American Principles Project:
“The classical gold standard, the dollar defined by and legally convertible into a defined weight of gold, and the dollar not used as an international reserve asset, was a powerful force in making America great. It worked from America’s constitution until President Johnson stopped playing by ‘the rules of the game’ and President Nixon announced the temporary closing of the gold window. It will work to make America great again.
“Promptly after departing from gold median family income flat-lined. It never consistently recovered. The classical gold standard, as advocated by the great Jack Kemp and his mentor Lewis E. Lehrman, is essential to the ability to make America great again. The gold standard properly done, as President-elect Trump has shown he fully appreciates, will be a force equitable prosperity, most especially for working people.
“Doing the gold standard right is a lot easier than most people recognize. Reading this paper published by the National Tax Limitation Committee and Heartland Institute will equip policy makers with a blueprint on how making the dollar once again as good as gold will unleash an epoch for America, and the world, that could go down in history as ‘A Golden Age’ of peace, prosperity, and human dignity.”
Heartland Institute Senior Fellow Peter Ferrara:
“Energy deregulation is an essential component of an economic recovery plan to restore booming growth. That must free American energy producers to lead the world as the No. 1 producer of oil, natural gas, and coal, which America has the resources to do now, with today’s fracking technology. Imagine what that would do to the economy today to have the world’s leading industries of all three within the USA.
“Another critical component for booming growth is to get monetary policy right, as explained in the money paper released today. Phasing in a modern twenty-first century gold standard is the foundation for restoring booming growth that benefits everyone, as we enjoyed under Presidents Kennedy and Reagan.”
National Tax Limitation Committee President Lew Uhler:
“These papers are the next installment in what is emerging as a critically important Roadmap for America’s future in terms of policies that will restore American leadership and, through the Trump administration and Republican Congress, assure that America can achieve the historic economic growth levels of Ronald Reagan.
“As for our monetary policy recommendations, restoring the gold standard will provide the ultimate discipline for the central banks, which have imposed unsustainable and unhealthy zero or subzero interest rates for far too long.”
Peter Ferrara is senior fellow for entitlement and budget policy at The Heartland Institute and a senior fellow at the Social Security Institute. He served in the White House Office of Policy Development under President Ronald Reagan and as associate deputy attorney general of the United States under President George H.W. Bush. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School. Ferrara is author of several books, including The Obamacare Disaster, from The Heartland Institute, President Obama’s Tax Piracy, and America’s Ticking Bankruptcy Bomb: How the Looming Debt Crisis Threatens the American Dream – and How We Can Turn the Tide Before It’s Too Late. Ferrara’s latest book (Heartland Institute, 2015) is Power to the People: The New Road to Freedom and Prosperity for the Poor, Seniors, and Those Most in Need of the World’s Best Health Care.
Ralph Benko serves as senior advisor, economics, for the American Principles Project. He is an internationally syndicated political columnist and member of the Conservative Action Project. Benko is editor-in-chief of The Supply Side and, with Charles Kadlec, author of The 21st Century Gold Standard: For Prosperity, Security, and Liberty, and lead co-editor of the Laissez Faire Books edition of Copernicus’s Essay on Money. Benko wrote The Websters’ Dictionary: How to use the Web to transform the world and was editor of The Lehrman Institute’s gold standard website. He was one of 23 official witnesses before the Reagan Gold Commission, testifying on the constitutional history of American monetary policy. He later was detailed from his career position with the U.S. Department of Energy as a deputy general counsel in the Reagan White House; founded the Prosperity Caucus; and was a member of the original Supply Side movement of which Jack Kemp was principal. Benko received his B.A. from Amherst College and his J.D. from Boston University Law School and is a member, in retired status, of the New York State bar.
Lewis K. “Lew” Uhler is founder and president of the National Tax Limitation Committee, one of the nation’s leading grassroots taxpayer advocates. With offices in the Sacramento area and Washington, DC, NTLC works with the White House, members of Congress, legislators in states across the nation, and grassroots organizations to limit state and federal spending through legal restrictions and constitutional change. Uhler has been at the forefront of the national movements for a tax limitation/balanced budget amendment to the United States Constitution and for term limits. He has written numerous articles and opinion pieces on taxes and spending. In 2010, Uhler co-authored with Erick Erickson the book Red State Uprising: How to Take Back America. Uhler also wrote the book Setting Limits: Constitutional Control of Government, with a foreword by Milton Friedman, published in 1989. Uhler speaks internationally on fiscal issues and has appeared on numerous national, regional, and local television and radio programs and has been widely quoted in the print media.
The Heartland Institute is a 32-year-old national nonprofit organization headquartered in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Its mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. For more information, visit our website or call 312/377-4000.
The National Tax Limitation Committee (NTLC) was organized in 1975. Its mission is to provide national leadership to achieve the optimal size and functions of government and promote candidates and initiatives that support these goals. For more information, visit our website.
Joseph Bast is a Senior Fellow at The Heartland Institute. He cofounded Heartland in 1984, serving as executive director then as president & CEO until January 2018. His research and writing focuses on climate change and energy policy.
Ralph Benko serves as senior advisor, economics, for the American Principles Project and a policy advisor to The Heartland Institute. He is an internationally syndicated political columnist and member of the Conservative Action Project.
Peter Ferrara, J.D., is a senior fellow at The Heartland Institute and an advisor for entitlement reform and budget policy at the National Tax Limitation Foundation.
Lewis K. “Lew” Uhler is founder and president of the National Tax Limitation Committee, one of the nation’s leading grass roots taxpayer lobbies.
