Heritage Events Podcast

Increasing foreign investments have prompted concerns over U.S. national security. In September, President Trump blocked his first Chinese acquisition of an American company, Lattice Semiconductor Corporation. Can the Trump Administration continue to balance both U.S. national security interests while maintaining the United States as a leading destination for foreign investment? More investments are reviewed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. every year. What reforms to the committee are needed? How can we continue to encourage foreign investment in the United States? And how is the international community responding to their own investment and security questions? Join us as our distinguished panel considers these difficult questions at the intersection of economics and security.

A strong national defense depends on a well-supported military. The schooling options available to military-connected children can play a role in whether a family accepts an assignment, even factoring into decisions to leave military service altogether. As important as education is to military parents, more than half of all active-duty military families live in states with no school choice options at all. Leveraging federal policy to create parent-controlled education savings accounts (ESAs) would provide children of active-duty military families with education choice, while ensuring federal policies serve military families as well as they serve the nation. During this event, Heritage and EdChoice will present a new nationally representative poll of military and veteran service members on their attitudes about their children’s K-12 education and their opinions on school choice options such as education savings accounts.

In the summer of 2017, the Center for European Policy Analysis sentProfessor Colin Dueckon a listening tour of the Baltics to interview diplomatic, military and economic government officials in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia on the subject of Russia’s long-term challenge to these countries, their national responses and related NATO and U.S. policies. He concluded that the Baltic States, as well as the United States, cannot afford to ignore their restless neighbor to the East. As one Lithuanian official said to him, “winter is coming.” The mood in the Baltics is not one of panic. But, there is an understanding that the long-term challenge from Russia will continue to be persistent, powerful, and intense. In this panel, Professor Dueck will summarize what he heard and learned in the Baltics and assess the lessons for U.S. policy in the region and Europe. Dr. Jakub Grygiel of the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff and a former Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis will offer his personal assessment of the state of Europe and the Russian challenge. Dr. Ted Bromund of The Heritage Foundation will set out Heritage’s assessment of that challenge and the necessary U.S. policy responses.

Thomas Jefferson famously wrote that the earth belongs to the living. His letter to James Madison is often quoted for the proposition that we should not be bound to the 'dead hand of the past', suggesting that the Constitution should instead be interpreted as a living, breathing document. Less well-known is Madison's response, in which he said the improvements made by the dead – including the U.S. Constitution – form a debt against the living, who benefit from them. In his new book, Ilan Wurman introduces Madison's concept of originalism to a new generation and shows how it has shaped the U.S. Supreme Court in ways that are expected to continue following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, one of the theory's leading proponents. Join us for an evening book discussion with Ilan Wurman, Claremont Fellowship alumnus and author of A Debt Against the Living: An Introduction to Originalism, examining the implications of “originalism” and how the framework of the Founders can be preserved today.

North Korea is on the cusp of being able to target the United States with nuclear weapons and hints at conducting a nuclear test over the Pacific Ocean. President Trump has vowed that the regime having such capabilities is “intolerable” and has threatened military action to prevent it. South Korean President Moon Jae-in has declared that the U.S. won’t conduct any attack without Seoul’s permission. Tensions on the Korean Peninsula continue to escalate. President Trump is scheduled to make his first official visit to South Korea on November 7-8, 2017. His visit will focus on bilateral meetings with President Moon, speaking to the National Assembly, and visiting with U.S. and ROK service members. The President’s visit will highlight the strong U.S.-ROK alliance during an increasingly challenging time on the Korean peninsula and in Northeast Asia. Join us on November 8 for a timely discussion by distinguished experts on the very issues that President Trump and President Moon will address.

Thomas G. West’s important new book on The Political Theory of the American Founding provides a complete overview of the Founders' political theory. While the current scholarly consensus holds that the Founding is best understood as an incoherent amalgam of various intellectual currents, West argues that the foundational documents overwhelmingly point to natural rights as the lens through which the Founders understood politics. The American Founding, for West, harmoniously integrates what many today see as being at odds: a classical liberal commitment to free markets with republican policies on citizen character formation.

This definitive collection of beloved Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's finest speeches – selected by Christopher Scalia and the Justice’s former law clerk Edward Whelan – covers topics as varied as the law, faith, virtue, pastimes, and his heroes and friends. Featuring a foreword by longtime friend Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and an intimate introduction by his youngest son, dozens of speeches, some deeply personal, that have never before been published are included. Americans have long been inspired by Justice Scalia’s ideas, delighted by his wit, and instructed by his intelligence. He was a sought-after speaker at commencements, convocations, and events across the country. Scalia Speaks gives readers the opportunity to encounter the legendary man more fully, helping to better understand the jurisprudence that made him one of the most important justices in the Court's history as well as introducing his broader insights on faith and life.

Great Britain has not run a trade surplus in physical goods since 1821 – yet the past 200 years have seen a 30-fold improvement in its living standards. The secret of Britain’s success was that it dropped its own trade barriers and bought cheaply. It turned out that trading with poorer countries did not undercut British workers. On the contrary, it gave them more spending power, and so created an array of new industries. Britain became the wealthiest country in the world – until others copied it and caught up. Her success rested on putting more money in ordinary people’s pockets. Free trade made Britain the greatest nation on earth. With its impending exit from the European Union, Great Britain can once again be a powerful, sovereign free trading nation, with a deeper Special Relationship with the United States and the English-Speaking world. Daniel Hannan is a writer and journalist. After 17 years as a Member of the European Parliament, campaigning for British withdrawal from the EU, he succeeded in abolishing his job in the Brexit referendum on 23 June 2016. He is the author of nine books, including the New York Times bestseller Inventing Freedom: How the English-Speaking Peoples Made the Modern World, and Sunday Times bestseller Vote Leave. His latest book is What Next: How to Get the Best from Brexit. He is a graduate of Oriel College, Oxford, where he read Modern History.

Cambodian democracy is in peril. Ahead of 2018 elections, Hun Sen has undertaken a major crackdown, jailing opposition leader Kem Sokha, shutting down election monitoring organizations and NGOs, and silencing Cambodian press. Now, in an unprecedented move, Hun Sen has moved to dissolve the opposition party. While Cambodian democracy has been on the rocks for years, these latest actions merit further attention from the international community. Without U.S. leadership to hold Cambodia to account, whatever semblance of democracy that is left in Cambodia will likely be gone. Join us for a discussion of the way forward to address backslides in Cambodian democracy.

The state and local tax deduction has become a major stumbling block for comprehensive federal tax reform that would boost economic growth. Congress should eliminate this outdated, unfair, and destructive give-away to bloated state and local governments. The state and local tax deduction subsidizes high-tax and high-debt states with most of the benefits accruing to wealthy taxpayers. It thereby encourages states and localities to raise taxes higher than they otherwise would. It also encourages growth in government through public-sector provision of what should be private services, because the deduction allows states to alleviate their own residents’ state and local tax burden by hoisting it upon federal taxpayers. Please join us as our panel explores the impact of the state and local tax deduction on state policies, federal revenues, and taxpayers across state borders. Find out how much the average taxpayers’ federal bill could be lowered by eliminating these harmful deductions.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is a regulator of central importance to the functioning of U.S. capital markets. It regulates nearly 4.000 broker-dealers and almost 650,000 registered representatives. It is a private, not-for-profit “self-regulatory organization.” The Securities and Exchange Commission conducts oversight of FINRA. FINRA has an annual budget of $1 billion. Concerns raised about FINRA include a lack of transparency, its governance structure, the imposition of a large regulatory burden on small broker-dealers, the structure of its rule-making process, the adequacy of the due process protections it provides, and the fairness of its arbitration process. FINRA is undertaking a comprehensive review of its rules and practices called FINRA 360. Recently, the Securities and Exchange Commission stood up a new office to conduct oversight of FINRA and Congress held an oversight hearing. Please join us for an in-depth look from a variety of perspectives on how to reform FINRA.

Today’s racial divide has far more to do with the peculiar strain of liberalism that grew out of the 1960s than with race itself. Americans know, but find it hard to openly admit, that active racism is no longer the greatest barrier to black and minority advancement. It is likely that today’s racial disparities are due more to dysfunctions within the black community, and to liberal social policies that have encouraged minorities to trade on past victimization rather than to overcome the damage done by that victimization. Still, the assertion that blacks today remain stymied by white racism is a dogma of modern American liberalism that cannot be questioned. The mere claim of racism has become a potent political tool that conservatives have not found an adequate response to. The cost of this failure is great. Redemption – paying off the nation’s sins – has become the moral imperative of the age and the nation’s racist past has destroyed its moral authority in the eyes of many. Shelby Steele is the Robert J. and Marion E. Oster Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He has written widely on race in American society and the consequences of contemporary social programs on race relations. Steele received the National Book Critic's Circle Award in the general nonfiction category for his book The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race in America. His other books include White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era and A Dream Deferred: The Second Betrayal of Black Freedom in America. Steele has been awarded the National Humanities Medal and the Bradley Prize.

Many Americans may be skeptical that business tax reform will increase their wages and grow the economy since they’ve seen corporate profits skyrocket over the last decade while their own wages have stagnated. These are complicated issues that even some economists can’t explain. Join us for a conversation with Kevin Hassett, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, to discuss how business tax reform will benefit American workers and grow the economy. Chairman Hassett will discuss the evidence that shows corporate tax reform can increase wages by $4,000 for the average U.S. household, address the methodology of CEA’s research, and elaborate on the negative impact of the current outdated tax code on the American economy.

Trump Administration trade officials and their Canadian and Mexican counterparts are debating the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provisions in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Those key investor protections help to secure Americans’ property rights protection and the rule of law. They also advance the White House’s pursuit of a trade policy that serves the interests of American workers. As the Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom makes clear year after year, a free and open investment environment gives entrepreneurs the incentive to expand economic activity and generate productivity improvements that lead to creation of more American jobs. Join us for a robust discussion of the role and benefit of ISDS provisions in trade agreements – what they are; why they are valuable for American workers, investors, producers, and consumers; how they reflect the American rule of law both at home and abroad; and how to upgrade and improve them.

The freedom of the press is a cornerstone of our republic. As conceived of by the Framers of the Constitution, this freedom would permit the press to defend republicanism, spread enlightenment, and check governmental corruption. Yet our press rarely behaves in this way. Rather than bolstering republicanism, many today – including President Trump – accuse it of spreading fake news, promoting its own interests by crushing dissenters, and protecting the nation’s elite class. Please join us as our panel discusses the state of the press today and reflects on how a healthy press should function.