WASHINGTON, D.C., July 14, 2016 –The Heritage Foundation today unveils a 152-page policy agenda for the next president and Congress.
“Think of it as an operating manual for Washington 2017,” said Heritage President Jim DeMint. “Blueprint for Reform lays out the steps lawmakers and those in the Executive Branch can take to improve national security and empower Americans to build a stronger economy and healthier society.”
Prepared by more than two dozen scholars from Heritage’s various research institutes, the blueprint presents programmatic and economic reforms in such detail that its recommendations could serve as the next President’s first budget.
According to Paul Winfree, director of Heritage’s Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies, the Blueprint maps a “remaking” of government that would:
- Improve the long-run sustainability of the federal budget by slowing the growth of entitlement spending;
- Update the tax code to promote economic growth and opportunity;
- Streamline federal departments and agency operations and personnel costs;
- Reduce total spending by $10 trillion over 10 years on a cash basis and by $10.3 trillion on an accrual basis if used for agency personnel costs; and
- Balance the federal budget on a unified basis by 2024.
The first chapters of the book discuss the policy challenges facing the nation in six key areas: economic policy; tax policy; entitlement programs; energy and natural resources, and foreign policy and defense. Reforms are recommended in each area.
The next section provides a department-by-department review of the 15 Cabinet departments as well as eight other agencies, from the Social Security Administration to the Office of Personnel Management. For each agency, the book discusses its mission, its current operations and budget, and what it should look like—and concludes with a summary of recommended reforms.
Blueprint for Reform follows a tradition at The Heritage Foundation stretching back to 1980, when the Mandate for Leadership provided a blueprint for the incoming Reagan administration’s successful reforms.
“The country is again at a crossroads,” DeMint said. “As they did in 1980, Americans understand we’ve meandered down the wrong path and want to get the country back on track. The question is how to do it. That’s where this book comes in.”
The Heritage Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and education institute, based in Washington, D.C. The nation’s most broadly-supported think tank, it is dedicated to promoting freedom, opportunity and prosperity for all Americans.
You can read the Blueprint for Reform HERE.
