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history—with an annual growth rate that has not been rivaled since then. The recommendations led to a rebuilding of the United States military, helped to bring an end to the Cold War and to the Soviet Union itself, and reinvigorated the American people with a collective sense of pride and patriotism that many thought had vanished forever.

After that first edition, a new Mandate was produced every four years. But the 2016 edition was one of particular note. It earned significant attention from the Trump Administration, as Heritage had accumulated a backlog of conservative ideas that had been blocked by President Barack Obama and his team.

Soon after President Donald Trump was sworn in, his Administration began to implement major parts of the 2016 Mandate. After his first year in office, the Administration had implemented 64 percent of its policy recommendations.

As aresult of those recommendations, the Trump Administration cut taxes and eliminated unnecessary regulations, creating a growing economy and the lowest unemployment rate in five decades—including among minorities and women. It made America a net energy exporter for the first time in half a century. It also prioritized veterans’ care and rebuilt our national defenses.

As I noted above, in his first year in office, President Reagan implemented nearly half of Mandate’s recommendations—an extraordinary feat. In 2018, in an interview on Fox News, I mentioned that President Trump had implemented more recommendations in his first year than Ronald Reagan did in his. Of course, at the time, Reagan did not have both a Republican House and Senate as Trump did. Nonetheless, President Trump liked being compared to a former President he deeply admired, and he touted the comparison frequently.

This anecdote illustrates how Mandate provides a yardstick for conservative Presidents to measure their performance relative to one another. And, very importantly, it allows the American people to see concrete evidence of the progress an Administration is making toward reversing the growth of government and implementing conservative solutions in its stead. In essence, it allows the American people to hold their politicians accountable to the principles they profess to believe in.

When we were producing that first Mandate edition, we had suffered under four years of Jimmy Carter with double-digit inflation, double-digit interest rates, high unemployment, gasoline rationing, weakness overseas, and what Carter himself called a malaise that he had induced in the American people.

In the 1981 Mandate foreword, I wrote:

The full recovery of our nation in both the economic and foreign policy spheres will require the sustained application of sound policies over several years. There are no “quick fix” solutions to problems that have been years in the making. But no time must be lost in taking the first decisive steps on the road to recovery.