With zero time remaining, the bill to expand Medicare had been short by two votes — yet, long after the clock had stopped, the Republican leadership maneuvered to change key conservative votes. Later, Rep. Butch Otter, R-Idaho, pleaded to the Associated Press:...
POLITICS
Why Voters Like Gridlock
On Jan. 23, 1996, Bill Clinton told the nation, “The era of big government is over.” If so, it sure didn’t last very long. Today, the era of big government is back with a vengeance, ushered in by a massive new prescription drug entitlement, a...
Presidential Candidate Howard Dean: Fascist of the Left
In an op-ed, presidential candidate Howard Dean wrote with pride about how his small donation supporters are helping “take back our country.” Pat Buchanan used the same expression in his campaign back in 1992. However, Howard Dean is the probable nominee...
America’s Failing War Effort (Part 6 of 12): The Breeding Grounds
So far we have evaluated America’s policies toward its declared enemies, those governments which have openly announced their hostility toward the United States. But there is another category of nations, whose governments profess to support the American war, but...
The Medicare Frame-Up: Republican “Free Market” Medicare Bill is Closet Socialism
After battling for months over two allegedly opposite versions of the bill to add prescription drug coverage to Medicare, members of the House and Senate announced Saturday they had reached an agreement. House Republicans managed to include in the bill a provision to...
America’s Failing War Effort (Part 5 of 12): North Korea
Even though the current war has been deemed a “war on terrorism,” this is a misnomer. One does not go to war with a method of fighting, one goes to war with an enemy. And for this reason the current war is far wider than even a war against militant Islam....
Almighty Government, Please Bless Us and Take Care Of Us
Q: You really are hard on compassionate politicians like Howard Dean and what you call “the welfare state.” These programs, like Medicare and Social Security, are in everyone’s benefit. Why oppose them? A: These programs are not in my benefit. I work...
Why Medicare Expansion is Wrong
Adding prescription drug coverage to Medicare, as Congress is poised to do, is merely more socialism — it will neither help seniors nor is its passage likely to gain their votes.
The Draft Is Anathema To Human Freedom
In his Op-Ed column, “To arms,” Tony Blankley argues that the youth of America needs to be sacrificed for the greater good and hints that we may need the draft to do it. Referencing the last living veterans of this generation, Blankly writes: Just as the...
America’s Failing War Effort (Part 4 of 13) The Cold War Against “The Axis of Evil”
In his first State of the Union address after September 11th, 2001, President Bush alerted the world to the existence of an “axis of evil,” arrayed against the United States and its allies, consisting of three nations: Iraq, Iran, and North Korea. Since...
Islam: A Religion of Peace?
A “religion of peace,” says President Bush about Islam. But investigative journalist Robert Spencer, in his new book “Onward Muslim Soldiers: How Jihad Still Threatens America and the West,” argues that what we call “Islamic...
The Republican’s Medicare Tyranny
The Medicare II bill (my name for it) that Congress is about to pass is an unmitigated disaster. The bill contains provisions for the largest expansion of socialized health care in this nation’s history. It essentially nationalizes prescription drugs for the...
America’s Failing War Effort (Part 3 of 12): Afghanistan
While the objectives of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan differed significantly, their shortcomings had much in common. Whereas the war with Iraq was justified by reference to evidence of a somewhat indeterminate WMD threat, the case for war in Afghanistan was based...
Republicans vs. The Free Market: Tariffs and Trade Restrictions on Imports
On Nov. 18, the Bush administration announced a decision to impose new trade restrictions on imports of some Chinese textiles. Although rationalized as a means of saving American manufacturing jobs, no trade expert thinks it will have more than a trivial effect in...
America’s Failing War Effort (Part 2 of 12): Iraq
Despite the rapidity and efficiency of the American war in Iraq–and the glowing moments accompanying the liberation of Baghdad–the Bush administration has confronted a series of embarrassments since major combat operations were declared over on May 1st....
Modern “Educators” vs. Reading
The results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a nationwide test to assess the abilities of elementary and middle-school children, are out. Though math scores showed some improvement over the last decade, reading scores did not. This should not be...
The New Medicare Program: A Prescription for Disaster
At a cost of $400 billion over 10 years, Congressional Republicans have agreed in Conference Committee–with the enthusiastic encouragement of a Republican President–to the greatest expansion of government in two generations. This new Medicare program can...
Harm’s A Two Way Street
The largest losers of America’s anti-tobacco crusade aren’t tobacco companies and smokers, it’s the American people who are incrementally giving up private property rights. You say, “Hold it, Williams, I agree that people have the right to...
America’s Failing War Effort (Part 1 of 12): A Report Card
Two years after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, there are two leading evaluations of the Bush Administration’s “war on terrorism.” One side, generally right-wing and supportive of the war, is optimistic about its progress, and regards...
How the Judiciary Effectively Repealed the 10th Amendment
Many years ago, someone did a study of the IQs of municipal transit drivers and their accident rates. Those with below-average IQs had higher rates of accidents, as you might expect. What was unexpected was the discovery that drivers with IQs above a certain level...
The Thinker
Back of the beating hammer By which the steel is wrought, Back of the workshop’s clamor The seeker may find the Thought, The Thought that is ever master Of iron and steam and steel, That rises above disaster And tramples it under heel! The drudge may fret and...
America’s European “Allies”: Liking Us When We’re Dead
In the days immediately following September 11, 2001 the outpouring of support from the governments and people of Europe was overwhelming. Americans living in or visiting Europe at the time remember the various Europeans hugging them on the streets and offering them...
Letters About Medical Care
Reader responses to the discussion of government-controlled medical care in this column raised questions that need answering. The most frequently raised question was why American pharmaceutical drugs sell for less in other countries. Some readers considered this proof...
Reverend Al Sharpton — The Democrats’ Moral Compass?
Democratic presidential candidate Reverend Al Sharpton, at the recent Democratic debate in Boston, took the front-runner, former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, to task. Dean’s sin? Dean, in an interview with the Des Moines (Iowa) Register on Saturday, Nov. 1,...
If a Flat Tax is Good for Iraq, How About America?
Few Americans would want to trade places with the people of Iraq. But come tax time next April, they may begin to wonder who’s better off. That’s because the Iraqis soon will enjoy something we don’t — a simple and fair tax system. Beginning in...
“Hate Crimes” Law Undermines Protection of Individual Rights
Leaders from both parties–Republican Senator Orrin Hatch and Democrat Ted Kennedy–have vowed to push through a new, wide-reaching federal “hate crimes” bill before the end of the current session. A “hate crimes” law would make...
The United Nations: A Totalitarian Appeasing Debating Society
The United Nations rose from the ashes of World War II, when the leaders of the victorious allies agreed to work together to prevent another full-scale war. They founded an organization aimed at maintaining security in a Cold War world. But now the world has been...
Vanity Fair on President Bush’s Failures
Graydon Carter, the editor of Vanity Fair, may be the all-powerful arbiter of what’s hot and what’s not in celebrity culture. But now, having declared Paul Krugman a “national treasure,” Carter is trying to reinvent himself as an angry liberal,...
Persecution of Microsoft is Immoral
The government’s persecution of Microsoft continues unabated. The U.S. appeals court is now considering whether the Bush administration and 19 states negotiated an adequate settlement in their antitrust case against Microsoft. It’s time for the American...
Free-Lunch Medicine
It is always fascinating to see elementary economics make front-page news. It was front-page news in the Wall Street Journal of November 12th that there are long waiting times for seeing medical specialists in Canada and in other countries with government-controlled...
Mercantilism and Protectionism: Don’t Worry About Trade Deficits
Earlier this month, the House Ways and Means Committee held hearings on legislation to impose tariffs on Chinese imports. While such action is unlikely, it shows that the political pressure to do something about growing imports from China is increasing. However,...
Why Racists and Unions Support Minimum Wages
History has seen many calls for minimum wages for the same reason — to eliminate competition with workers who’d work for less.
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