POLITICS

Lowering the debt is a good idea--President Bush would reduce it to $818 billion by 2011--but a lower debt shouldn't come before lower taxes. Can you feel the beat? It's the sound of Washington liberals banging the national-debt drum to drown out the conservative...

The expulsion of Russian intelligence officers and diplomats by the Bush administration did not kick off a new Cold War, but it is a symptom of deteriorating U.S.-Russian relations. Moscow stands to lose much more than Washington if the relationship goes sour. Senior...

China is so obsessed with making the United States apologize for the recent collision between a Chinese fighter jet and a U.S. Navy plane, one would think it was the Miss Manners of international diplomacy. But the situation involving 24 American servicemen held on...

The election of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in February prompted much hysteria in the Arab world -- and hand-wringing in Washington -- over Sharon's "commitment" to the "peace process." Ever wonder why the same standards don't seem to apply to Palestinian...

Buried in President Bush's liberal-spending, $44.5 billion education budget is a little-noticed proposal to increase funds for special education. The budget item intends to help states and school districts comply with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act...

It looks as though we've won. Officials inside and outside the Bush administration are hailing China's positive response to our carefully crafted letter of regret as validation of the President's "quiet diplomacy." The truth, however, is quite different.The moral...

deep-pocketed special interest group remains curiously silent amid the furor over campaign finance "reform": Indian tribes. Why? You might think tribal leaders would be swarming Capitol Hill, joining other business groups and trade associations that are rightly...

In the past few months, I've noticed a disturbing shift in attitude towards currency devaluation. An increasing number of economists and journalists are making comments approving currency devaluation as a way to boost economies and "gain competitiveness." Some...

On March 20th, environmentalist activists besieged Starbucks cafes all over the country. Their goal? To impose on the company, and on us, coffee lovers, their own idea of which ingredients should go into our lattes and cappuccinos. This latest campaign, organized by...

For the past week, commentators have decried the return of "dangerous Cold War thinking." But the crisis with China is just the opposite. It is not a return to the past, but rather the outcome of America's eager courtship, over the last decade, of China's communist...

The budget surpluses over the next 10 years are expected to reach $5.6 trillion, yet Washington insiders are screaming that President Bush's modest $1.6 trillion tax cut is too big. But if anything, it's too small. The Bush tax cut is only about half the size of the...

Once a week, 9- and 10-year-old boys at Cleveland Elementary School in Washington, D.C., learn how to be gentlemen. They're taught to take off their hats when they enter a building. They're told to open doors for visitors. They learn how to respect each other, respect...

David Bell, Harvard law professor, counseled, "Black people will never gain full equality in this country." The late columnist Carl Rowan said, "Racism remains a terrible curse on this society, and ... nothing in sight suggests that that curse will end soon." New York...