Regulation Policy & Welfare

Harebrained Pot and Wheat Decisions

by James Bovard October 1, 2005

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court, acting again like a gang that smoked too much bad weed, ruled that the federal government has the right to prohibit people from growing marijuana for medicinal purposes. The Court relied on an interpretation of the Constitution’s Commerce Clause that basically gave the feds unlimited control over any activity that Congress or federal ...

Wal-Mart’s Not Coming to Town

by Gregory Bresiger October 1, 2005

Wal-Mart is not coming to my neighborhood. That’s because the powers that be of New York City recently said that Wal-Mart wasn’t wanted here. In fact, given the comments of our political and labor leaders, one would think Wal-Mart was a kind of disease. What are Wal-Mart’s sins? It has ...

Leave New Orleans to Private Development

by Sheldon Richman September 26, 2005

In the Alice-in-Wonderland world of politics, when government fails, and fails spectacularly as it did with Hurricane Katrina, the only thing to do is give it gobs more money to make everything right. But when has government made anything right? Even when it seems to do something worthwhile, we soon discover ...

The Deadly Legacy of the Welfare State Lies in New Orleans

by Jacob G. Hornberger September 7, 2005

Among the most tragic scenes in the Hurricane Katrina disaster was that of the thousands of poor people — almost all of whom were African Americans — who were stranded at the New Orleans Superdome and Convention Center, desperately waiting for the federal government to come and save them. Why were they ...

Reform or Repeal?

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 1, 2005

The great methodological debate within the libertarian movement involves reform versus repeal. Libertarians are virtually unanimous in their opposition to such socialist welfare-state programs as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and public schooling, but the split occurs in how to confront programs such as these. Should libertarians call for their reform or their repeal? As long-time readers of Freedom Daily and ...

Deregulate the Drugstores

by Sheldon Richman July 1, 2005

In Illinois the governor has decreed that pharmacists fill all prescriptions brought in by customers. In Arizona the legislature passed a bill to allow pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions for birth-control pills on grounds of conscience, even if their employers require it. (The governor vetoed it.) Here we see the moral bankruptcy of both Left and Right. Faced with ...

Compulsion: It’s What’s for Dinner

by Sheldon Richman June 13, 2005

Most recent free-speech controversies have been about government efforts to restrict someone’s right to express himself. So it is noteworthy that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in a case involving not stifled speech, but rather coerced speech. Alas, it decided the case wrongly. Everyone has seen the generic ...

Solution to the Birth-Contol Controversy: Deregulate the Drugstores

by Sheldon Richman April 15, 2005

Every now and then we are tested in our dedication to individual liberty. It’s happening again. Recently, Gov. Rod Blagojevich of Illinois issued an emergency ruling ordering pharmacists to fill prescriptions for contraception, including “morning-after” pills, despite their convictions against doing so. The ruling has the force of law for ...

Bush Profiteering from Housing Defaults

by James Bovard February 1, 2005

President Bush is determined to end the prejudice against people who want to buy a home but don’t have any money. Since he became president the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has spent more than $120 billion. HUD public-housing projects continue to devastate poor neighborhoods. HUD largesse to local governments continues to finance the confiscation and demolition ...

Will Bush Side with the Property Thieves?

by Sheldon Richman January 19, 2005

Susette Kelo’s story is becoming tragically familiar. She and her neighbors are at risk of losing their homes and businesses because the local government has conspired with a corporation to condemn their land under the power of eminent domain. This is happening in New London, Connecticut, the latest ...

The Tax Path Away from Liberty

by George Amberg January 15, 2005

The path away from liberty is paved with bad taxes, and we trip over them, frequently. The liberty Americans had in 1900 has been seriously eroded by a taking of our earnings that continually increases. Back then, little of that was done. Read the following ...

Why Trust in Social Security?

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 3, 2005

Isn’t a central argument among those who argue for the continuation of America’s premier socialist program, Social Security, that Americans cannot be trusted to voluntarily take care of the needs of their elderly parents? Let’s set aside all the nonsense about “I put it in and therefore I have a right to ...