Daily Articles

Conservatives Dont Hate Government

by Sheldon Richman August 19, 2011

Sometimes I wonder whether the mainstream pundits listen to themselves. It’s hard to believe they would say the silly things they say if they did. For example, the talking heads on MSNBC, which works 24/7 for President Obama’s reelection, like to say that conservative Republicans “hate government.” “If you hate government,” Chris Matthews, host of Hardball, asks, “why would you ...

O’er the Land of the 39 Percent Free

by Fergus Hodgson August 18, 2011

I hope you enjoyed last weekend, because Friday didn’t mark just the end of your working week; it also marked the annual Cost of Government Day. According to Americans for Tax Reform, each U.S. resident works 224 days to pay for the cost of government, including spending and regulatory compliance, up 27 days from just three years ...

Lethal Injustice

by Christine Smith August 16, 2011

No political philosophy respects human rights, individual liberty, human dignity, and life itself more than libertarianism. Yet, one of the major civil-liberty controversies present in our society is largely ignored by libertarians: capital punishment. In 14 years of involvement in the anti-death-penalty movement, I have rarely met libertarians involved in the issue. Most concerned with it have been from the ...

Which Republican Candidate Is More Conservative?

by Laurence M. Vance August 16, 2011

Although the next presidential election is more than a year away, campaigning has already begun. With a liberal Democratic incumbent in the White House, Republican candidates are loudly touting their conservative credentials. The battles over which candidate is more conservative are heating up. “I have fought against irresponsible spending while Governor Pawlenty was leaving a multi-billion-dollar budget mess in ...

The Jacob Hornberger Show: August 13, 2011

by Jacob G. Hornberger August 15, 2011

The Jacob Hornberger Show broadcasts live every Saturday night at 7pm EST. Visit FFF's Ustream Channel to watch the show live.

When Do We Arrest the Tea Party?

by Wendy McElroy August 15, 2011

Murray Rothbard once spoke fondly of the 19th-century New York politician William M. (“Boss”) Tweed who was notoriously corrupt. Why? Because Tweed operated before the days of Public Relations, in the days when a crook was a crook and he didn’t pretend to pick your pocket “for your own good”; he did it for the money or the power. ...

Politicians in a Panic

by Sheldon Richman August 12, 2011

You can almost see the panic on their faces. The politicians, central bankers, and court economists seem to be thrashing around like bad swimmers caught in a riptide. Despite all attempts — stimulus spending, increased borrowing, the Fed Reserve’s low-interest-rate policy, presidential jaw-boning — the economy refuses to recover. Unemployment remains over 9 percent, investment is stagnant, and even ...

The Jacob Hornberger Show – August 6, 2011

by Jacob G. Hornberger August 12, 2011

The Jacob Hornberger Show broadcasts liveSaturday nights at 7pm EST. Visit FFF's Ustream Channel to watch the show live.

Sexually Biased Insurance Mandates: Concealed Taxes Set to Backfire

by Fergus Hodgson August 9, 2011

Proponents of the latest federal mandates on medical insurance, targeted solely at women, defend them with claims that they will save money, improve health, and reduce unwanted pregnancies. Such confidence in this lopsided government coercion is either naive or disingenuous. A shift toward “preventive care” and fewer subsequent treatments is the supposed mechanism for cost savings. But that ...

Yes We Can

by Laurence M. Vance August 9, 2011

Speaking from the Rose Garden last week after Senate approval of the bill to raise the debt ceiling, President Obama said about the federal deficit, And since you can’t close the deficit with just spending cuts, we’ll need a balanced approach where everything is on the table. Yes, that means making some adjustments to protect health-care programs like ...

Surviving the Inanity

by Rich Schwartzman August 8, 2011

It’s easy to be skeptical. Sometimes, though, you have to either laugh at the lunacy or go running into the ocean screaming, “Get me out of here.” The United States is just few hundred billion dollars short of the national debt being 100 percent of GDP and is waging illegal wars in a handful of different countries. The 40-year-long war ...

An Amy Winehouse Government

by Ralph R. Reiland August 3, 2011

It feels like we’re dealing with an Amy Winehouse form of governing. “These overdoses happen because these guys drink 20 beers and then reach for their heroin,” a friend of mine said after the late star’s recent death, at 27. “You can’t think straight once you’re totally blitzed.” It seems the same with our politicians, overdosed on their own importance. Their ...