Daily Articles

The Biggest Medicare Fraud Ever

by James Bovard May 1, 2005

The Bush administration admitted in February that its new Medicare drug prescription benefit would cost $1.2 trillion over the next decade — not the $400 billion that Bush had promised when he was pressuring Congress to enact the bill. His vast expansion of the welfare state is wrecking any effort to rein in government spending. In order to better understand ...

A Federated Republic or One Nation?

by Benedict D. LaRosa May 1, 2005

The controversy over the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance overshadows an old, long-forgotten issue regarding the Pledge. When it was first published in 1892, the Pledge did not contain the words “under God.” Congress added these words in 1954 as a Cold War response to atheistic communism. Nevertheless, ...

Economics for the Citizen, Part 3

by Walter E. Williams May 1, 2005

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 There are four classes of behavior that can be called economic behavior. They are: production, consumption, exchange, and specialization. The discussion of ...

Henry David Thoreau and “Civil Disobedience,” Part 3

by Wendy McElroy May 1, 2005

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Thoreau’s criticism is aimed at the form of obedience that springs from a genuine respect for the authority of the state. This obedience says, “The law is the law and should be respected regardless of content.” Through such attitudes, otherwise good men become agents of injustice. Thoreau dissects the notion that ...

Book Review — Against Leviathan

by Doug Bandow May 1, 2005

Against Leviathan: Government Power and a Free Society by Robert Higgs (Independent Institute, 2004); 405 pages; $18.95. The era of big government is over, famously proclaimed President Bill Clinton. Alas, a decade later Leviathan is still with us, an ever-present threat to our liberties. In his new book, Against Leviathan: Government Power ...

Book Review: Against Leviathan

by George Leef May 1, 2005

Against Leviathan: Government Power and a Free Society by Robert Higgs (Independent Institute, 2004); 405 pages; $18.95. Readers familiar with the writings of the 16th-century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes will immediately understand the thrust of this exceptional book. Hobbes attempted to justify an ...

A Cancer Patient Faces the Chaos of the American Health-Care System

by Rosalind Lacy MacLennan April 27, 2005

In mid December 2004, I stood up in the middle of my primary-care physician’s waiting room, and said, “I am carrying a weapon of mass destruction in my breast. I have breast cancer. I came here for treatment, not for cemetery care.” At last. The receptionist looked up. After two phone ...

Don’t Forget Roosevelt’s Attack on the Judiciary

by Jacob G. Hornberger April 25, 2005

Republican attacks on the judiciary bring to mind what unquestionably was the fiercest attack on the independence of the federal judiciary in American history — the infamous “court-packing scheme” of Democrat President Franklin D. Roosevelt. While there certainly had been instances of government regulation and welfare prior to FDR’s ...

Pentagon Conduits

by Sheldon Richman April 25, 2005

As we now know, thanks to the New York Times, the military-industrial complex is well represented in the daily television news coverage of the Iraq and Afghan occupations. Those former generals who seemed generously to have come out of retirement to provide disinterested analysis of the Bush administration’s military ...

Tear Down the Trade Walls

by Sheldon Richman April 22, 2005

“Please tear down this wall,” the president said. No, it wasn’t President Reagan challenging Soviet President Gorbachev about the Berlin Wall in the 1980s. It was the Ukrainian president, Viktor Yushchenko, recently addressing a joint session of the U.S. Congress. Yushchenko was asking the senators and representatives to ...

Connect the Dots

by Jacob G. Hornberger April 20, 2005

Pop quiz! Two questions! Exam Question No. 1: What two characteristics do the following things have in common? Social Security Medicare Drug War War on Terrorism War in Iraq Education Budget Deficit U.S. Dollar Can’t figure out the answer? Here are some clues: • Social Security is nothing more than a bankrupt welfare program, one that is funded ...

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 ...