Is Tax Freedom Now an Act of War? by Scott McPherson June 27, 2003 In a speech before the National Press Club last January, former New York governor Mario Cuomo charged that President Bush’s tax cut proposals were a form of “class warfare.” Challenging Bush’s claims that liberals and Democrats were fomenting class warfare with their charges that his tax plan favors the rich, ...
Are We Feeling Duped Yet? by Sheldon Richman June 27, 2003 A lot of silly things have been said about Iraq’s alleged arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, such as that Saddam Hussein could be ready to launch in 45 minutes. But perhaps the silliest of all is the Republicans’ charge that even to ask whether the Bush administration misled ...
The Market for Homelessness by Scott McPherson June 25, 2003 Advertisers are a simple lot — they want you to buy what they’re selling. So in their quest for the perfect way to influence your purchasing decisions, they’re always on the lookout for a new pitch. Everyone is familiar with the typical television or radio commercial, and of course ...
I Support Economic Regulation! by Scott McPherson June 20, 2003 The evils which men perpetually call on the State to cure by superintendence, themselves arise from non-performance of its original duty. — Herbert Spencer, Over-Legislation (1853) On a recent camping trip with my brother-in-law and his family, my wife expressed doubt that the British rail service could ever reach ...
Historical Preservation and the Market by Scott McPherson June 18, 2003 There’s a controversy brewing over the Old North Church in Boston, from the window of which patriot Paul Revere received the signal that British troops were headed for Concord and spread the word through the Massachusetts countryside. It seems that the old church needs some work, and the U.S. government ...
Tax-Cut Illusions by Sheldon Richman June 18, 2003 The problem with big government is that politicians and bureaucrats keep devouring more and more scarce resources instead of leaving them with those who created them. So instead of entrepreneurs’ using those resources to serve consumers, government operatives get to subsidize their supporters in order to keep their ...
The Ten Planks of the “Freedom” Manifesto by Jacob G. Hornberger June 13, 2003 Now, tell me if I have this right: It doesn’t really matter whether President Bush and his associates lied about Saddam Hussein’s “weapons of mass destruction” or exaggerated the danger — even though the reason that most Americans supported the war was the threat of imminent attack from such weapons — ...
Our Lives and Liberty Turn on Moussaoui by Jacob G. Hornberger June 11, 2003 There is little difficulty, and there is often very little gain, in declaring the existence of a right to personal freedom. The true difficulty is to secure its enforcement. The Habeas Corpus Acts have achieved this end, and have done for the liberty of Englishmen more than could have been achieved by any declaration of ...
Conservative Conundrum by Sheldon Richman June 9, 2003 Conservatives become more inscrutable every day. They spend half their time praising the federal government for its miracles in Iraq (and, if they get their way, in Iran) and the other half of their time ridiculing the Democrats for thinking that the same federal government can provide medical ...
Security and the Right to Liberty by Jacob G. Hornberger June 9, 2003 As everyone knows, the federal government has seized upon the September 11 terrorist attacks to expand its power to harass and spy on both immigrants and American citizens. “We must give up some liberty to protect our security,” government supporters often cry in an attempt to justify the federal expansion of power over our lives. Must ...
Insider-Trading Prohibitions Should Go out of Style by Don Boudreaux June 6, 2003 One of the most essential distinctions made in Anglo-American law is between acts that are malum in se and acts that are malum prohibitum. According to the law dictionary at www.law.com, an act that is malum in se is “wrong in itself, in its very nature being ...
“There Was a Report of Guns and Drugs” by Scott McPherson June 6, 2003 On May 16 New York City police officers dressed in riot gear broke down a woman’s door and exploded a concussion grenade in her Harlem home. The woman, 57-year-old Alberta Spruill, was unarmed. She died a few hours later of a heart attack. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and ...