Daily Articles

Book Review: When in the Course of Human Events

by Richard M. Ebeling November 1, 2000

When in the Course of Human Events: Arguing the Case for Southern Secession by Charles Adams (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000); 255 pages; $24.95. IN HER 1924 BOOK Free Trade and Peace in the Nineteenth Century, Helen Bosanquet pointed out, The conflict between Free Trade and Protection was one of the chief causes of the great Civil War.... Interests ...

Politicians Can Pollute Too

by Sheldon Richman November 1, 2000

Politicians use language differently from the rest of us. Take the expression “Big Polluters.” Apparently there are entire industries that do nothing but pollute. Big Oil produces oil. Big Pharmaceuticals produce medicines. So Big Polluters presumably produce air and water pollution. What’s more, they somehow make big ...

CAPSULE COMMENTARY: “Bush = Gore”

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 1, 2000

"Well, the first big presidential debate took place last night. Let me see if I have this right. Both Bush and Gore believe in: income taxation and the IRS; the drug war and the DEA; gun control and the ATF; Medicare and Medicaid; Social Security; public schooling and the Department of ...

CAPSULE COMMENTARY: “Stop Transfer Payments, Not Political Spending”

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 1, 2000

"Three billion dollars have been spent on the 2000 presidential and congressional races, making this the most expensive election in history. People gripe and complain, but refuse to face the true nature of the problem. The problem is not that people are spending too much money to get their friends elected. The ...

CAPSULE COMMENTARY: “U.S. War or Terrorism?”

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 1, 2000

"How does the U.S. government distinguish between war and terrorism? Our government continues to bomb Iraq on a regular basis, without a constitutionally required congressional declaration of war, and calls it "war." Our government also continues its embargo against the people of Iraq, which has caused untold ...

Vouchers Are Just Another Welfare Scheme

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 1, 2000

If proponents of school vouchers get their way, Americans might well be permanently saddled with one of the most massive government welfare programs in history. What began many years ago as a modest proposal to help those on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder with their ...

There Is No Right to Health Care

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 1, 2000

The Cuban constitution expressly states that people have a right to health care and that it is the duty of government to guarantee this right by providing hospitals, physicians, and medicine to the populace. Judging from the health-care stands of both Al Gore and George W. Bush, both of whom call ...

Hypocritical Opponents of Racial Profiling

by Sheldon Richman October 1, 2000

All right-thinking people oppose racial profiling in law enforcement, the use of race or ethnicity to help determine whom the police suspect of criminal activity. Nothing is easier than opposing it. Ask Vice President Al Gore. But beware of hypocrisy. One mark of a hypocrisy in politics ...

The Assault on Guns Continues

by Sheldon Richman October 1, 2000

The anti-self-defense lobby never quits. Two new books show the lengths to which that lobby will go to discredit gun ownership. But if this is the best the lobby can do, advocates of the right of self-defense perhaps have ...

Do the Rich Help the Poor?

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 1, 2000

PRESIDENT CLINTON justified his veto of Congress’s recent repeal of the estate tax by suggesting that most of the benefits of the repeal would go to the wealthy. “Of the $750 billion the repeal costs , one-half — nearly $400 billion — goes to the top one-tenth of one percent ...

Imagining Freedom for the 21st Century: A Presidential Candidate’s Press Conference, Part 5

by Richard M. Ebeling October 1, 2000

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 Insight Magazine: During the last eight years, the American people have witnessed some of the worst political scandals and episodes of presidential misconduct and immorality in our nation’s history. What will be the moral character and tone of your administration, if you ...

The $9 Trillion Federal Budget

by Sheldon Richman October 1, 2000

George Bush would spend more on a tax cut for the wealthiest 1 percent than he would spend on Social Security, health care, education, and the armed forces combined. Vice President Al Gore said that, or something like it, hundreds of times in the debates and on the campaign stump. Just once I’d like to see Governor Bush say to ...