Tax Cutting, Washington-Style by Sheldon Richman October 1, 1998 The House Republicans' proposed tax cut, which looks doomed in the Senate, is an outrage. It's so small it would barely show up on the budget radar screen. This makes absolutely no sense. If President Clinton is determined to veto a tax cut, as he says he is, at least make ...
Tear Down the Wall and Open the Borders by Jacob G. Hornberger October 1, 1998 Perhaps we ought to lament the tearing down of the Berlin Wall. It might have been less costly and more efficient to simply move it to the southern border of the United States. Four years ago, the federal government initiated Operation Gatekeeper, a massive crackdown on illegal immigration into California. ...
What Republican Revolution? by Jacob G. Hornberger October 1, 1998 The dictionary defines "revolution" as a complete change in something. Thus, when Republicans called the 1994 election results a Republican revolution, everyone naturally assumed that there was going to be a complete change in the nature of government in America. In the euphoria of the '94 election results, Republicans said ...
Book Review: In Praise of Commercial Capital by Richard M. Ebeling October 1, 1998 In Praise of Commercial Culture by Tyler Cowen (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998); 278 pages; $29.95. One of the most persistent views in many intellectual circles is that capitalism and the market economy are antagonistic to refined culture and artistic appreciation. On the one hand, the general public, it is claimed, is too uneducated and narrow-minded to understand either ...
President’s Perilous Foreign Affairs by Sheldon Richman September 15, 1998 When President Clinton ordered air strikes against alleged terrorist facilities in Sudan and Afghanistan last August, nearly everyone wondered if he had done it to take our attention off his sex scandal. But perhaps he's using the scandal to distract us from his foreign adventurism. Many criticisms can be made about the president's White ...
Politics Won’t Produce Moral Heroes by Sheldon Richman September 2, 1998 Much of the reaction about President Clinton's difficulties can be summed up thus: Our leader let us down. The premise is that the president is not just a chief executive officer, but much more: a moral and spiritual leader of the nation. I submit this is an unfortunate attitude for free people. Americans have long had ...
Fight Socialism with Freedom in North Korea by Jacob G. Hornberger September 1, 1998 For the last three years, up to 2 million people have died of starvation in North Korea. The U.S. government has been the biggest provider of aid, contributing 220,000 tons of food. The Clinton administration is now considering sending an additional 300,000 tons of food. American officials refer to this ...
The Conservative Commitment to Educational Socialism by Jacob G. Hornberger September 1, 1998 It would be difficult to find a better model of socialistic central planning than public (government) schooling. Public schooling entails a central board of elected or appointed government planners, either at a national, state, or local level. Attendance is mandated by compulsory-attendance laws. Government-approved schoolteachers, using government-approved textbooks, ...
Why Not Simply Repeal Social Security? by Jacob G. Hornberger September 1, 1998 As the November congressional elections approach, Social Security is certain to become a topic of political conversation. With a budget surplus in mind, Republicans are seeking an $80 billion tax cut for the American people. President Clinton is threatening a veto. He says that taxes can't be cut because ...
Monetary Central Planning and the State, Part 21: The Keynesian Revolution and the Early Critics of Keynes by Richard M. Ebeling September 1, 1998 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 ...
Throw D.C.’s Government Out of School by Sheldon Richman September 1, 1998 Everyone is breathing a sigh of relief that D.C. public schools have opened on time this year. Perhaps we shouldn't be so hasty. Are the children of the district really better off being herded back into the public school system? Despite decades of mandatory-attendance laws and the expenditure of tens of millions ...
Eliminate, Don’t Reform, the IRS by Sheldon Richman September 1, 1998 Yet again, a taxpayer "bill of rights" has been enacted into law. And so, after all the recent revelations of Internal Revenue Service abuse of peaceful citizens, we can all now be confident that the tax collector will respect the rights and dignity of every American. Right. And pigs have started ...