Enron and the Cheney List by Sheldon Richman March 1, 2002 The controversy over Vice President Dick Cheney’s secret energy-policy consultation list is amusing. Government should certainly err on the side of disclosing such things, but that’s not the point here. Those most vocal in demanding the list seem to be saying they can’t judge the Bush administration’s energy policy ...
Recovering Our Bearings by Jacob G. Hornberger December 1, 2001 CHRISTMASTIME ALWAYS PROVIDES a good time both for reflection and for looking forward. While we usually do this as individuals and families, this year is an especially good time to do so as a nation. How did America start, how has it changed over the years, and where are we heading? Our country began as the ...
The Sham of Political Compromise by Sheldon Richman August 2, 2001 Writing on the New York Times op-ed page recently, new Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle called for “a spirit of principled compromise.” The top Democrat presumably means compromise with the Republicans. He’s in luck. Compromise with the Senate Republicans is entirely possible — because they hold the same reactionary principles ...
What O’Reilly Doesnt Know by Sheldon Richman August 1, 2001 Bill OReilly, populist star of the Fox News Channels OReilly Factor may be the hottest television property around, but he doesnt know beans about how markets work. The other night he charged the oil companies with conspiring to keep gasoline prices high. He quoted a 1995 Chevron memo stating that refining ...
Wrong Way to Go by Sheldon Richman July 1, 2001 We’ve been had. By a Bush. Again. The tax cut is a joke. After all the blather about how the surplus belongs to us, not the government, the resulting tax-cut bill is minuscule, ultra-gradual, and now scheduled to expire in 10 years! Republican and Democrat members of Congress, ...
The Free-Soil Movement, Part 2 by Wendy McElroy June 1, 2001 Part 1 |Part 2 The key issue around which the free-soil debate revolved was slavery. Specifically, the question was whether slavery would be extended into the territories that were expected to seek statehood. Both anti-slavery farmers and slave-owners had been migrating into the territories for years. Each group was eager to acquire the political clout that came from having a ...
The Oklahoma City Bombing by Jacob G. Hornberger May 1, 2001 The Oklahoma City Bombing With the upcoming execution of convicted mass murderer Timothy McVeigh, much has been made of McVeigh's indifference to the fact that included among the 168 deaths in the Oklahoma City bombing were 19 children. McVeigh has referred to the children's deaths as "collateral damage." But it's important that we not forget that McVeigh is not ...
The “Good-Government” Attack on Free Speech by Sheldon Richman May 1, 2001 I keep waiting for a swell of sanity to wash Senators John McCain and Russell Feingold’s campaign finance “reform” bill away once and for all. But I am beginning to despair that there isn’t that much sanity around anymore. The polls show that most people don’t care about campaign finance issues. ...
Government as Parasite by Sheldon Richman May 1, 2001 The Republicans still don’t get it. They say they want a tax cut because “the surplus is the people’s money,” but their heart isn’t in it. If they truly believed that, they wouldn’t quickly add that we need a tax cut to avert a recession. They supported the tax cut before ...
A Republic, Not an Empire by Sheldon Richman May 1, 2001 Predictably, the key lesson of the recent China incident has not been learned. That lesson is this: America was designed as a republic and should not act like an empire. When it does act that way, the American people, not to mention the people in other countries, suffer. Why does the U.S. government need to send spy ...
The Free-Soil Movement, Part 1 by Wendy McElroy May 1, 2001 Part 1 | Part 2 In 1837, in order to encourage a westward migration of the poor and unemployed from the industrial East, the journalist Horace Greeley proclaimed, “Go West, young man, go forth into the Country.” The vast public lands in the West were seen as a safety valve for the increasing labor unrest of Eastern cities. Twenty-five years ...
Cause of Corrupt Government by Clarence Manion May 1, 2001 A PRECISION TOOL designed for one purpose will be entirely ineffective — nay, it may even be destroyed — in an attempt to use it for another purpose. Every housewife knows that you cannot use an electric dishwasher as a garbage disposal unit. Yet the same American people who know so ...