Category: Role of government
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Who is more compassionate?
Arthur C. Brooks, writing in the January 16, 2006 Wall Street Journal, debunks a stereotype about conservatives (those in favor of smaller government) being less compassionate and caring than those who are in favor of more government spending on social programs.
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How government makes us unhappy
Arthur C. Brooks, associate professor at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Public Affairs, has a commentary in the December 8, 2005 Wall Street Journal titled “Money Buys Happiness.” Rich people, the author tells us, are much more likely to say they are happy. Although we are becoming richer as a whole, the percent of people…
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Big government is thoroughly entrenched
Faced with even this barely noticeable reduction in spending, advocates of big government are in full fighting trim: “Their Congressional leaders, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, have denounced even these paltry GOP savings as ‘shameful’ and ‘immoral.’ They even brought a dozen Katrina Hurricane victims to Washington, trotted them out in front of the national…
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Catastrophe in Big Easy demonstrates big government’s failure
An excellent article by David Boaz of the Cato Institute titled “Catastrophe in Big Easy Demonstrates Big Government’s Failure” (available here: http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=4819) explains how miserably the government at all levels performed before and after Hurricane Katrina.
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How government destroys self-reliance
There is a problem when government interferes with what people should be doing for themselves. Government can destroy the incentive to provide for yourself and your family.
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How government insurance destroyed New Orleans
In the September 3, 2005 New York Times, columnist John Tierney educates us on the difference between private insurance and government insurance. Currently, the flood insurance that’s available through the federal government, because the premiums are so low, doesn’t fully reflect the costs of assuming that risk. And even as cheap as the flood insurance…
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Book Review: Winning The Future
This book by former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich outlines his prescription for what America needs to do to avoid decline. The five threats Gingrich identifies are Islamic terrorism, that God will be driven from American life, that America will lose its patriotic sense of self, that America will lose its economic supremacy to…
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George W. Bush leads in discretionary spending
George W. Bush is one of the biggest spenders of all presidents.
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Beneath the Radar
Beneath the Radarby Richard Nadler On June 3, the Supreme Court of Kansas issued a ruling requiring the state legislature to appropriate an additional $853 million per year to Kansas schools, K-12. The basis of the decision, said a unanimous court, was a clause in the Kansas Constitution: “The legislature shall make suitable provision for…
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I, Government
I, GovernmentPublished in The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty, October 2002 by D.W. MacKenzieClick here to read the article. This article illustrates just how large government at all levels has become. Do we really want governments so powerful that they can do the things described in this article? How have we let this happen? Will we…
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The Invasiveness of Government
TRACKSIDEby John D’Aloia Jr.May 31, 2005 Trackside last discussed the use of the legislative process to feed the insatiable itch for power that overtakes elected officials. This past session a majority of Kansas state senators demonstrated the itch by passing SB45, a bill that would have given local jurisdictions the means to instantly collect past…
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The Rise of Government and the Decline of Morality
At the time when we have voted on a major issue that was framed in terms of morality, when we have prominent preachers attempting to impose their version of morality on us through the power of government, when we have a mayor who opposes certain businesses for moral reasons, and we have government at all…