Month: March 1999

For years the great economist Milton Friedman used to say that the correct measure of the size of government is not total taxes, but total spending. That is because spending is a truer measure of the resources government is taking out of society, especially when there is a large budget deficit. However, in a time of budget surpluses, Prof. Friedman's analysis needs updating. Simply looking at spending is no longer an adequate measure of the size of government. Nor is just looking at on-budget revenues a sufficient measure of taxation.

The mayors of New Orleans, Chicago, Atlanta, Miami-Dade County and Bridgeport, Conn., have filed lawsuits against gun manufacturers to recover costs related to firearm violence in their cities. Other cities seem likely to file suit in the near future. They want gun makers to reimburse their cities for the public health and safety costs associated with treating and preventing injuries caused by firearms used in crimes.

About the only thing in Washington in worse shape than Medicare is the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare.

When I sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1988, I proposed a plan to convert Social Security from the current pay-as-you-go system to a fully funded retirement program. Eleven years later, both Republicans and Democrats have come to agree that the current system is facing financial collapse, and reforming Social Security is finally on the Washington agenda.

We can lay to rest another of the education establishment's specious arguments against school vouchers: that the private schools will skim off the best students, leaving the public schools with the others.