Month: October 2000

You know the liberals who keep reminding us that income in equality is increasing … well, guess what, they're right. What they don't mention is that income inequality has risen most sharply during Bill Clinton's presidency.

How embarrassing it was for New Jersey democrats to find themselves voting against the Declaration of Independence.

A couple of weeks ago I introduced the new NCPA social security calculator, which can tell you what your retirement nest egg would be with a partially market system. A recent NCPA brief analysis shows another reason why it leaves you with more money: compound interest.

One of the key reasons for trying school choice isn't the direct effect on students, but the effect on schools, something Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman recently outlined in the Wall Street Journal. Choice would turn education into a competitive service.

I explained last week why claims that George W. Bush's across the board tax cut is a bad idea, are simply wrong. But I didn't spend sufficient time on Al Gore's mind-numbingly complex alternative.

George W. Bush was right when he talked about Al Gore's fuzzy math, but the fact is much of Gore's math isn't fuzzy at all. It's really pretty simple. Bush wants to cut current income taxes across the board. Replacing the current 15 percent rule with 10 percent, the 20 percent rate with 15 percent, the 31 percent rate with 25 percent, and so on.

In July, the House voted to expand the amount taxpayers can invest in IRAs and 401(k) plans. The republican plan got 181 democrat votes.

Al Gore's playing classic liberal politics — bashing "powerful and greedy" drug companies — yet he makes promise after promise on the campaign trail — of new cures for everything from diabetes to cancer.

Turned off by two-party politics? The Commission on Presidential Debates excluded minor party candidates like Ralph Nader and Pat Buchanan because they register below 15 percent in the polls. So, some voters complain that we always end up with two boring 6-foot white guys in suits and red ties, labeled "D" and "R," and policies that are hard to tell apart. Supposedly, this narrow menu causes a lack of interest and a high drop-out rate among voters.

From the "The Era of Big Government Isn't Over" file…

In an unexpected move, Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers has decided to inject himself into the presidential campaign by attacking Texas Governor George W. Bush's proposal to save Social Security. While it is surprising for a senior cabinet official such as Summers to involve himself this way in a presidential campaign, it is the substance of his argument that is the most astonishing.

Al Gore loses this election, it's not going to be because he has a better grasp of policy than Gov. Bush does, or because he's more experienced, or smarter.

Cleveland, Milwaukee and Florida, move over. If California voters do the right thing this November, the school voucher landscape will be altered forever.

Just as a lot of political mischief gets done on behalf of "the children," plenty is being done as well on behalf of "the uninsured." But who are they, and why aren't they covered.

Every week it seems pundits try to put a different stamp on this year's presidential election. One could almost compare their explanatory contortions to John Lovits' old Saturday Night Live character. "This election is about Clinton fatigue. No wait a minute, it's about campaign finance reform. Check that, I think it's about Social Security reform. Gas prices … No, prescription drugs … definitely prescription drugs."

If George W. Bush is looking for an easy target, how about Clinton–Gore energy policies, like their opposition to oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge because it threatens land and wildlife.

There's a simple question to ask about any regulation Washington proposes: Is its cost greater than its presumed benefit. Of course, they never ask that in Washington, despite a law on the books which says they have to ask if a proposed regulation's cost is over a certain amount. All of which is why OSHA is about to go nuts again.

Nobody knows more about guns and gun laws that John Lott, Jr. of the Yale law school, so when he talks, I listen.

Before the democrats — and, it pains me to say it, republicans — go crazy with prescription drug plans, let's look at a few numbers.

The Clinton administration's decision to open the spigot on the emergency oil reserves is pure politics designed to give Al Gore a boost in the election season. That's the only way to read it, because it sure doesn't have anything to do with energy policy, and most energy experts agree.