National Politics

The Hypocritical Straight Talk Express Man: The Ongoing Problem With John McCain

By Donald B. Hawthorne | May 15, 2006 |

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) prides himself on his “straight talk.” However, recent times have shown that his appreciation for his own free speech does not frequently apply to others’ right to free speech. First, he led the effort to curtail free speech via the euphemism called campaign finance reform. Second, George Will recently captured some…

Creeping Socialism: ACORN & the Living Wage

By | May 11, 2006 |

I have never understood the logic of the “living wage” argument, where certain organizations – like ACORN – seek to have government agencies mandate new and higher wage rates. Such people believe that higher wages must be realized and that they can only be achieved by government fiat, not by the ability of the market…

Kurtz: National Media Gave Kennedy a Pass

By Marc Comtois | May 8, 2006 |

Washington Post political scene reporter Howie Kurtz observes that the national media has been uncharacteristically silent concerning Patrick Kennedy’s previous “adventures,” especially since he is, well, a Kennedy: It’s hard to imagine that Patrick Kennedy would have gotten elected to Congress a dozen years ago without his last name. It’s equally hard to imagine that…

The Declaration Of Independence & What It Means To Be An American Citizen

By | May 3, 2006 |

To lessen the lack of clarity in the immigration debate about what it means to be an American citizen, let’s go back to the first principles of the American Founding. The Claremont Institute has developed a web-based overview of the Declaration of Independence which includes these sub-sections: A Guide to the Declaration of Independence Issues…

Identifying Four Core Issues Underlying the Immigration Debate

By | May 2, 2006 |

The clarity of many public policy debates gets derailed when the sloppy and imprecise use of words reduces such debates to cliches instead of a substantive discussion of issues. Recent developments in the immigration debate are merely the latest example. The result has been a focus on the wrong issues. More importantly, by having no…

George Weigel on Europe’s Two Culture Wars: Is This the Future for America?

By | April 30, 2006 |

As America awaits the big May 1 protest parades, with their likely demands for an unconditional amnesty for illegal immigrants, it is worth noting that many protestors so far reject any requirement for assimilation to historical American principles. This is a non-trivial issue for which the trends in Europe offer a perspective on what the…

Supplemental Pork

By Carroll Andrew Morse | April 28, 2006 | Comments Off on Supplemental Pork

Senator Tom Coburn has identified 19 items (see the table below) that he believes to be wasteful pork spending in the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Hurricane Recovery bill currently being debated in the United States Senate . The Senator has introduced amendments that would rescind the 19…

Reflections on the Meaning of Inequality

By Donald B. Hawthorne | April 23, 2006 |

Among the weighty phrases thrown around in our public discourse, few are as provocative or poorly understood as “social justice” and “inequality.” A perspective on social justice was previously offered here. With a H/T to Cafe Hayek, David Schmidtz’s article When Inequality Matters offers a philosophical perspective on the issue of inequality. (Note: His definition…

Spending Caps Won’t Solve the Unfunded Public Sector Liability Problems Caused by the Tax-Eaters

By | April 19, 2006 |

Ed Achorn’s latest editorial A cap won’t solve R.I.’s tax troubles states: It is encouraging that Rhode Island politicians — in an election year, anyway — are awakening to the public’s agonized cries over sky-high property taxes. Senate President Joseph Montalbano (D.-North Providence), Majority Leader Teresa Paiva-Weed (D.-Newport), and Minority Leader Dennis Algiere (R.-Westerly) last…

Revisiting Why Current Lobbyist Reforms Will Fail

By Donald B. Hawthorne | April 11, 2006 |

David Boaz, the Executive Vice President of the Cato Institute, recently wrote these words about why lobbyist reform initiatives will fail: When you spread food out on a picnic table, you can expect ants. When you put $3 trillion on the table, you can expect special interests, lobbyists and pork-barrel politicians. That’s the real lesson…