In my Jan. 9 column — “I like to pay taxes; with them I buy civilization” — I wrote: “What’s that? What about those unemployed through no fault of their own? Get rid of all the government interventions in the labor market, including payroll taxes, and jobs would sprout like fungi. Of course, they might […]
As part of the GOP’s campaign “Pledge to America” last fall, the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives promised to roll back federal spending to 2008 levels, a move which could involve cutting as much as $84 billion from nine appropriations bills — cuts that would average 18 percent below President Obama’s budget […]
One major factor crippling the economic recovery is the tax-and-regulatory straightjacket confronting any American businessman who contemplates adding new jobs. The mechanism by which these regulations and extractions come into being is part of the problem. For long decades, Congress has fallen into the habit of passing laws full of noble sentiments, but with lots […]
The Associated Press represents itself as an unbiased purveyor of objective news. So I reserve the right to be disappointed — if not truly shocked or even surprised — when I see the time-honored news service embracing some of the ridiculous but currently fashionable presumptions of the ignorant but politically correct. This past week, the […]
A reader who refers to himself as “a common sense liberal” writes in: “In view of the agonized calls for increased restrictions on firearm ownership resurrected by the recent shooting in Arizona, could you write a column with meaningful statistics on death and injury nationwide prevented by the civilian ownership of firearms?
I wouldn’t have nominated Jim Gibbons for “Mr. Charisma,” myself. He never seemed to take much joy in being governor of Nevada. Nor do I adhere to the doctrine that we should speak no ill of the politically departed. Not only were Lincoln and FDR tyrants, they didn’t even offer any attractive short-term inducements in […]
During a holiday week when the step could be expected to draw little attention, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Dec. 23 announced his agency would review about 220 million acres of land controlled by the Bureau of Land Management to see if it should be designated under a new class of “public lands protection” […]