Commentaries
Tax limits bring economic growth
Yesterday was tax day for millions of Americans — as they filed their federal income tax returns. According to IRS estimates, individuals spend about 1.7 billion hours on tax-related paperwork; businesses spend another 3.4 billion hours. The Tax Foundation estimates the cost of compliance with federal tax laws will approach $200 billion this year. Yesterday…
Read MoreDespite crises, Mexico has hope
MEXICO CITY — This is my first visit to Mexico since last December’s economic crisis, marked by the collapse of the peso. At first glance, everything seems the same: Traffic jams, smog, parks and plazas jammed with young people, and families celebrating the start of Easter week; young boys crowding public baseball fields and basketball…
Read MoreClear the way for innovation
Not only is technology changing the way we live, work, play, learn and move around, we are also rapidly changing the way we use technology. For example, people are now using telephones not just for conversations with friends or family members but to link their home computers to the information superhighway where they transmit digital…
Read MoreAnother sign of party’s decline
U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell’s defection is more than just another seat on the Republican side of the aisle. It is another indicator of the increasing isolation and possible decomposition of the Democratic Party itself. Campbell, the only Native American in Congress, crossed from the Democratic to the Republican side of the aisle the day…
Read MorePolitical clout shifts westward
For a long time — since World War II — the West and South have been America’s most rapidly growing regions. During the 1980s, more than 75% of the nation’s population growth occurred in just five states — two in the West (California and Texas) and three in the South (Florida, Georgia and North Carolina.)…
Read MoreMcInnis draws curious crowd
ASPEN — It was a bright, sunny day with 60 inches of new powder on the surrounding ski slopes. Yet, despite ideal skiing conditions, both residents and tourists — some dressed for business and others for skiing — crowded into The Little Nell hotel at the base of Aspen Mountain to eat a Mexican buffet…
Read MoreWelfare reform: hostage to a lie
Last week, welfare reform proponent Rep. Clay Shaw (R-Fla.) said, “You repeat the big lie enough times and people will believe it.” He was referring, of course, to the problem faced by congressional welfare reformers — mostly Republicans and 20 to 30 Democrat centrists — as they try to change the nation’s costly but failed…
Read MoreLet’s take walk on this strike
The botched effort of the Clinton administration to intervene in the baseball strike is another example of the intrusive and overbearing culture of Washington — and another reason why this culture must be broken if America is to reach its full potential. In a late-inning move, the president dispatched former Labor Secretary William Usery to…
Read MoreSchool disrepair isn’t feds to fix
You would think the last election would have sent a clear message to members of Congress, on both sides of the aisle: The New American Majority wants a smaller, cheaper, less intrusive federal government. Nevertheless, last week U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun, D-Ill., called for increased spending in a new federal program to patch the roofs…
Read MoreAlexander’s big-tme hand
More than 300 Colorado Republican activists met here last weekend for their annual “leadership conference.” The agenda: To examine the implications of the new Republican majority in Congress and ways to improve the Party’s performance in Colorado, where Democrats have just-renewed their four-year lease on the governor’s mansion, their home since 1974. Activists also traded…
Read MoreDemocrats don’t grasp the vision
The U.S. government has run up more than $4 trillion in debt. About $1 trillion was accumulated during the nation’s first 200 years, the rest since 1980. Despite the Clinton administration’s claims about “reducing the deficit,” the Kerry-Danforth Commission report on entitlements and tax reform — released last month — showed that America’s debt is…
Read MoreGingrish shakes, rattles and rolls
Media mavens and Washington-based mandarins have taken to describing Speaker of the House-elect Newt Gingrich as “reckless” and “out-of-control.” They would have us believe that — after the flush of victory wears thin — the new Republican leader will settle down, play by the rules of Washington, and things will get back to normal. In…
Read MoreForces strong for status quo
Like millions of other Americans, we used the Thanksgiving holiday to visit family in the Midwest. This year we took Amtrak. The train ride was terrific; the scenery was spectacular. But there was an unanticipated benefit: long conversations with strangers, people from many walks of life, during the 17-hour train ride to Wisconsin and 17…
Read MoreElection verdict: Less is better
The tsunami we predicted in this column on Oct. 12 — Republican control of Congress for the first time in 40 years — happened on Nov. 8. However, the majority that carried the election is not, in my judgment, a New Republican Majority — as many Republicans are saving. Rather, it’s a New American Majority…
Read MoreReal estate rides into the info age
ANAHEIM, Calif. — “It’s a whole new world.” So rings the theme of the 87th annual meeting and trade exposition of the National Association of Realtors. It’s an apt theme because revolutionary changes hitting every other information-intensive industry are about to hit real estate. Nearly 17,000 people carne here last weekend to participate in business…
Read MoreThese are days of discontent
As the 1994 election approaches, competitive races Hare beginning to tighten. That usually happens just before Election Day. Reason: Undecided voters make up their minds and potential turncoats who may have flirted with the “other” candidate come back to the party fold. But as partisan preferences shift back and forth, there is an underlying reality…
Read MoreTsunami could sweep GOP in
Clinton “undertow.” That’s the label used by most Washington, D.C.-based political analysts to explain expected Democratic losses in the Congressional elections next month. However, losses anticipated by this “undertow” scenario are very modest. ABC’s veteran political editor, Hal Bruno, said last week that Republicans will probably “pick up 15 seats in the Senate.” Last Friday,…
Read MoreStates’ rights debate rages on
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Consider this: “Our fathers knew, when they made the government, that the laws and institutions which were well adapted to the green mountains of Vermont, were unsuited to the rice plantations of South Carolina. They knew then, (and) we know now, that the laws and…
Read More40 years of lies turn people off
Polls tell us that Americans increasingly distrust government. In 1964, more than three out of four Americans (76%) answered “Always or most of the time” to the question: “How much of the time can you trust government to do what is right?” Today, according to aTime/CNN poll, only one in five (19%) gives the trustful…
Read MoreRegulation isn’t way to reform
Third in a three-part series. Unless it is knocked off the agenda by the Haiti misadventure, Congress may try to pass a massive telecommunications “reform” package before the 103rd Congress adjourns this autumn. Passage of the “reform” bill could have massive unintended effects. Examples: It would actually delay construction of the information superhighway, especially to…
Read MoreToo much bad in telecom bills
Second in a three-part series. The Labor Day recess is over. Congress is facing a huge backlog of unfinished work. Many legislative initiatives — health care, the GATT trade agreement, interstate branch banking, campaign finance reform, Superfund, new hardrock mining taxes — will die on the vine if they are not passed in the six…
Read MoreCrime bill feeds public cynicism
Why are Americans so cynical about Congress? Just examine the so called crime bill, passed by the House of Representatives this weekend when 46 Republicans joined House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., to resurrect the measure, which had failed to pass a critical vote in the House 10 days earlier. The lessons are many. Politics,…
Read MoreDon’t blame us for Clinton woes
As President Clinton continues to sink in the polls, pro-Clinton and pro-activist government pundits are beginning to blame the American people for Clinton’s political problems. Example: Respected Washington columnist William Raspberry recently opined that Americans are too obsessed with fitness for office and too little concerned about performance in office. Europeans, he said, don’t get…
Read MorePublic no longer tunes in Clinton
While the president’s people complain that his accomplishments are not appreciated by the American people, there may be something larger that explains Clinton’s problems with Congress and the American people, where his approval rating, now around 40%, continues to sink Clinton’s problem: tune-out. Consider George Romney, a respected auto industry magnate, a successful Republican governor…
Read MoreMilestones mark where man has gone and has yet to go
As we celebrate today the 25th anniversary of America’s success in landing men on the moon, it’s worth noting that 1994 is a year awash in milestone anniversaries. Last month, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of D-day (June 6, 1944), which stopped Hitler’s attempt to take over Europe. Two months ago, we celebrated the 40th…
Read MoreA cheer for fellow North Americans
WASHINGTON — By a score of 1-0, Norway upset Mexico on Sunday in the first game of the World Cup played at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium. The festive opening ceremonies were followed by a terrific soccer game — the best I’ve ever seen. The game was played on a steamy afternoon before a capacity…
Read MoreRust Belt is on the rebound
TOLEDO, Ohio — I spent a couple of days this past weekend here in the heart of the Rust Belt. I visited the University of Toledo, where I had been invited to give the commencement address — and I learned about the University’s National Center for Tooling and Precision Components, one of several initiatives to…
Read MoreOther triumphs worth cheering
Many of the youngest members of the twenty-something generation are graduating this month in commencement ceremonies all over America. But this year, something is different. This year, Americans also are celebrating the 50th anniversary of D-day, which marked the beginning of the end of World War II and the struggle against fascism. The spirit of…
Read MoreSparing the rod, reaping the pain
Michael Fay is learning that actions have consequences. Fay is the 18 year-old kid from Ohio who was sentenced to six whacks of a cane on his butt as punishment for defacing expensive cars in Singapore. I was reminded of this last week as I listened to a moving speech by Supreme Court Justice Clarence…
Read MoreClinton’s policies alien to America
With the stock market down more than 300 points and interest rates rising for the first time in years, pundits are focused on short-term jitters in a nervous stock market. But, not everyone lives in the short term. Indeed, there is growing anxiety about the long-term effects of Clinton-Gore policies in other areas. These include…
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