Commentaries

The Clinton plan for healthcare reform is dead. The coup d’grace was administered by Robert Reischauer, economist and chief of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The CBO report was devastating. It showed the Clinton proposal to be a budget buster. While the Administration said the reform would save $59 billion during the first five years,…

Remember when a “joint” was a beer hall, “hash” was the dinner just before payday, “switch hitter” was a guy who could bat left or right-handed, and “crack” was the space between two sidewalk slabs — as in “step on the crack and break your gramma’s back”? Times change. Remember the survey released a few…

Assessments of President Clinton’s first year are all over the place. Liberal media savants — from commentator Lars-Erik Nelson to New Yorker editor Sidney Blumenthal — support Clinton and work nearly full time defending, explaining or advocating the new president to the American people. Conservative media mavens — from talk radio and TV superstar Rush Limbaugh to National…

For the past two weeks, NAFTA and APEC have dominated the news. As the global economy expands, we are increasingly exposed to stories about how it works. So here’s a lexicon of key institutional players in the Asia-Pacific region, the newest region on America’s international radar screen. APEC: The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum met in…

The North American Free Trade Agreement debate took a sharp turn last week. For the first time, pro-NAFTA forces are on the offensive and gaining momentum. The primary difference is the President, who has come out four-square for NAFTA. He blasted his friends in the labor movement for strong-arm tactics, which include muscling Democrat members…

As President Clinton fights to win approval of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the most vocal and effective opposition comes from the president’s own party — led by House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt of Missouri and House Whip David Bonior of Michigan — and organized labor, which is pouring millions of dollars of union…

Some people–who properly recall from 11th grade civics that treaties are ratified by the U.S. Senate, not the entire Congress — are asking why both houses of Congress are passing judgment on the North American Free Trade Agreement. Because Congress must pass implementing legislation for NAFTA (signed on Dec. 17, 1992) and for the side…

Although the secrecy surrounding the Clinton administration’s health security “initiative” was more like the premiere of Jurassic Park than the Manhattan Project, people are still being surprised by what they are finding. Some economists are now forecasting that the “employer mandate,” which requires employers to pay 80% or more of each employee’s health insurance premium, could cost…

The Clintons’ health-security plan is now on the table. Though many stakeholders are nibbling around the edges — e.g., physicians, hospitals, pharmaceutical and insurance companies — the real opposition will come from small business and the people they employ. Reason: The new health-security plan imposes a huge new “employee tax” on American business. This so-called…

Last week’s news had a familiar ring. On Wednesday, President Clinton outlined his health-reform plan. The plan, straight from the playbook of Franklin D. Roosevelt, is Old Democrat to the core: more taxes, more spending, a new entitlement, a new bureaucracy to run “the system,” and new powers to the federal government to run our…

NAFTA is in trouble in Congress. There is no question about that. But, to put all this in perspective, since Secretary of State Cordell Hull’s reciprocal trade agreements in the 1930s, trade pacts have almost always had problems when they first hit Capitol Hill. Last week, The Wall Street Journal said that “Clinton’s task in selling NAFTA…

The Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth and other national environmental organizations have joined forces to derail the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Some are organizing opposition in Congress. Others have filed suit in federal court to obtain a court order to prevent consummation of the pact until an environmental impact statement has been…

Treats this week include NAFTA foe Ross Perot’s newest book, “Save Your Job, Save Our Country,” his latest attack on the North American Free Trade Agreement. When Perot wants to limit government and reduce the deficit, he wins the support of many Americans — in part because many Americans think government is too big and…

Taxes up. Violence up. Out-of-control school bureaucracies. Excuses by people in high places for uncivilized behavior. Intrusive government. Plummeting property values. What does it all add up to? The takeover of America’s largest city, Los Angeles, by Richard Riordan, a white, conservative Republican male — the antithesis of political correctness in the world’s most multicultural…