Marshall Fritz, founder of the Alliance for the Separation of School and State, passed away last week. Marshall was a principled, honorable man, and one of the clearest voices for the view that the state should play no role in the education of children. He advocated parental responsibility and private philanthropy as the only proper means of ensuring universal access to education. While Marshall and I disagreed on some issues, he was always the model of civility and empathy. He strove to lead a good and charitable life, and he succeeded. Rest in peace, Marshall.
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Who Killed Big Pharma?
Prior to the election, The Wall Street Journal’s editors criticized pharmaceutical manufacturers for spending money to prop up Democratic congresscritters, who will no doubt reward Big Pharma by slapping price controls on prescription drugs. The Journal likened this to Big Pharma selling the rope with which they will be hanged.
Yesterday, the Journal published my letter to the editor:
Big Pharma sold the rope with which it will be hanged back in 2003 (“Pharma Sells the Rope,” Review & Outlook, Oct. 29) when it agreed to make the federal government — specifically, the new Medicare Part D program — its largest customer. It is because of that Republican initiative that the specter of price controls now hangs loosely around Big Pharma’s neck.
The $13.2 million bribe that Big Pharma threw at the Democrats in this election cycle is merely an attempt to buy off the hangman.
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How Many Psychiatrists Does It Take to Change the GOP?
Just one, but the GOP has to want to change.
There’s an interesting difference between the post-election opeds written by House Minority Leader John Boehner (R‑OH) and Rep. Jeff Flake (R‑AZ) in the Washington Post.
Flake admits the GOP has made mistakes:
I suggest that we return to first principles. At the top of that list has to be a recommitment to limited government. After eight years of profligate spending and soaring deficits, voters can be forgiven for not knowing that limited government has long been the first article of faith for Republicans.
Boehner writes of the same principles and that the GOP has a lot of work to do, but betrays no awareness that the GOP may have done anything wrong over the past eight years.
I guess this may take a while.
P.S. — A suggestion for Mr. Boehner: drop the talking point that the GOP will “offer health-care reforms that empower patients and doctors.” Physicians have many legitimate gripes, but government has already done too much to empower doctors at the expense of patients. Just focus on empowering patients.
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National Review Editor: Conservatives Need to Pay Attention to Health Care
Rich Lowry is the editor of National Review, the magazine that helped launch the modern conservative movement. Writing in today’s Washington Post, Lowry stresses a weakness that conservatives must overcome:
[McCain’s] health plan was innovative…
But McCain didn’t seem to have a firm grasp on his own plan, and the Obama campaign successfully distorted it as a huge new tax increase. Conservatives were outraged by many things during the election season, but Obama’s dishonest and brutally effective attack on McCain’s plan wasn’t one of them. Even though it addresses a top public concern, health-care policy still doesn’t move the right.
At times, conservatives seemed bizarrely at odds with public sentiment…
Connecting better on the economy and middle-class pocketbook and quality-of-life issues will go a long way toward alleviating the troubles the GOP had in reaching moderates, suburbanites and even Latinos this year. It will require refreshing the conservative policy arsenal with innovative proposals that will look more like McCain’s health-care plan than the old tried and true…
Here are some suggestions regarding health-care choice, affordability, and Medicare reform.
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The Ballad of Ron Paul
The Onion offers a lyrical farewell to the Ron Paul campaign (via Brian Doherty):
WASHINGTON—After piling the last of his Campaign for Liberty signs in the back of a beat-up Ford truck Thursday, Rep. Ron Paul (R‑TX) once again abandoned his candidacy for president and rode on out toward the low western sun, but not before vowing to come back to Washington “when [the country] is ready.” “When the river swirls and the wind blows, and when uncontrollable inflation forces us to revert to the gold standard, and the Federal Reserve bank is exposed as the unconstitutional, neofascist cabal it really is, you’ll see me coming over that hill,” said Paul, leaving a dusty cowboy hat and a stack of “no” votes on his seat in the House of Representatives. “But don’t you fret, America. If you ever feel like your government is getting too big or too intrusive, just give a little whistle, and there I’ll be. I’ll be there quicker’n you can spit.” Although no one has seen or heard from the Texas congressman since Thursday, sources report the Ron Paul for President campaign has gained an additional $2.3 million in contributions since his disappearance.
Hearing the echoes of Tom Joad in that “final speech,” and noticing that in fact Ron Paul has been all over the airwaves as practically the only congressional critic of the bailout and the policies that led to it, I got to musing about another working-class icon, Joe Hill:
I dreamed I saw Ron Paul last night,
Still running on TV.
Says I “But Ron, you lost ‘em all”
“I’ll never quit” said he,
“I’ll never quit” said he.
“The Money Power beat you, Ron,
they beat you, Ron” says I.
“Takes more than Fox to beat ideas,”
Says Ron “I didn’t quit”
Says Ron “I didn’t quit.”
“In South Carolina, Ron,” says I,
“You stood up to the war.
Then Rudy knocked you back again.”
Says Ron, “But I was right.”
Says Ron, “But I was right.”
From Baghdad back to Main Street,
In every funeral hall
Where grieving moms inter their sons,
it’s there you find Ron Paul,
it’s there you find Ron Paul!
And taking on the Fed Reserve
and smiling with his eyes,
Says Ron, “The bailout cannot work,
It’s time to privatize.
It’s time to privatize.”
From Texas up to Washington,
in every lecture hall,
Where working men defend their gold,
it’s there you find Ron Paul,
it’s there you find Ron Paul!
I dreamed I saw Ron Paul last night,
Still running on TV.
Says I “But Ron, you lost ‘em all.”
“I’ll never quit” says he,
“I’ll never quit” says he.
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Obama’s Pledge to Cut Wasteful Spending
President-elect Obama has talked the talk about cutting wasteful federal spending. Now we will see whether he can walk the walk. You can review his budget reform promises here.
Some notable pledges:
- Eliminate “ineffective government programs.”
- Expand and improve www.usaspending.gov.
- Expose corporate welfare.
- Ensure that all “non-emergency” bills passed by Congress are posted on the web for five days before he signs them.
- Eliminate “waste and inefficiency” in government through a new investigative “SWAT team” that reports directly to the president.
- Enforce tougher new standards on the Office of Management and Budget’s current “PART” program, which grades program effectiveness.
- “Enforc[e] standards when programs continually fail” by “cutting program budgets or eliminating programs entirely” or other reforms.
- “Eliminate wasteful redundancy” in government.
- “Eliminate government programs that are not performing” by means of a “line-by-line” budget review.
- Slash earmarks to the 1994 level.
Senator Obama has been a partner of Senator Coburn’s in various budget transparency reform efforts. Now Coburn’s office tells me that they will hold the new president’s feet to the fire on his promises in this campaign document.
One suspects that the sort of “waste” Senator Obama is thinking about cutting here is small potatoes compared to the large cuts that really need to be made in the $3 trillion budget. But it will be interesting to see how hard Obama pushes even these modest reforms through the increasingly liberal Congress.
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Correspondence with a Presumed Proponent of Auto Bailouts
As a supporter of free trade, I’m used to getting angry letters and emails whenever I do media. Below is one of the more civil, reasonable emails, which I received following my appearance on last night’s Lou Dobbs:
I would have liked to see the rest of what you said about the auto industry on the show but what I did see angered me. You said something to the effect that bad business decisions by the Detroit automakers should not get them a bail out and that one of them should be allowed to fail is what I heard you say. I am assuming that the out of control greed that has run unchecked for years and terrible government policies have allowed the investment banks to basically destroy thousands of peoples lives should deserve a bail out. My thinking is that none of them should get one penny. As for the auto companies failing. Lets see. The banks fail then they will not lend to anyone now. I with a 780+ credit score can no longer get a loan for a car which then hurts the auto company is one cause. The fact that people are losing their jobs by thousands is not helping, the people losing their houses and high gas prices are killing the sales of cars. I don’t know if you know that if lets say GM goes under 100’s of thousands jobs could be lost. Engineers, designers, line workers, computer guys, and so on, not to mention all the other business that supply the automakers. Did you give any of this any thought? I also would like to know what you think about the good paying jobs that go overseas. Plus can you tell me one benefit to this Global economy has had for the USA. Please don’t give me the cheaper prices line either.
Here’s my response:
Thanks for your thoughtful comments. More often than not, the messages I receive from people who disagree with my perspective tend to be nasty and poorly articulated. So, yours is a welcome dissent.
I am opposed to interventions of any kind. The Wall Street bailout and the subsequent partial nationalization of what were private U.S. financial institutions is in essence a penalty on prudent behavior and a subsidy for risk taking. It is patently unfair and grievously unwise to use taxpayer dollars to insulate people or institutions from the consequences of their actions, as it is unfair and unwise to deprive risk takers of the full fruits of their efforts.
The story is no different in the auto industry. Yes, the industry employs thousands of workers and there are many jobs in related industries that depend on a healthy (or at least functioning) auto industry. I am sympathetic to your suggestion that auto’s woes are at least in some part attributable to the credit freeze, which is a response to, among other things, circumstances beyond its control. But there’s much more to the picture than the one you seem to want to paint of the auto industry as an innocent victim.
The fact is that much of the Big Three’s problem is self-made. The credit crunch and the contraction of demand is just the latest dark cloud, and a problem that affects all industries, not just autos. Thus, if there is a bailout for Detroit, where, how, and why do we draw the line to exclude other manufacturers, home builders, coal miners, and masseuses, who are all suffering from the same contraction in demand caused in part by the credit crunch? Don’t tell me we should bail everyone out. For starters, we can’t afford that.
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