Today, a Detour from politics, and a belated note on the passing of George Harrison. I was too old to be a child of the '60s, but you had to live under a rock not to realize the Beatles changed music as nobody did, with the possible exception of Elvis.
Parents seeking educational opportunities for their children are now finding more options available to them. Inspired largely by the success of Arizona's Tuition Tax Credit Program, a number of states are establishing tax credits to support scholarships that families may use to send their children to both public and private schools.
Far from being a reluctant partner, India is a committed U.S. ally. Within a week of the September 11 attacks, India provided the U.S. with intelligence on the locations of more than 120 terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.
What you are about to read will disturb you. It should, because it is additional evidence that the information which Americans use to form conclusions is being slanted and sometimes distorted to meet the requirements of political correctness.
Politicians love to come up with feel-good ideas that spread more good will than do actual good. A perfect example is a plan that's drawn some favorable attention in Washington to give Americans a one-month holiday from paying payroll taxes. The plan would suspend the 12.4 percent social security payroll tax that's split between employers and employees.
The majority of U.S. students are ranked at basic or below. The DOD schools had a higher percentage of students scoring in the NAEP advanced bracket than any state. In eighth-grade writing, for example, only Connecticut outperformed DOD schools in 1998.
Imagine a world in which peoples' knowledge of their country's history goes no farther back than the beginning of their own lives. That's where we're headed.
Now that President Bush's Commission to Strengthen Social Security is preparing its report for release later this year, the debate on the wisdom of investing in the stock market is again at center stage. As we choose which option, if any, will replace Social Security's present financing, the behavior of our stock market over the last three-quarters of a century clearly suggests that it should be one of the considered choices.
The house will soon begin a debate that should be a no-brainer: whether or not to give the president fast track authority on trade pacts.
Employees of major financial services firms that want to invest your money for retirement, or advise you how to invest those funds, often do a terrible job of investing their own.
I'm Pete du Pont. Thanks for listening and I hope our paths cross again, somewhere along the way.
President Bush's Social Security reform commission has completed its work. Rather than putting all its eggs in one basket, the commission has developed the broad strokes of three reform plans and will now leave it up to the administration and Congress to fill in the details.
Turkey has always been a fascinating country, balanced between a Moslem, autocratic past and a mostly democratic, yet still Islamic present. Turkey is a key to our middle eastern policy, a staunch backer of U.S. operations there, and a significant player in NATO.
In a recent op ed piece in the New York Times, Edward Rothstein put the entire quest for the "root causes" of terrorism in focus.
People with employer-provided health insurance receive a substantial tax saving because this benefit is not taxed as income. On the other hand, people who buy their own insurance must do so with after-tax dollars. There are proposals in both the House and Senate to remedy this inequity through refundable tax credits for those who buy their own health insurance.
A new report from the small business administration suggests if congress wants to help the economy it should forget the stimulus package, and start whacking away at regulations.
President Bush's social security reform commission will hold one more public hearing, on December 11, before making its recommendations on December 21.