Category: Pete du Pont

Before the democrats — and, it pains me to say it, republicans — go crazy with prescription drug plans, let's look at a few numbers.

The Clinton administration's decision to open the spigot on the emergency oil reserves is pure politics designed to give Al Gore a boost in the election season. That's the only way to read it, because it sure doesn't have anything to do with energy policy, and most energy experts agree.

To read the papers, you'd think George Bush had fallen so far in the polls he should just concede. But wait.

Yesterday I mentioned a new social security calculator from the NCPA. It's online at teamncpathinktank.org. The NCPA calculator estimates what you'll get back from social security based on the typical earnings history of a person your age and sex in your occupation, adjusted for the effects of inflation. About 500 occupations are included.

Taxes. Is there anything worse? Oh yes, there's death. This nation was founded on a tax revolt, yet the media tell us that today's taxpayers couldn't care less about a cut in their tax load, the biggest burden relative to income in the history of the Republic. Pardon my skepticism, but I believe that most taxpayers would like to control a larger share of the fruits of their own industry and enterprise, especially at a time when the federal government luxuriates in revenues vastly in excess of its spending.

Social Security's at a crossroads. Whether you're an accountant or a bus driver, a large part of your paycheck goes to the social security tax. If you work for somebody else, part of the tax is withheld from your check, and your employer pays an equal amount. If you work for yourself, you pay both parts.

Before you swallow a dose of bad medicine ? in the form of liberal propaganda about the Texas health care system, consider this.

If you own a business, beware. OSHA's on the regulatory warpath again.

A colleague told me about a casual conversation with two business acquaintances the other day. The two, one in his early 40s, the other in his early 50s, both said matter-of-factly that they didn't think Social Security would still be around when they retired.

If you want some scary reading, pick up a new Heritage Foundation study or read the recent flood of articles about U.S. military readiness.

If I had a book on Amazon.com, it would probably do well. That's because a surprising number of the top 25 best-selling economics books are by free market economists. What's curious is how they got there.

Slowly but inexorably, the tide seems to be moving in the direction of equal opportunity in education for the nation's poor and minority children.

I'm Pete du Pont with the National Center for Policy Analysis with a tip the next time your liberal friends fret about a tax cut. You know the lines: "It's a risky experiment! We'll be plunging into the unknown!" and other liberal assertions.

You know how we've always ragged on Europeans for being tax gluttons? Well, as Americans literally cook up of the world cook up *reform* schemes that will only result in more taxes here, guess who's cutting them there?

Fresh from his populist rebirth at the Democrats convention, Vice President Al Gore is traveling from town to town railing against the "big drug companies" and arguing that "no senior should have to choose between food and prescription drugs."

Not very long ago, we lived in an era of deregulation. In telecommunications, trucking, airlines, oil and gas, and advertising, the dead hand of government regulation was lifted. Price and service competition revived in newly freed industries, much to the benefit of consumers.

Guess who's come out for vouchers? Former Clinton Labor secretary Robert Reich, who says Clinton — and Al Gore– are wrong.

Yesterday we talked about George W. Bush's plan for your money: He wants to give it back in a tax cut. So what are Al Gore's plans?

Who would benefit from George W. Bush's across-the-board tax cut plan?

Bill Clinton's veto of the bill ending the estate tax was a poke in the eye for a lot of middle-income taxpayers.

Lost among the rhetoric about fighting for the people and against the powerful at last months Democratic convention in Los Angeles, was any prime time discussion of an issue given great importance in their very own platform – closing the so-called digital divide.

Occasionally I mention Cindy Skruh-Zicki's column in the Washington Post. She covers regulators and their goofy rules. Recently, she outdid herself.

Medical savings accounts provide low-cost coverage to those who can't afford high health insurance premiums. But the program — one that was popularized by the NCPA's president John Goodman — will expire at the end of this year unless Congress extends it.

In George W. Bush's wonderful convention acceptance speech, he warned democrats not to mess with Texas. Not that he expected them to listen. Looking for bad things in the lone star state is going to be a liberal past time between now and November.

Almost 600,000 felons will be released from state and federal prisons this year. Sixty-two percent will be charged with new crimes. They were not rehabilitated.