After nearly 25 years, the Congressional Budget Office is finally getting the public accountability and the editorial scrutiny it has mostly avoided since its creation. When the CBO was enacted on July 12, 1974, President Nixon's impeachment hearings were in full swing, and I was serving my second term as U.S. Representative from Delaware. I was among those who voted for the Congressional Budget Act of 1974.
The White House has begun its media blitz about Social Security reform, which will culminate in the White House Conference on Social Security on December 8 and 9.
October was not a good month for global warming alarmists. On the eve of a conference in Buenos Aires, to iron out further details in and differences over the Kyoto Greenhouse Gas Treaty, proponents of the treaty are watching the science behind their claims of impending environmental disaster crumble. Also, their claims that meeting the terms of the global warming treaty would be practically costless have been exposed as simply wrong.
Supporters of school choice won only a small skirmish last week, but 5,800 youngsters got back their right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Amid the thousands of words written and spoken about what this month's elections meant or didn't mean for the national political parties, one small item from the election reminds us of the importance of states as laboratories of democracy.
We now learn that voucher scholarships to give low-income families a chance to move their children from a bad public school to a decent private school are actually part of a vast right-wing conspiracy aimed at destroying public education.
After President Clinton and several members of Congress spent an entire year of virtually nonstop haranguing about the problems of managed care, Congress failed to pass any reform legislation.
There is good news in American education. The first piece of good news is that educational choice — i.e., giving parents more control over where their children attend school — is growing. And a recent Wisconsin Supreme Court decision in favor of school choice will only add to the momentum.
Despite decisions by two separate lower federal courts that sampling is illegal in conducting the 2000 Census, the Clinton administration has said it still plans to use sampling, even if the Supreme Court finally agrees that it's illegal.
Bush the father, Bush the son; both will have been president of the United States. I know it is foolishly early to predict this, but remember where you read it first.
Who's winning lately, the cops or the crooks? Fortunately, law enforcement is, and that means we're all safer.
Republican Congressman John Doolittle of California and 54 of his House colleagues (52 Republicans and two Democrats) have the ideal answer to reforming campaign finance, but their approach is so straightforward that hardly anyone seems to be paying attention.
Most Americans celebrate New Year's Day on January 1. But for the federal government, New Year's Day falls on October 1, because that is the beginning of the fiscal year. September, therefore, is the last month of fiscal year 1998 and it very likely will be the first since 1969 when the federal budget will be in surplus. According to the Congressional Budget Office, revenues will exceed spending by about $63 billion in fiscal year 1998, with large surpluses projected for future years as well.
My, how things can change. In one week's time the world appears to be a significantly more dangerous place – especially for Americans.
Remember Ernesto Miranda? A 23-year-old 9th grade dropout with an arrest record, the Phoenix police picked him up back in 1963 on suspicion of kidnapping and raping an 18-year-old girl. After two hours of questioning, he voluntarily confessed to the crime.
An elderly gentleman from Wisconsin called the other day voicing a complaint. While he's doing all right in retirement, his mother recently entered a nursing home. Since nursing homes can cost about $40,000 a year for those who pay out of pocket, he decided to go to work to help pay for some of the costs.
The biggest public policy debate in Washington right now is over managed health care reform. Democrats, who have been trying to control the health care system since the introduction of the Clinton health care plan are pushing massive new government controls.
More than one person has said, "I hope the government won't do anything else for me. I can't afford what it's doing for me now."
Senator Phil Gramm (R-Texas) just raised the ante in the Social Security privatization debate. By the time everyone finishes upping the stakes and playing their hand, the real winner may be the American people.
The Supreme Court recently ruled that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) applies to prisoners.
Millions of Americans are experiencing real independence for the first time this Fourth of July – they are off welfare.
The recent decision by the Wisconsin Supreme Court that it's constitutionally acceptable to use tax-funded vouchers for elementary and secondary education in both secular and religious schools accomplishes at least three good things:
Father's Day is here once again, which made me wonder what George Washington, the Father of Our Country (who had no children of his own), would think if he were here to see what his political children have accomplished. I'm not sure he would have a happy Father's Day. Washington was both optimistic and concerned about the future of the country. He believed that the Founding Fathers had done an excellent job in creating a republic based on the rule of law, but he was also afraid that partisan politics, a decline in morality and foreign entanglements could undermine the country.
As any healthy liberal will tell you, in times of war, pestilence, recession or social disorder, government spending must increase to meet the challenge. And so taxes must increase as well to pay the costs of government intervention.
Welfare reform is working. Caseloads are down 79 percent in Wyoming and about 30 percent across the nation. Resignation and despair no longer rule the welfare roost. Sound policy and a strong economy have made serious headway against an "intractable" problem.