Category: Pete du Pont

Wasn't the era of big government supposed to be over?

There's no reason to be pessimistic about life in America.

"There is nothing wrong with change if it is in the right direction," Winston Churchill observed. But of course it isn't always in the right direction, as events of the past year have shown. Significant 2003 public policy changes are taking us in new directions, both right and wrong.

Last month's California recall vote blew away not only Gov. Gray Davis but also a great many givens about American voting habits. The Republican candidates for Governor (Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tom McClintock) captured 62% of the vote in a state that Al Gore carried by 11 percentage points. Fifty-seven percent of white women voted for a Republican governor to replace Davis, and so did 40% of Hispanics and a quarter of blacks.

Section II of the Ohio Constitution authorizes citizens of the state to draft legislative proposals–called initiated statutes–and with the signatures of 3% of the total vote cast in the last gubernatorial election submit them to the state Legislature for action. If the Legislature refuses to act, or votes the initiated statute down, similar signatures on a second petition will put the proposed statute on the ballot in the next general election.

Lenin once said that he would rather have everyone in Russia die of hunger than allow free trade in grain.  That pretty much sums up the thinking of Sens. Ted Kennedy (D., Mass.) and Arlen Specter (R., Pa.).

Have you ever fallen off a cliff? If you are younger than 40, you are about to. Social Security is fast approaching a financial precipice that will plunge benefits and smash retirement plans for millions of Americans.

One of the most over-used rhetorical devices in politics is the class warfare argument that tax cuts only benefit the rich. Fortunately, this tired, socialist rhetoric is losing its charm because most Americans aren't inclined to believe that socking it to the rich will solve all their problems.

The Bush administration announced last week that the budget deficit would be $455 billion this year, and even more in the next fiscal year. Budget Director Joshua Bolten argues that "a balanced budget is not a higher priority than winning the global war on terror, protecting the American homeland, or restoring economic growth and job creation."

Ten years ago the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan published an illuminating and unpopular analysis of American social conscience. "Defining Deviancy Down" explained how America had accepted high rates of violent crime and illegitimacy, rationalizing them as socially acceptable rather than doing anything to lower them. He noted that urban elites increasingly extolled rather than criticized broken families, notwithstanding studies showing a high correlation between single-parent families and educational failure.

Few issues have as direct a bearing on peoples' well-being as energy policy. A bad energy policy can hamper economic growth and cost American workers jobs.

As the centerpiece of his presidential campaign, Rep. Dick Gephardt recently unveiled a plan to expand federal subsidies to provide near-universal health coverage for Americans.

Last month marked the 20th anniversary of the release of "A Nation at Risk," the devastating 1983 report on the state of education in America. We all remember its key conclusion, that the "intellectual, moral and spiritual strength of our people" were threatened by a failing education system.

National energy policy is a more prominent issue now than at any time since the "energy crisis" of the 1970s.

Is racial discrimination in the selection of applicants to attend colleges and law schools acceptable–and constitutional–if its purpose is to achieve diversity in the student body?

New president's election comes at crucial juncture as EU and Iraq hold world's attention.

Protests against war in Iraq have been raging all across America and England as well as Continental Europe. Passionate peace protests are nothing new; we saw them in 1933 when the British Oxford Union declared it would "in no circumstances fight for its King and country," against the Vietnam War in the 1970s, and in 1983 against NATO's proposal to install Pershing missiles to defend Western Europe against Soviet Russia.

Section 201 of the Trade Act of the 1974 allows the president to impose tariffs and quotas when imports of a product threaten to injure the competing U.S. industry.

Medicaid costs rose 13 percent last year and by an average of 9 percent a year since 1997. Further, states now spend approximately $30 billion more on Medicaid than they do on Medicare each year — $280 billion versus $250 billion. That's almost $1,000 for every man, woman and child in the country – or $4,000 for a family of four.

Congress has created a variety of accounts to encourage saving in general and for specific purposes – including retirement, education, health care and house down payments. President Bush has proposed consolidating and simplifying some of these accounts to make it easy for any employer to create a retirement savings plan and for all workers to establish savings accounts.

Oregon is one of America's more liberal states. It has voted Democratic in every presidential election since Ronald Reagan and has not elected a Republican governor in 20 years. But in a Jan. 28 referendum the people of Oregon voted 54% to 46% to cut state spending by $310 million rather than raise income taxes by 0.5% to balance the budget.

Life is really getting difficult for opponents of Social Security personal retirement accounts. Evidence continues to build that personal accounts – if properly implemented – will have none of the dire effects that opponents claim.

According to a report published this fall by the National Governor's Association, faced with declining revenue states have had to slash spending, leading to lost jobs and fewer government services. They argue that most states have exhausted budget cuts and must now receive help.

Today's challenges are tied together by a single word – markets. Whether it's the need to stimulate the private capital markets to get the economy moving again, or it's creating and expanding markets to save our troubled elderly entitlement programs and health care system, focusing on markets is the key to a brighter future.

The Economic Club of Chicago may seem a strange place to unite Americans, but that is what President Bush did there on Tuesday with the jobs-and-growth program he proposed. Economic growth is a common priority that draws Americans together, for we all need the jobs it creates, the resources it provides employers to invest in new machines and technologies, and the larger investment returns that keep everything from our local charities to our kids' schools and the market economy prospering.