Vice President Gore likes to say that the federal government is now back to the size it was in President Kennedy’s Administration, but a look behind the curtain shows no such shrinkage. Real staff reductions are almost entirely confined to the Defense Department, for reasons having more to do with the de-invention of the Soviet Union than the reinvention of the government of the United States.Most of the civilian side of the government has expanded dramatically — especially if compared with the era of the Kennedy Administration, when there was no Medicare, no Medicaid, no Department of Housing and Urban Development, no Department of Education, no Department of Energy, no Department of Transportation and no Environmental Protection Agency, just to name a few things the government was content to ignore. Barron’s
Barron’s March 29, 1999 (http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB922491784617955647.htm)
Monthly Archives: July 2021
The marvel of history is the patience with which men and women …
The marvel of history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments. William E. Borah
For any individual, there are two ways to become wealthier. One is …
For any individual, there are two ways to become wealthier. One is to do something productive. The other is to redistribute existing resources in one’s own favor. If we all work, we create wealth, and society is better off. But if we all do nothing except try to get our hands into our neighbors’ pockets, we will all be very busy, yet we will all eventually starve.
Reason, May 1994
When opposite basic principles are clearly and openly defined, it works to …
When opposite basic principles are clearly and openly defined, it works to the advantage of the rational side; when they are not clearly defined, but are hidden or evaded, it works to the advantage of the irrational side. Ayn Rand
1905-1982
The rule of law, which Hayek saw as crucial, both to the …
The rule of law, which Hayek saw as crucial, both to the economy and to the survival of freedom, is nowhere in greater danger than in the Supreme Court of the United States. With two or three exceptions, the Justices seem determined to be philosopher-kings, deciding issues according to ‘evolving standards’ rather than fixed principles, and responsive to the self-styled ‘thinking people’ rather than the written Constitution or the statutes passed to express the will of the voting public. Thomas Sowell
Dr. Thomas Sowell, January 17, 1994, (1930- ) American writer, scholar and economist, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institute,Stanford, California
Trade barriers are an excellent means to higher wealth for the few …
Trade barriers are an excellent means to higher wealth for the few but lower wealth for the many. Dr. Walter E. Williams
May 14, 2003,http://www.townhall.com/columnists/walterwilliams/ww20030514.shtml
It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or …
It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. Adam Smith
Die when I may, I want it said of me that I …
Die when I may, I want it said of me that I plucked a weed and planted a flower wherever I thought a flower would grow. Abraham Lincoln
(1809-1865), 16th president of the United States.
WeÃve been blessed with the opportunity to stand for something – for …
WeÃve been blessed with the opportunity to stand for something – for liberty and freedom and fairness. Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan, Mar 8, 1985
If a conservative order is indeed to return, we ought to know …
If a conservative order is indeed to return, we ought to know the tradition which is attached to it, so that we may rebuild society; if it is not to be restored, still we ought to understand conservative ideas so that we may rake from the ashes what scorched fragments of civilization escape the conflagration of unchecked will and appetite. Russell Kirk
The Conservative Mind (1953)