All Posts Tagged With: "George W. Bush"
Rhetoric, Reality, and the Recession
Progressives seem unable to distinguish between the rhetoric of the Bush administration and its reality.
20Oct2011 | Steven Horwitz | 12 comments | ContinuedThe Struggle to Limit Government: A Modern Political History
Today’s most crucial policy battles are about federal spending and the scope of government power. Cato Institute scholar John Samples reminds us in this book that those battles have their origins in the Progressive era, the New Deal, and the Great Society. Early in the twentieth century Herbert Croly (cofounder of The New Republic) argued [...]
24Aug2011 | Greg Kaza | 0 comments | ContinuedFear-Mongering and Servitude
In his 1776 essay, “Thoughts on Government,” John Adams observed, “Fear is the foundation of most governments; but it is so sordid and brutal a passion, and renders men in whose breasts it predominates so stupid and miserable, that Americans will not be likely to approve of any political institution which is founded on it.” The [...]
22Jun2011 | James Bovard | 33 comments | ContinuedHow Washington Protects Your Privacy and Liberty
Preserving trust in government is the highest good—at least for politicians. To create that trust, government continually spawns façades to make people believe their rights are safe. Few things better illustrate this charade than the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. In 2004, three years after the Patriot Act was enacted, politicians started to worry [...]
22Dec2010 | James Bovard | 7 comments | ContinuedAn American Stasi?
The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reported on July 25 that “there are 72 fusion centers around the nation, analyzing and disseminating data and information of all kinds. That is one for every state and others for large urban cities.” What is a fusion center? The answer depends on your perspective. If you work for the [...]
22Oct2010 | Wendy McElroy | 22 comments | ContinuedThere’s Too Little Trust in Government?
There is one point on which I can unequivocally agree with E. J. Dionne, Jr.’s, column “Can We Reverse the Tide on Government Distrust?”: “So far, the Obama administration has missed the opportunity to demonstrate . . . how it is changing the way government works. How is its approach to . . . regulations [...]
22Oct2010 | Charles Johnson | 2 comments | ContinuedThe Great Writ Then and Now
The Great Writ Then and Now by Wendy McElroy Wendy McElroy (wendy@wendymcelroy.com) is an author, the editor of ifeminists.com, and a research fellow for the Independent Institute in Oakland, California. Habeas corpus is a rarely invoked legal writ, or document, widely considered to be the cornerstone of individual liberty. Also known as The Great Writ, [...]
23Oct2009 | Wendy McElroy | 1 comment | ContinuedBush to Tell G-20 Not to Dismantle Free Market. Really.
George W. Bush today will “urge leaders of the world’s biggest industrial and developing economies not to abandon principles of free-market capitalism as they seek an escape from the international financial crisis, calling it the ‘best system’ for delivering growth” (Bloomberg).That’s not a joke. I swear. Really. Stop laughing. Please. (Is there anything left of [...]
13Nov2008 | Sheldon Richman | 28 comments | ContinuedTorture and Liberty
Is torture compatible with liberty? Unfortunately, this is no longer a hypothetical question. Many Americans who claim to support individual freedom also favor permitting the government to torture suspected terrorists or other purported enemies of the United States. This controversy is reminiscent of a disagreement between the famous economists F. A. Hayek and John Maynard [...]
1Jul2008 | James Bovard | 0 comments | ContinuedBad Policy Drives Out Good
All public policies are related. Okay, that may be a slight overstatement, but there’s a point here. A politician’s credibility on one public issue—and even the disposition of that issue—will often be determined by his or her position on other issues. People will look at a politician’s full program as a way of judging good [...]
1Dec2007 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedLast Taxpayer Standing
You’d think that if the people are the masters and government is the servant, taxpayers could sue when their money was spent in ways that violate their rights. But that’s not how the courts see the matter. Last summer the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, once again, that mere taxpayer status confers no standing to sue [...]
1Oct2007 | Sheldon Richman | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Cost of the Federal Government in a Freer America
Richard Ebeling is the president of FEE. In February, President George W. Bush submitted his proposed federal budget for the fiscal year that begins in October. It called for total government spending of over $2.9 trillion. The administration and the Republicans in Congress insisted that this budget reflected fiscal responsibility and the promise of a [...]
1Mar2007 | Richard M. Ebeling | 2 comments | ContinuedLeviathan on the Right: How Big-Government Conservatism Brought Down the Republican Revolution
By Michael D. Tanner Reviewed by Richard M. Ebeling
1Mar2007 | FEE Admin | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Sovereign Presidency: Is This What the Framers Had in Mind?
American government under the Constitution was supposedly meant to work as follows: Congress, staying within delegated powers and the Bill of Rights, passes laws; the president executes the laws; and the courts sort out ensuing wrangles. This plan ran aground rather early—the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts, for example—which raises at least two possibilities: 1) [...]
1Jan2007 | Joseph R. Stromberg | 9 comments | ContinuedWhy Cut Taxes?
Judging by the popping corks at the White House, taxes are cut to increase government revenues so the budget deficit can be shrunk without reducing government spending. Tax cuts are good, but this reason leaves me cold. President Bush announced recently that “This economy is growing, federal taxes are rising, and we’re cutting the federal [...]
1Oct2006 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedDemocracy Versus Liberty
If a foreign power took over the United States and dictated that American citizens surrender 40 percent of their income, required them to submit to tens of thousands of different commands (many of which were effectively kept secret from them), prohibited many of them from using their land, and denied many the chance to find [...]
1Aug2006 | James Bovard | 2 comments | ContinuedWartime Executive Power: Are Warrantless Wiretaps Legal?
Robert Levy is a senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute. This article is drawn from his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, February 28, 2006. President Bush has authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) to eavesdrop, without obtaining a warrant, on telephone calls, e-mails, and other communications between U.S. persons in the [...]
1Aug2006 | Robert A. Levy | 1 comment | Continued-
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