Tuesday, May 02, 2006

New blog over at Cato

Mandatory reading for Libertarians! The Cato Institute has a new blog.
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3 comments:

Orrin Johnson said...

Good stuff! Thanks Ranjit. I've added the link to the right column.

May 02, 2006 3:05 PM
Juvenal said...

I'd like to believe that the Republicans are the party of small government, only if in comparison to the Democrats, but alas there's no evidence to back that up.
The number of earmarks has gone up astronomically in the 12 years since the Republicans took over Congress. Clinton (at the prodding of a Republican Congress that was not yet used to the ways of power) passed welfare reform -- a dramatic decrease in the size of government. Bush on the other hand, pushes Congress into passing prescription drug coverage under Medicare -- the largest entitlement increase since FDR. The Republican leadership in Congress has repeatedly strong-armed small-government Republicans into voting for increases in spending (remember Tom Delay's heroic efforts on the floor to get prescription coverage passed?). Bush says "When people hurt, the federal goverment must be there."
These programs and policies and attitudes may be admirable, but they're unfortunately not furthering the goal of small and limited government.
The best hope for small government may be for Republicans to lose both houses in November, and thus get re-acquainted with the philosophy and policies that swept them into power in the first place.

May 02, 2006 8:17 PM
Orrin Johnson said...

Dems aren't going to cut those programs, though. Clinton's cutting of "Big Government" was mostly in the military.

Worse, they wouldn't cut taxes, but raise them fairly dramatically if they have their way. As long as the GOP is still the party of low taxes, they'll still be marginally preferable. At least they recognize this increases revenue and makes it somewhat easier to pay for all this pork.

It's frustrating. We need a BRAC-like program on ALL governmental programs to review them periodically for efficacy.

I like Bush because he's serious about killing bad guys. I even forgive the drug benefits and NCLB as long-term cost savings measures. But I'm praying for a real government program slasher with a well-worn veto pen in 2008. There's a CHANCE it'll come from the GOP. There's NO CHANCE it'll come from the Dems.

May 02, 2006 9:54 PM

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