Every few years a proposal is put forward to abolish the Internal Revenue Service, or to scrap the entire federal tax code and start from scratch. The plans that have received the most consideration in recent memory were the Flat Tax proposal put forth by Steve Forbes, and more recently, the Fair Tax, which was [...]
I’ve always had a perverse admiration for the philosophy of Ayn Rand, in spite of the fact that her unwavering belief in pure economic Darwinism would be considered draconian by most diehard libertarians. She was not a great writer, but she had an uncanny ability to demonstrate the folly of large scale government interference with [...]
I am not ordinarily in favor of Federal laws designed to supersede the authority of the States, but several recent controversies regarding voter registration procedures point to the need for uniform standards when conducting national elections. When choosing candidates for our highest offices, we should not rely on a patchwork of State and local rules [...]
Early voting for the November 4th election began in several states this week, and the number of people voting by absentee ballot is expected to reach record levels this year. High voter turnout is a sign of a healthy democracy, but is it really a good idea to turn election day into election month? Should [...]
After sitting on their hands for the last 35 years, American politicians have finally taken up the call for energy independence. Sadly, it was not a recognition of the true national security significance of the issue, but a short-term spike in the price of gasoline during an election year that finally spurred them to action. [...]
Over the past couple of weeks, oil prices have been falling as rapidly as they climbed just a few months back. As I write this, oil is trading below $120.00 per barrel for the first time since early May, down nearly $30.00 from the all time high just a month ago. While we may all [...]
My wife and I have always been at opposite ends of the political spectrum, but when she read my post last week on same-sex marriage, her first reaction was that I was beginning to sound like a progressive. Anyone who knows me well would laugh out loud at the mere suggestion. While I don’t identify [...]
A recent ruling by the California Supreme Court to overturn the state’s ban on gay marriage virtually assures that our upcoming national elections will be decided once again on the basis of a divisive wedge issue, rather than on the real problems we face as a nation. Apathetic voters may not feel the need to [...]
Conventional wisdom says that the close results in our recent presidential elections indicate that we are a deeply divided nation. I believe it actually tells us something quite different. If American voters were not constantly and deliberately distracted by divisive fringe issues, I believe we would find that we have more in common than not. [...]
In yet another demonstration of the remarkable gullibility of the American electorate, the price of gasoline has recently taken center stage in the presidential election debate. As we’ve come to expect, candidates from both sides are lining up to tell the voters exactly what they want to hear, rather than what they desperately need to [...]