Guess who said the following: "We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work." Was it Sarah Palin? Rush Limbaugh? Karl Rove?Not even close. It was Henry Morgenthau, Secretary of the Treasury under Franklin D. Roosevelt and one of...
Most elections are about particular policies, particular scandals or particular personalities. But these issues don't mean as much this year-- not because they are not important, but because this election is a crossroads election, one that can decide what path this country will take for many years to come.Runaway "stimulus"...
That phrase was used by Thomas Jefferson, who was not even in the country when the Constitution was written. … Freedom is too precious to give it up in exchange for brassy words from arrogant elites.To find out more about ThomasSowell and read … ThomasSowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305.…
Another deficit reduction commission has now made its recommendations. My own recommendation for dealing with deficits would include stopping the appointment of deficit reduction commissions. It is not the amount of money that these commissions cost that is the issue. It is the escape hatch that they provide for big-spending...
Results of the recent elections showed that growing numbers of Americans are fed up with "public servants" who act as if they are public masters. This went beyond the usual objections to particular policies. It was the fact that policies were crammed down our throats, whether we liked them or...
Whenever the party that controls the White House does not also control Capitol Hill, political pundits worry that there will be "gridlock" in Washington, so that the government cannot solve the nation's problems.Almost never is that fear based on what actually happens when there is divided government, compared to what...
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-- ThomasSowell
10) Liberals claim to love gays when it allows them to
vent their spleen at Republicans. … Sowell
5) Everyone moralizes. … -- ThomasSowell
1) To understand the workings of American politics,
you have to understand this fundamental law: Conservatives…
No country has better airport security than Israel-- and no country needs it more, since Israel is the most hated target of Islamic extremist terrorists. Yet, somehow, Israeli airport security people don't have to strip passengers naked electronically or have strangers feeling their private parts.Does anyone seriously believe that we...
Guess who said the following: "It is incredible that a system of taxation which permits a man with an income of $1,000,000 a year to pay not one cent to his Government should remain unaltered."Franklin D. Roosevelt? Ted Kennedy? Nancy Pelosi?Not even close. It was Andrew Mellon, Secretary of the...
The biggest battle in the lame duck session of Congress may well be over whether or not to extend the Bush administration's tax cuts, which are scheduled to expire in January. The fact that this decision has been left until late in the eleventh hour, even though the expiration date...
ThomasSowell, in "Dismantling America," said in reference to President Obama, "That such an administration could be elected in the … As Sowell says, "Barack Obama is unlike any other President of the United States in having come from a background of decades of associations…
That's why, other than the Bible, there's no book I would more highly recommend than this one.
10) Basic Economics By ThomasSowell … In ThomasSowell, you have a master instructor who can explain the subject matter in a way that makes sense without putting you to…
It is hard to come up with Christmas gifts for people who already seem to have everything. But there are few-- if any-- people who can keep up with the flood of books coming off the presses. Books can be good gifts for such people.Among the books I read this...
Walter E. Williams is my oldest and closest friend. But I didn't know that his autobiography had just been published until a talk show host told me last week. I immediately got a copy of "Up from the Projects," started reading it before dinner and finished reading it before bedtime.It...
Let's face it, politics is largely the art of deception, and
political rhetoric is largely the art of misstating issues. A classic
example is the current debate over whether to give money to the
unemployed by extending how long unemployment benefits will be provided,
or instead to give "tax cuts to the rich."
First...
Random thoughts on the passing scene:
Let's face it, most of us are not half as smart as we may sometimes think we are-- and for intellectuals, not one-tenth as smart.
One of the biggest obstacles to economic recovery is that politicians and the media are both focused on how...
"Housing Market Setback Forecast," the newspaper headline said. A recently released report on housing says that home sales are down more than 25 percent and the inventory of unsold homes is about 50 percent higher than it was the same time last year.This is just one of innumerable stories about...
Dr. Victor Davis Hanson's quietly chilling article, "Two Californias," in National Review Online, ought to be read by every American who is concerned about where this country is headed. California is leading the way, but what is happening in California is happening elsewhere-- and is a slow poison that is...
Economists are the real "party of No." They keep saying that there is no such thing as a free lunch-- and politicians keep on getting elected by promising free lunches.Such promises may seem to be kept, for a while. There are ways the government can juggle money around to make...
The Constitution of the United States begins with the words "We the people." But neither the Constitution nor "we the people" will mean anything if politicians and judges can continue to do end runs around both.Bills passed too fast for anyone to read them are blatant examples of these end...
Ed. Note: This is part two of a two part Sowell column. Part one is available here.
If there were a contest for the most misleading words used in politics, "poverty" should be one of the leading contenders for that title.Each of us may have his own idea of what...
Ed. Note: This is part one of a two part Sowell column. Part two is available here.Many years ago, the Saturday Evening Post was one of the best-known magazines in America. But somehow I learned that the Saturday Evening Post was actually published on Wednesday morning. That was a...
