|
William F. Buckley |
February 29, 2008
|
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ALL OF MY EXPERIENCES WITH WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY,
JR. WERE POSITIVE
In 1960, at the age of 19, I had recently, as a sophomore,
been elected President of the Harvard Student Council.
Bill Buckley invited me, by virtue of my achievement, to be
one of the principal speakers at the Fifth Anniversary Dinner of
National Review magazine held at the Waldorf Astoria in
New York City.
When I came under attack from Harvard liberals because of my
role in 1960 as a founder of Young Americans for Freedom and my
outspoken opposition to all forms of socialism, Communism, and
liberalism, Buckley wrote two columns in my defense which were
prominently placed in National Review magazine.
On a subsequent occasion, when I was doing all I could to aid
anti-Soviet Angolan Freedom Fighter Jonas Savimbi while the U.S.
State Department was doing all it could to limit Savimbi’s
ability to defend against the Marxist-Leninist military
onslaught, I asked Bill Buckley to write a column explaining the
issue and pressing the Reagan administration to overrule its
Left-wing Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs
Chester Crocker. Buckley accommodated me by letting me write the
column, which was dispatched under his by-line.
On every occasion I dealt with Buckley, the result was
positive, even though he and I had numerous policy differences,
involving such issues as CIA control of the U.S. National
Student Association and his support for the surrender of the
U.S. Canal and Zone in Panama.
I am grateful to have enjoyed Bill Buckley’s friendship. May
he rest in peace.
|
President Bush's Top 10 |
February 22, 2008
|
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GWB’S STATE OF THE UNION: MORE OF THE SAME
Human Events (2/4/08) does a good job of delineating
the Top 10 Big-Government Requests in President Bush’s State of
the Union:
1. Keynesian Economic "Growth" Package
"This is a good agreement that will keep our economy
growing and our people working. And this Congress must pass
it as soon as possible."
2. Global Regulations on Greenhouse Gases
"Let us complete an international agreement that has the
potential to slow, stop and eventually reverse the growth of
greenhouse gases."
3. More Global AIDS Funding
"I call on you to double our initial commitment to
fighting HIV/AIDS by approving an additional $30 billion
over the next five years."
4. No Child Left Behind
"It is succeeding. And we owe it to America’s children,
their parents and their teachers to strengthen this good
law."
5. More Ethanol and Hybrid Subsidies
"Let us continue investing in advanced battery technology
and renewable fuels to power the cars and trucks of the
future."
6. Global "Green" Subsidies
"Let us create a new international clean technology fund,
which will help developing nations like India and China make
greater use of clean energy sources."
7. Double Taxpayer-Funded R&D
"I ask Congress to double federal support for critical
basic research in the physical sciences and ensure America
remains the most dynamic nation on Earth."
8. More Foreign Aid
"The Millennium Challenge Account…and I ask you to fully
fund this important initiative."
9. Even More Foreign Aid
"I ask Congress to support an innovative proposal to
provide food assistance by purchasing crops directly from
farmers in the developing world, so we can build up local
agriculture and help break the cycle of famine."
10. Coal Subsidies
"Let us fund new technologies that can generate coal
power while capturing carbon emissions."
|
The "Mayor of Hollywood" |
February 21, 2008
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JOHNNY GRANT WAS A TERRIFIC MAYOR EVEN THOUGH
HE NEVER WON AN ELECTION
In 1992, when I was the U.S. Taxpayers Party nominee for
President of the United States, on a campaign stop in Hollywood,
I was warmly greeted and hosted by Johnny Grant, the Honorary
Mayor of Hollywood who died recently at the age of 84.
Here is what The New York Times I1/11/08, p. B7) had
to say about Mr. Grant:
"Johnny Grant, the avuncular honorary mayor of Hollywood who
traveled the world as its No. 1 cheerleader for more than a
half-century, was found dead Wednesday in bed in his suite in
the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. He was 84. …
"Named honorary mayor in 1980 by the Hollywood Chamber of
Commerce, Mr. Grant held the position for the rest of his life.
He was perhaps best known as the jolly host alongside the more
than 500 celebrities he inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame
with stars in the sidewalk.
"Mr. Grant’s mission in life was bringing the Hollywood story
to everyone. He played host to red carpet arrivals at the
Oscars, appeared in bit parts in movies and produced the annual
Hollywood Christmas Parade.
" ‘I feel I have been the luckiest guy in the world,’ he
often said. ‘It’s been a pretty good ride.’
"Mr. Grant also joined the globetrotting comedian Bob Hope as
a U.S.O. ambassador, taking entertainers to war zones to perform
for military personnel. Hope once called himself ‘the rich man’s
Johnny Grant.’
"Born in Goldsboro, N.C., Mr. Grant was a cub reporter for
radio station WGBR when he hitchhiked to Washington to cover
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s third inauguration. He joined the Army
in 1943, then moved to Hollywood after his discharge, landing a
small role as a reporter in ‘The Babe Ruth Story’ (1948).
"Mr. Grant also had a part in ‘White Christmas’ (1954) with
Bing Crosby, and he played himself in ‘The Oscar’ (1966). He did
Lucky Strike cigarette commercials and celebrity interviews on
the radio in the 1940s and ‘50s."
|
NAFTA Superhighway |
February 20, 2008
|
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"NAFTA SUPERHIGHWAY’ NOW ACKNOWLEDGED BY MEDIA
ESTABLISHMENT
Even The New York Times (2/10/08, p. 14) is now
prepared to admit that there is such a thing as a NAFTA
Superhighway, although they use less threatening
characterization: the Trans-Texas Corridor.
In a February 10 (p. 14) article, Ralph Blumenthal reported
for Times readers,
"[T]exans have gotten the message, swamping hearings and town
meetings across the state to grill and often excoriate agency
officials about a colossal traffic makeover known as the
Trans-Texas Corridor, a public-private partnership unrivaled in
the state’s – or probably any state’s – history, that would
stretch well into the century and, if completed in full, end up
costing around $200 billion. …
"The plan envisions a 4,000-mile network of new toll roads,
with car and truck lanes, rail lines, and pipeline and utilities
zones, to bypass congested cities and speed freight to and from
Mexico. …
"At particular issue in South Texas is a stretch of federal
Highways 77 and 59 designated part of a proposed new segment of
the federal highway system, I-69. But what was to have been a
new interstate long sought by some businessmen and local
officials is now listed as TTC-69, or part of the Trans-Texas
Corridor. …
"The corridor project grew out of the 2002 governor’s race
when Rick Perry, the former Republican lieutenant governor who
had completed George W. Bush’s unfinished term, surprised
transportation experts by taking ideas they had discussed a
decade earlier, to little interest, and ‘supersizing them,’ as
one recalled.
"The project grew to consist of four ‘priority segments:’ new
multimodal toll roads up to 1,200 feet wide paralleling
Interstates 35 and 37 from Denison in North Texas to the Rio
Grande Valley; a proposed I-69 from Texarkana to Houston and
Laredo; I-45 from Dallas-Fort Worth to Houston; and I-10 from El
Paso to Orange on the Louisiana border. But the exact routes are
years away from being designated.
"With construction, land acquisition and other expenses, the
cost was estimated in 2002 at up to $183.5 billion, all of it to
be put up by private investors, state officials say. No existing
roads would gain tolls.
"The first planning contract, for a segment paralleling I-35,
was awarded in 2004 to a partnership of Cintra, a publicly
traded transportation giant based in Madrid, and the Zachary
Construction Corporation of San Antonio. But lawmakers,
concerned over the public outcry, put the brakes on additional
contacts until next year.
"Legislators also asked transportation officials last week to
explain why they were complaining of budget shortfalls while
failing to use $9 billion in voter-approved bonding authority.
"Now that 12 town meetings have concluded and the agency this
month began the first of 46 public hearings to run through next
month, Mr. Saenz said, ‘We have now gotten to first base.’"
EARL BUTZ WAS A COURAGEOUS CONSERVATIVE WHOSE
TONGUE GOT HIM IN TROUBLE
"Earl L. Butz, 98, an outspoken U.S. agriculture secretary
who was forced from office in 1976 for making a racist joke,
died Feb. 2 at his son’s home in Washington. No cause of death
was reported.
"Dr. Butz, a free-market advocate, had a relaxed and
earthy style that won him acclaim as an after-dinner speaker but
caused problems in his public life. …
"He was forced to resign in October 1976 after telling an
obscene joke derogatory to African Americans."
JOHN DEAN RETOLD BUTZ’S UNWISE JOKE
"The slur was overheard by John Dean, the former counsel to
Nixon who was jailed in the Watergate scandal, and Dean’s report
on it was published in Rolling Stone magazine. …
"Earl Lauer Butz was born July 3, 1909, in Albion, Ind., and
raised on a 160-acre livestock farm. He attended Purdue
University on a 4-H scholarship, graduating in 1932 with a
degree in agriculture.
"He worked for year on his family’s farm in Albion before
returning to Purdue and then becoming a research fellow with the
Federal Land Bank in Louisville. He received a doctorate in
agricultural economics from Purdue in 1937.
"He was assistant secretary of agriculture in the
Eisenhower administration from 1954 to 1957. He then returned to
Purdue and was dean of the agriculture school for the next 10
years."
BUTZ FAVORED FREE MARKET AGRICULTURE
"Dr. Butz maintained that farmers should rely on a free
market driven by exports and not federal subsidies. …
" ‘He delivered real hope and opportunities for farmers to
see their business prosper,’ said former agriculture secretary
John Block, who served under President Ronald Reagan. ‘He sold
grain to the Soviet Union and said they would pay cash on the
barrelhead, and they did. The rising tide lifted all boats. It
boosted all prices. Agriculture had been struggling.’
"Dr. Butz’s wife, Mary, whom he married in 1937, died in
1995. Survivors include two sons." Source: The Washington
Post, 2/4/08, p. B6
The New York Times (2/4/08, p. A25) observed that
"Serving under President Richard M. Nixon and his successor,
Gerald R. Ford, Mr. Butz was a forceful, sharp-tongued figure
who promoted legislation sharply reducing federal subsidies for
farmers. He was the best known secretary of agriculture since
Henry A. Wallace in the Depression days, when the federal
government began to pay farmers to keep some of their cropland
and livestock out of production in the face of plunging income.
"Mr. Butz maintained that a free-market policy, encouraging
farmers to produce more and to sell their surplus overseas,
could bring them higher prices. …
"Mr. Butz said he reflected rural values learned as an
Indiana farm boy, and he gave no ground to critics. When
environmentalists warned against pesticides and fertilizers, he
retorted, ‘Before we go back to organic agriculture somebody is
going to have to decide what 50 million people we are going to
let starve.’
"Speaking before members of a farm credit association in
Champaign, Ill., in 1973, he said that if housewives did not
have ‘such a low level of economic intelligence,’ they would
understand that the price of everything had gone up and that
‘you can’t get more by paying less.’ …
"He was a man with a penchant for barnyard humor who
delighted in showing visitors a wood carving of two elephants
mating that kept in a cabinet behind his desk, a gift from a
friend in Indiana symbolizing his quest to multiply farm votes
for the Republicans. …
"On a plane trip after the Republican National Convention
that August, accompanied by, among others, the entertainer Pat
Boone and John W. Dean III, the former White House counsel, Mr.
Butz made a remark in which he described blacks as ‘coloreds’
who wanted only three things – satisfying sex, loose shoes and a
warm bathroom – desires that Mr. Butz listed in obscene and
scatological terms.
"Mr. Dean reported the remark, in an article he wrote in
Rolling Stone magazine, attributing it to a cabinet official
whom he did not identify, but New Times magazine subsequently
cited Mr. Butz as the source. Prominent figures from both
parties called on Mr. Butz to quit, and Mr. Ford gave him a
‘severe reprimand’ for ‘highly offensive’ remarks. Mr. Butz
resigned within days, saying that ‘the use of a bad racial
commentary in no way reflects my real attitude.’
"Earl Lauer Butz was born on a farm near Albion, Ind., on
July 3, 1909, and grew up guiding horse-drawn plows. He
graduated from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., in
1932. Five years later, he received Purdue’s first doctorate in
agricultural economics. He was head of Purdue’s agricultural
economics department from 1946 to 1954.
"During the administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower, he
served for three years as an assistant secretary of agriculture
under Ezra Taft Benson. Returning to Purdue, he became dean
of agriculture, and he unsuccessfully sought the Republican
nomination for governor of Indian in 1968. He spoke frequently
to businessmen and bankers and served on the boards of large
agricultural corporations. …
" ‘Butz’s power as secretary of agriculture seemed
overwhelming,’ Joel Solkoff wrote in ‘The Politics of Food’
(Sierra Club Books, 1985). ‘He made one decision – to sell the
Russians massive quantities of grain – that virtually overnight
transformed the basic problem of U.S. agricultural policy from
what to do with the surplus to how to make up for the shortage.’
…
"Mr. Butz donated $1 million in 1999 to the Department of
Agricultural Economics at Purdue. The university dedicated the
Butz Auditorium lecture hall in October 2004 to recognize his
long service to Purdue, but it was renamed Deans of Agriculture
Auditorium the following year after some students objected,
citing his remarks during the 1976 presidential campaign.
"In the mid-90s, Mr. Butz still maintained an office at
Purdue."
|
Breaking the "No New Taxes Pledge" |
February 15, 2008
|
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DICK DARMAN ELECTED BILL CLINTON BY PERSUADING
BUSH 41 TO BREAK HIS
“NO
NEW TAXES”
PROMISE
"Richard G. Darman, 64, a shrewd tactician, a tough and savvy
infighter, and a Republican technocrat who mastered the complex
political machinery of government while serving four presidents,
died Jan. 25 of leukemia at Georgetown University Hospital in
the District.
"As budget director during the first Bush administration,
Mr. Darman was a principal figure in persuading the president to
renounce his no-new-taxes pledge. Many Republicans never
forgave him."
ENRICHED BY THE ESTABLISHMENT
"At the time of his death, he was senior adviser of the
Carlyle Group, the large Washington-based private-equity
investment firm. He also was chairman of AES Corp., an
Arlington-based company that generates and distributed electric
power.
"In a statement released by his office, former secretary of
state James A. Baker III, an associate at the Carlyle [sic]
Group, described Mr. Darman as a brilliant, dedicated and
distinguished public servant, educator and businessman who could
direct traffic through the intersection of policy and politics
as well as anybody I have ever known.’
"Former president George H. W. Bush, in a statement said he
appreciated Mr. Darman’s ‘willingness to make tough decisions’
and described him as ‘a loyal friend who dedicated most of his
life to public service, usually working behind the scenes in
government agencies to make life better for all Americans.’
"When Mr. Darman became Bush’s budget director in 1989, he
already had worked as a top-level assistant in six Cabinet
departments – Health, Education and Welfare; Defense; Justice;
State; Commerce; and Treasury – and as a key White House
policymaker in President Ronald Reagan’s first term. His primary
objective in his new position was to craft a comprehensive
deficit-reduction agreement, even though that might conflict
with the ‘read my lips: no new taxes’ pledge on which Bush had
been elected in 1988. …
"He entered Harvard University in 1960 and recalled being
inspired during freshman orientation week by the welcoming
address of Dean of Faculty McGeorge Bundy."
A PROTÉGÉ OF ELLIOT RICHARDSON
"He graduated cum laude in 1964 and received an MBA from
Harvard Business School in 1967. In 1970, he joined the Nixon
administration as deputy assistant secretary of health,
education and welfare. Secretary Elliot L. Richardson promoted
him to special assistant, and he became a member of
‘Richardson’s mafia.’ …
"Richardson, who became Mr. Darman’s mentor, took his young
assistant with him in January 1973, when he was appointed
secretary of defense. Four months later, Mr. Darman followed
Richardson to the Justice Department when Richardson was hastily
appointed attorney general, succeeding Richard Kleindienst, who
had been implicated in the Watergate scandal."
DARMAN KNIFED AGNEW
"At the Justice Department, Mr. Darman was part of the policy
team that arranged the plea bargain leading to the resignation
of Vice President Spiro T. Agnew on Oct. 10, 1973. …
"He joined the Woodrow Wilson International Center for
Scholars in 1974 and in the following year became a director of
ICF, a Washington-based consulting firm. In 1976, he returned to
the government as assistant secretary of commerce for policy
under Richardson. When President Gerald R. Ford lost to Jimmy
Carter in 1976, Mr. Darman rejoined ICF and lectured on public
policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
"In 1980, Mr. Darman coached Reagan for his debate with
Carter, and, following the Republican victory, he became
executive director of Reagan’s transition team. When James
Baker, Mr. Darman’s boss at Commerce – and a second mentor,
after Richardson – was appointed White House chief of staff, he
named Mr. Darman as his principal deputy. Mr. Darman soon became
a key legislative strategist for Reagan, something of an
indefatigable jack-of-all-trades who, by controlling the flow of
paper into the Oval Office, controlled the debate."
DARMAN PERSUADED REAGAN TO PUSH A BIG TAX HIKE
"[I]n 1982, with the federal deficit increasing, at least in
part because of the previous year’s tax cuts, Mr. Darman helped
persuade the president to restore some of the lose revenue with
a tax increase. …
"During the 1984 election campaign, Mr. Darman again helped
prepare Reagan for the presidential debates, playing the role of
the Democratic nominee, Walter F. Mondale. At the beginning of
Reagan’s second term, Baker, the White House chief of staff,
switched jobs with Treasury Secretary Donald Regan, and Mr.
Darman became deputy secretary of the Treasury. The department
was often described as ‘the Baker-Darman Treasury.’ …
"Appointed director of the Office of Management and Budget on
November 21, 1988, Mr. Darman assured the administration and the
public that he could live with Bush’s no-new-taxes pledge. ‘I
have read extremely clearly the vice president’s lips on this
subject,’ he said.
"Within a year, he changed his mind. Detractors were quick to
point out that the man proposing what Marjorie Williams, writing
in Vanity Fair, called ‘the political castor oil of taxes’ was
the same man who had championed budget-busting government
programs during the Reagan era."
(Source: The Washington Post, 1/26/08, p. B6)
WHO WOULD BE A MCCAIN TICKET-MATE?
Now that John McCain seems to be on track to win the
Republican Presidential nomination (although the convention is
months away and much can happen between now and then),
speculation has begun regarding potential Vice Presidential
running mates.
Here is a brief summary of some of the names being mentioned:
- Mike Huckabee – Huckabee is strong in the South,
where McCain is weak. Many of the states which McCain won on
Super Tuesday will almost certainly go with the Democrats in
November, including California and New York. This
strengthens Huckabee’s hand in the decision process.
- U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison – McCain may
want to have a female running mate. In the case of Kay
Bailey Hutchison, he would have a partner from a swing state
with a considerable number of electoral votes – Texas.
- Congressman Mike Pence of Indiana (age 48) moved
in McCain’s direction on the immigration issue. He has been
defending Rush Limbaugh against encroachments by the FCC,
and he is still regarded as a conservative by most
Republicans who know him. Given the fact that McCain, at age
72, would be the oldest person ever to begin a first term as
President, having a relatively young Vice Presidential
ticket mate, is something McCain will surely consider.
- Former U.S. Senator Fred Thompson of Tennessee
would add strength to McCain in the South.
- Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist
would add credibility to McCain in the South, although his
involvement in health care issues would be a potential
weakness, as well as a strength.
- U.S. Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas sided with
McCain on the immigration issue and is very popular with
pro-life Christians.
- Florida Governor Charlie Crist gave his strong
endorsement to McCain at a crucial moment just before the
Florida primary.
- Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina is a
strong conservative, widely respected by all familiar with
him. The fact that he is a governor is another argument in
his favor.
- Tim Pawlenty
, who has served as governor of
Minnesota, was an early McCain backer and would also be
considered.
- Governor Haley Barbour
of Mississippi is very
popular with all wings of the Republican Party and would add
strength to McCain in the South.
- Former California Congressman Chris Cox,
currently
Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, would
provide a level of economic understanding and sophistication
which McCain personally lacks.
I am sure there are others on McCain’s short list, but those
are the names which come to mind at this time.
|
Bush & McGovern |
February 7, 2008
|
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GEORGE W. BUSH AND GEORGE MCGOVERN -- ONLY THE
LAST NAME IS CHANGED
Do you remember George McGovern? I do.
As a candidate for President in 1972, he urged that every
American citizen be given $1,000.
George W. Bush is the new McGovern. He wants to give less
money to those who paid more taxes and more money to those who
have paid less in taxes.
In addition to being unconstitutional, the Bush stimulus
scheme is outrageously stupid.
Here follows a list of those members of the U.S. House of
Representatives who, for various reasons, opposed the stimulus
package:
Brian Baird (D-WA), Marion Berry (D-AR), F. Allen Boyd
(D-FL), Paul Broun (R-GA), Michael Burgess (R-TX), John Campbell
(R-CA), Howard Coble (R-NC), Jim Cooper (D-TN), Barbara Cubin
(R-At Large-WY), Tom Davis (R-VA), Nathan Deal (R-GA), Jeff
Flake (R-AZ), Randy Forbes (R-VA), Phil Gingrey (R-GA), Louie
Gohmert (R-TX), Virgil Goode (R-VA), Duncan Hunter (R-CA),
Timothy Johnson (R-IL), Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), Jack Kingston
(R-GA), John Linder (R-GA), Ron Paul (R-TX), Collin Peterson
(D-MN), Ted Poe (R-TX), Tom Price (R-GA), Dana Rohrabacher
(R-CA), Ed Royce (R-CA), Loretta Sanchez (D-CA), F. James
Sensenbrenner (R-WI), John Shadegg (R-AZ), Adam Smith (D-WA),
Tom Tancredo (R-CO), Gene Taylor (D-MS), Lynn Westmoreland
(R-GA), and Robert Wexler (D-FL).
|
Walter Williams on the Housing Crisis |
February 6, 2008
|
Digg This |
COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT ACT IS A BIG REASON FOR
THE HOUSING CRISIS
In an important January 23 article on WorldNetDaily.com, Dr.
Walter Williams makes these comments:
"A subprime lender is one who makes loans to borrowers who do
not qualify for loans from mainstream lenders. It's a market
that has evolved to permit borrowers with poor credit history
and an unstable financial situation the opportunity to get home
mortgages. The catch is they pay a higher and typically an
adjustable rate mortgage. Encouraged by the housing bubble, easy
credit, along with the expectation that housing prices would
continue to appreciate, many subprime borrowers took out
mortgages they could not afford in the long run, particularly if
interest rates rose and housing prices depreciated.
"As with most economic problems, we find the hand of
government. The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, whose
provisions were strengthened during the
Clinton
administration, is a federal law that mandates lenders to offer
credit throughout their entire market and discourages them from
restricting their credit services to high-income markets, a
practice known as redlining. In other words, the Community
Reinvestment Act encourages banks and thrifts to make loans to
riskier customers.
"According to an article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
Nov. 4, 2007, titled "Black Atlantans often snared by subprime
loans," by Carrie Teegardin, a national study of credit scores,
not just mortgage loan applicants, found that 52 percent of
blacks have credit scores that would classify them as subprime
borrowers compared with 16 percent of whites.
The IRET Congressional Advisory No. 236 (January 28, 2008)
reported concerning the proposed "stimulus":
"The House tax plan would include a tax rebate (up to $600
for single filers, $1,200 for joint filers) and a child credit
($300 per child) to encourage consumption spending by
individuals, and two expensing provisions to encourage
investment by businesses. The revenue estimate is about $150
billion.
"[T]hey should not work in theory, because they do nothing to
reward additional production. They are merely handouts. The
expensing incentive in the stimulus package could induce the
manufacture of more capital goods in 2008. However, because it
is temporary, it would not increase the desired capital stock
over time, and would ‘borrow’ investment spending form 2009. …
"Every tax cut or spending increase has to be paid for,
either with other tax increases or by additional federal
borrowing. The Treasury does not kite checks.
"In the mid-1960’s, monetarist economist Milton Friedman
asked, ‘If the government is spending $500 billion, and cuts
taxes to $450 billion, where does the $50 billion tax cut come
from, the tooth fairy?’ Friedman then explained that the
government has to issue additional debt to cover the deficit. If
it sells the bonds to the public, it is borrowing the tax cut
right back, leaving the public with no additional money to
spend, and, hence no boost to ‘disposable income’ or aggregate
demand. The process plays musical chairs with the money, and
does nothing to boost economic activity. (The same analysis also
debunks the idea of a stimulus from higher federal spending,
which must be covered by raising taxes or borrowing.)
"Alternatively, the Federal Reserve might step in to buy the
added government debt, which it does by creating new money. That
would add to aggregate demand, but the rise would be due to the
change in the money supply, i.e., to monetary policy, not to the
fiscal stimulus per se. The Fed can add to the money supply
without any fiscal action by the Congress, or it can stick to
its desired rate of money creation regardless of the fiscal
stimulus."
Although Chris Suellentrop’s review of Pat Buchanan’s latest
book is not entirely favorable, he got it right when he said the
following:
"For the first time since Bill Clinton’s initial term in
office, Patrick J. Buchanan seems as if he could plausibly
compete for the Republican presidential nomination. In Iowa and
elsewhere, an economic populist and Christian conservative has
threatened to topple the party establishment’s preferred
nominees. Online, in what is sometimes called the ‘money
primary,’ a foreign policy noninterventionist is breaking
fund-raising records. And in the national popularity contest, if
those two men (Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul) could have been
combined – in a dubious but nonetheless irresistible exercise –
to form a single Buchananite candidate, that person would have
acquired a front-running 25 percent of the vote in a recent
New York Times/CBS News poll.
"Of course – and many people are surely grateful for this –
Buchanan is not running for president, and certainly not for the
Republican nomination. He just seems as if he were in his new
book, ‘Day of Reckoning: How Hubris, Ideology, and Greed Are
Tearing America Apart.’ …
"[I]f the book’s second, third and fourth chapters were
distributed in isolation (no pun intended) to Democratic primary
voters, Buchanan might find himself with a surprising chunk of
support. Most Republicans, as Ron Paul has discovered, do not
warm to statements like this: ‘The "cataclysmic terrorism" of
9/11 was an unpardonable atrocity. But it was not unpredictable.
For terrorism is the price of empire. They were over here
because we were over there.’ "
