Posts for “We the People” http://wethepeoplehq.org/
Government regulations and laws can be bad in at least three ways. First, they can simply be bad on their face. Obamacare, for example, requires people to buy something (health insurance) simply because they are alive. Call it a tax on breathing. Second, they might have been created questionable legislative practices. A law that both set the state budget for funding of public schools and […]
As Americans, we generally agree that government should do some things, though we may differ strongly in what those things are. But what happens when government fails to perform its core functions? In the right circumstances, a strong political leader can make a difference. Under Rudy Giuliani’s leadership, for example, New York City made great strides in controlling crime, a basic function of government. It […]
A book review by John R. LaPlante Many Republicans cheered, or at least assented, when the federal government took on more powers during the presidency of George W. Bush. (See: the Patriot Act.) Democratic Party partisans, meanwhile, have taken the same tack after their own party took control the White House. (See: ObamaCare.) But the political stars eventually realign, and then you may not be […]
A core principle of the American ideal is self-governance. The rise of technical expertise, combined with a “progressive” vision of a state-led society, has undermined that vision. Fortunately, examples of self-governance can still be found, and in some cases, growing in number. One place you find them is in education. Today, roughly 9 out of 10 children are educated in a public school that is […]
Sometime in the future, historians may point to the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) as the time when the centralizing power of the federal power reached its peak. The resulting push back from citizen activists and officials in the states set off a wave of successful efforts to reduce the size and scope of government generally, and the federal government, […]