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Cato Policy Report, January/February 1998

"To Be Governed..."

A collection of newspaper clips that speak for themselves


Race, religion, gender, and father's crop

The cigarette companies have become national pariahs. . . . But [tobacco] farmers have succeeded in portraying themselves as innocent victims deserving to be made whole by the settlement. . . .

"I was born to a tobacco farmer," Rod Kuegel of Owensboro, Ky., told the Senate Agriculture Committee. "I do not like being condemned because I was not born to a rice farmer or a wheat grower."

--Slate, Oct. 3, 1997

Let's just give the degree for green stamps

CUNY schools must have more stringent admissions policies in order to turn out better-equipped students and return the system to its glory days, Baruch College President Matthew Goldstein said yesterday. . . .

Edith Everett, a CUNY board trustee, challenged Goldstein's proposal, noting that students now need to go to college to land many good jobs.

"And we say, 'Sorry, guys. We got standards so we're not going to take you,'" she said.

--New York Post, Oct. 10, 1997

Customer (n.): one that buys goods or services

The flaws of the IRS have been documented so often they are a familiar litany . . . ranging from clunky and incompatible computer systems to a public-be-damned attitude toward its customers.

--David Broder in the Washington Post, Oct. 21, 1997

You can, however, surround his house with tanks and burn it down

"Sheriff," Janet Reno to Republican lynch mob chasing President Clinton: "Look, I know you fellows are in a hanging mood, but you just can't string up a prisoner before his trial."

--Cartoonist Tom Toles in the Washington Post, Oct. 25, 1997

Recruiting government dependents

New York state [has launched] an ambitious initiative that has rescued 160,000 children from the ranks of the [medically] uninsured. . . .

As lawmakers have added money each year, an opposite problem has emerged: The program can't find enough children to use up the money.

From the beginning, the state had hired outside workers to ferret out children--an effort that the new federal program also encourages. But many believe those workers did not look hard enough. . . .

State health officials now are working on a new way to guide families into the program.

--Washington Post, Sept. 28, 1997

Fear and trembling at 60 Minutes

Even "60 Minutes," it turns out, is not immune to fear of the IRS. The [IRS abuse] report's editors and camera operators, worried about possible audits, asked not to be listed in the credits.

--Washington Post, Nov. 2, 1997

Taxpayers and voters don't count

More than a year ago, the Internal Revenue Service planned widespread job cuts. Yesterday, the IRS said there will be no layoffs. . . .

"The way this has turned out, it works to the agency's advantage, the employees' advantage and the union's advantage. I think this is sort of a win-win for all of us," said David A. Mader, IRS chief management officer.

--Washington Post, Oct. 15, 1997

The Constitution, R.I.P.

Thinking national performance tests will improve education is "akin to claiming that better speedometers make for faster cars," said Rep. William F. Goodling (R-Pa.). "The president's plan is a waste of taxpayers' money and won't do anything except increase federal involvement in our schools." . . .

"House Republicans would rather send federal dollars directly to the classroom," Goodling said.

--Washington Post, Aug. 31, 1997

The velvet glove

In an alliance forged under pressure, major gun manufacturers stood with President Clinton yesterday and announced they would provide childproof trigger locks with all their handguns. . . .

And Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), the bill's sponsor, said a law is still needed. "We are getting compliance voluntarily, which I always believe is better than government regulation," he said in a statement. "But we'll [still] push our legislation."

--Washington Post, Oct. 10, 1997

Hayek warned us not to apply the principles of natural sciences to the social sciences

"The theory of relativity worked out by Mr. [Albert] Einstein, which is in the domain of natural science, I believe can also be applied to the political field," [Chinese president] Jiang [Zemin] said. "Both democracy and human rights are relative concepts and not absolute and general."

--Washington Post, Oct. 19, 1997

Where's Jeane Kirkpatrick now that we need her?

Prime Minister Lionel Jospin . . . recently . . . declared that America could not impose its laws on the world and that "ultra-capitalism" was unacceptable.

What was surprising, though, was to find the new American Ambassador to Paris, Felix Rohatyn agreeing with him. . . .

"We have no monopoly on ideas," Mr. Rohatyn said the other day. "We do not believe that what works for us is automatically the best approach for anyone else." And as if to quash forever galloping French fears of an American "ultra-capitalist" system engulfing the globe, Mr. Rohatyn declared roundly: "There is no such thing as the American economic model."

--New York Times, Oct. 20, 1997

Who says legislatures don't protect rights?

Because two former legislators who lost elections had a "right to hold office," their attorney argues, a state business group injured them by running ads criticizing their voting records before last November's elections.

Radio and TV ads run by Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce hurt the "property rights" of ex-Reps. David Plombon (D-Stanley) and Michael Wilder (D-Chippewa Falls) to those offices, according to their lawyer, Paul Gordon.

Gordon said Tuesday the two legal terms he used in his new legal brief--"right to hold office" and "property rights"--were taken from court cases nationally that involved campaign-finance and election-law cases.

--Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Oct. 22, 1997

Next thing you know, even the public schools might not be accountable

"Establishing a private school voucher system in the nation's capital would set a dangerous precedent for using federal taxpayer funds for schools that are not accountable to the public," the White House Office of Management and Budget said.

--Associated Press, Oct. 10, 1997

Free market declared illegal

The U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission has published the first guidelines used to determine whether sex discrimination exists in the compensation of athletic coaches at the nation's colleges and high schools.

The essence of the 29-page document . . . is that salary packages for men and women coaches don't have to be the same but an institution must prove that the reason for any difference is not based on a coach's sex. An institution cannot defend a differential by arguing, for instance, that men's sports produce more revenue.

--Washington Post, Nov. 5, 1997

Laissez-faire never an option

The Sami, an Arctic people formerly known as Lapps, endured [Norwegian] government efforts to eradicate their culture for more than 200 years. In recent decades, that policy has been replaced by a program to nurture the Sami culture.

--Washington Post, Oct. 8, 1997

This article originally appeared in the January/February 1998 edition of Cato Policy Report.