Given the drubbing the Conservatives received in the recent election in the U.K., this may seem a strange time to suggest that Annapolis adopt Toryesque policies. However, as the commentary on the back page makes plain, the Conservatives’ electoral defeat has not in any way invalidated their ideological program of the last 18 years. After […]
Libertarianism was once the ideology of cranks. While not the kind of people to hand out leaflets at the airport or solicit your house uninvited, libertarians were humorously derided by many and considered suspect by the rest. Then, during the 1970s and ’80s, as the country became disenchanted with government activism, libertarian ideas began to […]
What will welfare reform mean for medical care of the poor? Welfare recipients today get Medicaid, which amounts to government-paid free health care. If they go to work they will sooner or later lose Medicaid, leaving some without health insurance altogether. Thus, any plan to end “welfare as we know it” must deal with the […]
Anti-Choice Some weeks ago, a Calvert reporter went to a conference jointly hosted by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and People for the American Way (PFAW), a liberal organization founded in 1980 by Norman Lear. The NAACP/PFAW marriage goes under the name, “Partners for Public Education,” a partnership whose mission, […]
Arizona’s public education establishment has gone on red alert, talking about a possible lawsuit or ballot referendum as a strategy to derail a $500 income-tax credit for private-school scholarships. Governor J. Fife Symington III (R) signed the measure into law on April 7. For many parents now worried about low test scores, high drop-out rates […]
State of Arizona ——— Senate Engrossed House Bill House of Representatives Forty-third Legislature First Regular Session, 1997 House Bill 2074 An Act Amending section 43-1021, Arizona revised statutes; Amending Title 43, Chapter 10, Article 5, Arizona Revised Statutes, by adding sections 43-1087 and 43-1088; relating to individual income taxation. Be it enacted by the legislature […]
According to scholars Anthony Downs, Katherine Bradbury and Kenneth Small, Baltimore was a city in distress as early as 1982.1 Today, the town is in a similar state, if not worse, given the diminishing tax base and increased demand for services that have occurred over the last several years. Many of Baltimore’s – and other […]
Governor Glendening has reneged on his pledge to cut taxes. This is a political mistake as well as an economic one for the state. While he may pay the political price that befell George Bush in 1992 and the Democrats in 1994 after they broke their promises on taxes, it is Maryland residents who will […]
With Bill Clinton’s reelection to the White House, doubtless there will be intensified talk of “revisiting” welfare reform – largely with a view to gutting it. Likewise, at the state level, this reporter recently participated in a public debate on welfare reform at Loyola College in Baltimore. A well meaning opponent earnestly defended the old […]
Evil, like beauty, is often in the eye of the beholder, and the religious right serves as a good case in point. Some Americans, mostly liberal and secular, believe the religious right poses the greatest threat to American democracy since the country’s founding. Others, mostly conservative and religious, believe it represents God’s last battalion in […]