If public transportation is SO popular, why the subsidies?

A recent New York Times article points out the “paradox” in public transportation across the country: ridership is up in almost all markets, but despite this rise in popularity, mass transit systems are having to cut service because of declining tax revenues. Unfortunately, this isn’t a paradox at all; it is merely the result of [...]

Why should the tourism industry get our money?

Vermont Travel and Recreation Council Chair Brian Cain has asked the Vermont legislature to increase its subsidy of the state’s tourism industry from $3.8 million to $6.8 million… and this comes as the executive and legislative branches of government are desperately working to slash tens of millions of dollars from the budget in response to [...]

Are zoos a critical taxpayer priority?

The economic downturn has given rise to a bonanza of news stories about the many corners and pockets of our economy that are suffering. A good portion of them, unfortunately, are about taxpayer-funded programs or facilities that suddenly find themselves subject to budget-cuts because they have tumbled to the bottom of the priority list.
One such [...]

NYT shows its disdain for the public

Today’s New York Times editorial, advocating the imposition of mass transit systems on taxpayers, displays the typical liberal contempt for what most people in the country would choose for themselves. I use the term “imposition” because it’s obvious that Americans – by vast margins – prefer to use their own personal transportation rather than mass [...]

Yet more inefficient industries ask for our money

It has quickly become a cliche to decry the procession of inefficient mega-industries headed to Washington to compete for trillions of our tax dollars. But each day, the list of industries that foretell the end of America if their industry falters grows longer. Now, U.S. steelmakers have their hands out.
A telling passage of this story [...]

A public-policy first: requiring a program to actually work

Those who advocate that criminals be “rehabilitated” rather than punished have, since the beginning of their grand social experiment, ignored the fact that neither they – nor anyone else on Earth – knows how to successfully “rehabilitate” criminals. After tens of billions of taxpayer dollars spent on such efforts, without knowing whether they stood a [...]

“If it saves even one child…”

It is my contention that our politicians’ choices routinely result in the needless deaths of citizens, children included. How? Read on… I promise, it’s painless.
Nobody wants to answer the question, “How much is the life of a child worth?” because any answer other than “Priceless” is cold-hearted and inhuman. For a parent who has lost [...]