Free Republic

"War is the health of the state," wrote the progressive Randolph Bourne during the First World War, after which he succumbed to the Spanish flu. America's war on the coronavirus pandemic promises to be no exception to the axiom. However long this war requires, the gargantuan state will almost surely emerge triumphant. Currently, the major expenditures of the U.S. government, as well as a growing share of total federal spending, are Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. None of these programs will be curtailed or reduced this year or next. And if the Democrats win in November, the nation will likely...

I'm "social distancing." I stay away from people. I do it voluntarily. There's a big difference between voluntary -- and force. Government is force. The media want more of that. "Ten states have no stay-at-home orders!" complains Don Lemon On CNN. "Some governors are still refusing to take action!" Fox News' host Steve Hilton agreed. "Shut things down! Everywhere. That includes Utah, Wyoming..." But wait a second. People in Utah and Wyoming already socially distanced just by living there. Why must Utah and Wyoming have the same stay-at-home rules as New York? I find it creepy how eager some people...

The COVID-19 virus pandemic is unprecedented. It has brought new challenges to the federal government, governors of states, local-level politicians, and us as individuals. Democrat governors were expecting President Trump to take care of the problem. Instead, he rightfully put the onus back on the governors, as he should have since they are directly responsible for their citizens. However, some politicians have seized the opportunity of added control then topped the newfound capability with a little extra tyranny. Gretchen Whitmer is the governor for the state of Michigan – she is a Democrat. Michigan has been hit with the COVID-19...

Our President has attempted to make a major issue of the difference between the very successful in our country and the rest of us as a focus of his party’s campaign for the 2014 elections. He does have a point that some people’s income levels have really soared while others have languished. He just has a wrong-headed solution to the problem. Not surprisingly, Mr. Obama has chosen to resolve the issue through government intervention. He has a two-pronged effort. First, he has greatly increased welfare payments which have been dissected ad nauseum by this column. Otherwise, he has consistently thought...

Invent something and the first thing that goes through some people's minds -- especially politicians' minds -- is what might go wrong. 3D printers now allow you to mold objects right in your living room, using patterns you find online. It's a revolutionary invention that will save time, reduce shipping costs and be kind to the earth. But what critics see is: guns! People will print guns at home! Well, sure. On TV, Rachel Maddow sneered about "a well-armed anarchist utopia, where everybody fends for themselves with stupid-looking plastic guns. ... It's a political effort to try to do away...

Congress needs to be very careful that in tackling corporate greed they don't throw the baby out with the bath water, warns Richard Rahn in today's Washington Times. Citing the dangers inherent in setting strict accounting standards for corporations without making allowances for margins of error or individual circumstances, Rahn, a senior fellow of the Discovery Institute and an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute shows how imprecise accounting standards can be. "To obtain a bank loan, you are often asked to produce a personal balance sheet and income statement," he writes. "If you were told that if you made...