[tonyinv]

It was not a heated discussion. I have evaluated Will on what I have seen of him, and I see in him what other see in Bill Kristol and other Republicans in New York and Washington.

[meenie]

Capitalism as practiced in the United States IS a government program. It hasn't always been so. There was a time in our nation's history when there was true capitalism. There was a period of time in our history when common law was the only law governing our Federal government.

With the advent of legislation and statutory law, business started being manipulated to suit the whims of the Congress. Now we see bail-outs for business, subsidy of agriculture, health care, and welfare.

We used to make fun of the Soviets and their five year plans. Now we have ten year plans in our budget projections and everybody sees nothing unusual.

Environmental groups are subsidized to sue to violate property rights and give the government authority to by-pass the Constitution. The President is given the powers granted to Congress to make agreements to regulate the flow of trade by business interests, both foreign and domestic.

In summary, we have what capitalism we have in a hybrid system of socialism and capitalism which is controlled by the government. Our capitalism, if we wish to call it capitalism, is a government program all the way. I was not privy to the program that George Will was quoted in, but I can see where this statement was made.