Free Republic

Thank you very much. It’s an honor to be here, and I’d like to thank the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute for inviting me to join you. Of course, this year’s forum carries special significance as we celebrate 250 years of the American story. But milestones of this magnitude demand more than ceremony. They ask something of us. They invite us to reflect not just on the creation of our country, but on its condition. And as we focus today on America’s economic future, they compel us to confront—and correct—decisions that have diminished our sovereignty in recent decades. President...

The economic statistics released today have encouraged most economists to revise the third quarter real GDP up again.  This has been almost a ritual over the past few weeks as the quarter was ending and is continuing now that it has ended.  It is amazing how brilliant the economists become after the end of the period they are forecasting.  Do you remember how excited they got (in unison) at the beginning of 2000 about the robust economy when real GDP grew at 7.1% in the fourth quarter of 1999?  The ?forecasts? of that quarter were also revised up throughout the...

The question of whether the United States may be overly dependent on foreign suppliers for critical military equipment has been debated for decades. The Army, particularly, has been concerned about the reliance on non-U.S. suppliers for critical items used in the manufacturing of ammunition. The issue now is taking added importance in the aftermath of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, which some of our NATO allies—whose industries are suppliers to the U.S. military—did not support. What worries Army leaders is the hypothetical situation in which a country that does not agree with U.S. policies may take retaliatory action by refusing...