October 2011

[The following commentary generated such a spirited discussion in the forum that I'm letting it run for a second day.  If you haven't yet added your two cents' worth, it's time to jump in! RA]

Rep. Ron Paul’s proposal to cut spending and taxes by $1 trillion during his first year in office was the most e-mailed story yesterday at Wall Street Journal online.  In a perfect world, perhaps his campaign would get as much attention from the Journal’s editorialists as it does from the paper’s readers. Ditto for TV coverage, where Paul seems to get respect only from, of all people, Jon Stewart. Stewart is one of the few commentators who seems to have noticed how well Paul scores with voters even as reporters and news editors continue to ignore him (or rudely disdain him, as is the case with Fox blowhard Bill O’Reilly, who presumed to go toe-to-toe with Paul on a subject — economics — that O’Reilly clearly knows nothing about).  Most recently, alas, the newsies have been so busy tearing into Herman Cain’s elemental 9-9-9 tax plan that they will have had little time to ponder Paul’s trillion-dollar idea. Most of the savings the Texas congressman seeks would come from eliminating five cabinet-level departments – lumbering bureaucracies that millions of Americans would doubtless agree we can do without: Education, Energy, Commerce, Interior and HUD.  Other than the vast army of civil service workers employed by these FDR-era throwbacks, who would ever miss them, right? » Read the full article