In the Public Interest

U. S. corporations aren’t even subtle about it. Waving a flag and carrying a big shovel, corporate interests are scooping up government benefits and taxpayer money in an unprecedented fashion while the public is preoccupied with the September 11 attacks and the war in Afghanistan. Shamelessly, the Bush Administration and Congress have taken advantage of…

Corporations and their political friends have long promoted the idea that private enterprises could operate basic government services more efficiently and at less cost than government itself. Everything from schools to mass transit systems has been targeted by “government for profit” campaigns. Today, many state and local governments rue the day that they fell for…

Nuclear power plants came on the scene in the post World War II era with lots of official enthusiasm and a shortage of concern about safety. But much of that early excitement about the future of nuclear power faded after the accidents at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in 1979 and Chernobyl in 1986 and…

This autumn, Major League Baseball has a unique opportunity to display to the American public and its sports fans that there is still reason to call baseball its national pastime. The occasion has nothing to do with the extraordinary record-breaking team and individual accomplishments of this season. Nor does it involve celebrating the completion of…

Insurance companies — fresh from their lobbying victories in the last Congress — are back on Capitol Hill with their hands out again. Under legislation circulated by the insurance industry’s favorite Senator — Chris Dodd of Connecticut –taxpayers, not the insurance companies, in the future would be required to pay major insurance claims arising out…

The September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon are changing the way Americans think about a lot of things. One critically important area of this rethinking must involve our national transportation system — how we move people safely and efficiently across this vast nation. In the aftermath of the hijacking of…

Never underestimate the flexibility of corporate executives who run the nation’s major air carriers. Last week, they slammed file cabinet drawers shut on their favorite speeches about the glories of free markets and the horrors of government intervention, and marched to Capitol Hill, hats in hand to ask the Congress for multi-billion dollar handouts of…

Nobody sweats the details like GM customers. That’s the complaint that comes to us day after day by Americans hailing from all backgrounds and trades. A short while ago we printed a sample of over 100 of these letters in a collection entitled “The General Motors Lemon Grove.” Read together, once can see they comprise…

States rights used to be the rallying cry for corporations, segregationists, and an assortment of special interests determined to blunt federal initiatives, particularly in the arena of regulation. Many state legislatures were underfunded, poorly staffed and were in session only for a few weeks or months, some meeting only biennially. As a result, corporate lobbyists…

Local, state and federal governments, faced with complex problems in the delivery of services, increasingly are falling for schemes to let private corporations take over public duties. Behind the privatization of government functions is an ongoing propaganda campaign centered around the theme that corporations can manage and deliver services more efficiently at less cost than…