In the Public Interest

The 32 member Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform, chaired by Senators Bob Kerrey (D-NB) and John Danforth (R-MO) had its first public hearing a few days ago to see where and how to cut social security, medicare, medicaid, food stamps and veterans benefits. No one mentioned the three taboos. The Senators were self-righteous…

The Washington-Wall Street ballyhoo of early results under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is underway in a big way. From press releases to dutiful business writers and columnists to cartoons, the story is that all three nations — the U.S., Mexico and Canada are reaping the benefits of expanded trade. Wait a minute!…

Labor Day has come and gone. For most people it represents a day off. For most merchants it represents a day of sales for more selling. But Holidays, especially national ones, were usually established for remembrance as well. Labor Day, in this regard, is being shortchanged. The nation’s labor confederation, the AFL-CIO, headquartered in Washington,…

A None of the Above (NOTA) line on the ballot — is a proper and long overdue expansion of voting choice at a time when citizens are staying away from the polls in droves because of their disgust, distrust, despair and disillusionment with tweedledum–tweedledee politics. Presently, from forty to eighty percent of eligible voters, depending…

This past May the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the genetically engineered “Flavr Savr tomato” by the Calgene Corporation. This tomato, marketed under the brand name “MacGregor’s,” cost $95 million in research and development to isolate and reverse a gene to delay its ripening by five extra days on the vine while maintaining its…

From the wet lowlands of the Cajun country of Louisiana, a Congressman named Billy Tauzin came to Washington in 1981. Lately, he has been vigorously pushing H.R. 417– a bill that would further shield corporate financial criminals and fraud artists from law and order. You see, Billy Tauzin specializes in being soft on that corporate…

A few years ago when I first heard that workers were holding meetings around the country to lay the basis for a Labor Party, I was skeptical. Even though one of the founding lights of this effort, Tony Mazzocchi, former vice-president of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union, was known to be energetic, strategic…

The idea of progress in America is so deeply ingrained in the national culture that even when, in recent years, there is clear evidence that it is not occurring, e.g., wages have been stagnant for over twenty years adjusted for inflation — may believe it is only temporary. Maybe an application of reality to this…

The intense struggle, yet to be reported by the press, over the United States becoming a member of the 120 nation World Trade Organization (WTO) has produced some strange alliances. I find myself, for example, having a joint press conference with Pat Buchanan to denounce the way the WTO damages our democratic practices and impermissibly…

The Senate hearings on Judge Stephen G. Breyer’s nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States are now over. The hearing was largely a lovefest and the Senators’ questions were soft or self-serving, except those by a critical Senator Howard Metzenbaum (D-OH). Judge Breyer long ago laid the groundwork for his confirmation. He was…