In the Public Interest

Every general circulation newspaper in the land should be asked why there is such silence on the secrecy and inaccessibility to both the press and the people of the proposed World Trade Organization (WTO) that Congress will vote on at the end of this month. The newspapers have been printing some news articles on the…

Newt Gingrich (R-GA) can thank the Democrats for catapulting him to the Speaker of the House of Representatives following the recent elections. The present Speaker, Tom Foley (D-WA) lost his seat to a Republican neophyte whom Gingrich raised money and campaigned for intensively. But in 1990 with Gingrich on the political ropes, Foley refused to…

Ever wonder how some brand name products in your supermarket seem to have a large amount of shelf space compared to other well known brands. Well Susan Midler, a New York private label manufacturer of a cold water wash product, has stopped wondering. She knows why — they’re called “slotting allowances.” For eight months she…

Traffic jams are like ocean waves; they come in various sizes. The one that clogged together on the afternoon of October 7th, the Friday before Columbus Day weekend, near Boston’s Logan airport can be compared to a tidal wave. I know because I was there, starting at 3:30 p.m. After two hours and forty minutes,…

Once again, Congress has proven to the nation it is incapable of reforming itself. The demise of both the lobby reform bill and the campaign finance bill highlight the fact that politicians, left to their own devices, can not be relied upon to end the corrupting role that special interest money plays in undermining our…

With all its customary problems, Congress has a new one — it cannot get anything of consequence done and can scarcely use its public hearing function to highlight what should be done. This paralysis is called gridlock and some old Washingtonian hands have urged scrapping our separation of powers government and amend the constitution to…

Question: When does President Clinton really become a tiger on the back of Congress? When getting health insurance reform through the legislature? When getting labor law reform through Capital Hill? When getting campaign finance reform through the national legislature? Legislation for the people that is being blocked? Oh, not at all. He becomes the Arkansas…

The Hearing room in the Senate Office Building had plenty of empty seats. At the press table that day (September 19, 1994) there were no reporters from the New York Times, the Washington Post or the Wall Street Journal. After all, the Hearing, chaired by Senator Howard Metzenbaum (D-OH) only dealt with the exploitation and…

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!…