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Whatever Happened to Downsizing Government

November/December 1997 Issue

Table of contents

BIRD'S EYE
Shrink government to save liberty, not just money.
By Karl Zinsmeister
Shrink--really shrink--government and you will thrill millions: libertarians, traditionalists, free spirits, buttoned-down tax serfs. Contemporary America awaits her true political liberators.

SIDELIGHTS
News Scraps
Cockroach rights. Enviropublicans. Eleanor Clift, Flushmaster General.

SCAN
Short News and Commentary
Multiculturalism's next defeat. What banned books? A chance for local education.The fall of the PTA. Yuppie terrorists. Part-time politics. Unenlightened sexual liberals.The graffiti establishment. Shoot the tax code. Sandblasting religion. Male models.

TWO VIEWS
Should Something Be Done About Alcohol?
By Robert H. Bork, William J. Bennett
Certain observers on the Left and Right are calling for more controls on liquor sales - especially in inner cities. Two conservatives find themselves on different sides of the issue.

IN REAL LIFE
Only in a Small Town
By Hendrik Mills, Suzy Ryan
Big-city mechanic Hendrik Mills comes to accept small-town nosiness. Mother Suzy Ryan struggles to explain abortion to her questioning five-year-old.

THE ECONOMIST
When It Comes to Schools, the U.S. Lags Europe
By George Liebmann
One place where the U.S. lags Europe in Shrinking government: Schools.

FLASHBACK
November/December 1997
By Bill Kauffman
Drumming the Beats.

BOOK TALK
Reviews of New Books
Edited by Martin Morse Wooster
• Jesse Walker—Trail Fever by Michael Lewis • Philip Langdon—The Reluctant Metropolis by William Fulton • Tom Switzer—The Great Wall and the Empty Fortress: China's Search for Security by Andrew J. Nathan and Robert S. Ross • Eli Lehrer—Drawing Life: Surviving the Unabomber by David H. Gelernter • Martin Morse Wooster—The One Best Way by Robert Kanigel

Feature articles

Days of Apathy
By Peter Augustine Lawler, John Fund, Jonathan Rauch, Michael Barone
Four politics-watchers debate the sources and significance of today's American apathy. Is government reform a lost cause?

Plain Independent
By Hannah Lapp
The Amish shun all government programs, yet provide well for their needy.Is there a lesson for the rest of us?

Small Towns Big Government
By Richard Miniter
Local bureaucracies can be tyrannical too.

No, We Haven't Stopped Being Angry
By Blake Hurst
A Missouri farmer recounts how arrogant state officials have harmed his neighbors' property and the environment.

Welfare "Cuts"?
By James Payne
The crown jewel of recent government downsizing is a fake.Why no real reductions are in sight.

Missed Opportunity
By Steve Forbes
The new budget deal does nothing to fix out-of-control entitlement programs, our biggest fiscal problem of all.

The Tax-Cut Follies of 1997
By Ralph Reiland, Daniel Mitchell
Dropping the ball on Tax Reform.

Who Really Balanced the Budget?
By Stephen Moore
Don't credit Newt Gingrich or Bill Clinton, tax increases or spending restraint:The Budget was balanced by President Reagan.

Washington's Coffers Are About to Overflow
By Bruce Bartlett, James Buchanan, Lawrence Kudlow, Stephen Moore, Mark Neumann, Herbert Stein
The federal government is about to run budget surpluses, something not seen in decades. A Congressman and five top economists discuss why this could be risky.

One Reform That Could Change Everything in DC
By Christopher Cox
Congress's budgets aren't budgets—no wonder they're out of control. Here's a better way to proceed.

How I Tamed Government
By Stephen Goldsmith, John Norquist, Bret Schundler, Michael White
Four mayors— and Republicans— how they streamlined government while Washington pols were sitting on their hands.

Privatization on a Roll
By Adrian T. Moore
Elected officials are learning they can deliver services better and more cheaply by contracting the work out to private companies and non-profits.