Articles

Oklahoma taxpayers have no direct way to judge whether or not they are getting a good "bang for the buck" for the goods and services provided by the public sector.

Dr. Keith Smith is a proud capitalist. The anesthesiologist often helps poor patients obtain surgeries at no cost while managing to keep his Oklahoma City-based practice afloat.

Governor Bradford's history of the Plymouth Bay Colony is a story that deserves to be far better known, particularly in an age that has acquired a mania for socialism and Communism, regards them as peculiarly "progressive" and entirely new, and is sure that they represent "the wave of the future."

Governments at all levels are facing severe budget deficits and prolonged fiscal crises amid the national economic recession. With the federal government facing a record $1.4 trillion deficit and at least 44 states facing a cumulative $281 billion in budget deficits through 2011, privatization and public-private partnerships have become increasingly prominent in fiscal policy debates. They will remain so in 2010 as policymakers attempt to reduce the price of government in response to ongoing budget woes.

Ever since I came into contact with government, both state and federal, and especially in the four decades since first going to work in it, I've been struck by the reality gap between what many Americans expect of it and what it's actually good at doing.

Never accuse the Associated Press of being hide bound by journalistic tradition. In a sharp break with past practice, the once-venerable news service is providing its 1,500 member papers with ready-to-run stories produced by "independent" reporters and editors.

The Oklahoma Education Association (OEA) is the most powerful labor union in Oklahoma. Their representatives, including lobbyists who roam the halls of the state capitol building, often are schoolteachers who have left the classroom in order to become OEA employees.

I have friends who suffer from drug or alcohol addiction and others who, when untreated, manifest dreadful misbehavior rooted in mental disease. Those who effectively grapple with such issues tell me repeatedly the verity of an old expression that lies at the heart of recovery philosophies: The first thing is you have to admit you have a problem.

I can't go to any fast food restaurant these days without being asked if I would like to "super-size" my order. After seeing my waistline gradually expand, I've started to answer, "No thanks!"

It's time to bring the field of education into the fold of the free enterprise system.