Osborne's Doing Better Than Obama

Osborne Has A Long Way To Go, But At Least He’s Started, Yorkshire Post, June 30, 2010. "According to the Left, there is never a good day to cut government spending. When the economy and tax revenues are growing, the Left wants to spend more because it can. When the economy is stagnant and tax revenues are shrinking, the Left argues it has no choice but to spend more, in order to cushion the blow. The result is that progressive governments transfer money from savers to spenders, from the productive economy to the unproductive state, and from the unborn to the living. For progressive governments, the economy is a goose that will keep on laying golden eggs, no matter what they do to it."

Ten Recommendations to Britain on Defense

Ten Recommendations for the Next British Secretary of State for Defense, Heritage Foundation WebMemo #2893, May 10, 2010. "The May 6 election in Britain has produced an inconclusive result. But no matter what the political color of the government, the next British Secretary of State for Defense will face challenges graver than any that have confronted the Ministry of Defense since 1940."

Where's The Money Going in Defense?

Something Fishy in the Ministry of Defense, Heritage Foundation Foundry, January 8, 2010. "American commentators, like Michael Barone, are starting to focus on the fact that, while the recession has hurt the private sector, it’s helping the public one. A Rasmussen poll found that 46 percent of government employees say the economy is getting better while just 31 percent say it’s getting worse. In the private sector, those proportions are reversed. While the private sector economy has lost millions of jobs, the public sector one has been stable. But anything the U.S. can do, Britain, in this context, can do worse."

The Next Excuse for Cuts

The Next Defense Crunch in Britain, Contentions, January 8, 2010. "Contracting out in defense is an important public and political issue in both the United States and Britain. When based on the proper principles, contracting out allows the government to draw on private-sector skills and resources to deliver services more efficiently. But in Britain, Labour’s sketchy accounting methods for the cost of these contracts has created another snare for Britain’s defenses. These contracts, of course, commit the government to future costs. But because Labour has played accounting games that put these contracts on the department books but not the national ones, Britain’s total future obligations will be larger than those shown on the country’s overall accounts."

The Latest NHS Leak

A False Idol, Heritage Foundation Foundry, September 7, 2009. "The National Health Service is like a deity in Britain. Or so we are told. Irish actor and director, Graham Linehan – a very funny man – has taken to defending the NHS by saying that American criticisms of it are “like if you criticize your parents. You can do it - but if anyone else criticized them you’d murder them.” That’s not going to keep life expectancies up. The Economist, for its part, offers up the plea “God save the NHS.” So much for the Queen, apparently. There is something distinctly off-putting in this worshipful attitude. The NHS is not the English Bill of Rights, or the First Amendment. It is not a statement of eternal truths. It is a bureaucratic organization intended to serve a particular purpose. If it does not serve that purpose well, then it should be changed. The outraged responses to American – and British – criticisms of the NHS have a calculated political purpose: to reject the very thought that the government should not be responsible for running the entire health care system.

Why The Unions Don't Like PFI

Labour's Hidden Debt -- And How Not to Fix It, Contentions, June 30, 2009. "If the government wants to spend money on a program — presuming it’s unwilling to simply roll the printing presses — it must choose between two ways of acquiring the needed funds. It can borrow the money, or it can raise it through taxation. Neither source is ideal. The disadvantage of raising taxes is obvious. The disadvantage of borrowing stems from markets taking notice, and — if you do it often and irresponsibly enough — punishing you for it. In Britain, Labour found a third way: i.e., writing very long-term contracts to private firms responsible for building and maintaining capital assets, in return for annual payments."