Milton Friedman on Phil Donahue Show in 1980 provides a direct and to-the-point defense of capitalism and free trade. He explains how governmental regulations, no matter how well-intended, are inevitably infiltrated by business interests which use governmental power to stifle competition.
The disagreement is over the solutions — on what spending to cut; what taxes to raise (basically none ever, according to Boozman); whether or not to enact a balanced budget amendment (Boozman says yes; Pryor no); and on what policies would promote the kind of economic growth that would make this a little easier.
In Feb of 1983 Milton Friedman wrote the article “Washington:Less Red Ink (An argument that the balanced-budget amendent would be a rare merging of public and private interests),” and here is a portion of that article:
Here, for their consideration, are my answers to the principal objections to the proposed amendment that I have come across, other than those that arise from a desire to have a still-bigger government:
**1. The amendment is unnecessary. Congress and the President have the power to limit spending and balance the budget.**
Taken seriously, this is an argument for scrapping most of the Constitution. Congress and the President have the power to preserve freedom of the press and of speech without the First Amendment. Does that make the First Amendment unnecessary? Not surprisingly, I know of no one who has criticized the balanced-budget amendment as unnecessary–however caustic his comments on congressional hypocrisy–who would draw the conclusion that the First Amendment should be scrapped.
It is essential to look not only at the power of Congress but at the incentives of its members–to act in such a way as to be re-elected. As Phil Gramm, a Democratic congressman from Texas, has said: Every time you vote on every issue, all the people who want the program are looking over your right shoulder and nobody’s looking over your left shoulder….In being fiscally responsible under such circumstances, we’re asking more of people than the Lord asks.”
Under present arrangements, Congress will not in fact balance the budget. Similarly, a President will not produce a balanced budget by using the kind of vetoes that would be required. The function of the amendment is to remedy the defect in our legislative procedure that distorts the will of the people as it is filtered through their representatives. The amendment process is the only effective way the public can treat the budget as a whole. That is the function of the First Amendment, as well–it treats free speech as a bundle. In its absence, Congress would consider each case “on its merits.” It is not hard to envisage the way unpopular groups and views would fare.
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Kate and Prince William interview Part 1
I had the opportunity to travel in 1981 and visit 20 European countries and the last country I visited was England. I left England just a few days before the royal wedding. Some of the people on the same tour that I went on actually made plans to attend the royal wedding. Below is a clip from the 1981 Royal wedding.
Part 1
The Royal Wedding. St. Paul’s Cathedral, 29th July 1981. Commentary by the late Tom Fleming. Divided into 8 parts, this very rare recording was made on a domestic video recorder from the live BBC broadcast. As this was a formal State occasion, funded by the British tax-payer and the broadcast paid for by British Television Licence holders, then there is a powerful moral argument that this recording of mine should belong in the public domain.
(I only wrote the above preamble because some commercial enterprise has claimed copyright infringement on my video which I find outrageous under these special circumstances)
This recording was made using Memorex VHS video cassettes at a time when domestic VCR’s were very few and far between in the U.K. Considering the age of these recordings and their linear Mono soundtracks; I think they have stood up rather well. Blank video cassettes were hideously expensive at the time but I am so glad that my original investment has paid off today now that I can share this long past national event with the whole wide world
The Daily Hatch 