Richard J Grant

Published in The Tennessean and Forbes , Sunday, February 26, 2012 by Richard J. Grant The radio announcer asked, “But will the Greek people tolerate another year of recession?” Left unasked was the question, “If they won't, so what? What are they going to do about it?” Some of their compatriots have responded with riots and arson to any suggestion of government austerity. Such unproductive catharsis and destruction of property seems, however, to compound the austerity rather than mitigate it. Worse, it illustrates just how widespread is the confusion between government austerity and private austerity. Historically, those nations that have run relatively austere and less-interventionist governments have been those in which citizens have most prospered. It is in other countries where government has spent excessively and intervened heavily in the economy that citizens have felt true austerity. In Greece, as in America, we see in their results the shortcomi...

Published in The Tennessean , Sunday, February 19, 2012 and Forbes by Richard J. Grant “Is a thumb a finger?” That is the question Major Muller asks in Michael Ondaatje's, The English Patient, to mock the Geneva Convention before severing his prisoner's thumbs. Were he a present-day Congressman, he might better ask, “Is an individual mandate a tax?” This is the question that U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett, R-NJ, asked White House budget director Jeff Zients about President Obama's claim that no family earning under $250,000 would be subjected to a tax increase. Rep. Garrett asked, “So if I am part of a family that does not buy health insurance in violation of the president's health-care program and I have to pay [a fine] because of that, that is not a tax increase – that is not a tax on me?” Sensing the trap, Mr. Zients tried to evade. He replied, “The Affordable Care Act saves money.” But not only was his statement absurd, it further highlighted the weakness of the Obama admi...

Published in The Tennessean , Sunday, February 12, 2012 and Forbes by Richard J. Grant Most progressives are not totalitarian at heart, they are totalitarian by accident. When they supported the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, they really believed that the title had something to do with the content of the act. They didn't really know what was in it; they had to pass it to find out. The so-called Affordable Care Act is the product of a rightly felt belief that something is wrong with our health-care system. In that sense, the act is one of many such acts that was initiated to correct the problems created by previous government attempts to improve the economy and particularly the health-care system. When the federal and state governments force insurance companies, through mandates, to offer expansive policies that bear less and less resemblance to real insurance, it should be no surprise that the policies become painfully expensive and less well-fitted to customers’ need...

Published in The Tennessean , Sunday, February 5, 2012 and Forbes by Richard J. Grant An economy that is “built to last” will never be built by government. This might come as a surprise to President Barack Obama, but what is frightening is that it might come as surprise to a plurality of the American electorate. There is nothing like a sweet-sounding, and all but meaningless, phrase to persuade voters to stick it to themselves once again. The great advantage of using government to subsidize or operate businesses is that we can ignore some or all of the costs. That is why so many people believe that their “green energy” projects are profitable and create numerous jobs. They ignore the burden of the subsidies and mandates that is shifted onto other people. It is also why many people believe that the nationalization of health care services saves resources in those countries so blessed by it. They ignore the burdens shifted to those who face doctor shortages, waiting lists, reduced innov...