Budget Director under Reagan and former republican David Stockman was on Real Time earlier this year. Now, some of his wisdom is being disseminated to you via this blog.
“We won the cold war, but instead of demobilizing our military establishment like we did [after World War I and II], we kept it up. We kept building, looking for missions. Pretty soon, we had imperialism around the world, and wars of occupation that failed miserably. As a result, we are now spending more on defense today – in 2010 when we have no industrial enemies – than we did when we faced an enemy with 10,000 nukes.”
“The number one source of gun violence in America stems from the fact that illegal drugs drive this massive culture of violence. If we want to deal with gun violence, then let’s legalize illegal drugs.”
“The idea of giving poor people money was originally generated by Milton Friedman in 1970, called the negative income tax. Friedman says if you’re going to help poor people – and I believe we need a safety net – don’t give it to the housing lobby, don’t give it to the scooter chair manufacturers, don’t give it vendors of one type or another. Put money into [poor people’s] pocket, and they will make the right decision.”
