BuckeyeBlog

It seems that free speech, like free markets, is under attack in this country. Buckeye Institute Board member Brad Smith discusses the war on free speech under the guise of campaign finance reform in this Reason TV video:

The Goldwater Institute points out, it is Obama, not McCain, who acted conservatively when it comes to campaign finance: Three Cheers for Obama’s Rejection of Government Money for Campaign.

The First Amendment can always breathe a little sigh of relief when campaign finance laws are overruled. Cheers to a Franklin County judge for stepping up.

It’s the second time he’s done it. What’s interesting there is that the first time he did it on the grounds that the procedure of enacting the bill was messy. This time, he chose the “single subject” rule, a concept that a bill should be simple, enacting one thing at a time.

It’d be nicer all around if he could get to the substance and reject the thing on basic, substantive grounds.

And while it’d be nice to have a substantive law of “single subject” legislation, right now it’s closer to a tool that allows judges to overturn things they don’t like and to ignore if it would overturn things they do like.

Wall Street Journal reports that the national business lobbies are slighting John McCain when it comes to campaign donations. Actually, the WSJ reports that the two Democrat presidential hopefuls “have been cleaning his clock among business interests that give mainly to Republicans.”

While much of American business lobbying is supportive of the virtues of free markets, dynamic capitalism and limited government, a large part is also unfortunately directed toward securing the favors of government in the form of corporate welfare, special perks and privileges. While some may read into this news the business community’s sanguine assessment of McCain’s chances this November, I’d remind readers of something Milton Friedman said…

“One of the reasons I am for less government, is become when you have more government, industrialists take it over.”

Perhaps our business friends understand that McCain is someone who won’t so readily provide them the perks, pork and favoritism their donations are intended to buy?