1-27-2022 School Choice

Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE) Foundation today criticized Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt's attempt to circumvent full-fledged peer review of the Florida Re-Study. The Re-Study project involves scrapping South Florida's current water-delivery system in order to redirect water into the Everglades. Project sponsors, in particular the Army Corps of Engineers, claim the plan is necessary to restore the Everglades ecosystem and to ensure a plentiful, clean water supply for South Florida's residents into the next century.

The American Geophysical Union (AGU) recently announced that its membership supports government action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, despite acknowledging that uncertainties in the science of global warming still exist. That announcement earned sharp criticism today from Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE), a free-market consumer advocacy organization.

Bill Clinton’s January 19th State of the Union Address did much to make Americans more comfortable with the notion that Social Security’s future is dependent upon investing some portion of it in real assets, not paper IOUs, and that workers must be given a choice in how their retirement dollars are to be invested. While these are two sound ideas, he unfortunately came short of fully embracing them. Perhaps out of political necessity, Clinton bowed to his political left by splitting private investment and personal savings accounts apart, opting for a big-government approach to both of these concepts.

At a press conference on the steps of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE) Chairman and former Bush White House Counsel C. Boyden Gray and CSE Foundation's Executive Vice President Matt Kibbe released the results of a Wirthlin Worldwide poll that indicates American consumers are skeptical of the government's case against Microsoft.

The past year has seen Microsoft make headlines across the country, and not just for its new and innovative products. The software giant has found itself the target of an antitrust case by the Department of Justice in conjunction with a number of state attorneys general. The government claims that Microsoft is acting anti-competitively by using its operating system, Windows, as leverage to dominate the market for Internet browsers. However, the government case ignores the fact that computer prices are plummeting and innovation is booming. Consumers can now educate themselves, shop, and even plan their next vacation through their computers. In a situation where prices are falling and consumer benefits are increasing, what is Microsoft's crime? After assessing the dynamics of the marketplace, South Carolina's attorney general, Charlie Condon, dropped out of the case against Microsoft stating, "Innovation should be left to entrepreneurs, not to government bureaucrats or to the courts." Indeed, it is hard to find the benefit to consumers of giving the people who brought us snail mail responsibility over the information superhighway.

Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation 1250 H Street, N.W. Suite 700 Washington, D.C. 20005 Phone: (202) 783-3870 Competitive Enterprise Institute 1001 Connecticut Avenue, N.W. Suite 1250 Washington, D.C. 20036 Phone: (202) 331-1010 December 11, 1998 The Honorable William Kennard Chairman Federal Communications Commission 1919 M St., N.W. Washington, D.C. 20554 Dear Chairman Kennard:

"South Carolina’s attorney general, Charlie Condon, has done consumers and taxpayers a great service by withdrawing from the government’s case against Microsoft," according to Paul Beckner, president of Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation. Commenting on Attorney General Condon’s Dec. 7 announcement, Beckner said, "It’s hard to claim that consumers are being hurt when prices are plummeting and innovation is booming."