Beware of Right-Leaning Control of the Left-Leaning Media
By Donella Meadows
–April 6, 1995–
“The appropriation is gone,” said Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich about the Corporation for Public Broadcasting: “The power of the Speaker is the power of recognition, and I will not recognize any proposal that will appropriate money for the CPB.”
Why not? How could anyone begrudge the piddling public support (19 cents of every $1000 we [...]
Hands Around the Capitol
By Donella Meadows
–March 23, 1995–
This idea was put into my head by Peter G. Brown of the School of Public Affairs of the University of Maryland, and it won’t go away. Just imagine, he said, millions of citizens going to Washington some day, joining hands, surrounding the Capitol Building, and suggesting, ever so politely, that neither the Congress nor the [...]
A Really Outrageous Contract With America
By Donella Meadows
–February 23, 1995–
The good news about the Contract With America is that the Newtniks are kicking at a lot of moss-covered government rocks, asking good questions, shaking things up. The bad news is that they aren’t doing it nearly hard enough.
For example, Congress has finally passed and the president has signed into law what Newt Gingrich calls the [...]
The Government Budget–So How Would You Balance It?
By Donella Meadows
–February 2, 1995–
OK, wise guys.
You want lower taxes. You want the government budget to balance. You think Congress or the White House or both are made up of a bunch of dingalings.
Here’s your chance to straighten them out. Let’s not be like those craven folks in Washington who are putting off budget balancing by going for a Constitutional [...]
Plutocrats Don’t Know What’s Good for Them, Or Us
By Donella Meadows
–October 6, 1994–
The word “plutocracy” comes from the ancient Greek “ploutos,” wealth, and “kratein,” to rule. Rule by the wealthy.
That’s what we have in this nation where it takes a pile of money in the five or six zeros even to think of running for office. There’s nothing inherently wrong with plutocracy — wealthy people are made up [...]
