“A short history of airport security: We screen for guns, so the terrorists use box cutters. We confiscate box cutters, so they put explosives in their sneakers. We screen footwear, so they try to use liquids. We confiscate liquids, so they put plastic explosives in their underwear. We roll out full-body scanners, even though they wouldn’t have caught the Underwear Bomber, so they put a bomb in a printer cartridge. We ban printer cartridges over 16 ounces — the level of magical thinking here is amazing — and they’re going to do something else. This is a stupid game, and we should stop playing it.” — Bruce Schneier, security technologist and author of several books on computer security, in an editorial he wrote for the New York Times entitled “Do Body Scanners Make Us Safer? A Waste of Money and Time”

According to the Government Accountability Office, the federal government operates 50 different programs for the homeless. There are 23 programs in housing, 26 for food and nutrition, 130 for at-risk youth. They also operate an astounding 342 programs for economic development, which government is notoriously bad at anyway.

Official Washington has gone completely unhinged. Our leaders have convinced themselves the cure for our economic woes is to pump out incomprehensible sums of money for no particular purpose in the vague hope that something good will result. Reasonable prudence, common sense and the lessons of history have been brushed aside.

D.J. Diebold, in his weekly letter last Friday, begins with a pithy observance, that "the measure of an enlightened society is how they care for the less fortunate and the most vulnerable." He then gets off-track and starts to rant about the state government and his topic for the week.

Candidates for Mesa’s March 9 city election disagreed on the role of city government Monday in back-to-back forums.

I’ll shut off my air conditioning if the government goes first.

I’ll shut off my air conditioning if the government goes first.

The coming election kept them from putting their votes where their mouths were, but those Democrats were right who said there ought to be spending cuts to offset the tax cuts the U.S. Senate extended by a 97-3 tally Thursday.

Government spending has exploded on President Bush's watch. Despite his campaign promises of a leaner government, Bush has presided over new records in federal spending and borrowing.

President Barack Obama will reportedly use his State of the Union address to call for a five-year freeze on all discretionary government spending outside of national security.

WASHINGTON - Consumer spending slowed to the weakest pace in six months in February, while incomes grew at the slowest rate since November.

WASHINGTON - Consumers boosted their spending by the largest amount in six months and the back-to-school shopping season also got off to a strong start this summer.

WASHINGTON - Consumers worried about a possible war with Iraq and their own financial prospects trimmed spending in January - the first such rollback in four months - and manufacturing slowed in February, sending a pair of trouble signs for an already struggling economy.

WASHINGTON - Consumer spending slowed to a crawl and personal incomes plunged in July, reflecting the waning impact of $93 billion in economic stimulus payments.

The railroads are some of the oldest businesses and neighbors in the East Valley. So it’s fair to say that practically everyone who lives near a set of railroad tracks knew — or should have known — what the environment would be like.

WASHINGTON - Shoppers spent more freely in July, raising hopes that June’s economic lull would not last. The Commerce Department reported Monday that consumers, key shapers of U. S. economic activity, boosted spending by 0.8 percent in July from the previous month

Don't sneeze at federal deficits, but don't suppose that they can be reduced by one technique alone — high taxes — nor that high taxes have no negative, growth-subduing consequences which afflicti only the comfortable. They are also enemies of the jobless and poor.

A top Cave Creek school official defended the idea of raising property taxes for school improvements as opponents of the spending plan grew more vocal.

A top Cave Creek school official defended the idea of raising property taxes for school improvements as opponents of the spending plan grew more vocal.

WASHINGTON - Consumers rediscovered their appetite for shopping in June, boosting spending by a strong 0.8 percent. It was fresh testament to the economy's momentum as it headed into the third quarter.

WASHINGTON - Consumers, battered by surging gasoline prices, cut back spending for clothes, cars and other items in April, raising worries about the already weak economy.

WASHINGTON - Consumer spending rose at the slowest rate in five months in March while construction activity managed only a tiny gain, weighed down by further weakness in housing.

July 16 was Cost of Government Day, according to Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform. The average American worked until July 16 to pay a share of all the costs government imposes on us which now consume 53.9 percent of national income. This is the latest in the year that the day has fallen since 1992.

 “President Bush is the first president to accomplish what?”