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The Cato Institute seeks to broaden the parameters of public policy debate to allow consideration of the traditional American principles of limited government, individual liberty, free markets and peace. Toward that goal, the Institute strives to achieve greater involvement of the intelligent, concerned lay public in questions of policy and the proper role of government.

• Bill of Rights Day
  

  In 1941, President Roosevelt declared December 15 to be Bill of Rights Day, commemorating the 150th anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights. Today, the Cato Institute would like to remind you that, while we ought to be alarmed by the various ways in which the government is attempting to go under, over, and around our Bill of Rights, the battle will never be "won." The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.

  • "Power Surge: The Constitutional Record of George W. Bush," by Gene Healy and Timothy Lynch
  • "The Blessings of Liberty and Law," by Roger Pilon
  • "Upholding Liberty in America," by Edward H. Crane and William A. Niskanen

• Make a Year-End Gift to Cato
  

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• Legal Trends in Bioethics
  

  Cato scholar Sigrid Fry-Revere authors a regular column in the Journal of Clinical Ethics that examines recent developments in the courts and legislatures across the country, and discusses their potential impact on bioethics and health care. In her most recent article, Fry-Revere looks at oversight and regulation of the drug and device development processes, reporting requirements on hospitals for patient infection rates, abortion rights, and other topics.

• Cato Launches Innovative Web-based Freedom Programs for World Audience
  

  The Cato Institute believes that the promotion of the classical liberal ideals of liberty, free markets and peace is an essential effort. As a result, on December 12, Cato launched six innovative foreign-language web-based programs. These new programs will publish in Chinese, Portuguese, French, Persian, Kurdish, and on the continent of Africa in English and Swahili. They join our other three highly-successful programs in Spanish, Arabic and Russian. In addition to the sites, the various teams publish books, syndicate articles to the print media, and organize seminars for students, conferences for policy makers, and much more.

  • Cato International: Cato's Non-English Sites
  • "Giving Tanks," by John Fund, The Wall Street Journal

• Wage Growth and Social Security
  

  The conventional view that faster wage growth would improve Social Security's financial condition rests on several measures which have a short-term orientation that skews calculations. In "The Connection between Wage Growth and Social Security's Financial Condition," Cato scholar Jagadeesh Gokhale evaluates the connection by more comprehensive means and concludes that although faster wage growth is desirable in and of itself to increase general prosperity, it would likely worsen Social Security's overall financial condition. As such, early reforms of Social Security should receive higher priority under faster wage growth.

• The Case against Regional Growth-Management Planning
  

  Growth-management tools such as urban-growth boundaries, adequate-public-facilities ordinances, and growth limits all drive up the cost of housing by artificially restricting the amount of land available or the number of permits granted for home construction. In "The Planning Tax: The Case against Regional Growth-Management Planning," Cato scholar Randal O'Toole argue that this is, in effect, a planning tax that increases the costs of retail, commercial, and industrial developments as well as housing.

• The Public Education Tax Credit
  

  Educational freedom can most effectively be realized through nonrefundable education tax credits — for both parents' education costs for their own children and taxpayer donations to nonprofit scholarship funds. In "The Public Education Tax Credit," Cato scholar Adam B. Schaeffer argues that tax credits enjoy practical, legal, and political advantages over school vouchers.

• Putin's Party Wins Controversial Election
  

  Russian President Vladimir Putin's United Russia Party handily won parliamentary elections Sunday, guaranteeing him a parliamentary seat and allowing him to extend his influence when his presidential term ends in 2008. Cato scholar and former Putin advisor Andrei Illarionov argues: "The Russian parliamentary election became illegal and unlawful even before its official start. It meets none of the criteria of a free, fair, and democratic election. In effect it is not even an election."

  • Read Illarionov's full statement

• Chávez Plan Defeated
  

  Venezuelans on Monday rejected a democratic referendum that would have allowed President Hugo Chavez to seek re-election indefinitely and tightened socialism's grip on the nation. Cato scholar Ian Vásquez comments: "The rejection by a majority of Venezuelan voters of Hugo Chavez's proposal to turn their country into a socialist state is a signal to all of Latin America that the leftist leader does not in fact embody the aspirations of his people."

  • Read Vásquez's full statement
  • "Hugo Choice," by Gustavo Coronel, National Review (Online), November 30, 2007
  • "Corruption, Mismanagement, and Abuse of Power in Hugo Chávez's Venezuela," by Gustavo Coronel, Development Policy Analysis no. 2, November 27, 2006

• Supreme Court To Hear Landmark Case
  

  The Supreme Court announced in November that it will decide a landmark lawsuit concerning the constitutionality of the District of Columbia's ban on guns. Cato scholar Robert A. Levy comments: "That's good news for all Americans who would like to be able to defend themselves where they live and sleep. And it's especially good news for residents of Washington, D.C., which has been the murder capital of the nation despite an outright ban on all functional firearms since 1976."

  • Read Levy's full statement
  • "Unholster the 2nd Amendment," by Robert A. Levy
  • Supremes to Hear Second Amendment Case, featuring Robert A. Levy, 11/20/2007 (MP3 )