[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 133 (Wednesday, December 6, 2006)]
[House]
[Pages H8793-H8798]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
HONORING THE LIFE OF MILTON FRIEDMAN
Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to
the resolution (H. Res. 1089) honoring the life of Milton Friedman.
The Clerk read as follows:
H. Res. 1089
Whereas Milton Friedman earned a degree in economics from
Rutgers University, and later earned a master's degree from
the University of Chicago and a doctorate degree from
Columbia University;
[[Page H8794]]
Whereas Doctor Milton Friedman is widely regarded as the
leader of the Chicago School of economics, and the developer
of the theory of monetarism that stresses the central
importance of the quantity of money as an instrument of
government policy and as a determinant of business cycles and
inflation;
Whereas Doctor Friedman's writings and ideas have
influenced Presidents, other world leaders, entrepreneurs,
and students of economics, and he gave himself generously to
public service as an economic adviser to Senator Barry
Goldwater's campaign for the presidency in 1964, Richard
Nixon's presidential campaign in 1968, the Nixon
Administration, Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign,
and the Reagan Administration as a member of President
Reagan's Economic Policy Advisory Board;
Whereas Doctor Friedman is a 1976 Nobel Laureate economist
and received the John Bates Clark Medal in 1951 honoring the
top economists under the age of forty, the Grand Cordon of
the First Class Order of the Sacred Treasure by the Japanese
government in 1986, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in
1988, the National Medal of Science in 1988, and honorary
degrees from universities in the United States, Japan,
Israel, and Guatemala;
Whereas Doctor Friedman's ideas were the model for the free
market reforms undertaken in eastern European countries as
they emerged from communist domination in the early 1990s,
helping extend the blessings of prosperity to millions who
had long been denied them;
Whereas Doctor Friedman was a prolific producer of both
scholarly and popular articles, essays, books, and broadcast
media, including the books Capitalism and Freedom and Free to
Choose, tri-weekly columns for Newsweek, commentaries in the
Wall Street Journal, and two multi-part Public Broadcasting
Service television series;
Whereas Doctor Friedman was one of the world's foremost
champions of liberty, not just in economics but in all
respects;
Whereas Doctor Friedman will be remembered both as one of
the most influential economists in history and as one of the
twentieth century's greatest heroes of freedom; and
Whereas Doctor Milton Friedman died on November 16, 2006,
in San Francisco, California, at the age of 94 of heart
failure: Now, therefore be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives, on the
occasion of the death of Doctor Milton Friedman--
(1) mourns Doctor Friedman's passing and expresses its
deepest condolences to his family, including his widow Rose
Friedman, who is herself an accomplished economist and was
instrumental in co-authoring some of his major works; and
(2) honors Doctor Friedman's lifetime of achievements and
recognizes his outstanding contributions to freedom, the
study of economics, the United States of America, and the
world.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Ohio (Mr. LaTourette) and the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis) each
will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Ohio.
General Leave
Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their
remarks and include extraneous material on the resolution under
consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Ohio?
There was no objection.
Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Widely acclaimed as the leader of Chicago's School of Economics,
Milton Friedman's achievements in the fields of economic science and
public policy were remarkable. He was the recipient of the 1976 Nobel
Memorial Prize, the 1988 Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the 1988
National Medal of Science, just to name a few. In the early 1990s,
Eastern European countries emerging from communism modeled their new
free market economies after his teachings.
He was a champion of individual freedoms as well and wrote
extensively on the subject throughout his career. Presidents such as
Ronald Reagan called on Dr. Friedman for his expertise and advice, and
universities in the United States, Japan, Guatemala, and Israel all
awarded him with honorary degrees.
Dr. Friedman passed away on November 16 of this year. And for his
leadership, achievements, and countless contributions both politically
and economically, I hope all Members will join me today in honoring his
life and legacy.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, on November 16 the world lost one of its preeminent and
influential economists and thinkers of our time. Dr. Milton Friedman is
most commonly associated with his theories of monetarism, his devotion
to the free market that sought to turn the Keynesian economic
revolution on its head, and his visions of an international economic
system that is free of pegged and fixed exchange rates.
Friedman's top achievement, among many, was his Nobel Prize in
Economics, which he was awarded in 1976. And while many of his
achievements are well known, some of his lesser known accomplishments
make him an intriguing figure. One of the abstractions Friedman
developed in his famous work, ``Capitalism and Freedom,'' was the
concept of the negative income tax credit, or the modern-day earned
income tax credit. This abstraction advances the idea that people who
earn less than a certain amount of money should receive money from the
government. Friedman also was a key member of the White House
Commission on White House Fellows from 1971 to 1973. But most of all,
Milton Friedman was devoted to the centrality of freedom in domestic
and international affairs.
And although Friedman was born to humble beginnings as a first-
generation American, he rose to become the leader of the Chicago School
of Economics. The Chicago School is regarded around the world as an
institution that produces outstanding economic scholarship and rigorous
theory. Milton Friedman's name will hold a permanent place in economic
debate, and so I am pleased and delighted to be in support of this
resolution.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, at this time it is my pleasure to yield
4 minutes to the author of the resolution, Mr. Stearns of Florida.
(Mr. STEARNS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, on November 16 of this year, America and
the world lost not only a brilliant economist but a towering giant of
an unbounded vision for freedom. Dr. Friedman was widely recognized
worldwide for his economic explanations and philosophies of government
and markets. Beyond pure economic analysis, Dr. Friedman promoted
liberty and choices in all areas. I am honored to have the opportunity
to commemorate his life with this resolution to honor him and have
enjoyed collaborating with the distinguished gentleman from New Jersey.
House Resolution 1089 outlines his academic, publishing, and prize-
winning accomplishments. I will not relist them here. There is so much
to say.
Dr. Friedman's economic prescription advocated we steadily,
constantly stabilize the growth of money supply, then more or less just
stay out of the way, leaving the economy to the free creative choices
of millions of productive individuals, households, and businesses,
rather than one micromanaging government. Milton Friedman put
individuals, not bureaucrats at best or despots at worst, in the
driver's seat.
Essentially we admire him for espousing that economic freedom is
necessary for political freedom. And today few would argue that
Friedman's ideas went from being seen as radical to now being fully
accepted. Most successful countries rely on monetary policy as their
chief stabilizing tool. Some shining examples are borne out in Eastern
Europe nations that not so long ago dwelled under the Iron Curtain. I
think a cartoon that was printed in the Christian Science Monitor in
1990 by Danziger sums it up pretty well. It says ``Statue of Milton
Friedman is erected in Poland in place of Whathisname.'' And of course
it depicts a collapsed Lenin on his face with a lady chortling ``Hah!''
at the broken statue while other Poles are pulling up a smiling,
bespeckled Milton Friedman statue and they have crossed out ``Lenin''
and carved ``Uncle Miltie'' on the statue base.
My colleagues, his crowning achievement was establishing with his
wife the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation, based in Indianapolis,
Indiana, for the purpose of promoting educational choice and reform for
parents and their children. School choice continues to be
[[Page H8795]]
passionately debated today; yet experiments from the District of
Columbia to my own State of Florida, under Governor Jeb Bush's lead,
demonstrate great promise in liberating educational opportunities for
all. We have done this successfully for colleges since World War II
with the Montgomery GI bill. So why should we deny school choice for
kindergartners through senior high school students here in America?
And, finally, my colleagues, I cannot end a tribute to Dr. Friedman
without also honoring his wife of 68 years. Rose was his classmate,
partner economist, fellow radical for freedom, and, I daresay, the love
of his life. I know she and children David and Janet and their
grandchildren mourn their beloved Milton but are at peace knowing they
contributed to this great man who contributed just so much to the
multitudes in this country. For me when I think of the values not only
Milton Friedman and his wife promoted, I am moved by this paragraph
from the Friedmans' memoirs, ``Two Lucky People.'' Mr. Speaker, this
sentiment is bigger than partisan politics. It is more profound than
the Washington interest group agenda. It marvelously illustrates
optimism for what America could be.
`` . . . So we close this book full of optimism for the future in the
belief that those ideas will prevail and that our children and
grandchildren will live in a country that continues to advance rapidly
in material and biological well-being and gives its citizens ever wider
freedom to follow their own values and tastes so long as they do not
interfere with the ability of others to do the same.''
Milton Friedman, well done. Rest in peace.
{time} 1330
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I would like to yield such time
as he might consume to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer).
Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my colleague from Illinois
permitting me to speak on this resolution.
Mr. Speaker, I think it is appropriate for us to pause and reflect on
the many contributions of Milton Friedman. At any point we have great
thinkers who challenge conventional wisdom. It is appropriate to honor
Prof. Friedman. There are some who credit him as the founder of the
Chicago School of Economics. There are others who see that he was a
free market paragon. I see him as a symbol of what can be done
intellectually if people are thinking about the future of problems and
creative about solutions.
Milton Friedman understood that, at core, we had a problem in this
country with poor people who were poor. They didn't have enough money.
He also had suspicion about the various bureaucratic responses that
government has assembled over time. And he had presented a provocative
proposal to have a guaranteed annual income, a flat basic amount that
everybody would be entitled to, regardless of what they did or who they
were, that would be cheaper and more effective to administer, that
would actually deal with the problem of poor people that they didn't
have money. It would reduce the interference in their lives and allow
them to respond to a lot of the pressures that we typically associate
with how families react.
This was something that was actually briefly considered by the Nixon
administration, discarded because it was a little radical at the time.
The costs were somewhat uncertain, although Friedman was convinced that
in the long run it would actually be cheaper.
This was the inspiration for the earned income tax credit, which is
probably the single most effective mechanism, in a Reagan era, that
Republicans and Democrats could get behind to reduce poverty. It helped
people in a cost-effective way, diminishing the disincentives for work,
and was something for which Mr. Friedman never really fully received
the acclaim that was deserved by him. This has affected millions of
lives in ways that people on both sides of the aisle of a variety of
different philosophical perspectives could feel comfortable with.
I think there is also a lesson here, Mr. Speaker, because there are
many problems that face us on the floor of this House, that don't have
to fall in neat little boxes in a philosophical or a partisan way. We
are looking for example, Mr. Speaker, at the investment in agriculture
in this country, in a way that cries out for reform. We are spending
$23 billion in a year of record-high farm prices.
Now, if my friends on the Republican side and my friends on the
Democratic side would think of the teachings and the spirit of Milton
Friedman, we could bring people together in a bipartisan way to reform
this Depression-era set of programs that is not really an agricultural
policy. The ``Freedom to Farm'' bill is observed in the breach, not its
actual implementation. We can design a Friedman approach that would be
better for the taxpayer, that would be better for the environment, that
would actually help individual family farmers more effectively and more
directly.
It is but one example that I think, that I hope we can tackle as we
move into a new Congress. Perhaps with a new spirit, with a change in
the rules so that people will actually be able to more fully and fairly
debate on the floor of the House of Representatives, that we can take
things like this that can bring the right and the left, the
conservative and the liberal, Republicans and Democrats, together to
solve problems in a way that will be better for the American people,
and we will be better as an institution.
It is with great respect that I join in support of the resolution in
honoring Milton Friedman and his career, and I hope that the next
Congress is willing to embrace the spirit of his creative mind to be
able to do some things that actually we can all agree on need to be
done.
Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, at this time it is my pleasure to yield
2 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Garrett).
Mr. GARRETT of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I thank you for the
opportunity to join with my colleague, Mr. Stearns, to bring this
resolution to the floor today. Dr. Milton Friedman is surely a man that
is worthy of the honor of this House.
You know, it took courage, it took honor, and it really took genius
for Dr. Friedman to challenge the prevailing thought and economic
theories of his day. His meticulous economic analysis presented in his
books and his lectures and his talks convinced leaders here in the
United States, and around the world as well, that inflation could be
controlled and it could be controlled through careful control of money
supply. That is a theory that has been proven true by the policies of
our past Fed chairmen over the last several decades.
Dr. Friedman was known for his ability to defend his theories, to
defend the free market ideas with both clarity and grace as well. He is
considered a friend of all the economists of the day, Keynesians and
socialist economists as well, but he used their critiques to sharpen
his own theories. He was on TV for a while in a television series, Free
to Choose, and Dr. Friedman introduced his free market concepts to a
truly popular audience. He proved himself unafraid to defend himself in
the marketplace of general ideas as each segment of this, what was a
10-segment-part program, contained a vigorous debate among politicians
of the day, economists and historians as well.
See, Milton Friedman stood, first and foremost, for freedom. He had
an earnest belief that a free society is truly a strong society.
So now, fast forward to today. Now, at a time when our freedoms in
this country and around the world are under attack, we must defend
ourselves from those who would enslave mankind, and we should do so by
remembering Dr. Friedman and his intellectual defense of liberty.
Remember his long and vibrant life. And we also give our lifelong
condolences to his family that he has left behind. He was truly an
intellectual giant, and we will all miss him for his abilities and
contributions to this world, to this country, and the freedoms that we
enjoy today.
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I don't believe that I have any
additional requests for time. But simply, as a resident of Chicago
where Milton Friedman did a great deal of his work, we were always
immensely proud of him, and I am very pleased to support this
resolution.
Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to yield 2 minutes to
the gentleman from California (Mr. Rohrabacher).
[[Page H8796]]
Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to a friend, a
mentor, and a true hero of American liberty and a champion of liberty
and justice for all of humankind. The death of economist and
libertarian spokesman, Dr. Milton Friedman, last week silenced a
powerful voice in the public debate over the role of individual liberty
in our society.
As a young man who first became active in politics while I was in
high school in the mid-1960s, one of the very first writers who helped
shaped my ideas was Milton Friedman in his classic work, ``Capitalism
and Freedom.'' Its powerful message of a respect for individual
liberty, private property, and limited government inspired me as a
young activist in the Youth for Goldwater at that time, I might add,
and then again a couple of years later in Youth for Reagan, and
continued to guide me as I became a speech writer for President Ronald
Reagan and a Member of the United States Congress.
Dr. Milton Friedman was always a creative and innovative thinker. I
might add, he was a decent and wonderful warm-hearted human being as
well, a man who openly challenged the underlying premises of stateism
and of socialism and of the authoritarian impulses that we have often
found in politics. His critiques of government schooling, taxation
policies, welfare state policies, Social Security, of agricultural
subsidies and the rest, all of these predicted long ago the problems
that we are having right now with those very same policies; of what
they have brought upon our society, the challenges, the tremendous
challenges we face because we used those policies and that model as a
solution to uplifting the well-being of our fellow Americans.
Last week Milton Friedman's voice was silenced by death, but as long
as his writings are read and his ideas cherished, the principle of
individual personal economic liberty will remain strong in the United
States and around the world.
And I would submit for the Record a statement, an exchange, between
Milton Friedman and General Westmoreland over the issue of a volunteer
Army and the draft. I would submit that for the Record as an example of
the clear thinking and principles, I think, of Milton Friedman.
In his testimony before the commission, Mr. Westmoreland
said he did not want to command an army of mercenaries. Mr.
Friedman interrupted, ``General, would you rather command an
army of slaves?'' Mr. Westmoreland replied, ``I don't like to
hear our patriotic draftees referred to as slaves.'' Mr.
Friedman then retorted, ``I don't like to hear our patriotic
volunteers referred to as mercenaries. If they are
mercenaries, then I, sir, am a mercenary professor, and you,
sir, are a mercenary general; we are served by mercenary
physicians, we use a mercenary lawyer, and we get our meat
from a mercenary butcher.''
Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to support H. Res. 1089, a
resolution honoring Milton Friedman. Milton Friedman was one of
America's greatest champions of liberty. Launching a career as a public
intellectual at a time when dissenters from the reigning Keynesian
paradigm where viewed as the equivalent of members of the Flat Earth
Society, Milton Friedman waged an oftentimes lonely intellectual battle
on behalf of free markets and individual liberty in the fifties and
sixties. As the economic crisis of the seventies caused by high taxes,
high spending, and inflation vindicated Friedman's critiques of
interventionism, his influence grew--not because he moved to the
mainstream but because the mainstream moved toward him. Friedman served
as an advisor to Presidents Nixon and Ford and as a member of President
Reagan's Council of Economic Advisors. In 1976, Friedman was awarded
the Nobel Prize in economics.
Milton Friedman's most notable contributions to economic theory where
in the area of monetary policy. His 1963 work A Monetary History of the
United States 1857-1960, coauthored with Anna Schwartz, was among the
first works to emphasize the role Federal Reserve policy played in
causing the Great Depression. As Friedman said, ``The Great Depression,
like most other periods of severe unemployment, was produced by
government mismanagement rather than by any inherent instability of the
private economy.''
Friedman's work showed that inflation is not a result of markets but
is, as he memorably put it, ``always and everywhere a monetary
phenomenon.'' Friedman was the major originator and theoretician of
monetarism. Friedman recommended restricting the Federal Reserve's
authority to increasing the quantity of money by a fixed yearly amount.
While monetarism is far from the ideal free-market monetary system,
Milton Friedman deserves credit for focusing the attention of
economists on the Federal Reserve's responsibility for inflation.
While he is mainly known for his contributions to economic theory and
his advocacy of free markets, Milton Friedman considered his advocacy
against the draft, cumulating in his work as a member of President
Nixon's Commission on an All-Volunteer Force, his major policy
achievement. Milton Friedman's opposition to the draft was in part
based on economic principles, but was mainly motivated by his moral
commitment to freedom. I ask unanimous consent to insert the attached
article, ``Milton Friedman: A Tribute,'' by David R. Henderson, which
details Milton Friedman's efforts against the draft, into the record.
Unlike many free market economists who downplay their opposition to
government of encroachments on personal liberty in order to appear
``respectable,'' Friedman never hesitated to take controversial stands
in favor of liberty. Thus Friedman was one of the most outspoken
critics of the federal war on drugs and an early critic of government
licensing of professionals. Friedman also never allowed fear of losing
access to power stop him from criticizing politicians who betrayed
economic liberty. For example, his status as an advisor to President
Richard Nixon did not stop him from criticizing Nixon's imposition of
wage and price controls.
Milton Friedman's greatest contribution to liberty may have been his
work to educate the public about free market economics. Milton
Friedman's 1962 work Capitalism and Freedom, introduced millions of
people to the freedom philosophy, and it remains one of the most
popular, and influential, pro-freedom books in the world.
In 1980, Milton Friedman collaborated with his wife Rose on a
television series, Free to Choose. The series, and the accompanying
best-selling book, remain among the best introductions to the benefits
of economic liberty, and rivals Capitalism and Freedom in popularity.
One of my favorite moments of the show is when Milton Friedman compares
the robust free market economy of Hong Kong with the then stagnant
economy of communist China.
On a personal note, I was honored to receive Milton Friedman's
endorsement of my congressional campaign in 1996. One particular quote
from his endorsement exemplifies how Milton Friedman's commitment to
the free market was rooted in a recognition that a society that
respects the dignity and worth of every individual is impossible
without limited government, private property, and sound money: ``We
very badly need to have more Representatives in the House who
understand in a principled way the importance of property rights and
religious freedom for the preservation and extension of human freedom
in general . . .''
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to pay tribute to Milton Friedman's
tireless efforts on behalf of human liberty, and I urge all my
colleagues to join me in supporting H. Res. 1089.
[From ANTIWAR.COM, Nov. 20, 2006]
Milton Friedman: A Tribute
``In the course of his [General Westmoreland's] testimony,
he made the statement that he did not want to command an army
of mercenaries. I [Milton Friedman] stopped him and said,
`General, would you rather command an army of slaves?' He
drew himself up and said, `I don't like to hear our patriotic
volunteers referred to as mercenaries.' But I went on to say,
`If they are mercenaries, then I, sir, am a mercenary
professor, and you, sir, are a mercenary general; we are
served by mercenary physicians, we use a mercenary lawyer,
and we get our meat from a mercenary butcher.' That was the
last that we heard from the general about mercenaries.''--
Milton and Rose Friedman, Two Lucky People, Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1998, p. 380.
In May 1970, a few days after graduating from the
University of Winnipeg with a major in mathematics, I flew to
Chicago to look into getting a Ph.D. in economics at the
University of Chicago. While there, I went to visit Milton
Friedman and he invited me into his office. I had a sense
that he had been through this routine before--talking to an
idealistic young person showing up and wanting an autograph
on his copy of Capitalism and Freedom and, beyond that,
simply wanting to meet and talk to him. But he didn't treat
our meeting as routine; we had a real talk for about 10
minutes. When I told him that I'd initially been attracted to
libertarianism by reading Ayn Rand, he told me that while
Rand was well worth reading, there were many other people
worth reading too, and I shouldn't get stuck on her. He also
stated, ``Make politics an avocation, not a vocation.'' Both
were good pieces of advice.
The advice didn't stop there. I ended up getting my Ph.D.
at UCLA and going to my first academic job as an assistant
professor at the University of Rochester's Graduate School of
Management. From then on, I wrote Milton a couple of times a
year and he always wrote back, sometimes writing in the
margins of my letter to comment on my
[[Page H8797]]
questions and thoughts. When I contemplated my first major
career change--leaving academia to work at a think tank--he
advised me strongly against it (I didn't take this advice),
referring to himself as my ``Dutch uncle.'' I had never heard
the term before and didn't bother to look it up until writing
this piece, but I understood what he meant from the context:
a Dutch uncle is someone who gives you tough love, holding
you to high standards because of a benevolent regard for your
well-being.
But here's the bigger point: with his steady and passionate
work to end the military draft, Milton Friedman was the Dutch
uncle of every young man in the United States. Or even
better, he was like a favorite uncle that they'd never even
met. He cared more for them than any president, any general,
or any defense secretary has ever cared. How so? Because he
wanted every young man to be free to choose whether to join
the military or not.
Milton Friedman's work against the draft began in December
1966, when he gave a presentation at a four-day conference at
the University of Chicago. Various prominent and less-
prominent academics, politicians, and activists had been
invited. Papers had been commissioned, and the authors gave
summaries, after which the discussion was open to all.
Fortunately, the discussion was transcribed. The papers and
discussions appear in a book edited by sociologist Sol Tax
and titled The Draft: A Handbook of Facts and Alternatives.
The invitees included two young anti-draft congressmen,
Robert Kastenmeier (D-Wisc.) and Donald Rumsfeld (R-Ill.),
and one pro-draft senator, Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.). Also
attending were pro-draft anthropologist Margaret Mead and
anti-draft economists Milton Friedman and Walter Oi. Friedman
gave the general economic and philosophical case for a
voluntary military in his presentation, ``Why Not a Voluntary
Army?'' Friedman pointed out that the draft is a tax on young
men. He stated:
``When a young man is forced to serve at $45 a week,
including the cost of his keep, of his uniforms, and his
dependency allowances, and there are many civilian
opportunities available to him at something like $100 a week,
he is paying $55 a week in an implicit tax. . . . And if you
were to add to those taxes in kind, the costs imposed on
universities and colleges; of seating, housing, and
entertaining young men who would otherwise be doing
productive work; if you were to add to that the costs imposed
on industry by the fact that they can only offer young men
who are in danger of being drafted stopgap jobs, and cannot
effectively invest money in training them; if you were to add
to that the costs imposed on individuals of a financial kind
by their marrying earlier or having children at an earlier
stage, and so on; if you were to add all these up, there is
no doubt at all in my mind that the cost of a volunteer
force, correctly calculated, would be very much smaller than
the amount we are now spending in manning our Armed Forces.''
Reading through the whole Sol Tax volume, with all the
papers and transcripts of the discussion, I had the sense
that there was a coalescing of views over the four days, as
people from various parts of the ideological spectrum found
that they had in common a strong antipathy to the draft and
found also that the economists made a surprisingly strong
economic case. Both Friedman's speech and his various
comments at the conference still make compelling reading. One
of his best rhetorical flourishes was his criticism of the
charge that those who advocate ending the draft are
advocating a ``mercenary'' army. You'll recognize the same
kind of argument he used against Westmoreland in the lead
quote of this article. Friedman said:
``Now, when anybody starts talking about this [an all-
volunteer force] he immediately shifts language. My army is
`volunteer,' your army is `professional,' and the enemy's
army is `mercenary.' All these three words mean exactly
the same thing. I am a volunteer professor, I am a
mercenary professor, and I am a professional professor.
And all you people around here are mercenary professional
people. And I trust you realize that. It's always a puzzle
to me why people should think that the term `mercenary'
somehow has a negative connotation. I remind you of that
wonderful quotation of Adam Smith when he said, `You do
not owe your daily bread to the benevolence of the baker,
but to his proper regard for his own interest.' And this
is much more broadly based. In fact, I think mercenary
motives are among the least unattractive that we have.''
(p. 366)
In the margin of my 35-year-old, dog-eared copy of the Sol
Tax book containing this passage, I wrote one word: ``Wow!''
This is rhetoric at its best, a tight argument passionately
stated. When I read this at about age 18, just a year before
meeting Friedman in his office, I felt cared-for.
Fortunately, being Canadian, I wasn't vulnerable to the
draft. But I had the thought that if I had grown up in United
States, I would be so thankful that here was this man,
himself well beyond draft age and who could probably figure
out how to get his son out of the draft, and yet who cared
enough to be out in front on this issue.
Two of Friedman's comments about this conference are worth
noting. Writing some 30 years later, Friedman noted that the
74 invited participants ``included essentially everyone who
had written or spoken at all extensively on either side of
the controversy about the draft, as well as a number of
students.'' (Two Lucky People, p. 377.) Friedman's other
comment is also worth citing:
``I have attended many conferences. I have never attended
any other that had so dramatic an effect on the participants.
A straw poll taken at the outset of the conference recorded
two-thirds of the participants in favor of the draft; a
similar poll at the end, two-thirds opposed. I believe that
this conference was the key event that started the ball
rolling decisively toward ending the draft.'' (p. 378.)
Friedman didn't stop there. He wrote a number of articles
in his tri-weekly column in Newsweek making the case against
the draft. Friedman was one of 15 people chosen for Nixon's
Commission on the All-Volunteer Force. By his estimate, five
started off being against the draft, five in favor, and five
on the fence. By the end, the Commission was able to come out
with a 14-0 consensus in favor of ending the draft. Black
leader Roy Wilkins, in a Feb. 6, 1970 letter to Nixon, stated
he had been unable to attend many of the meetings due to a
major illness and, therefore, could not support its specific
recommendations; Wilkins did state, however, that he endorsed
the idea of moving toward an all-volunteer armed force. (The
Report of the President's Commission on an All-Volunteer
Armed Force, New York: Collier Books, 1970; letter from Roy
Wilkins.)
It was at one of these meetings that Friedman put
Westmoreland on the spot with his comeback about slaves.
Knowing that Friedman was persuasive and focused and also a
warm human being, I credit him with having swung at least a
few of the Commission members in his direction. And although
Nixon took his sweet time acting on the recommendations,
finally, at the start of his second term, he let the draft
expire.
Friedman kibitzed in his Newsweek column, never letting up.
He once wrote that the draft ``is almost the only issue on
which I have engaged in any extensive personal lobbying with
members of the House and Senate.'' (Milton Friedman, An
Economist's Protest, 2nd ed., Glen Ridge, N.J.: Thomas Horton
and Daughters, 1975, p. 188.)
And Friedman stuck around as an opponent of the draft when
the going got tough. In the late 1970s, high inflation caused
a serious drop in real military pay and a consequent increase
in difficulty meeting recruiting quotas. Of all the threats
to bring back the draft in the last 32 years, the threat in
1979 to 1980 was the most serious. Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) held
hearings with the goal of building support for the draft and,
at least, registration for a future draft. Hoover economist
Martin Anderson organized an important conference on the
draft at the Hoover Institution in November 1979 and invited
the top proponents and opponents of the draft. (For the
papers and transcript of the discussion, see Martin Anderson,
ed., Registration and the Draft: Proceedings of the Hoover-
Rochester Conference on the All-Volunteer Force, Stanford,
California: Hoover Institution Press, 1982.) Friedman was one
of the attendees and, at the end, debated Congressman Pete
McCloskey on the draft. It was actually the weakest
performance I've ever seen by Friedman, but Friedman's
``weak'' is still pretty good.
In 1980, in response to the threat from Sam Nunn, I wrote
and circulated the following ``Economists' Statement in
Opposition to the Draft'':
``We, the undersigned, oppose moves toward the reimposition
of the draft. The draft would be a more costly way of
maintaining the military than an all-volunteer force. Those
who claim that a draft costs less than a volunteer military
cite as a savings the lower wages that the government can get
away with paying draftees. But they leave out the burden
imposed on the draftees themselves. Since a draft would force
many young people to delay or forego entirely other
activities valuable to them and to the rest of society, the
real cost of military manpower would be substantially more
than the wages draftees would be paid. Saying that a draft
would reduce the cost of the military is like saying that the
pyramids were cheap because they were built with slave
labor.''
Friedman's speed at signing made it much easier, I'm sure,
to get the signatures of almost 300 other prominent and not-
so-prominent economists, including Kenneth Boulding, Harold
Demsetz, David Friedman, Alan Greenspan, Donald McCloskey,
William Meckling, Allen H. Meltzer, James C. Miller III,
William A. Niskanen, Mancur Olson, Sam Peltzman, Murray
Rothbard, Jeremy J. Siegel, Vernon Smith, Beryl W. Sprinkel,
Jerome Stein, and James L. Sweeney.
The statement, with about 150 signatures, was published as
a full-page ad in Libertarian Review, Inquiry, and The
Progressive.
Milton Friedman and I had our differences about foreign
policy. I tried, in vain, to persuade him to be against the
first Gulf war. Even there, though, he publicly supported, in
an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, my economic
argument against the war. He stated, ``Henderson's analysis
is correct. There is no justification for intervention on
grounds of oil'' (Jonathan Marshall, ``Economists Say
Iraq's Threat to U.S. Oil Supply Is Exaggerated,'' San
Francisco Chronicle, Oct. 29, 1990.) Friedman did oppose
the second Gulf war, as evidenced in an interview in the
Wall Street Journal, in which he called it, correctly,
``aggression.'' (Tunku Varadarajan, ``The Romance of
Economics,'' Wall Street Journal, July 22, 2006; page
A10).
As far as I know, though, Friedman did not oppose the
second Gulf war publicly when it mattered most--that is,
before the March 2003 invasion. But on the draft, Friedman
never wavered. For that, many young American men owe him a
lot.
[[Page H8798]]
Two weeks ago, I attended a conference in Guatemala at
which it was announced that Friedman had had a bad fall and
was in the hospital. The person who announced it, Bob
Chitester, producer of the Friedmans' 1980 television series,
Free to Choose, handed out buttons that read, ``Have you
thanked Milton Friedman today?'' Thanks, Uncle Miltie.
Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I have no additional speakers, and I
yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. LaTourette) that the House suspend the rules
and agree to the resolution, H. Res. 1089.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds of those voting having
responded in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and the
resolution was agreed to.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________