Julian Sanchez replies:
It's a bit odd to criticize ideological opponents for being willing to lie for a good cause and then imply that I ought to have done the same thing. This publication certainly has not been shy in exposing Bellesiles' far more egregious academic wrongdoing; see Joyce Malcolm's March cover story, "Disarming History."
In any event, Taras Wolansky is correct that Lott's pseudonymous pecadilloes are at worst embarassing. If his scholarly reputation has suffered, it's due to his own dodgy use of numbers -- something others were already reporting on when I picked up the story. As for the brandishing survey, it's worth noting that if it existed, a question on which I remain agnostic, it was surely irresponsible to make a broad statement about national brandishing and firing rates without mentioning that the sample size was far too small to support such generalizations.
Bureaucratic Response
In "Bureaucratic Enrichment Zones" (May), Jesse Walker repeated the common fallacy that "by the time zone enthusiast Jack Kemp became HUD secretary in 1989, the idea had changed to the point where new federal subsidies were part of the mix."
Nothing could be farther from the truth. When I was at HUD, enterprise zones were designed to reduce tax barriers to employers who would locate and invest within the zone. The purpose was to demonstrate the efficacy of reasonable tax policy, with the added benefit of "green lining" specific zones to bring business and investment into economically distressed areas. This would serve two further purposes: to provide incentives for job creation and plant the seed for long-term community wealth formation and broader national reform.
Coincidentally, Empower America details the demise of the original intent of enterprise zones under the Clinton administration's Empower Zone/Enterprise Community initiative in a new white paper, "National Enterprise Zones of Choice," available online at www.empower.org/docs/ea/EnterpriseZones031903.pdf. Instead of continuing failed tax-subsidy boondoggles of the previous administration, we encourage Congress and the administration to embrace National Enterprise Zones of Choice, based on sound fundamental tax policy to demonstrate the power of tax reform and to illustrate policies that will help end economic dependency.
Jack Kemp, Director
Empower America
Washington, D.C.
Jesse Walker replies: Even before Clinton, enterprise zone proposals were bundled with federal spending. The "Weed and Seed" initiative that the first President Bush pushed after the L.A. riots, for example, specifically directed federal funding for police and social services to "areas designated Enterprise Zones." If Clinton spread the money further, it was because he stood on the shoulders of giant spenders.
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