25 Years Ago at Reason

May 1981

"As of 1978, even if every seat on every Amtrak train were full on every run, Amtrak would still lose nearly $100 million per year."

—Jeffrey Shedd, "Amtrak: Congress's Toy Trains"

"[The Internal Revenue Service] just flat, plain scares most people because [the IRS] wants it that way. It very shrewdly utilizes the unprecedented amount of power it has for that purpose."

—Timothy Condon, "An Open Letter to President Reagan"

"Nor has the Republican victory changed the underlying assumptions held by the political establishment. There are apparently few people who believe that even $50 billion can be cut from the 1982 Carter budget of $700 billion."

—Robert James Lee, "Capital Thinking"

"Although the effects of government regulation may be unrecorded, they are there. Consumers will end up paying higher prices, workers will enjoy fewer job opportunities, or enterprising new producers will be prevented from entering the restricted industry."

—Russell Shannon, "Are Businesses Really Opposed to Big Government?"