Use of a Trade Magazine As a Political Forum

Chemical & Engineering News is a trade magazine for the chemical industry and academics. The Editor in Chief is Rudy Baum, who is a confirmed socialist. He periodically writes editorials which mostly are politically oriented. I have suggested previously that in view of the magazines purpose, he should be confining himself to matters of chemistry. If he wants to discuss politics, he should run for some political office or become a columnist for some socialistic rag.

In the February 28 issue of C&E News, Rudy writes about the present political controversy concerning the federal budget. In his last paragraph he says, "The current budget debate, you see, isn't really about the budget at all. It's about using the power of the purse to accomplish ideological goals that are unpalatable to most Americans in and of themselves". I usually disagree with most of what Rudy says, but in this case, I agree at least in part with his last statement. Conversely to what he says, the budget debate IS about the budget. The motivation for the debate is about the power of the purse to accomplish ideological goals. I don't understand what he means about the ideological goals being unpalatable to most Americans in and of themselves.

Socialists, also known as Democrats, believe in big government with power to confiscate the assets of private individuals, in order to establish programs which the leaders will supervise to their own advantage. Rudy touches on this by discussing taxes. He says the taxes do three things. Taxes remove money from our pockets, money that we would like to keep possession of, to save, invest, or spend on goods and services of our own choice. He calls that a negative impact of tax. He says a positive impact of taxes is paying for services and institutions, such as defense forces and infrastructure like highway bridges. I can agree with the need for taxes, since it is difficult and sometimes impractical for individuals or private industry to do an effective job in establishing and maintaining military forces for defense and establishing major projects such as a national highway system.

Rudy says the third thing that taxes do is influence behavior. He calls this a good thing, and uses an example of a 29% increase in the budget for Food and Drug Administration "to improve food safety, develop technology for responding to emergency diseases and develop an approval pathway for genetic versions of biologic drugs". I don't see that any of this has a significant relationship to influencing behavior. The practical aspects of higher taxes are to discourage investment in productive enterprises benefiting the public and reduce the incentive for job creation.

Just where Rudy has obtained the background for his socialistic leanings is unknown to me. It is probably not the same as that of President Obama, whose early cultural training was in Indonesia and Hawaii before it became a US state. Whatever the source of Rudy's beliefs, I believe he has a right to hold them. My only objection is that he does not have the right to use a trade journal as a forum for political persuasion.