JAMES C. CAPRETTA and ROBERT E. MOFFIT
Opponents of Obamacare insist they want to "repeal and replace" the disastrous law before it takes full effect in 2014. But most of these opponents have focused far more on "repeal" than on "replace," and as a result the substance of an alternative health-care reform law has yet to be fully articulated. Policymakers can differ on the particulars of a reform plan, but any effective solution must include a few key principles and elements — all of which lead toward the creation of a true market in health care.
JOHN J. DIIULIO, JR.
Americans say they want smaller government, but balk at making actual cuts to the services and benefits they enjoy. As a result, our government has been steadily growing for half a century, increasing in both reach and expense. Today, few Americans realize how enormous the scope of our government really is — and thus how difficult it will be to scale back. 
ADAM J. WHITE
The U.S. Constitution divides federal power among three governing branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. And yet many of the most important decisions in Washington today are not made by the president, by Congress, or by the courts. Rather, they rest in the hands of supposedly "independent" regulatory agencies — with leaders appointed by the president, confirmed by the Senate, and answerable to no one. From the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, how did these extra-constitutional agencies come to exercise such authority? And can they really lie beyond the elected branches' power to control?
TIMOTHY B. LEE
Because of the internet's unique structure and design, government regulators have been able to take a largely hands-off approach. The result of this freedom has been enormous innovation, and thus greater prosperity for millions of Americans. Today, however, the increasing consolidation of internet service providers threatens that architecture — and, with it, the basic economics of the internet. If consolidation continues unchecked, heavy-handed regulation may be the only way to save the internet. Much better would be to take less intrusive preventive steps now — keeping the internet competitive while avoiding damaging government interference.
HOWARD DARMSTADTER
The Supreme Court's 2010 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission has stoked anxiety about the role of corporate money in politics, especially as we head into the 2012 election. But are these concerns justified? A careful look at the Citizens United decision offers some useful insights into the complex and important question of free speech as it relates to American politics, and into the role money plays in both.
PETER WEHNER and ROBERT P. BESCHEL, JR.
The American left is convinced that income inequality is the fundamental economic, social, and political problem of our time. But when we consider the nature and causes of inequality, as well as the economic and moral issues at stake, focusing on gaps between rich and poor turns out to be a distraction. A far better project would be addressing the truly grave problem in America today — low social mobility — and nurturing an opportunity society in which Americans of every class can make the most of their talents.
JAY COST
The astonishing growth of the American economy since the end of World War II has allowed for an implicit agreement between the left and the right: Liberals get to increase spending, conservatives get to cut taxes, and the growing economy (mostly) pays for the difference. But today, after a decade of weak growth and anemic tax revenues, the bill is coming due. What does the end of this grand bargain mean for American politics? And what happens when the focus of our debates changes from who gets what to who loses what?
GEORGE WEIGEL
The past few years have not been kind to the liberal project to strip the public square of moral truth and religious influence. Mute in the face of injustice, and unable to account for the foundations of the human rights it claims to defend, that project has begun to shed its facade of "tolerance." What is being revealed underneath is a corrosive relativism — one that explains many of the issues central to the 2012 election.
JAMES Q. WILSON
James Q. Wilson, the pre-eminent American political scientist of the past half-century, passed away on March 1st at the age of 80. To honor Wilson's memory, and to bring his work to a new generation of readers, we reprint here one of his earliest contributions to The Public Interest. Originally published in the Winter 1967 issue, this essay was Wilson's first extended public meditation on the question of bureaucracy, which was to become one of his foremost interests.
