Free Republic

July 31 marks the 93rd birthday of the world's foremost living economist, Milton Friedman. Winner of the Nobel Prize for Economic Science, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the National Medal of Science, Friedman advances the principles of individual choice by popularizing ideas that include school vouchers and private retirement accounts. Through essays, speeches, and books such as Capitalism and Freedom, and Free to Choose, Friedman champions the ideas of liberty. "Milton Friedman has done more than defend freedom as an abstract ideal," President George W. Bush recently said, "He has creatively applied the power of freedom to the...

President Bush plans to overhaul his economic team for the second time in two years and wants to tap prominent figures outside the administration to help sell rewrites of Social Security and the tax laws to Congress and the country, White House aides and advisers said over the weekend. The aides said the replacement of four of the five top economic officials -- including the Treasury and Commerce secretaries, with only budget director Joshua B. Bolten likely to remain -- is part of Bush's preparation for sending Congress an ambitious second-term domestic agenda.