Uncle Miltie

The inevitable tributes to Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman, who has died, will likely conflate his intellectual brand of conservatism with an implied claim that he was the inspiration for Republican party policies in general, and George Bush policies in particular. This would be wrong, not least because Friedman opposed the Iraq war, on the simple ground that it was a war of aggression.

UPDATE: If one was making a list of Friedman's contributions, would the three issues that get the lead emphasis in the White House statement -- school choice, tax reductions, and an all-volunteer army -- be top of the list? Read a typical obit and see how highly they feature.