29 Mar More Chicken-Little Data Proven Wrong

In the 104th Congress, U.S. Senator Mike DeWine of Ohio led the fight to stop the repeal of the federal 55 mile per hour speed limit. Senator DeWine, a Republican who likes to tell his constituents, at election time, that he supports limited government, apparently loses him mind when he steps onto the Senate floor.

DeWine argued that allowing states to increase speed limits, without the wisdom of big brother to oversee it, would result in horrible traffic deaths. Federal speed-law advocates predicted 6,400 more people would die a year.

Fortunately, Congress did do away with the national speed limit before it lost its nerve to do much else. Now the results are in.

In 1996, even though half the states did increase their speed limits, the death rate on the highways declined. In 1997, it declined again.

Watch this space – next year The DeWeese Report will provide statistics proving Senator DeWine was also wrong when he told his colleagues that his bill, The Workforce Investment Partnership Act of 1997 (S1186), was just a good, responsible, Republican cost-cutting plan – not part of the federal School-to-Work invasion. Careful, Senator DeWine, three strikes and you’re out.