Free Republic

"We should have secured the Mexican border." That could be the pitiful lament we hear from negligent U.S. officials if Al Qaeda pulls off an attack on the United States using weapons of mass destruction smuggled across our southern frontier. Were that horrendous event to happen, leaders in the administration and Congress would be justly hit with the same question that was perhaps unjustly cast at them and their predecessors after the unprecedented Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks: Why didn't they connect the dots? This time, they will have no good answer. We have seen warning signs: Al Qaeda wants...

...[O]ur indictment here is of the conditioned cowardice of the health-care policy community at large. How can you expect better of Mr. Kerry when the arbiters of good policy... judge candidate health plans by a single criterion: Which would commit the most resources to health care? There not being unlimited funds to spend on health care, Mr. Kerry's plan would only speed the day when politicians, no longer able to write blank checks with the private sector's money, would face directly the choice of whether to curb consumption or raise taxes to pay for it. That's the job description of...

...Basic problems remain the same, however. And so do many of the proposed solutions. In Washington, Democrats continue to push statist prescriptions to America's health care ills; at the state level, legislatures experiment with them. It would be easy, thus, to assume that while Hillary Clinton lost the battle, she is winning the war.... Tomorrow, President Bush shouldn't just emphasize HSAs (which Sen. Kerry, incidentally, opposes). He can map out further reforms that will make health insurance more affordable: • Tax fairness. While employer contributions to health insurance are non-taxable, individuals must pay in after-tax dollars. Leveling the tax field...

Health savings accounts are a clever way to let you control your own medical costs, choose your own doctors and save money, too. And they're coming soon to an employer near you. Much of the credit goes to Rick Santorum, Pennsylvania's junior U.S. senator. Santorum has been pushing HSAs and their older cousin, medical savings accounts, through Congress since 1991. Q: What exactly is a health savings account? A: It's similar to an IRA or an education savings account, which is a tax-free account. In other words, it's money you can divert from your paycheck, and your employer can put...

Did Saddam Hussein use any of his ill-gotten billions filched from the United Nations oil-for-food program to help fund Al Qaeda? Investigations have shown that the former Iraqi dictator grafted and smuggled more than $10 billion from the program that for seven years prior to Saddam’s overthrow was meant to bring humanitarian aid to ordinary Iraqis. And the Sept. 11 Commission has shown a tracery of contacts between Saddam and Al Qaeda that continued after billions of oil-for-food dollars began pouring into Saddam’s coffers and Usama bin Laden declared his famous war on the U.S. Now, buried in some of...

Group Runs Anti-Kerry Ads on Black Radio Stations By Thomas B. Edsall Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, August 12, 2004; Page A01 A group financed by a major Republican contributor has begun running radio ads in about a dozen cities, many in battleground states, attacking Sen. John F. Kerry as "rich, white and wishy-washy" and mocking his wife for boasting of her African roots. The D.C.-based group, People of Color United, has substantial financial backing from J. Patrick Rooney, the former chairman of Golden Rule Insurance Co. and the founder of a new firm, Medical Savings Insurance Co. Both firms...

Health Care: Opposition to medical savings accounts has often been based on the claim they'd do nothing to help the 40 million Americans who are uninsured. But new data show the claim to be groundless.Critics also said that only the rich and young would have MSAs. Those most in need of health care — the poor and the elderly — would remain in need. But the critics were wrong. Their concerns have not materialized.Health savings accounts — based on what were once known as medical savings accounts — have been available to every American only since Jan. 1. But that's...

By Bart A. Basi and Roman A. BasiIndustrial DistributionJuly 1, 2004   No, your eyes are not playing tricks on you, the title of this story does indeed say "decreasing." The Medicare bill that was signed into law on December 8, 2003 established a new and innovative insurance program for employers and employees called an "HSA", otherwise known as a Health Savings Account. This revolutionary vehicle will help many employers, large and small, save taxes and save money on health insurance premiums.What is an HSA? An HSA is a tax-exempt account that is created for the purpose of paying qualified...

MSNBC is reporting that US Air Marshals are reporting that air passengers are frequently pointing the Marshals out to other passengers. I have played spot-the-Marshal for over a year now. Guess how I spot them... The Air Marshal's management requires them to travel in freshly pressed suits with ties plus brightly shined shoes. In these days when most people fly in comfortable clothes, a fit, a clean cut man in a suit and tie sitting in the back rows of First or Economy stands out like a sore thumb. This reminds me of REMFs who decided that our Special Forces...

Health accounts heal pocketbooksSupporters praise new tool, but some see disparity By Tyler Pearson, Medill News Service Last Update: 6:09 PM ET May 19, 2004 WASHINGTON (CBS.MW) -- Congress received a glowing report Wednesday on the new Health Savings Accounts, including an endorsement from Treasury Secretary John Snow, but at least one dissenter said the plans create a two-tier system the benefits younger, healthier workers. "Individuals should be able to manage some of their own health care dollars through accounts they own and control," said John Goodman, president of the National Center for Policy Analysis, a think tank that promotes...

The Health Savings Account was hidden away in the prescription drug bill passed by Congress last December. But unlike the seriously flawed drug plan, the Health Savings Account is an exciting concept that could make health insurance available -- affordable -- for millions of Americans who aren't covered by an employer plan. It's a concept so new that the insurance industry is just gearing up to make it available. Health Savings Accounts combine inexpensive, high-deductible health insurance plans with a tax-advantaged savings account. "Tax-advantaged" is a new phrase, appropriate because this new account has so many different tax benefits. Aside...

Remarks by the President on Access to Health Care Presidential Hall Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building THE PRESIDENT: Thank you for being here. Please be seated. Thanks for coming. If you're wondering who these characters are behind me, these are people who have just shared their stories about what it means to be an employer or employee and facing rising costs of health care. The cost of health care is an issue in our country, and we must deal with it in a rational way. And that's what I want to discuss with you today. I want to thank...

Maybe health care would be cheaper if the customer actually paid for it. "Starting this year, millions of Americans will be able to save money tax-free for their medical expenses, in a health savings account," declared President George Bush in his State of the Union speech. He clearly knows that health care will be the top domestic issue in the 2004 presidential campaign. Why? Because health spending in the United States soared by 9.3 percent in 2002, the largest increase in 11 years, according to a report from U.S. Health and Human Services officials in the journal Health Affairs. (The...

Congress is still negotiating a major Medicare prescription drug bill, but it looks like the Health Savings Account may be one item that's a keeper. Free market critics of the Medicare Prescription Drug and Modernization Act warn, however, that it won't be enough to win their support for the new $400 billion drug benefit. "I have no reason to believe that we are going to be taken out. And I expect that we will be in the final package," said Dan Perrin, executive director of the Archer MSA Coalition, a group headed by former House Ways and Means Chairman Bill...

<p>House Republicans say a key issue to their support of the final Medicare prescription-drug bill is the creation of health savings accounts for individuals.</p> <p>The House attached to its Medicare prescription-drug bill a separate proposal that would create private tax-free accounts individuals could use to save for their health costs, but it isn't included in the Senate version.</p>

Signing any health bill Robert Novak WASHINGTON -- As Congress reconvenes this week, conservatives are pushing a scenario that makes the best of inevitable prescription drug subsidies: The Senate-House conference would retain the House bill's market elements. That would collapse the Senate's big bipartisan majority, perhaps producing a 50-50 tie to be broken by Vice President Dick Cheney. There may be, however, a surprising obstacle: George W. Bush. The White House has made clear the president will sign any prescription drug bill arriving from Capitol Hill. Bush thereby has removed himself as a player in an epochal battle over this...

<p>The House yesterday passed, on a 425-2 vote, a bill that will spend $29.4 billion for the Department of Homeland Security, while Democrats complained that the amount fell "dangerously short" of protecting the nation from terrorist attacks.</p> <p>Rep. Harold Rogers, Kentucky Republican and chairman of the House Appropriations homeland security subcommittee, lauded the "largest reorganization of the federal government in 50 years" and insisted that the government was doing all it could to fight terrorism.</p>

Hiding Behind the FlagGOP Assaults on Privacy Drives More Wealth Offshore! by John Gaver May 18, 2003   "The Executive Orders, regulations, and laws enacted over the past year in the name of “anti-terrorism” constitute the greatest single governmental assault on personal and financial privacy in American history.  But there are safe, legal...indeed, wise...steps you can take to grow your wealth and better protect your assets and privacy overseas and offshore."So begins a recent promotion that I received, advertising an exclusive series of private seminars on international real estate, tax law, banking, and investment, aimed at the wealthy and very...

Monday, March 17, 2003 Judge: 'Dirty Bomber' Can See LawyersBy Patricia Hurtado Staff WriterMarch 11, 2003, 1:48 PM EST Jose Padilla (AP File Photo) A federal judge in Manhattan has again rejected a government's request to ban an American ex-con charged with conspiring with al-Qaida in a dirty bomb plot from meeting with his lawyers.U.S. District Court Judge Michael Mukasey had previously ruled in December that Jose Padilla, designated an "enemy combatant" by the government, does have a right to meet with the court-appointed lawyers....At January's hearing, Mukasey assailed government lawyers for resisting his order.