Free Republic

Blue Dogs look beyond '08 electionBy PATRICK O'CONNOR | 6/11/08 4:50 AM EST Democrat Jim Cooper is focused on the federal government’s swelling financial obligations. Photo: John Shinkle Rep. Jim Cooper never misses a chance to talk about the federal government’s swelling financial obligations. But the Tennessee Democrat clams up when asked about a conversation he had on the topic with his party’s likely presidential nominee, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. “I’ll let his campaign speak to his position on this issue,” Cooper says. Cooper’s silence is understandable: Although the party that takes power next year will have to address deficit...

Canadians are losing faith in the health care system and are open to the possibility of private initiatives if their access to quick and effective treatment does not improve, according to a new survey. "If Canadians are not reassured that timely access is eventually going to happen, their support for this private option is likely to increase," said Marie Larose, vice-president of POLLARA Research, which conducted the 2005 Health Care in Canada Survey. "If politicians are not able to demonstrate that there are solutions, people are more and more going to turn to other answers." Fifty per cent of respondents...

The end to 111 years of stamp production by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) came without any public ceremony in the same 14th Street building where many of the nation's most famous stamps have been printed. Workers pulled a final roll of 37-cent flag stamps from an aging, four-color Andreotti press on the fourth floor. That simple act terminated a once-thriving business that the Treasury Department agency had monopolized for decades.

Gov. Richard J. Codey is working on a plan to bolster the state's Transportation Trust Fund with a temporary increase in the gasoline tax and additional money generated by privatizing the New Jersey Turnpike or Garden State Parkway, according to a published report. The Record of Bergen County, citing an unnamed administration source, reported in Thursday's editions that the plan calls for a small gas tax increase to be pushed through shortly after the Nov. 8 election. The increase would be rescinded or phased out after the lease deal is signed and begins to generate cash. The Transportation Trust Fund...

I am in favor of space access: the sooner the better, the more the better, and, especially, the cheaper the better. Here are some policy options that I have ranked according to the benefit/cost ratio. 1. Encourage other nations to sell their launches at marginal cost instead of just for “government launches” as espoused in the U.S. Space Transportation Policy (STP). Russia has surplus ICBMs. We should be grateful they are beating their swords into plowshares. We should encourage them to harvest their surplus equipment for cash to worthy Western buyers who want access to space so that they do...

Bush plan to follow Texan lead in ending social security splits US The island of Galveston, just off the Gulf coast of Texas, does not have a happy place in American history. In 1900 it was the site of the worst natural disaster in US history, a hurricane that killed more than 6,000 people. Half a century later two ships laden with fertiliser exploded, incinerating 600 locals and levelling much of Texas City on the other side of Galveston bay. Now Galveston is in the process of becoming famous once more. No one has been killed this time, but the...

ON THE EVENING OF FEBRUARY 10, the board of directors of WETA-FM, the only commercial-free classical music station in Washington, D.C., voted overwhelmingly to eliminate its music and arts programming. At the end of this month, someone will flick a switch and--thud!--WETA will fall to earth as just another all-news, all-talk station, and the nation's capital will be left without a public radio station devoted to beautiful and intelligent music.WETA's transformation is a blow to the cultural life of the Washington metropolitan area, of course, which despite its succulent demographics in income and education levels has always struggled to maintain...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top Democrat in the Senate on Tuesday predicted that President Bush's plan to revamp social security by diverting taxes into private investment accounts would fail to pass Congress. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid was speaking as Bush prepared to use his State of the Union address on Wednesday to argue for his proposals and then follow up with a five-state tour to campaign for the new investment accounts. "President Bush should forget about privatizing Social Security," the Nevada Democrat said. "It will not happen. The sooner he comes to that realization, the better off we are."...

IN HIS inaugural address, President George W. Bush invoked the name of my grandfather, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, as part of his campaign to privatize Social Security. Similarly, a political organization supporting that drastic change recently ran a television commercial using a newsreel clip showing President Roosevelt signing the Social Security Act into law. The implication that FDR would support privatization of America's greatest national program is an attempt to deceive the American people and an outrage. President Roosevelt founded Social Security for very basic but important reasons. He believed that the only enemy that could ever defeat the United...

The government of Qatar is pushing forward with plans to privatize al-Jazeera, the popular and controversial Arab television network that has often drawn the ire of U.S. administration officials, a network spokesman said. Details of the plan are yet to be worked out and await a feasibility report that should be completed in coming months, said Jihad Ballout, a spokesman in the Qatari capital of Doha. Al-Jazeera is highly popular in the Arab world but has repeatedly drawn criticism from the Bush administration about its coverage of the war in Iraq and other hot-button issues in the Middle East. Pressure...

BY THE NUMBERS: SOCIAL SECURITYAmericans Understand Social Security Crisis And Support Personal Retirement Accounts____________________________________________________________________________________________________________“The Survey Suggests That Democratic Leaders May Be Out Of Step With Their Rank And File On The Severity Of The Problems Facing Social Security.”  “Those leaders are attempting to thwart Bush’s plans by saying there is no immediate crisis.  But two-thirds of all Democrats said they worry that there is not enough money to keep Social Security funded until they retire.”  (Richard Morin and Dan Balz, “Political Divisions Persist After Election,” The Washington Post, 1/18/05)“A Clear Majority Of Americans … Support The President’s Proposal To Allow...

Has Berkeley — a known bastion of liberalism — become enamored of privatization? A recent Los Angeles Times article about the University of California, Berkeley Law School might have you believe so. Last Monday it stated that the school’s dean, Christopher Edley Jr., wanted to privatize the school, in part. The story said Mr. Edley’s plan was “unusual for a liberal law professor who served in the Carter and Clinton administrations.” But Mr. Edley told The New York Sun that the Times’s headline — “UC Law School Needs to Privatize, Dean Says” — was “terribly misleading.” “I need private resources...

I was looking at this post from Mark Cuban on Social Security privitization and was suprised by its belligerent tone and ignorant argumentation. He makes a couple of points: 1. The nasty brokers will screw people over with bad investment products and high commissions. 2. People expect the government to bail them out, so they will take on high risks and lose their money. The big problem with Mark's arguments here is that he compares Social Security with private accounts as if they are the same thing. Social Security is not your personal account. You have no rights to the...

Time to Personalize Social Security While we have all heard of the Enron scandal, along with other fleecing of employees and the public by large corporations, we often forget to consider the great pyramid scheme run by our own government, which would make even Charles Ponzi green with envy. That is today's Social Security "plan." There have been rumblings from the administration about aggressively moving forward, changing the character of SS to personalized accounts for younger workers. That's a big step in the right direction. Now I'm not a "gloom and doomer," believing that SS will go bankrupt or...

Declaring rising pension debt a "ticking time bomb," a California legislator proposes converting public employee retirements from a traditional defined-benefit system to the 401(k)-style plans held by most American workers. Employees hired by a public agency after July 1, 2007, would automatically be enrolled in the new contribution plan proposed by Assemblyman Keith Richman (R-Northridge). The plan would make pension payments for public agencies more predictable and potentially lower costs, he said. Although the measure would not affect the 1 million workers now employed by the state, local governments and school districts, Richman expects the bill to meet stiff resistance...

...The third rail has been losing its juice for years. Bush came out in favor of individual accounts during his race in 2000. And, in the 2002 congressional elections, in every race where Social Security was a major issue, candidates favoring reform won. In fact, those results are simply a reflection of the strong and continued public support for reforming Social Security. A recent poll for the Annenberg Public Policy Center found that 56 percent favor letting workers invest some of their Social Security contributions in the stock market, compared to only 36 percent opposed. Another survey by Rasmussen Reports...

We're getting close to Election Day 2004 and the Kerry campaign is feeling the stress. Even with 90% of the media acting like an arm of the Kerry campaign, Kerry is still losing. Of course, Kerry's neighbor (at one of his mansions), a fellow named George Soros, got himself into the act by contributing about $18-million to the socialist committees of darkness in the background. The dark side thought they could use the money to defeat Bush this year by being extremely negative. Silly Soros, all he did was make a few political pikers rich. Oh, and it went far...

THE POODLE'S GETTING DESPERATE Here we are two weeks from Election Day and all John Kerry can do is run around the country telling us all the evil things George Bush is going to do if he is reelected. What about the Kerry plan? What is his positive message for the future of America? Why isn't John Kerry telling us of all the wonderful things he will do? Well, there's a slight problem. The Kerry Plan is an empty vessel. He knows it. The Poodle's campaign is running on doom and gloom and non-stop fear mongering. First up, it's this...

Skyway jackpot for city Lease deal to bring $1.82 billion By Gary Washburn Tribune staff reporter Published October 16, 2004 The Chicago Skyway, a financial albatross for the late Mayor Richard J. Daley when he built it more than four decades ago, has become a golden goose for his son the mayor. In a windfall that comes at a critical time for the cash-strapped city, Mayor Richard M. Daley announced Friday that a Euro-Australian joint venture has agreed to pay a whopping $1.82 billion--with the money upfront--to lease and operate the skyway for the next 99 years. But the bad...

Would you sign a contract that enabled the other party to change the terms of that contract at will, while you could neither stop him nor make any changes of your own? Probably not. Yet that is exactly what happens when you pay money into Social Security. No matter what you were promised or at what age you were supposed to get it, the government can always pass a new law that changes all of that. But you still have to pay into the system. A private annuity plan run by an insurance company is legally required to pay you...