ELF News Archives
April 2005- The Degradation of the Human Person -
While few Americans are aware of the rise of the State as a unique institution, Europeans have long been preoccupied with it...
Certainly, the 20th century was even more of a tragedy given the recognition of the individual as the primary unit of society for centuries. Since the decline of the profoundly anti-human Imperial Rome, Christianity, scholasticism, and medieval civilization, through their recognition of the objective nature of natural law, had recognized the individual, as possessing "incomparable worth."
Lew Rockwell 4/29
- Bush Supporters Say President Should Offer Social Security Plan -
Supporters of President George W. Bush's plan for Social Security private accounts say he must present a detailed proposal to Congress after Democratic opponents showed little sign of compromise at a hearing yesterday.
Bloomberg.Com 4/27
- 4/27/05 FOX Poll: Most Are 'Pro-Choice' On Social Security; Bush Approval -
As President George W. Bush’s 60-day Social Security (search) tour comes to an end, the latest FOX News poll finds that a large minority of the public is unclear on the voluntary nature of his personal investment proposal. In addition, the poll shows most Americans favor giving individuals the "right to choose" between keeping their Social Security contributions in the current system and putting a portion in an investment account, and just over half say they personally would want the choice to invest some of their contributions.
FoxNews 4/27
- Massachusetts Nursing Home Crisis Recommendations -
The Massachusetts Health Care Task Force has issued an interim report which makes recommendations for dealing with the nursing home crisis in that state. They point out that 25% of the nursing homes in the state are owned by corporations in bankruptcy, all of them large companies which are not based in Massachusetts. People in Massachusetts use nursing homes at a higher rate than the national average, and Massachusetts nursing homes have a larger proportion of Medicaid residents than the national average, both factors that have contributed to the crisis.
Elder Web 4/26
- Why an increasing number of countries are turning to market-based pension plans -
Social insurance was thus born of contemptuous disregard for liberal principles: What mattered was not the well-being of the workers but the well-being of the state. With that animating principle, social insurance necessarily assumed a collectivist character. In particular, it would clearly not do simply to compel workers to provide for their own retirement; funded pensions that actually belonged to the workers would not inspire the proper feelings of dependency and subservience. Far better was the "pay as you go" system in which the government would transfer funds directly from current taxpayers to current retirees.
When such ventures are attempted in the private sector, they go by the name of pyramid or Ponzi schemes and constitute criminal fraud. The essence of a pyramid scheme is that investors’ money is never put to productive use; it is simply diverted to pay off earlier investors. As long as new victims can be found, everything seems to work fine. Eventually, though, the promoters of the scheme run out of new investors, and the whole house of cards collapses.
Elder LifeCare Foundation 4/25
- Study: 50-Somethings Rely on Soc. Sec. -
A group prominent in the fight against President Bush's plan to push for private accounts in Social Security says people near or in retirement are relying increasingly on the federal program, underscoring the need to protect their benefits.
"Real growth in Social Security benefits coupled with real declines in total income mean that people aged 62 and older were even more dependent on Social Security for their retirement income than they were a decade ago," the AARP report said.
ABC NEWS 4/25
- Not Just a Retirement Program: Social Security Is a Civil Rights Issue -
"Protecting Social Security from the President's high risk privatization scheme is critical because it is one of our nation's most fundamental civil rights programs," said Wade Henderson, executive director of LCCR. "Privatization will effectively discriminate against women, Americans with disabilities and minorities by denying them a secure retirement. It will play roulette with the welfare and retirement security of more than 47 million retirees. We will not stand by and let the President undermine the retirement security that so many Americans have spent their whole lives working for or allow cuts to programs that so many Americans count on to make ends meet."
Civil Rights.Org 4/25
- Creating a Comprehensive National Long-Term Care Policy -
This White House Conference on Aging event includes policy-making sessions in which participants delve into long-term care issues and produce policy recommendations.
KaiserNetwork 4/21
- It Pays to Exercise at Any Age: Blue Cross Announces BluePrint for Health Fitness Discounts for Medicare Enrollees -
"Physical activity is so important to good health, no matter what your age. Blue Cross is delighted that we can help seniors be more active," said Dr. Sanne Magnan, a Blue Cross medical director. "As a doctor, I've seen the difference physical activity can make, in helping people be healthier and reducing their medical expenses -- it pays to exercise."
Yahoo Finance 4/21
- Administration Stifles Dialogue on Social Security -
The Bush administration has denied use of public facilities to a group critical of its version of Social Security reform, while using federal resources to pay for propaganda and promotion of its agenda. It refused to allow a women's group to hold a conference on Social Security at the National Archives because they did not have a speaker supporting private accounts. The same week three people were ejected from a federal government supported town hall meeting on Social Security in Colorado because their car had an anti-war bumper sticker.
OMB Watch 4/20
- Ed to Karl: Accentuate the positive! -
...this should be an emotional issue about liberty and opportunity, not solvency dates. The concept of an Ownership Society is brilliant. Unlike the New Deal, the New Frontier or the Great Society, Ownership Society actually means something integral to the essence of America. That essence is a respect for the dignity of the individual, which is axiomatically enhanced when one has more control over one's life. That is what personal accounts provide.
social security choice 4/18
- Social Security This Week: April 15, 2005 -
Santorum: Senate Will Not Drop Personal Accounts; FactCheck.org: Democratic Benefit Calculator Is "Rigged"; Doug
Bandow: Cut Corporate Welfare to Help Finance the Transition
Cato Institute 4/16
- Quality of Life Issue -
HOW TO END THE INCOME TAX AND THE IRS -
Imagine for a moment America without an income tax. No more tedious record keeping of all our expenses. No more April 15th deadlines. No more insufferable complexity and exasperating forms. No more nasty audits, legal loopholes, and intrusive IRS agents. It would no longer be government's business how much money we earn and what we do with it. Such a reform would dramatically change the lives of every one of us for the better.
FSO 4/15
- Social Security debate misses key point: kids -
In the current great debate about Social Security, you hear a lot about retirees and soon-to-retire baby boomers, not much about the 1 in 3 beneficiaries who receive support from other components of the program.
Christian Science Monitor 4/15
- Founders on Taxes -
"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of
opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical. ... A
wise and frugal government...shall not take from the mouth of labor the
bread it has earned. ... Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for
the general welfare but only those specifically enumerated. ... Would
it not be better to simplify the system of taxation rather than to
spread it over such a variety of subjects and pass through so many new
hands?" --Thomas Jefferson
"When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald
the end of the republic." --Benjamin Franklin
The Federalist Patriot No. 05-15 4/15
- Quality of Life Warning -
Cut taxes, cut spending, stabilize the money supply, get out of Iraq, and then shut down all of the Federal regulatory agencies. (Austrian School solution – Cong. Ron Paul and no one else.) Deficits continue to soar under Bush, who is running a $420 billion deficit, plus occasional surprise assessments for the Iraq war, plus the usual $140 billion raid on Social Security.
Lew Rockwell 4/13
- SNAACP criticizes Bush on Social Security -
NAACP leaders Julian Bond and Dennis Courtland Hayes said Bush should focus on addressing the underlying health care reasons why blacks have a shorter life expectancy instead of citing it as a reason they should support his idea of private accounts.
Seattle Post Intelligencer 4/11
- Can sunlight help elderly nursing home residents sleep better? -
People need to receive about 30 to 60 minutes of exposure to direct sunlight for sleep patterns to improve,
Medical News Today 4/11
- State looks to shift long-term care costs -
The bad news for families who thought they could have it all - get nursing home care and still leave a nest egg for adult children - is that doing so will likely be increasingly difficult.
MLive.Com 4/11
- Social Security This Week: April 8, 2005 -
Cato's Ed Crane to White House: Ownership Is the Key;
Rove Rejects Add-Ons, Says Reform Must Feature PRAs; Hubbard: PRAs Help Workers while Helping the System;
Leanne Abdnor Challenges Women's Groups to Debate PRAs
Cato Institute 4/08
- Public Sends Mixed Messages on Social Security Reform -
Americans express a desire for political leaders to move more quickly on Social Security legislation, but at the same time assign a higher priority to several other issues, including terrorism, gas prices, and healthcare costs.
Gallop News 4/06
- Daschle says financial security a key to freedom -
Conservatives are missing part of the picture when they argue that freedom means only freedom from government, former U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle said Tuesday.
AP Wire 4/06
- Social Security the focus of Sen. Grassley's "Town Meeting" -
When U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley held a 'town meeting" in Logan Monday, the 60-plus people attending got his point: Social Security needs to be reformed.
Missouri Valley Times 4/04
- The Death of Social Security" -
First, Social Security is a blight on liberty. It extracts a big chunk of the pay of working people to benefit the retired. The vast majority of Americans are perfectly able to handle their own retirement savings, just as they buy their own food, clothes, and shelter.
Second, Social Security creates a vast moral hazard. Since its implicit message is “Don’t worry—Uncle Sam will protect you in your old age,” it’s a huge encouragement to spend rather than to save for your own or your family’s needs.
Third, Social Security is a terrible retirement system, a Ponzi scheme that was inevitably going to collapse of its own weight. Instead of a conventional retirement account, with real assets accumulated over time, it was constructed as a pay-as-you-go plan: Current workers pay the bills of current retirees. (There’s a small amount left over for a so-called trust fund, which predictably has become a piggy bank for the rest of the government.)
Reason Magazine 4/04
- Polls show split on Social Security -
The AARP -- the powerful lobbying group formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons that represents 35 million people older than 50 -- released a poll last week that showed that 59 percent of its members either strongly opposed or somewhat opposed the creation of private accounts...."Their polls are completely manipulated surveys intended to reinforce views they have politically. For anyone to believe anything in any AARP poll would be a mistake."
Washington Times 4/04
- Social Security This Week: April 1, 2005 -
The Hill: Democratic Lawmakers Attempt a Bait and Switch; Mike Tanner: Ownership, Inheritability, and Choice Are Key;
White House Remains Committed to Personal Accounts
Cato Institute 4/02
- National health insurance: the wrong Rx -
As it happens, the real-world consequences of single-payer healthcare -- also known as socialized medicine or national health insurance -- are well-documented. Single-payer care exists in Canada, New Zealand, Great Britain, and much of Western Europe. And wherever it has been tried, writes John C. Goodman, president of the National Center for Policy Analysis, ''rationing by waiting is pervasive, putting patients at risk and keeping them in pain.''
Boston.Com 4/01
- The AARP vs. reform -
The AARP has made it known that they will fight any plan by the President or Congress to privatize Social Security in any degree. They obviously believe that their constituents are more entitled to taxpayer money than the taxpayers themselves. Their personal retirements are somehow more important than the retirements of others. “The Greatest Generation” that fought WWII and their powerful lobbies are now targeting America’s youth in the political battle of today.
Town Hall 4/01