ELF News Archives
January 2005- Government -
"Social Security reform promises to be the biggest domestic issue
this year in Washington, but most of the proposals are nothing more
than flim-flam. The only honest solution to the future insolvency of
the program is for Congress to stop spending so much money. Unless
Congress makes real cuts in spending -- and stops spending Social
Security taxes on completely unrelated programs -- millions of Americans
simply will not receive even a fraction of the money they paid into
Social Security. Ignore the rhetoric about tax increases and cuts
in benefits, as though you are to blame for the problem! All Social
Security obligations could be met if Congress did not spend so much on
other things." --Rep. Ron Paul
The Federalist 1/31
- Social Security redesign debated -
...the older generation cares deeply. Members of Cary's AARP chapter are devoting their monthly meeting Tuesday not to local history, their favorite topic, but to Social Security. AARP has eight chapters in the Triangle and 930,000 members in the state, united in the desire to fight President Bush's plan to restructure the social insurance program.
News Observer 1/31
- Social Security This Week: January 28, 2005 -
Cato/Zogby Poll: Majority of Americans Support Individual Accounts for Social Security; Republicans: AARP Poll Deeply Flawed; Moore: Making the Case for Social Security Reform
Cato Institute 1/31
- Medicare's Problems Make Social Security's Pale by Comparison -
Reforming Social Security is only the first step in the Bush administration's effort to ease the federal government out of entitlement promises it has made to aging Americans. Medicare reform is next.
NNS 1/26
- Republicans Skeptical of Bush Social Security Plan -
A key Senate Republican raised questions Sunday about President Bush's proposal for overhauling Social Security, underscoring the heavy political lifting the president faces in selling even members of his own party on a plan to let younger workers put a portion of their payroll taxes into private investment accounts.
LA Times 1/24
- Will Investors Support Social Security Reform? -
A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, conducted Dec. 17-19 of last year, showed that 8 in 10 Americans feel it is extremely or very important that the president and Congress deal with Social Security reform in the year ahead. Clearly, the public seems to endorse President Bush's view that it's once again time for the nation to grapple with this so-called "third rail" of American politics.
Gallop 1/24
- Congress weighs package deal to reform taxes, Social Security -
Since winning re-election in November, President Bush has been promising to tackle two huge issues in 2005: restructuring Social Security and reforming the tax code.
Plan A is to focus on Social Security early in the year, and then move on to tax reform in the fall.
But last week, key congressmen floated a radical Plan B: combing the two issues into a historic effort to simultaneously refresh Social Security's depleted funding and clean up a tax system widely condemned as confusing and anti-growth.
Palm Beach Post 1/24
- The Death of Social Security: A Modest Proposal -
Sixty-five years of Social Security has accomplished its goal. It has weakened individual initiative and responsibility. Social Security has turned adults of all ages into children who are afraid of controlling and directing their own property. Better that someone "smarter" than them, such as Social Security bureaucrats, controls everything for them, these people implicitly believe.
Lew Rockwell 1/24
- Notable Thought!-
The world's economic planners think of countries as governments; i.e., cabals of powerful individuals who regard the people and their property as their own, to regulate, limit and control (those are synonyms for govern) as they will.
Jeffrey or Jesus?
by Paul Hein
Lew Rockwell 1/21/2005
- Making Socialism Work Better? -
How our ancestors survived in their old age prior to Social Security still remains a mystery for most Americans today....assuming they ever think about it at all. Some politicians even today have been known to declare that their own parents would probably have starved but for Social Security. Incredible!
..."the State is that great fiction where everybody believes he can live off of everybody else through the political process."
Lew Rockwell 1/21
- Bush May Have Trouble Winning Support on Social Security Overhaul -
Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr says that the Bush Social Security plan may be a hard sell, even to Republicans.
NPR 1/20
- Pension security vs. harm to the marketplace -
Journalism sometimes involves reporting to readers the considerable importance to them of something they never knew existed. Such as the 30-year-old Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. Its existence may be necessary, but it causes ``moral hazard,'' and is pertinent to the debate about how to guarantee the benefits of the biggest pension system, Social Security.
Mercury News 1/20
- Panel: Trim payments for Medicare services -
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission last week voted to recommend a cut in Medicare payments promised to hospitals and a freeze in payments to nursing homes and home-care agencies in 2006. The panel also voted to recommend to Congress a 2.7 percent increase in Medicare payments to doctors.
IndyStar 1/19
- A higher birthrate breeds social security success -
The Trents are part of a demographic phenomenon in the US unmatched in any of its major trading partners: Americans are having more babies. That trend, combined with an annual inflow of immigrants that is more than the rest of the developed world combined, is undercutting President George W. Bush's argument for reforming the social security system.
The New Zealand Herald 1/19
- The USA PATRIOT Act: Treason masquerade -
Its existence is couched in uncomfortable images of two towers collapsing in flames and therefore has the protection of mass hypnosis. People think it is good. They believe in the wisdom of its name. They see nothing wrong with “fighting terrorism.” And while it is true that there is nothing wrong per se with fighting terror, there is something very wrong with fighting terror when terror is defined as who plays bingo at the Fort Lauderdale Senior Citizen’s Center, who is part of Act Up, or who subscribes to The Progressive.
Unknown News 1/19
- The Tax-Reform Racket -
Let us examine the proposal to create what are called private investment accounts within the Social Security system, since this is a major feature of the Bush administration's tax plan. As everyone knows by now, the idea creates a world-class fiscal headache because it diverts the revenue stream flowing from payers to beneficiaries. This is the problem of the transition cost. If the cost were to be picked up by the general revenue, and otherwise payers were free to do with their money what they wanted, I think every free marketer would support this.
A 50% cut in the payroll tax would be great. A 10% percent cut in this tax would also be great. Even a 1% cut in the payroll tax would be a great thing, because it would mean that people can control more of their own money, businesses would face a lighter burden, and there would be more wealth available for people to prepare for their older years via savings and genuine insurance.
Lew Rockwell 1/17
- The Tax Path Away from Liberty -
Many still favor these takings despite the bad results, essentially buying the dogma of Karl Marx, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need,” which forms the basis of the modern welfare state. Those who buy that seem not to recognize that when the government spends our earnings, we are precluded from spending them — or saving or investing them.
FFF 1/16
- Social Security This Week-Jan 14, 2005 -
Is AARP Really Anti-Investment?; Reynolds: Grading the Social Security Debate; Nobel Laureate Prescott: A Blueprint for Saving Social Security; George Will: Don't Deny Your Children Social Security Choice
Cato Institute 1/14
- Greedy and Ignorant -
Myth: Skyrocketing prescription drugs are driving health-care spending up. Fact: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as a whole, Americans spend about 1 percent of their income on drugs. Seniors spend about 3 percent on drugs, less than the amount they spend on entertainment. Spending on drugs, as a percent of total health-care spending, was 10 percent in 1960. It's roughly the same today.
GMU.EDU 1/14
- Researchers develop way to track quality of home health care -
University of Michigan researchers are part of a team that has developed a new tool to assess the quality of home health care, with the goal of improving care and providing meaningful feedback about the care.
University of Michigan 1/13
- Grading the Social Security debate -
President Bush gets the only "A" -- for daring to push hard for dealing with a festering problem before it gets really nasty. But not just any Social Security reform bill will do, and most I've seen will earn low grades for a few quirky features. So, the president's grade may yet slip by the time something is signed into law.
Ignoring Incentives and Markets: D
Town Hall 1/13
- Virginia to assist current, future seniors -
State will mail information on how to prepare for late-life care and retirement.
Richmond Times-Dispatch 1/11
- Soothing Sores: Nursing homes, hospital are working together -
She didn't know it at the time, but Cydney Hill had pressure sores on her lower back three months ago that could easily have worsened her already compromised health.
...all nursing home patients with pressure wounds have access to pressure relieving devices — special mattresses, chair cushions, gel pads at the foot of their beds — designed to minimize the effect of an object's weight on a patient's skin.
Palatka Daily News 1/11
- Officials probe seven mystery deaths at home for the elderly in Hiroshima -
Authorities continued inspections Saturday at a home for the elderly in Fukuyama, Hiroshima Prefecture, where seven people have died since 42 residents began suffering from diarrhea and vomiting Dec. 30.
Hiroshima police have sent officers to the facility, suspecting possible negligence on the part of the operator.
Japan Times 1/10
- Jobs in health care still going strong as boomer generation ages -
Nationally, the prospects will accelerate as baby boomers approach their golden years as the 60-plus contingent of the population explodes faster than the overall population.
Philadelphia Daily News 1/10
- Social Security This Week-Jan 7, 2005 -
Cato Book on Social Security Awarded ALA's Top Accolade; AARP's False Claims against Reform; CBO: Diamond-Orszag Plan Would Shrink U.S. Economy; Krugman Wrong about Chilean Social Security Reform
Cato Institute 1/8
- Social Security 'fix' takes from taxpayers -
Bush/Cheney's next coup, after starting the war in Iraq, will be getting you and me (the taxpayers) to pony up $1.5 trillion to "fix" Social Security.
News Record 1/3
- Revamping Social Security -
"In 2018, Social Security has a legal claim above and beyond the revenues it is collecting," said Charles Blahous, the White House's point person on Social Security. "The question is what is the most sensible policy going forward so costs and benefits are spread out as equitably as possible."
Washington Post 1/3
- Flu Crimes at the CDC -
"... if an individual has five consecutive flu shots his or her chances of developing Alzheimer's Disease are 10 times greater than if they had one, two or no shots..."
Mercola.com 1/2