Cato Daily Dispatch for October 6, 2003
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Medicare Compromise Appears StalledSupreme Court's New Term
Report: Oil Outlook for Iraq Bleak from the Start
Medicare Compromise Appears Stalled
"With only two weeks left for the Republican goal of offering up a compromised Medicare prescription drug bill, lawmakers are no closer to a final deal than when they began negotiating three months ago," the Detroit News reports.
"Lawmakers assigned the task of ironing out differences in two Medicare drug bills initially expected to have a plan by the end of the summer. But many of those involved say they are just beginning to tackle the more controversial and contentious issues."
Cato's director of health and welfare studies, Michael Tanner, writes in "Medicare Drug Debacle" that "unless they are reformed, entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security will soon become an unbearable burden on our children and grandchildren. But, unfortunately, young people don't vote. Unless they do, or unless a few members of Congress discover their courage, today's young workers can expect to be handed the bill once again."
Supreme Court's New Term
According to USA Today, "Religious demonstrators erected a tall wooden cross in front of the Supreme Court before the start of the court's new term Monday, to protest past rulings against school prayer and in favor of abortion rights and sexual freedom."
The Cato Supreme Court Review: 2002-2003 provides an incisive look at the cases ahead, as well as an annual critique of the Court's most important decisions from the term just ended. In a collection of essays by scholars, lawyers, and Supreme Court litigators, it examines the Court's decisions and its upcoming cases in light of the nation's first principles -- liberty and limited government -- as articulated in the Declaration of Independence and secured by the Constitution.
Report: Oil Outlook for Iraq Bleak from the Start
The New York Times reports that "the Bush administration's optimistic statements earlier this year that Iraq's oil wealth, not American taxpayers, would cover most of the cost of rebuilding Iraq were at odds with a bleaker assessment of a government task force secretly established last fall to study Iraq's oil industry, according to public records and government officials."
As President Bush presses his case for $87 billion in additional funding to pay for the war in Iraq, he should bear in mind that much fat could be cut from domestic programs to pay for it. In "Equal Time: Slash Domestic Spending to Pay For Rising War Cost", authors Charles Pena, director of defense policy studies, and Veronique de Rugy, fiscal policy analyst, write that "if the president is going to spend an additional $87 billion (or more) in Iraq, he should make sure that this does not impose excessive costs on the American economy. This means domestic spending should be reduced by at least a similar amount, no difficult feat. In the first three years of his term, Bush has so far increased total federal outlays by a stunning 24 percent. Total nondefense discretionary spending has increased from $385 billion in fiscal year 2001 to $448 billion in fiscal year 2004. That $63 billion increase (over three years) eclipses the $33 billion President Clinton spent during his eight years in the White House.
"If the president wants to toss an extra $87 billion at Iraq, he should think about cutting the $90 billion devoted to corporate welfare every year. He should also cut education spending, which has skyrocketed under his watch.
"The bottom line: There are obviously plenty of ways to find money for Iraq and spare the taxpayer. The expansion of huge pork-barrel domestic spending will cripple our ability to fight the real war on terrorism and endanger our economy."
Christopher Kilmer, editor, ckilmer@cato.org