Cato Daily Dispatch for November 23, 2004
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Saving Social Security156 Political Parties to Participate in Iraqi Elections
Bush Promises More Aid to Colombia
Saving Social Security
According to the Wall Street Journal: "Social Security [reform] will be especially treacherous. Bush has to navigate between the shoals of do-nothing Democrats, who seem happy to let the retirement system drift into insolvency, and free-lunch Republicans, who argue private accounts miraculously solve all problems. The great danger is a 'compromise' that tries to suit both -- creating the accounts and guaranteeing benefits for future retirees won't be cut."
In "The 6.2 Percent Solution: A Plan for Reforming Social Security," Michael Tanner, director of the Cato Project on Social Security Choice, proposes a plan that allows younger workers to invest their portion of the FICA payroll tax (6.2 percent) in individual accounts. The other 6.2 percentage points of payroll taxes, paid by employers, would be used to cover transition costs.
The Cato plan puts individuals, not the government, first. It protects younger workers and future generations. It puts each citizen in charge of his or her retirement. It allows workers to keep more of their own assets. As Tanner writes: "It would be a profound and significant increase in individual liberty."
156 Political Parties to Participate in Iraqi Elections
"Iraq's Independent Electoral Commission said Tuesday that 156 political parties have been approved to run candidates in the Jan. 30 general election," according to the Associated Press.
"They included the Iraqi National Accord party led by Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and the new party of President Ghazi al-Yawer, called the Iraqis' Party, commission spokesman Farid Ayar said in a statement."
In "Can Iraq Be Democratic?" Cato senior fellow Patrick Basham writes: "All other considerations aside, a national election in Iraq in the near term is a logistical impossibility. After all, there has not been a reliable census taken in decades, there is no workable election law, there are no constituency boundaries in place, there are no voter registration lists, and no procedural safeguards exist to prevent widespread corruption of the electoral process."
He goes on to say: "A free society is a complicated social artifact. It is one thing for a country to adopt formal democracy but quite another for it to attain stable democracy. Unfortunately, simply adopting the right laws will not create liberal democracy."
Bush Promises More Aid to Colombia
"President Bush stopped Monday in one of the less discussed corners of the American battle with terrorists, promising President Álvaro Uribe that he would push Congress to add to the more than $3.3 billion that Washington has spent since 2000 to destroy coca crops and support Colombia's battle against Marxist rebels," the New York Times reports.
"'This man's plan is working,' Bush said, pointing to Uribe, who since taking office in 2002 has become the president's closest ally in Latin America."
In "Unsavory Bedfellows: Washington's International Partners in the War on Drugs," Ted Galen Carpenter, vice president for defense and foreign policy studies, writes: "Instead of accepting the reality that a prohibitionist strategy is inherently futile, U.S. administrations have compromised important American values and helped strengthen corrupt, repressive governments. Ironically, most of the regimes with which the United States has cooperated have not even been sincere in their anti-drug activities. In fact, they have usually been deeply involved in the drug trade. Ominously, the Bush administration may be heading down the same path with Colombia's president, Alvaro Uribe."
Gina Verticchio, editor, gverticchio@cato.org
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