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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Les H who wrote (7023)	10/5/1999 2:50:00 PM
From: Neocon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

One of the unacknowledged problems with market distortion. William Tucker has done good work, for example, showing that the largest single factor in the shrinking stock of low cost urban housing is rent control......It drives landlords out, leads to deferred maintenance and deterioration, and makes it less attractive for new entrants.....

To: Les H who wrote (7023)	10/5/1999 3:25:00 PM
From: Fangorn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Les, From NealzNuze today... boortz.com >> THE HEALTH INSURANCE SCARE The Census Bureau came out with some new statistics on health insurance yesterday, and the alarm bells were ringing loudly night. It was the lead story on NBC news. One in six Americans don?t seem to have any health insurance. Brokaw called it a "ticking time bomb." I remember several years ago when ABC medical reporter George Strait said that 37 million Americans didn?t have health insurance "because they can?t afford it." That prompted several letters from me to ABC news asking for a line on Strait?s research that showed none of these people could afford the insurance. To NBC?s credit last night they did say that that these people didn?t have insurance either because they couldn?t afford it or they were prepared to run the risk. That, at least, is a bit more honest. Let?s deal with a few of these issues: First, the "I can?t afford it" excuse. I?m sure that for some people, this is true. For most I would suggest that it?s pure crap. How many of these people who claim not to be able to afford health insurance have car payments? How many of them have big-screen televisions with surround sound? How many of them have bass boats? How many take pricey vacations every year. How many of them smoke? How many drink a few six-pack every weekend? The truth is that it?s not a matter of affordability for many people; it?s a matter of responsibility. If you are making a $300 per month car payment, sucking down $60 worth of beer and cigarettes, going to movies, eating out, making those fishing trips, buying the designer clothes, and hitting the beach for your summer vacation without forking over the money for health insurance, you are just plain flat-out irresponsible. You?ve made extremely poor use of your power of choice and have nobody but yourself to blame for the possible consequences. NBC news also told us that 95 percent of the new jobs in our economy are in small businesses that are unable to provide insurance. Just where is it written that it the responsibility of these businesses to provide that insurance? How in the hell did we get to the point where we all believe that our employer is supposed to pay for our health insurance? We don?t expect them to pay our automobile insurance or our life insurance, do we? Ditto for our home insurance. Why are they responsible for our health insurance? Here are a few more random thoughts ---- just food for thought: What is the role of mandated coverages in making health insurance so expensive? Why should you pay for coverage for drug and alcohol abuse if you don?t drink or do drugs? Why should you have to pay for pregnancy benefits if you don?t intend to get pregnant? Why can your employer deduct the cost of your health insurance, but you can?t? Could it possibly be because the government wants you to rely on someone else for your insurance rather than taking that responsibility for yourself? Is it really still health insurance, or should it be more accurately defined as a medical cost payment plan. Insurance is supposed to insure us against unexpected losses. There is nothing unexpected about a planned pregnancy, your regular flu shots or those allergy prescriptions. FROM HMOs TO FMOs FMOs ---- that?s Food Maintenance Organizations. Fulton Huxtable has written a real eye-opener here. What if the government duplicated its efforts in the health care arena with a new idea to guarantee an adequate food supply to all Americans with the creation of Food Maintenance Organizations. It?s all part of his essay entitled "Create a Monster, Rescue it?s Victims." In the first paragraph Huxtable writes: Statism?s advance in America has followed a clear pattern?a formula which has been enormously successful for statist politicians: create a problem through mandates and/or regulations, blame the problem on freedom, then use the problem to justify even more restrictions on freedom. These new restrictions and regulations create more problems, which bring new calls for even more restrictions?and on and on, ad infinitum. This one is well worth your time. Here?s your link: fatalblindness.com <<