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

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (507809)	12/11/2003 1:17:16 PM
From: Ish	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769669

Lawyers are slowing the jobs recovery. Wednesday, December 10, 2003 Manufacturing A new report from the National Association of Manufacturers and the Manufacturing Alliance (MAPI) found that much of the manufacturing sector's problems are not due to unfair actions by our trading partners, but are self-imposed. It notes that we have higher corporate taxes, higher pollution abatement costs, and higher tort liability costs than our key competitors. Overall manufacturing costs are 22.4 percent higher in the U.S. as a result of such self-imposed costs, reducing our competitiveness and contributing to the trade deficit. In terms of tort liability, a new report from Tillinghast-Towers Perrin estimates this cost at $233 billion last year, up $27 billion from 2001. The report estimates tort costs at 2.33 percent of GDP, or $809 per person in the U.S. Of this amount, only 22 cents on the dollar goes to compensate victims for actual economic loss. The rest is for lawyers and additional payments for punitive damages and "pain and suffering." We may be reaching the point where something will be done. On December 8, the Wall Street Journal noted that vaccines--including for this year's flu epidemic--are increasingly unavailable in part due to lawsuits. The cover story in Newsweek this week (Dec. 15 issue) details case after case of absurd lawsuits with multi-billion dollar awards and the ways in which society has been made worse off. A new study from the Congressional Budget Office also examines the growing cost of the tort liability system. trendmacro.com