Correction, please!

Snake-oil Salesman

ITEM: Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) is rekindling the health-care battle, enthused Thomas Oliphant of the Boston Globe on June 23rd. The senator "has returned to the overall struggle," said the columnist. "Kennedy's comprehensive approach makes room for cost containment, full funding of life and money-saving research, tough steps to rein in drug company marketing programs short of price controls, and equal treatment for the mentally ill. One can almost hear the groans of the status quo defenders."

CORRECTION: It's a false claim that one must support the status quo to oppose Teddy Kennedy's latest expansion of socialized medicine. As it is, health costs have risen as a function of the government's involvement, so increasing that role is hardly the solution. The growth of meddling has been dramatic. In 1960, the federal government spent almost nothing on health care while Social Security was taking up some 13 percent of federal spending. By 2000, health spending consumed 18 percent of the federal budget, with Medicare alone costing as much as Social Security in 1960.

By 2075, under current law, notes Bruce Bartlett of the National Center for Policy Analysis, Medicare will jump to 9.9 percent of GDP and Medicaid will increase to 5.5 percent. In other words, says Bartlett, just two programs -- neither of which existed in 1960 -- will virtually equal the size of the total federal government that year.

Kennedy's plan would exacerbate problems, costing an estimated $500 billion over seven years. Government heavy-handedness is already extreme. A report by PricewaterhouseCoopers for the American Association of Health Plans (AAHP), released last year, found that 27 percent of additional spending was caused by the following: mandates and government regulation (15 percent), litigation (7 percent), and fraud and abuse (5 percent). AAHP President Karen Ignagni noted that this added cost -- some $18 billion -- could have insured 6.8 million more Americans.

The lure of subsidies remains strong, which is why demagogues such as the senior senator from Massachusetts keep up their tired siren songs. A recent survey found an alarming 40 percent of Americans favoring a government-owned, government-run health care system. Yet, those who actually work under such a program know better. In the U.K., eight of 10 family doctors said they would quit the National Health Service if they could.

Delusions About China

ITEM: The BBC praised Communist China's economic freedoms, saying on June 13th: "As with Britain in the industrial revolution, China is poised to become the world's manufacturing power." China "is going through a major metamorphosis. It is emerging from a centrally controlled economy to an almost free market enterprise."

ITEM: A top Pentagon official will meet "with Chinese defense officials in Beijing about renewing some military contacts between the United States and China," said the Associated Press on June 22nd. "Peter Rodman, assistant secretary of state for international security affairs ... will tell the Chinese that future military contacts must be more beneficial to the U.S. side," said a Pentagon spokesman.

CORRECTION: China's supposed boom, often heralded by cheerleaders who have harsh words for Western capitalism, always seems just around the corner. But to pretend that Communist China has a virtually free-market system is absurd, even for most liberal sycophants. One small example: The Christian Science Monitor recently reported how the government was shutting down thousands of Internet cafes. Those allowed to remain open must register with the regime and keep detailed records of websites visited by users.

Any military exchange between the U.S. and China is bound to help Beijing. Indeed, U.S. intelligence has discovered that China helped the Taliban and al-Qaeda both before and after 9-11. During the Clinton years, Beijing was allowed almost free rein to visit and view classified American military installations and operations. "The Chinese look at it as a spying operation," former Defense Undersecretary Stephen Bryen has remarked, "which I believe it was."

Moscow is also helping Beijing with key weapons systems, including submarines and strategic missiles. And as Larry Wortzel of the Heritage Foundation told Insight: "In a number of areas, the Chinese are developing systems specifically designed to attack U.S. forces."

Another Great Train Robbery

ITEM: Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta is working to "keep Amtrak on fiscal track," read the headline in the June 26th San Francisco Chronicle. "The transit agency's backers, such as Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, argue reform is a long-term issue that shouldn't be mixed with the system's short-term cash needs." Byrd contended that instead "of providing Amtrak with the funds it needs, [the administration] has chosen a halfway approach.... There's no time for so-called reforms. We can't reform a dead railroad."

CORRECTION: Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta claims: "No one wants to see Amtrak die." Why not? Of Amtrak's 43 lines, 41 lose money. Since its creation in 1971, the system has been propped up with $39 billion in subsidies (in constant 2000 dollars). It carries three-tenths of 1 percent of all intercity passengers, according to Joseph Vranich, formerly of the Amtrak Reform Council. Almost 60 percent of its traffic, says Vranich, is carried on 7 percent of the system. Political clout keeps certain lines alive. The Sunset Limited running from Orlando to New Orleans to Los Angeles, as reported in the Chicago Tribune, loses $347 on each passenger.

Until hard decisions are made, the public will continue to be railroaded.