mixed economy — VOICES for REASON

Commentators on both the right and the left have griped about the many conditions in the Senate and House health-care bills that were added to win the support of special interest groups or specific congressmen. The right, for example, has decried the dealing as “cash for cloture,” while the left has assailed the individual mandate as an insurance industry coup.

And indeed, the bills are ripe with provisions that benefit some at the expense of others. Among those in the Senate bill alone (see this article for a more complete list):

• $300 million to Louisiana for the vote of Mary Landrieu
• $100 million to a Connecticut hospital to help the sinking poll numbers of Christopher Dodd
• A permanent expansion of federal Medicare payments to Nebraska (estimated value, $100 million) for the vote of Ben Nelson
• An excise tax exemption for longshoremen in exchange for the support of their union
• A 10 percent tax on tanning salons—added at the behest of the American Medical Association in place of a proposed a 5 percent tax on cosmetic surgery
• The exemption of Florida senior citizens from Medicare cuts for the vote of Bill Nelson
• $600 million in Medicaid benefits to Vermont for the vote of Patrick Leahy

Where does the money for these favors come from? From the only place it can—the pockets of U.S. citizens who have created that wealth in the first place. Read the rest of this entry »

In Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, the economy is being strangled to death by government spending and controls. And yet its leading economic official, Wesley Mouch, prescribes more government intervention as the solution: “I need wider powers!” he yells repeatedly. Besides the yelling, President Barack Obama sounded an awful lot like Wesley Mouch at his recent “jobs summit,” which was intended to address our 10%+ unemployment.

Consider the context of the summit. The Bush and Obama administrations warned us that if we didn’t fall into line with their trillion-dollar bailouts and industry takeovers, we would be punished by unemployment over 10 percent. We fell into line. Unemployment is over 10 percent.

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Republican Senator Orrin Hatch recently provided a noteworthy lesson in government intimidation. In the days leading up to the congressional hearings on the NCAA college football Bowl Championship Series, the Utah Senator published a letter in Sports Illustrated arguing that the “arcane” and “biased” system used to determine college football’s national champion should be changed to a format which is—by his unstated standards—more equitable.

The lesson comes at the letter’s close, where, after having spent the entire letter laying out the case for bringing antitrust violations against the NCAA, Mr. Hatch writes: “Government intervention into the BCS would be regrettable. There are many issues and challenges competing for Congress’s attention. Those with the power to reform the system should do so voluntarily. If not, legislation may be required to ensure that all colleges and universities receive an equal opportunity.”

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