The Islander. (St. Simons Island, Ga.) 1972-current, August 31, 2009, Image 4

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The Islander., August 31, 2009, Image 4

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Newspaper Page TextPAGE 4, AUGUST 31, 2009, THE ISLANDER Pi Rl c -o D 1 I1V/1 Ol . tv i v 11 Opinions When will the Heath-Care Debate start? By Sheldon Richman Publisher's Statement THE ISLANDER (USPS 002430), A member of the Georgia Press Association and Glynn County’s only weekly newspa per is published 51 weeks a year for $20 per year in Glynn County and $22 per year in the United States outside Glynn County by Permar Publications, Inc., 3596 Darien Hwy. Suite 6, Brunswick, GA 31525. Peri odicals postage paid at Brunswick, GA. The Islander is also available to subscrib ers online at www.theislanderonline.com. Contents of The Islander, including advertising, may not be reprinted or repro duced in any form without written permis sion of the publishers. POSTMASTER send address change to The Islander, P.O. Box 20539, St. Simons Island, GA 31522. Publication Deadline Publication Date: Every Monday Deadline: Thursdays, 12 PM for ads and news copy for the following Monday’s edition. Holiday Schedule On Monday Post Office holidays, The Islander is printed on the Friday before. 2009 Post Office Holidays Thursday, January 1 - New Year's Day Monday, January 19 - MLK Birthday Monday, February 16 - Presidents Day Monday, May 25 - Memorial Day Saturday, July 4 - Independence Day Monday, September 7 - Labor Day Monday, October 12 - Columbus Day Wednesday, November 11 - Veterans Day Thursday, November 26 - Thanksgiving Day Friday, December 25 - Christmas Day Holiday Deadline: Wednesdays, 12 PM for ads and news copy for the following Monday’s edition. Mission Statement: to publish the truth without fear or favor. Established 1972 Matthew J. Permar - Publisher Elise J. Permar - Publisher 1972-2003 Gertrude Bradshaw - Co-Editor 1972-1991 Managing Editor & Advertising Manager Pamela P. Shierling 912-265-9654 Production Manager Sarah Banks Long Church News Patty Gibson - 912-638-8844 Sports Jake Harrison Contributors Dave Barry, Clark Gillespie MD, Ben Friedman, Sonny Doehring, Roland Willis Phone Numbers 912-265-9654 • Fax - 912-265-3699 entail: ssislander@bellsouth.net www.theislanderonline.com Award Winning Newspaper 1975 1980 1985 1976 1981 1992 fiuAi'c (i l'hfc 1977 1982 1999 1978 1983 2002 1979 1984 2008 I’m waiting for the health-care debate to start. The preliminaries have been spirited and loud, but how about a debate? You may think there’s been a debate, but if you’d been listening carefully, you’d realize it’s a fake, like profes sional wrestling. To be of value a real debate requires fundamental disagreement. But this pseudo-debate is between one side, led by President Obama, that wants more government control than the large amount we already have, and another, the Republicans, that thinks we already have the right amount. What kind of debate is that? The status quo is a health-care system dominated by government in every way. It’s been like that for generations. So the alleged debate is more a spat between two sects of the Church of the Omniscient State. The only alterna tive to the statism we have — the free market — is nowhere to be found on the Official Table in Washington, D.C. No wonder. Politicians hate to see their power reduced. You would perhaps be surprised to hear Obama described as a defender of the status quo. But as Washington Post economics columnist Robert Sam- uelson writes, “One of the bewildering ironies of the health-care debate is that President Obama claims to be attack ing the status quo when he’s actually embracing it. Ever since Congress cre ated Medicare and Medicaid in 1965, health politics has followed a simple logic: Expand benefits and talk about controlling costs. That’s the status quo, According to Ballotpedia.org, a wiki- based website created by the Citizens in Charge Foundation to track ballot initiatives, referendums and recalls, this year voters have already launched more than twice as many efforts to recall public officials than occurred all of last year. In Flint, Michigan, voters were set to recall the mayor for corruption, mismanagement and more. Ten days before the vote, the mayor resigned. In Tuolumne Comity, California, voters removed an entire school board that failed to account for $16 million in bond revenue. After failed attempts to remove mayors in Toledo and Akron, Ohio, the Akron city council is now trying to dramatically increase the petition sig natures needed to start a recall. In Kimberly, Idaho, a campaign to recall the mayor and two city councilors for jacking up utility rates fell short of the needed voter signatures. But now the police are investigating whether town officials illegally obstructed the effort. In Cincinnati, no process yet exists for recalling officials, so the local NAACP is poised to launch a petition drive to establish one. County Repub- and Obama faithfully adheres to it.” The Republicans express dismay about how the new costs will be cov ered, but they also support expanded coverage, just not as fast or in quite the same way as the Democrats For exam ple, Obama’s government-run insur ance plan — the so-called public option — is too overtly statist for Republicans. They prefer more subtlety, such as tar geted tax credits, so they can maintain their free-enterprise image. It’s govern ment tinkering by another name. You also don’t hear Republicans talking about scaling back Medicare, much less abolishing it, though even Obama had to acknowledge it’s “socialized medi cine.” Indeed, they expanded Medicare under George W. Bush. What’s so insidious about the fake debate is the method by which the real debate is avoided. Most politicians talk as if the problems in the system were caused by too little, not too much, government. The insurance industry has come in for the harshest criticism. There’s no need to take the free-mar- ket alternative seriously if you can convince the public that it has already failed. But there is no free market in insur ance. Every state in the Union is a pro tectionist fiefdom in which insurance companies enjoy government-granted monopoly privileges in return for com plying with regulations. The key power is licensing, which limits the number of companies. Regulatory agencies dictate how the companies do business, includ ing what services they must cover. In some states companies have to accept Detecting fraud is one of the most important roles for government. But our friends in power tend to be incom petent at it. This becomes clear in light of that most costly Ponzi scheme, Bernie Madoffs. Before he was caught, Madoff — who now paints signs in prison — perpetrat ed one of the longest-running scams in investment history. It wasn’t an invest ment scheme that lost its way. No, it was a fraud through and through. It cost his marks billions. Joseph Cotchett, a lawyer for some of Madoffs victims, interviewed the fraud ster at length. Cotchett calls Madoff “charming” and “no dummy.” But he noted that his fraud was not a great work of sophistication: “It is amazing how simple it was.” lican leaders are “studying” the issue. The county’s Democratic Party chair man opposes recall, saying, “I’d hate to see a situation where the mayor could be recalled any time he made a contro versial decision.” That’s a straw man. Recalls have been used very rarely. Besides, none of our political problems stem from voters demanding too much of politicians. “I all comers regardless of health and can’t set premiums according to risk. Federal law forbids you and me from buying policies offered in states that pile on fewer unwanted coverage man dates. Regulation and licensing deprive us of the innovative, lower-cost prod ucts that competition and entrepre neurship would generate. This is why Obama’s promise to create competitive markets with a pub lic option and insurance exchanges is patently ridiculous. Government prevents competition. So why aren’t the professed devotees of competition working to end the restrictions on free dom? Let’s try real competition before we let the government start an insur ance program that will be an incipi ent universal Medicare. After all, the original Medicare will soon bankrupt the government. You don’t hear the insurance com panies saying that, because they love the shelter from competition and they favor the mandatory coverage. Why innovate to better serve customers if the government will compel people to buy their product? It’s the same with the pharmaceuti cal companies. They are licking their chops at the prospect of government’s compelling everyone to have drug plan. It’s a myth that big companies like free markets. They like the status quo, including most of Obama’s plan. Every bad thing about the health care system is the government’s doing. All the major participants are invested in the status quo. That’s why there won’t be a real debate. Sheldon Richman is policy advisor to The Future of Freedom Foundation (www.fff.org) and editor of The Free man magazine. □ Still, the regulators responsible for finding this kind of fraud didn’t see it. Early in the millennium, Madoff thought he might get caught. In 2005, the SEC sat down with him, and he thought the gig was up. Regulators, insists Cotchett, did not dig “to the next level, and the next level was not deep by his own admission.” Lots of folks clamor, these days, for more regulation. Here’s my advice: Improve the most basic form of regula tion — protection against fraud — and build on success. Leave complicated micromanagement stuff alone until governments get competent at the very basics. If you cannot detect an unsophisti cated fraud, how can you run a very sophisticated economy? □ METAL ROOFING TAX CREDIT Direct from Manufacturer\ wwvu gu Ifcoastsu pply c am For Your New MctaS Roof Common Sense By Paul Jacob Righteous Recalls The Moral of the Madoff Story