Cato Daily Dispatch for September 22, 2004
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Kerry Attacks Social Security ReformBush Defends Iraq Policies at U.N.
Teachers' Kids Avoid Public Schools
Kerry Attacks Social Security Reform
"Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry on Wednesday called President Bush's proposal to privatize partially Social Security 'a rip-off' that would create a windfall for financial and investment companies but end up cutting benefits for senior citizens," the Associated Press reports.
"Bush favors allowing young workers to create voluntary personal savings accounts with some of the money they now pay into the Social Security system, a change he insists will not increase payroll taxes or change benefits for retirees or near retirees."
Michael Tanner, director of Cato's Project on Social Security Choice, made the following comments today: "What does it matter if Wall Street makes money as long as workers receive better and higher retirement benefits? Our goal should not be to impoversh Wall Street, but to provide the best possible retirement income for workers.
"Sen. Kerry has still not told us what he would do to fix Social Security. Remember, it was former President Bill Clinton who spelled out the limited options for reform: raise taxes, cut benefits, or invest privately. Since Sen. Kerry is opposed to private investment, he should tell us what taxes he plans to raise or what benefits he will cut."
Bush Defends Iraq Policies at U.N.
"President George W. Bush offered a strong defense of his Iraq policies to world leaders yesterday, arguing that all civilized nations have a stake in the survival of the embattled U.S.-backed regime in Baghdad," Newsday reports.
"In a speech to the United Nations General Assembly and comments to reporters after a meeting with Iraq's interim leader, Bush insisted that the violent insurgents seeking to gain control of Iraq would be defeated."
In "An Ominous U.S. Model," published in today's Los Angeles Times, Jonathan Clarke, research fellow in foreign policy studies, writes: "...9/11 legitimated unrelated policy objectives, notably the attack on Iraq. Conceived in the mid-1990s, this neoconservative scheme for Iraq was based on a pipe dream of imposing U.S.-style democracy throughout the Middle East. A noble enough aspiration about which a national debate would have been in order, but one that the neoconservatives knew would never stand critical public scrutiny. Hence the obfuscations about weapons of mass destruction and Saddam Hussein's links to terrorism to take advantage of the in-theater presence of American forces in Afghanistan for the purposes of a war against Iraq."
Teachers' Kids Avoid Public Schools
"More than 25 percent of public school teachers in Washington and Baltimore send their children to private schools, a new study reports," the Washington Times reports.
"Nationwide, public school teachers are almost twice as likely as other parents to choose private schools for their own children, the study by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute found. More than 1 in 5 public school teachers said their children attend private schools."
In "A Lesson in Waste: Where Does All the Federal Education Money Go?," Education Policy Analyst Neal McCluskey writes: "Despite the huge infusion of federal cash and the near tripling of overall per pupil funding since 1965, national academic performance has not improved. Math and reading scores have stagnated, graduation rates have flatlined, and researchers have shown numerous billion-dollar federal programs to be failures."
Jonathan Block, editor, jblock@cato.org
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