Cato Daily Dispatch for October 27, 2003
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'Investor Class' Could Be Key to Social Security ReformReport: Illinois Could Save $90 Million a Year with Canadian Drugs
Suicide Bombings Rock Baghdad; At Least 34 Dead
'Investor Class' Could Be Key to Social Security Reform
When candidate George W. Bush first proposed a plan for partial privatization of the Social Security system in 1999, he was challenging one of the cherished assumptions of political strategists, who have long regarded the government retirement system as the third rail of American politics: Touch it and you die," The Washington Post reports.
"His advisers and some others in the Republican Party saw the initiative far differently -- as a direct appeal to a segment of the electorate they had dubbed the 'investor class,' the growing number of Americans with at least some savings invested directly or indirectly in the stock market."
In his policy analysis, "Saving Social Security Is Not Enough," Michael Tanner, director of Cato's Project on Social Security Choice, makes a strong case for the creation of individual investment accounts to solve the mounting problems that Social Security faces. In the study, Tanner notes that "instead of saving Social Security, we should begin the transition to a new and better retirement system based on individually owned, privately invested accounts. The new system would allow workers to accumulate real wealth that would prevent their retiring to poverty."
Report: Illinois Could Save $90 Million a Year with Canadian Drugs
"Importing cheaper prescription drugs from Canada could save Illinois up to $90 million a year without compromising safety, says a state report released on Sunday," Reuters reports.
"Investigators found that drugs from Canada are safe and effective, that Canadian regulators provide protections that are about the same as those in the United States, and that drugs sold in Canadian pharmacies are made in facilities approved by Health Canada, the federal health agency."
In "Conservative Drug Split," Cato President Edward H. Crane and Vice President for Legal Affairs Roger Pilon write: "Because our drug market, burdened as it is with regulations and cost controls, is still free relative to such systems [abroad], America's drug companies, which do most of the world's drug research and development, recoup most of their costs, including R&D costs, in the domestic market, then sell abroad at prices far below true costs. Foreigners are thus classic free riders. As with defense, Americans are underwriting a good part of the health-care costs of the rest of the world."
They go on to say: "[D]ropping trade barriers and freeing U.S. consumers to purchase drugs at far lower prices overseas would significantly threaten the profit margins of the pharmaceutical companies. These companies would be forced to present the price-setting countries with an ultimatum: Either liberalize your market or we will leave. It's hard to imagine that countries in this situation will deny their citizens access to life-saving drugs. Instead, they will most likely ease their controls and increase the price they are willing to pay for their drugs. ... It is neither right nor good that Americans bear so great a portion of the health-care costs of the world."
Suicide Bombings Rock Baghdad; At Least 34 Dead
"A series of suicide bombings shook Baghdad early today, including an attack on the offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross and blasts at four Iraqi police stations that punctuated two days of bloody violence in this capital city," The New York Times reports.
"Iraq's police chief and deputy interior minister, Ahmad Ibrahim, said at a news conference that 34 people had been killed and 224 had been wounded in the attacks. He said 26 of the dead were civilians and 8 were police officers; 65 police officers and 159 civilians were wounded."
In "Leave Iraq as Soon as Possible," Director of Defense Policy Studies Charles V. Peña writes: "The problem with Iraq -- and all nation-building efforts -- is the natural desire to get it 'right,' which is a prescription for endless occupation. And the cruel irony is that the longer the United States stays, however well intentioned and noble the motive, the more Iraqis will come to resent a foreign occupier. The guerrilla-style tactics being used to pick off U.S. and British troops may only be the tip of the iceberg. The lesson should be clear: The United States must leave Iraq at the earliest possible opportunity.
Jonathan Block, editor, jblock@cato.org
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