Cato Daily Dispatch for November 22, 2004
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Nations Agree to Cancel 80 Percent of Iraq's DebtAmtrak Infrastructure Deteriorating
Bush Will Keep Pushing Guest Worker Plan
Nations Agree to Cancel 80 Percent of Iraq's Debt
"The world's leading industrial nations agreed Sunday to cancel 80 percent of the nearly $39 billion debt owed them by Iraq, a critical step in rebuilding the country's devastated economy and an important precedent for its other creditors to follow," the New York Times reports.
In "Iraq's Odious Debts," Patricia Adams, executive director of Probe International, writes: "Most debts created by Saddam Hussein in the name of the Iraqi people would qualify as 'odious' according to the international Doctrine of Odious Debts. This legal doctrine holds that debts not used in the public interest are not legally enforceable."
Iraq's debt was created by former dictator Saddam Hussein and the funds were used to oppress the Iraqi people or were otherwise not used in the public interest, Adams argues. "Deciding the disposition of Iraq's debts by the rule of law, through a public judicial process that allows Iraqis, the domestic and international press, and anyone else to understand who lent how much to whom and for what purpose, would give Iraqis confidence that government can work in their interest," she concludes.
Amtrak Infrastructure Deteriorating
"The national passenger rail service risks a 'major point of failure' if infrastructure needs remain unaddressed, the U.S. Department of Transportation warned in a scathing report made public today," according to the Washington Post. "Inspector General Kenneth Mead, who drafted the report, said Amtrak must focus its limited resources on addressing pressing problems rather than spreading dollars across its nationwide network. He chastised Amtrak management for spending millions of dollars to improve its sleeper cars while neglecting deteriorating bridges and tunnels."
In "Help Passenger Rail by Privatizing Amtrak," Joseph Vranich and Cato adjunct scholar Edward Hudgins write: "Amtrak has failed to secure an increasing portion of America's growing transportation market. It carries only about three-tenths of 1 percent of all intercity passengers. Its on-time performance on most routes is terrible, and it covers up this fact by measuring punctuality at a limited number of stops and building in lots of extra time before those stops."
In "Amtrak at Twenty-Five: End of the Line for Taxpayer Subsidies," a Cato Policy Analysis published in 1996, economic consultants Jean Love and Wendell Cox and Cato senior fellow Stephen Moore argue, "Unfortunately, after 25 years of federal ownership and $13 billion of federal subsidies, Amtrak appears no closer to financial independence than the day taxpayer assistance began."
Bush Will Keep Pushing Guest Worker Plan
"President Bush vowed Sunday to push a plan that would allow undocumented immigrants to remain in the United States as guest workers even though it appears less likely to win backing in a Congress that grew more conservative in this month's elections," the Los Angeles Times reports.
In testimony before the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Citizenship, Daniel Griswold, director of Cato's Center for Trade Policy Studies, said: "Indeed, legalizing and regularizing the movement of workers across the U.S.-Mexican border could enhance our national security by bringing much of the underground labor market into the open, encouraging newly documented workers to cooperate fully with law enforcement officials, and freeing resources for border security and the war on terrorism."
Griswold is the author of "Willing Workers: Fixing the Problem of Illegal Mexican Migration to the United States," in which he writes: "Contrary to common objections, evidence does not suggest that a properly designed system of legal Mexican migration will unleash a flood of new immigrants to the United States, hurt low-skilled Americans, burden taxpayers, create an unassimilated underclass, encourage lawbreaking, or compromise border security."
Wyatt DuBois, editor, wdubois@cato.org
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