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Cato Dispatch for October 10, 2007

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(Links to outside sources were active as of the date of this dispatch; however, not all news sources maintain links to current stories indefinitely. Some links also may require registration.)

Clinton Proposes Retirement Plan for Americans

"Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Tuesday proposed a retirement savings plan for lower- and middle-class families that would include tax credits as incentives for saving," reports The New York Times. "The plan, estimated to cost about $20 billion to $25 billion a year, would be paid for out of the revenues from estate taxes on wealthy Americans. Clinton... said in a speech in Iowa the savings plan would help rebuild a 'strong and prosperous middle class.'"

Chris Edwards, director of Cato's tax policy studies, comments:

"Senator Clinton's proposal is an entitlement program, not a savings plan. Savings is about individuals being frugal today in order to improve their prosperity tomorrow. Real savings helps families and the economy, but the senator's plan would impose at least $20 billion a year of damage on families paying the tax bill for this giveaway program. Instead of this complicated new scheme, the senator should support the expansion of existing Individual Retirement Accounts, which would boost real savings while cutting taxes on hard-working families."

California Town Approves Ban Making Smoking Illegal in Condos, Apartments

"After a late push to ease some of the restrictions, the Belmont City Council voted Tuesday to pass the anti-smoking ordinance," reports Fox News. "Prohibitions on smoking in parks and other public places will take effect in 30 days. The ordinance's most hotly contested elements -- which ban smoking inside apartments and condominiums -- won't be enforced for another 14 months. Officials say the ordinance was written so that smokers will only face enforcement if their neighbors complain." 

Thomas A. Firey, managing editor of Cato's Regulation magazine, comments:

"All across the country, proprietors, landlords and residents associations are privately, voluntarily implementing smoking bans. Because those actions are voluntary and private, market forces will lead to the provision of establishments and housing for both nonsmokers and smokers. This is fitting in a free society that values choice and respects the individual. It also protects public health -- people who don't want to be around tobacco smoke, whether out of health concerns or dislike of the smell and nuisance, don't have to be around tobacco smoke.

"This legislation does not respect individual choice and it is not motivated by concern for public health. It is social conservatism pure and simple -- some politicians want to use their office to impose their personal morality on other people.

"Despite their claim that 'science' supports their position, it's pretty clear that they have little understanding of, or interest in, the science and risk of tobacco smoke."

China Promotes Taiwan-Focused Military Officers

"China has promoted at least four senior military officers with experience in planning for war over Taiwan, ahead of a major political meeting next week at which the Communist Party has said it will adopt a new strategy to stop the self-governing island from moving toward independence," reports The New York Times. "In a move that was quietly handled even by the standards of China's secretive military, Beijing last month elevated Gen. Chen Bingde of the army to chief of the general staff, a post where he will exercise day-to-day operational command of the country's 2.3 million-member armed forces. As General Chen was promoted through the senior ranks in the 1980s and 1990s, he held a series of command posts in the Nanjing Military Region opposite Taiwan, where China has concentrated its preparations for any conflict over the island, according to official biographies and military analysts."

In "Taiwan's Defense Budget: How Taipei's Free Riding Risks War," Justin Logan, Cato foreign policy analyst,  and Ted Galen Carpenter, Cato's vice president for Defense and Foreign Policy Studies, write:

"Taiwan spends far too little on its own defense, in large part because the Taiwanese believe the United States is their ultimate protector. ... Taiwan's political leaders are creating the worst possible combination: the provocative cross-strait policy of President Chen Shui-bian and the opposition-dominated legislature's irresponsible policy on defense spending. That is a blueprint for disaster. The People's Republic of China has already deployed nearly 1,000 ballistic missiles across the strait from Taiwan, and Beijing's military modernization program appears to be oriented toward credibly threatening military action if Taipei's moves toward independence continue. A bold cross-strait policy coupled with inadequate defense spending virtually invites a PRC challenge at some point. And America would be caught in the middle."

Laura Osio, editor, losio@cato.org