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Cato Dispatch for October 16, 2009

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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.)

Health Care Bill Passes in Senate Finance Committee

The Senate Finance Committee agreed to move forward on a health care bill that would "require every American to have health insurance,…spend $829 billion over the next decade to finance the biggest expansion of Medicaid in 40 years and…provide federal subsidies to 18 million people who otherwise would be unable to afford coverage. It would tax high-cost health plans, impose new penalties on employers and slash future spending on Medicare, the federal insurance plan for people older than 65."

Writing in the New York Post, Cato health care scholar Michael F. Cannon explains why "This bill would increase the deficit and cost more than $2 trillion over 10 years."

Money for the health care legislation is going to have to come from somewhere, says Cato senior fellow Michael D. Tanner. In an op-ed this week, Tanner explained why Medicare spending will be cut as a result of the health care overhaul:

Depending on which set of accounting measures is used, Medicare is facing unfunded liabilities of $50 trillion to $100 trillion. Yes, that's trillion, with a "T." As a percentage of GDP, Medicare costs are expected to rise from 2.7 percent today to 9.4 percent by 2050. We cannot and will not continue to pay all promised future Medicare benefits. Of course, there are differences about how future cuts would be made and what we should do with the money. Democratic plans to simply plow the money back into a new government health care program, for example, would do nothing to help our long-term fiscal problems. The fact is, no matter what they say, Democrats are going to cut Medicare and so are Republicans.

For an in-depth look at the proposals for health care reform, read Tanner's recent Policy Analysis, Halfway to Where? Answering the Key Questions of Health Care Reform.

U.S. Seeking PATRIOT Act Powers

The Senate is reviewing the PATRIOT Act, which includes Bush-era surveillance powers set to expire at the end of the year. Writing in the American Prospect, Cato research fellow Julian Sanchez says, "This could be the moment to revise the whole architecture of post-9/11 spying law." There are a number of aspects of the bill that are being examined for reform, including the use of "roving wiretaps," and the "lone-wolf provision." After analyzing the law closely, Sanchez concludes that the Senate must allow these powers to expire.

On "roving wiretaps":

For roving taps, the warrant shows a nexus between the suspected crime and an identified target. Then, as surveillance gets underway, the eavesdroppers can go up on a line once they've got a reasonable belief that the target is "proximate" to a location or communications facility. It stretches that "particularity" requirement a bit, to be sure, but the courts have thus far apparently considered it within bounds. It may help that they're not used with great frequency: Eleven were issued last year, all to state-level investigators, for narcotics and racketeering investigations.

On the "lone wolf provision":

The PATRIOT Act's "lone wolf" provision [authorized]…spying within the United States on any "non-U.S. person" who "engages in international terrorism or activities in preparation therefore," and allowing the statute's definition of an "agent of a foreign power" to apply to suspects who, well, aren't. Justice Department officials say they've never used that power, but they'd like to keep it the arsenal just in case.

As with so many of the post-9/11 intelligence reforms, the lone wolf provision has its genesis in the misguided assumption that every intelligence failure is evidence that investigators need more power.

Cato Quick Hits

• Appearing on CNN's The Lou Dobbs Show, Cato legal analyst David Rittgers debates troop build up in Afghanistan
• Why there's no way to enforce a ban on texting while driving.
• How onerous financial rules will only delay economic recovery and dampen long-term growth.
• How to measure the effectiveness of Obama's stimulus plan.
• Why free trade is a boon to the environment.

Chris Moody, editor, cmoody@cato.org