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Cato Dispatch for March 12, 2010

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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.)

Coming Down to the Wire on Health Care?

After a long year of debating the best way to reform America's health care system, sources in Washington say that it could all be over in a matter of days. Reuters reports, "The House of Representatives Budget Committee on Monday will consider a reconciliation bill that Democrats hope clears the way for final congressional approval of an overhaul of U.S. healthcare. ...President Barack Obama has postponed a trip to Asia so that he could stay in Washington and help fellow Democrats get healthcare across the finish line."

Even after the White House went to great lengths to ram the bill through Congress, and added a few empty compromises within the legislation, the bill still faces a major opponent: the people. Recent polls still show strong opposition to the bill, and with an Easter recess approaching, members of Congress will have to face their constituents back home.

Plus, questions still loom about the actual effectiveness of the bill to reduce costs. Michael Cannon, Cato director of health policy studies, explains why the bill will actually increase health care spending:

The Congressional Budget Office said the "federal budgetary commitment to health care" would rise by $210 billion between 2010 and 2019 under the Senate bill.  Then, after 2019, it would fall from that higher level.  And it could fall quite a bit before returning to its current level. Even President Obama admits, "You can't structure a bill where suddenly 30 million people have coverage and it costs nothing."

For a plan that will actually reduce costs, read Cato Senior Fellow Michael Tanner's piece on the case for high-deductible health insurance.

Bush's Third Term? PATRIOT Act Extended without Reform

The Associated Press reports that President Obama "has signed a one-year extension of several provisions in the nation's main counterterrorism law, the Patriot Act." According to the report, the move will:

• Authorize court-approved roving wiretaps that permit surveillance on multiple phones.
• Allow court-approved seizure of records and property in anti-terrorism operations.
• Permit surveillance against a so-called lone wolf, a non-U.S. citizen engaged in terrorism who may not be part of a recognized terrorist group.

Cato Research Fellow Julian Sanchez writes:

A Democratic-controlled Congress quietly voted to reauthorize three controversial provisions of the USA Patriot Act without implementing a single one of the additional safeguards that had been under consideration -- among them, more stringent limits on the national security letters (NSLs) Obama had once decried.

...The only silver lining for civil libertarians is that the expiring Patriot provisions have only been reauthorized for one year, meaning Congress will have to take up these issues again relatively soon. The question, given the muted public reaction to the abuses that have already been disclosed, is why we should hope legislators will be any more willing to expend political capital resisting the intelligence community's demands a year from now. The "choice between the liberties we cherish and the security we provide" may be a false one, but in the current political climate, it appears to be an easy one as well.

For recommendations on how to reform the PATRIOT Act, read the chapter on civil liberties and terrorism in the Cato Handbook for Policymakers.

Cato Quick Hits

• Greece, here we come...Congressional Budget Office estimates budget deficits will average nearly $1 trillion per year for the next decade.
• Daniel Griswold in the Washington Post: "On trade, as on so much else, the populists have it wrong again. Free trade and globalization are great blessings to families across America."
• Supreme Court Justice Scalia holds himself out as the patron saint of originalism, but is he abandoning the idea that judges should interpret the Constitution according to its original public meaning?
• Michael Tanner: "In case you lost count, President Obama's remarks on Wednesday were his 35th major speech on health care reform. The news: this time he really, really, really means it when he says it's time to act. As for the speech itself, it was virtually indistinguishable from any of the previous 34."

Chris Moody, editor, cmoody@cato.org