European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 22, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse Sunday september 22, 1991 the stars and stripes Page 13 commentary George f. Will democratic candidates Lack you name it a trip to the attic former California gov. Jerry Brown Virginia gov. L. Douglas Wilder and Iowa sen Tom Larkin recently started campaigning for president. Enough time has passed to make a judgment on All three Stop. If Brown had a reputation for seriousness he would have lost it in Las vegas addressing the labourers International Union convention a crack was invented under Reagan and Bush. The deregulated cocaine that was their Supply Side economics. Now every kid in America can buy that pausing in mid rant he asked a you think that was a cheap shot Well in some ways it however he save. There was . Aid to Panama while Manuel Antonio Noriega was in Power. Yes but what about a deregulation asked by Ronald Brownstein of the los Angeles times if he meant that Ronald Reagan and George Bush deliberately increased the cocaine Supply through a deregulation a Brown said he was just a emphasizing the connection of breaking Down regulation in a variety of Quot Brown is campaigning against a a confederacy of corruption careerism and Campaign alliteration worked for republicans in 1952 a communism. Korea and and 1972 a acid amnesty and abortion. But before Brown announces himself clean As a hounds tooth he should note that the Union before which he was performing in the last election Cycle it gave $1.4 million to congressional candidates was described in the 1986 report of the president s commission on organized crime As tainted by mob influence. W asked if he considered that Union part of the Money in politics problem. Brown said a a we re All part of the Brown helps All other candidates look relatively serious. Unfortunately. Wilder needs even More help. His plan to a put America first involves three parts the first of which is dismally familiar and demonstrably implausible and the other two depend on it. He would reduce Federal spending by $50 billion. Half the Cut would be perfectly painless coming you see from eliminating something that has no constituency a a wasteful administrative not a novel idea that. Reagan promised a painless Windfall from eliminating no particular program just a waste fraud and Wilder a other $25 billion would come from unspecified cuts of a less necessary programs. However if significant constituencies did not consider the programs necessary. Wilder might risk specifying them. A Wilder is not promising to reduce the deficit lie wants to shuffle $50 billion around giving $35 billion in a Surprise a tax Breaks for the Middle class and $15 billion in Grants to state and local government. Harkin has a More traditional plan for paying for Domestic programs Cut the defense budget about 60 percent. It is a Mcgover Nite tradition except that George Mcgovern promised Only a one third Cut. Harkin says a Stop spending $160 billion a year for Europe s defense. A putting a precise number on the Cost of the commitment to Europe is problematic because . Military assets have multiple assignments. However Harkin is not one o let such a nuance spoil a spicy sentence. Besides he opposed desert storm and his cuts would make another such undertaking impossible. Harkin launched his Campaign for More government the very Day even the swedes joined the worldwide flight from statism voting the socialists out of Power. Harkin is a senator whose base salary alone $125,100 places him in the top 6 percent of family incomes. But his egalitarian sensibilities Are lacerated by wealth and status. Milking tiie self pity of the Middle class is evidently what passes for a nowadays. Harkin says that class is oppressed. Citizen Harkin says Bush and other plutocrats Are inciting a class against class. A Harkin is against that or will be when the last Timbrel has carted the last Andover graduate to the Guillotine. Lots of candidates enjoy lording it Over everyone because of their Humble origins. When Larkin goes into his humbler than thou routine backward reels the mind Back to 19,so, when supporters of Reagan denounced Bush As a a clean Ting nails in 19x8 Bush and Bob Dole had a lol siness contest which Bush won by my scoring when he announced that he is a Bowling Alley kind of Guy and drove a truck around a parking lot. This year Lei s All Root for any Democrat who won t touch a Bowling Ball or drive a truck. I Post Ontois group William f. Buckley the health Bank idea Worth celebrating the morning paper carries a letter from a doctor with the melancholy tale of a couple who came to see him because the husband was feeling tired and napping a Good Deal and his reflexes on the Road were not quite so Good. The couple were More than 80 years old had been married for 55 years and did no to the doctor think it might be a Good idea for the husband to have a cat scan a magnetic resonance imaging and then go on to a neurologist for a thorough checkup our doctor examined the gentleman and told him that in fact he suffered from nothing that someone his age expect to suffer from and that there really Wasny to any Point in spending $5,000 to take All those tests which were highly unlikely to reveal the need for any dramatic therapy. Us huh. The doctor was thanked and the couple went a at the urging of their daughter a to an out of town neurologist who Zap gave him All those tests from which no illness transpired. The Bill was of course sent to medicare. In the endless Pursuit of free Market applications to the problem of health care we have had the Good Fortune to be in touch w Ith or. Gerald mus grave. Who is associated with the nation Al Center for policy analysis and. Formerly with the Hoover institution. In collaboration with John Goodman of the National Center and or. Jesse Hixson an idea has evolved that is Worth celebrating. That idea is called by several names but of them All a the health Bank Quot is the most manageable. The idea rests on Musgrave s Iron Law of Public policy which says the Economizer must Benefit from the economizing. It Means that if you want to control health care costs the ones who receive the pain from cutting costs must be rewarded with the pleasure. Applied to the 80-year-old couple above the $5, xxx they spent and did t need to spend should substantially go into their own pockets. But some background. Or. Musgrave reminds us of several things we tend to forget. The first of these is that health benefits Are deductible to the employer and non taxable to the recipient. If it costs general motors say s3.000 per year to endow its work Force with health benefits each worker is receiving $3,000 of untaxed income. During the second world War wages were Frozen. As always happens when wages arc Frozen employers and employees look for ways to get around the prohibition and the Best Way to do this was to increase health benefits which of course had the Benefit of being non taxable. This caused a Rush for what is called a first Dollar coverage Quot which Means that if you go to the doctor once a year and Shell out $25, you get $25 Back from your insurance company. But this does t make sense from any Point of View. To begin with a insurance Quot is philosophically and statistically designed to protect you from phenomenal collisions with nature. If you go walking Down the Street and slip on a banana Peel and break your Arm that is an insurable event. If you go around to the doctor to get Medicine for this Winter s cold that in t an insurable event because people visit their doctors As a matter of course for routine health maintenance. The clerical work done to cover the costs of mending your Collarbone is still $5 1. Hut this becomes a Small fraction of. Say. A $2,0 x medical event. But people being As people Are. If they Are fully insured they will go to the Doc Tor More frequently than they otherwise would and will put in for 1 x percent of the tax free reimbursement put up in employers insurance companies and medicare. How does Oik design a system that allows you to pay your employees in tax free income allows insurance companies to serve a useful function of insuring rather than simply administering prepaid health expenses As is now the Cas allows physicians and hospitals to provide health care without government and other bureaucrats monitoring their every move and provides the safety net that protects us from people who become a Public charge a answer the health Bank. Suppose that a Uncial motors paid $3, xxx not to a health insula acc company but to you that that Monck went into your private Bank account but was reserved for the payment of medical Bills. That much of it not used Sims Ihei earn ing interest and. If you wish. Of can Pla the Market with it. Evcic Penny of n you done to use will one Day be Louis to do with As you like. Your Only up Culick expense is you have to take out an in Suwanee policy against catastrophic illness with a deductible Olsi my. Thai s the beginning of i lie health Bank plan with More to come but already. Enough to celebrate. It i of Quot. My. I pit a by 11 to
