To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: CATO TODAY: The Renminbi, Remembering Milton Friedman, Medicare and
Medicaid, D.C. Gun Laws
Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2008 07:52:42 -0700
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cato Today
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August 8, 2008
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Commentary: What Next for D.C.'s Gun Laws; The
Absurdities of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
Daily Podcast: Education Markets versus Monopolies
Cato Blog Highlights: Medicare's Administrative Failure
to Prevent Fraud: Huge Costs for Taxpayers
Weekly Videocast: What's Next in the Fight for Second
Amendment Rights
Recent Papers, Testimony, & Legal Briefs
Books and Periodicals
SCHOLARS DISCUSS THE ROLE OF THE RENMINBI AND REMEMBER MILTON FRIEDMAN IN
NEW CATO JOURNAL
In the current edition of the Cato Journal, Fed chairman Ben Bernanke discusses
moving toward greater transparency at the Federal Reserve. Also in this issue,
Yi Gang, Fred Hu, and Eddie Yue and Dong He discuss renminbi exchange rates and
the role of the renminbi in the world economy. Anna J. Schwartz, Antonio
Martino, Steve H.
Hanke, and George Selgin remember Milton Friedman and discuss his impact on
monetary policy.
CATO HANDBOOK ON POLICY: MEDICARE AND MEDICAID
Unreformed, Medicare and Medicaid will impose an ever-increasing burden on
taxpayers, deliver fewer benefits to beneficiaries, and exacerbate the
spiraling costs and loss of patient control that fuel calls for government-run
health care. The U.S. Constitution does not give Congress the power to create
government health insurance schemes. The federal and state governments should
hew to the Constitution and drastically liberalize these programs as a first
step toward privately funding health care for the elderly and
indigent. First and foremost, lawmakers should transform Medicare and Medicaid
into programs that encourage responsible stewardship by giving beneficiaries
ownership of their health care dollars. In the Cato
Handbook on Policy chapter "Medicare and Medicaid," Michael F. Cannon explains
why the federal government should:
- Maintain the Medicare Rx drug discount card program as an alternative to
implementing the Medicare Rx benefit in 2006,
- Allow seniors to opt out of Medicare entirely without loss of Social Security
benefits,
- Allow Medicare beneficiaries and their doctors to contract privately for
Medicare-covered services,
- Give current Medicare beneficiaries a risk-adjusted voucher to purchase
health insurance and/or deposit in a health savings account,
- Let workers save their Medicare payroll taxes in a retirement health savings
account to purchase medical care and coverage in their golden years,
- Freeze Medicaid spending at current levels and distribute Medicaid funds to
states as unrestricted block grants, and
- Eliminate Medicaid spending and cut taxes concomitantly.
COMMENTARY
NEW! What Next for D.C.'s Gun Laws, by David Kopel and Robert A. Levy. It's
time for Congress to use the power granted to it in the Constitution to
"exercise exclusive legislation"
in the District and uphold its residents' constitutional rights. It can do so
by passing the District of Columbia Personal Protection Act now pending in
Congress, with a few adjustments. Over the years, our elected representatives
have adopted a court-centric view of the Constitution -- a view that
decisions about constitutionality are properly left to the judiciary. But
members of Congress also swear to uphold the Constitution. Congress can make
good on that oath by restoring the right of Washington, D.C. residents to
possess functional firearms in their homes.
NEW!
The Day the Music Dies, by Timothy B. Lee. This fall customers of the
now-defunct MSN Music Store, Microsoft's abortive attempt to compete with
iTunes, will be in for a
nasty surprise: they will no longer be able to transfer their music to new
computers. Up to here this is just an ordinary business story of technological
obsolescence, certainly nothing to be outraged about. Companies drop old
product lines all the time, and sometimes that means customers are stuck
with compatibility headaches. In ordinary circumstances, you would expect
entrepreneurs or volunteers to pick up Microsoft's slack and offer software to
convert those old recordings to another format. But the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act transforms what would normally be a promising business
opportunity into a federal felony. Not only will PlaysForSure [Microsoft's
digital music format] music not play on a Zune, but the DMCA makes it illegal,
punishable by up to five years in jail on the first offence, for third parties
to offer utilities to bridge that gap.
DAILY PODCAST
(Subscribe on iTunes,
)
Education Markets versus Monopolies, featuring Andrew J. Coulson, 8/07/2008
China to World: We Are Ready, featuring James A. Dorn, 8/06/2008
Big Visions for Energy and the Fatal Conceit, featuring Donald J. Boudreaux,
8/05/2008
CATO BLOG HIGHLIGHTS - SIMPLE METHODS OF DECEPTION
NEW! On Cato's daily blog, [EMAIL PROTECTED], Michael F. Cannon comments on a
recent report that shows Medicare's low administrative costs permit fraud at a
massive cost to taxpayers. "Members of the Church of Universal Coverage claim
that government health insurance is more efficient than private insurance
because, gosh, Medicares administrative costs are a mere 3 percent of claims.
Well, God bless the folks at the Government Accountability Office, because
they came up with a wonderful illustration of just how stupid and harmful
Medicares administrative-costs strategy really is. The following is from a
recent GAO report: '[Department of Health and Human Services]
has acknowledged Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) oversight of
suppliers of durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies
(DMEPOS) is inadequate to prevent fraud and abuse. Specifically, weaknesses in
the DMEPOS enrollment and inspection process have allowed sham
companies to fraudulently bill Medicare for unnecessary or nonexistent
supplies. From April 2006 through March 2007, CMS estimated that Medicare
improperly paid $1 billion for DMEPOS suppliesin part due to fraud by
suppliers.'" To read more, check out Cannon's recent post.
WEEKLY VIDEOCAST (Subscribe on iTunes,
)
The Supreme Court's Heller decision is the opening salvo in a series of
litigations that will ultimately resolve what weapons and persons can be
regulated and what restrictions are permissible. But because of last
Thursday¹s decision, the prospects for reviving the original meaning of the
Second Amendment are now substantially brighter. In this week's video, Cato
Institute senior fellow in Constitutional Studies, Robert A.
Levy, details what's next for the gun rights fight.
RECENT PAPERS, TESTIMONY, & LEGAL BRIEFS
Rising Food Prices: Budget Challenges, testimony by Steve H. Hanke (July 30,
2008)
A Fork in the Road: Obama, McCain, and Health Care, by Michael D. Tanner (July
29, 2008)
Deputizing Company Counsel as Agents of the Federal Government, by N. Richard
Janis (July 14, 2008)
The Fiscal Impact of a Large-Scale Education Tax Credit Program, by Andrew J.
Coulson with a technical appendix by Anca M. Cotet (July 1, 2008)
BOOKS AND PERIODICALS
Cato Journal, Spring/Summer 2008
Smart Power: Toward a Prudent Foreign Policy for America, by Ted Galen Carpenter
Cato Policy Report, July/August 2008
The Dirty Dozen: How Twelve Supreme Court Cases Radically Expanded Government
and Eroded Freedom, by Robert Levy and William Mellor
The Cult of the Presidency: Americas Dangerous Devotion to Executive Power, by
Gene Healy.
Cato Handbook On Policy, 6th Edition, edited by Edward H. Crane and David Boaz
RECENT EVENT VIDEOS
The Dirty Dozen: How Twelve Supreme Court Cases Radically Expanded Government
and Eroded Freedom (6/24/08)
A Cato Institute Hill Briefing featuring the coauthor, Robert A. Levy, Cato
Institute.
Botswana and Mauritius: African Success Stories (6/19/08)
A Cato Institute Policy Forum featuring Lapologang Caesar Lekoa, Ambassador of
the Republic of Botswana, and Kailash Ruhee, Ambassador of the Republic of
Mauritius. Moderated by Marian Tupy, Cato Institute.
Chinas Rise: Is Conflict Unavoidable? (5/30/08)
A Cato Institute Hill Briefing featuring Ted Galen Carpenter, Cato Institute,
and Justin Logan, Cato Institute.
Whatever Happened to Medicare Reform? (5/15/08)
A Cato Institute Policy Forum featuring Thomas R. Saving, Medicare trustee,
2001-2007, and Stuart Guterman, Commonwealth Fund. Moderated by Michael F.
Cannon, Cato Institute.
Video and audio of all Cato events are archived online here.
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