Author: lexiwm

Urban sprawl has sparked a national debate over land-use policy, launching a movement in the past decade called "smart growth." Advocates of such policies contend that urban sprawl causes crime and congestion, and limits opportunities for the poor and minorities. They argue for such development policies as drawing "growth boundaries" around cities, outside of which residential and business development is banned or severely restricted. Inside the boundaries, however, zoning restrictions and tax incentives encourage high density development.

Recently, for the fifth time, Congress temporarily extended the 1996 welfare reform law that established Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), the federal program that provides cash assistance to poor families. The Bush Administration and the House of Representatives have sought to improve TANF by adopting stronger work requirements, while simultaneously increasing child care funding by $2 billion. Legislation to reauthorize the program has been held up by the Senate, which continues to resist the administration's push for stronger work requirements.

The president's budget for fiscal year 2005, which starts October 1, 2004, projects that the deficit will be cut in half as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2010. After record deficits of $375 billion in 2002 and $520 billion in 2003, the deficit is projected to slowly decline. In 2009, however, the shortfall will still be $237 billion. [See Figure I.] And a number of factors will make even that modest goal difficult to meet.

Most proposals to address Social Security's looming insolvency would integrate a private investment component into the current system, allowing younger workers to fund part of their own future benefits by investing a portion of their Social Security taxes today.

In An Essay on the Principle of Population , first published in 1798, Thomas Malthus stated his aphorism that the geometric growth of population must eventually exceed the arithmetic growth of resources. Malthus is most often invoked in the context of acrimonious ideological debates on human population growth and its effect on the natural environment. Environmental advocates, including Paul Ehrlich, Harvard University 's Club of Rome and the United Nations, decry human population growth, claiming that it causes intolerable pollution and will result in a scarcity of key natural resources and mass starvation. Others have called for international programs to slow or reverse population growth and for governmental controls on natural resource use. However , Malthus' arguments, upon which some of these fears are based, are rarely scientifically analyzed.

Now that the presidential nominees of both major parties are known, it is appropriate to focus attention on the candidates' plans to deal with the problem of insuring the uninsured.

Environmentalists have long argued that renewable energy sources (such as wind, solar, and geothermal power, and the burning of biomass), are preferable to fossil fuels (oil, natural gas and coal). Historically, fossil fuels have been relatively abundant and significantly less costly; however, in recent years the price of alternative energies, particularly wind power, has fallen. Under certain conditions, wind power has become cost competitive with conventional fossil fuel energy.

Social Security is a product of the 1930s. The United States has changed significantly over the past six decades, but Social Security remains much the same. It is out-of-date and in dire need of reform, especially with respect to benefits for married couples.

In his State of the Union address, President Bush proposed a tax deduction for people who purchase catastrophic (high-deductible) health insurance, in addition to his previous health proposals. Such insurance could be combined with Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), deposits to which are already deductible.

The idea behind Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) is quite simple. Individuals should be able to manage some of their own health care dollars through accounts they own and control. They should be able to use these funds to pay expenses not paid by third-party insurance, including the cost of out-of-network doctors and diagnostic tests. They should be able to profit from being wise consumers of medical care by having account balances grow tax free and eventually be available for nonmedical purchases.

That seniors lack access to prescription drugs is offered as a rationale for supporting a new Medicare prescription drug benefit. If many of them do in fact lack access, spending $400 billion in general tax revenues during the next 10 years for the benefit would increase seniors' use of drugs. The questions then are: What fraction of the Medicare population lacks prescription drug coverage, and how much more would they spend if they had coverage?

Proponents of the estate tax claim it affects only the very rich. However, forest owners, many of whom are cash-poor, are more likely to incur the estate tax than the general population. Suburban growth has caused timber prices to rise; thus substantial increases in the value of forest acreage are not unusual. This makes it difficult for forest owners to avoid the estate tax and ensure their acreage remains intact for their heirs.

The Medicare prescription drug benefit plans that passed the House (H.R.1) and the Senate (S.1) require modest premiums and copayments that will cover only a fraction of the total cost of the benefits seniors will receive.

The Census Bureau recently reported that the number of Americans without health insurance rose in 2002 to around 43.6 million, up from 38.7 million in 2000 but below the record 44.3 million who were uninsured in 1998. With health care costs increasing, many public health advocates are worried that this number might rise further. Why do more than 43 million Americans lack health insurance? Who are they?

Urban sprawl is generally defined as low-density residential and commercial development on previously undeveloped land. Those who oppose sprawl seek to preserve open space by concentrating future construction in already developed areas.

The Unemployment Insurance (UI) system erroneously pays billions of dollars to people who do not qualify. These overpayments equaled 9 percent, or $3.7 billion, of the $41 billion paid to laid-off workers in 2002, according to audit results recently issued by the U. S. Department of Labor. The fundamental problem is that we accept a high level of overpayments as a routine cost of doing business, rather than treating it as excessive waste that must be stopped.

Welfare rolls in both Canada and the United States reached all-time highs in the 1990s. One province and a few states introduced reforms to slow the rate of increase or reduce the escalating cost. However, in both countries local reforms were limited by the conditions attached to federal financing.

Everybody seems to be worried about manufacturing these days. For years, manufacturers have been outsourcing operations to foreign countries to lower labor costs and escape high taxes, government regulations and union demands.

Too many American women have difficulty obtaining health coverage that meets their needs. This is not because women’s needs are so different from those of men, but because government policy is stuck in a 1950s view of women in the economy. However, reforms now pending in Congress would expand access to tax-free health accounts, making it easier for women to obtain personal, portable, affordable and comprehensive coverage.

Many more Americans could save for current and future health care expenses in tax-free "health accounts" under a proposal by House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.). The House of Representatives passed the Thomas proposal as part of the Medicare prescription drug bill, which is now before a House-Senate conference committee. Opponents want to strip health accounts from the Medicare bill, but their criticisms do not withstand scrutiny.