Category: Pete du Pont

Congress may soon make Medical Savings Accounts (MSAs) the law of the land. And even labor unions like the idea.

Sixteen months into the conservative revolution that swept the field in the 1994 elections, the liberals are winning the war. They lost the battle at the polls but they are winning the war in the trenches of the Congress and the sound bites of the evening news.

The football season and the State of the Union message are behind us. In another few weeks the election of 1996 will be upon us. In these few days of calm before the Iowa caucus, we need to reflect upon the social and political transitions of our times and how they impact the November elections.

The objective of the Tax Reform Commission appointed by Speaker Gingrich and Majority Leader Dole was, in the words of its chairman, Jack Kemp, "to tear apart the whole tax code…and draft…a dramatic reform."

"Fair is foul, and foul is fair."

A pessimistic philosopher once gloomily opined that life was but a long march through hostile territory. Surely this week both the children of the District of Columbia and conservative Republican congressmen must agree.

Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution gives Congress the power "to coin money [and] regulate the value thereof."

While most of the attention in California was focused on affirmative action and stockholder lawsuits in the November 5th election, voters in the Golden State were sending their local governments another message:

It's not long until Christmas, a very special time for all families. In Washington, Christmas is a very special time, too. The president has lit the national Christmas tree. And lobbyists are beginning to think about what kinds of presents they would like to receive this year.

Most people would agree that if prisoners learned a skill while they were in jail they could more easily get a job when they got out, and that an ex-prisoner with a job is less likely to commit another crime. Since nearly one-half of people released from prison return to prison within three years, job skills could mean a significant decline in the crime rate.

Some 70 Americans will die today because the Food and Drug Administration doesn't allow existing medical technology to be used to save their lives.

Eight years ago, the man soon to become President thought it a "dumb and nutty" idea to give people a choice between a private IRA and the current Social Security system to fund their retirement.

Last week's District of Columbia appropriations bill contained a startling education innovation. It mandates the establishment of a nonprofit corporation governed by the private sector to train and place non-college-bound students in jobs.

If you thought the Congressional elections of 1994 marked the end of liberalism and a new era of conservative government, look at what the education establishment is doing to school choice back home. A current example comes from Delaware, where the State Board of Education has blunted a new public school choice law by insisting it comply with racial quotas.

What would you think of a doctor who prescribed the same treatment to every sick person he treated, whether the patient had a cold or lung cancer? Yet, isn't that the way we handle welfare today? The fourth-generation welfare mother, the educated person temporarily on hard times, the drug addict, the man who is simply incapable of holding a job – they're all treated pretty much the same by federal welfare policy.

The House Republicans have proposed a major revision to Medicare that, if enacted, will provide greatly improved health care for America's senior citizens.

My grandmother told me that bad news comes in threes. Over a lifetime, I've concluded that she was right. This especially came to mind last week, as I read in the papers three pieces of bad news that could torpedo the Gingrich Republican revolution of 1994.

Ross Perot has a knack for identifying those issues that are important to voters. Just a week after congressional leaders said that Medicare reform would be the biggest policy issue this fall, his book on Medicare hit the stands. Intensive Care is a book about the crisis facing Medicare and Medicaid, the federal and federal/state health insurance programs for the elderly and poor.

In 1776, American colonists began a war for independence from the tyranny of King George III. It was a war against taxes, tariffs, regulations and rules imposed by a monarch thousands of miles away wielding absolute power over the people and their endeavors.

Question: Why does the United States have the lowest savings rate of any major nation?

Washington, D. C. — Pete du Pont, former Governor of Delaware and currently Policy Chairman of the National Center for Policy Analysis, today issued a call for limiting the power of the federal government and returning power to the states by strengthening the Constitution's Tenth Amendment.

In July, President Clinton welcomed the 30th birthday of Medicare with fanfare, politics and posturing. Speaking to a group of seniors celebrating the anniversary, the president said, "I got the message of the 1994 election, and I'm not going to let the government mess with your Medicare."

The latest crisis invented by the national media is the great October "train wreck" – a confrontation between a liberal president and a conservative Congress – that will "shut down the government."