Correspondence
Correspondence Listening to God and Being Civil As always, P.J. O'Rourke's penetrating humor hits his target ("Mrs. Clinton's Very, Very Bad Book," Feb. 19). I had a slightly different reaction-...
...I presume the editors agree, as any conservative must, that it is not the proper role of government to guarantee access to insurance, to limit the ability of business to control its operations, to ban business from choosing its customers, or to require business to offer a particular product or service...
...Tom Miller Washington, DC Idisagree with your editorial on the Kassebaum-Kennedy bill...
...O'Rourke provides a perfect illustration of the kind of incivility our first president would not have practiced...
...John A Frederick Manteca, CA Listening to the Roar Christina Sommers's article "Hear Them Roar" (Feb...
...These people are unemployed- we should be able to get them cheap...
...We should end employer-based insurance and allow individuals to buy their own health insurance with increased salaries...
...In the same issue, PJ...
...But she does have other things on her mind these days, as we know...
...Why do we often fail to recognize such greatness and at what price...
...19) succumbs to tactical temporizing and strategic myopia...
...Kassebaum-Kennedy will lead to further rounds of tighter federal regulation...
...The Kassebaum-Kennedy bill will achieve little measurable progress and may actually do some harm to overall insurance-coverage levels...
...Anderson illustrates how the term "disabled" can be used by certain students with disciplinary problems to avoid taking responsibility for their actions...
...This market would help to decrease health-care inflation and ultimately decrease the cost of health insurance...
...What if this victim of ingratitude, aware that she would receive no credit for her labors, decided to contribute her little share to the free-fall of Mrs...
...Thomas P. Ostrom Rochester, MN A Pound of Flesh Your editorial "An Ounce of Cure" (Feb...
...Susan Sarandon is quoted: "Men have shown us that they do not know how to be inclusive...
...O'Rourke makes her out to be, especially after getting coached on life's meaning by the likes of all-purpose guru Michael Lerner and Harvard guest lecturer Bar-bra Streisand...
...Surely, it is possible to be tough with ideas while respecting the people who espouse them...
...If they purchased high-deductible insurance in conjunction with tax-free medical savings accounts, a market for health-care services would emerge...
...One can have little sympathy for bureaucrats caught in their own racist web...
...Clinton's reputation by penning, as only a professional writer could, a literary travesty...
...They should be allowed to purchase this insurance with tax-exempt dollars just as their employers do...
...Having a disability may be a reason for needing extra help...
...Thanks to the liberal elite's Goals 2000, today kids learn more about Watergate, the Vietnam War, and the Ku Klux Klan than they do about the people and events that made this country great...
...Second, in spite of its laudable intentions, it will raise the cost of health insurance, ultimately decreasing the number of persons insured...
...I believe the bill does violate conservative principles...
...Louis, MO...
...First, it is an unfunded mandate on insurers, employers, and individuals...
...Edward Ericson Grand Rapids, MI How ironic...
...Peter L. Loh Dallas, TX No Fascist Dupes Here The criticism of Patrick Buchanan in the Scrapbook ("Every Man a Dupe," Feb...
...It undermines incentives to take personal responsibility for one's future health-care needs...
...However, if our government needs help pushing "separate but equal" policies, I believe it should look to the experts...
...One does not have to admire Hillary Clinton to be offended by the demeanor of the article...
...There must be a better explanation, and I think O'Rourke gives us a clue when he mentions the ghostwriter...
...19) and the implication that he is an extremist-a "Franco for the 90s"-are unwarranted...
...It would require that Mrs...
...Seldom challenging her ideas, O'Rourke prefers to defame her character...
...After all, why bother to listen when you already know all the answers...
...Until this lesson is learned, political gridlock and chronic snippiness will continue to polarize our nation and make "government of the people and by the people" a hopeless enterprise...
...The loss of civility and respect in American political life is shameful...
...Individual ownership, tax equity, and high-deductible health insurance coupled with tax-free medical savings accounts would increase the number of those insured, allow portability, and reduce the likelihood of preexisting-condition restrictions...
...Buchanan's consistency explains his popularity with social and economic conservatives...
...Clinton not only didn't write the book but didn't read it...
...This system would be conducive to deregulation and represents true conservative principles...
...19) only underscores a growing belief that Gloria Steinem and company do not seek equality with men...
...Failure to do so will assure the return to the White House of the con who presently resides there...
...Gregory Giordano New Port Richey, FL Black and Tan Fantasy Well, well, well...
...This will lead to more intrusive regulation, which might eventually result in another attempt to socialize the healthcare industry...
...It is nice to see a national publication give the Father of Our Country and one of the greatest leaders of all time his just due...
...John F. Sutherland St...
...The Nazis' Nuremberg Laws on "race" can give our bureaucrats a wonderful template from which to work...
...Whatever flaws mar the president and his wife, they deserve to be treated with the respect befitting the office of the president of the United States...
...More dangerously, the bill might restore momentum to efforts to politicize health-care markets because it surrenders the principles of individual choice, personal responsibility, and risk-based pricing in favor of the slippery slope of hidden cross-subsidies, standardized benefits, and centralized decision making...
...To his men, General and later President Washington was a near deity...
...The omission of the word "listened" reveals the deep arrogance of liberals in general...
...they seek superiority...
...Nothing better illustrates the degenerate fascism of contemporary liberalism than the fact that the aforementioned sources could be plausible (if unacknowledged) inspirations for liberalism's racial policies...
...When the purchase of health insurance is voluntary, raising the cost of insurance will raise the number of uninsured people...
...and it "requires that paid-up insurance policies be offered for renewal" except in cases of fraud or misrepresentation (emphasis added...
...Noemie Emery bemoans the loss of civility in modern politics and offers George Washington as a model for us to emulate ("What George Washington Knew," Feb...
...The same children who use the designation "disabled" as an excuse for discipline problems at school may well become adults who refuse to take responsibility for more serious behavior...
...Guarantees of renewability and portability will also increase pressure for mandatory, standardized health benefits...
...Significantly, he ignores the fact that she eventually overcame her tormentors...
...the legislation guarantees access to group plans...
...His concern for corporate and economic layoffs, the movement of jobs overseas, and the blue-collar middle class has struck such a chord that "moderate" Bob Dole has already borrowed some of Buchanan's message...
...The bottom line is that Kassebaum-Kennedy forces healthy people to subsidize sick people, regardless of income...
...But it should never be a reason for overlooking poor or improper behavior...
...The Weekly Standard neocons would be well advised to build bridges to the paleocons...
...it "bans the exclusion from [group] plans on the basis of health status alone...
...I had a slightly different reaction- perhaps as a result of my Quaker background-to Mrs...
...If insurers cannot explicitly adjust their premiums and restrict their coverage offers to reflect different health risks posed by different people, they will resort to indirect and less efficient means to match the value of health insurance to the amount people will pay...
...Clinton's "talked with God, walked with God, ate, studied, and argued with God...
...Merry B. Quinson Gaithersburg, MD It's a little hard to believe that Hillary Clinton is as witless as P.J...
...Donald Crittendon Bloomington, IL Congratulations to Noemie Emery for the fine article about George Washington...
...I saw lots of time and money spent to give these disabled individuals the opportunity to succeed in the labor market...
...That's got to be it: ghostwriter's revenge...
...You cannot "guarantee" availability of insurance policies without setting price limits on them...
...Some South African bureaucrats have decades of experience making fine racial distinctions in mixed-race situations...
...Robert T. Woodburn New Buffalo, MI Iam baffled by your editorial conclusion that Kassebaum-Kennedy contains or does "nothing, on balance, that violates conservative principle...
...For several years, I managed an employment program that helped people with disabilities find jobs...
...Many proved to be excellent workers, and most did not want to hide behind the term "disabled...
...As for methodology and definitional exactitude, the work has already been done...
...Individuals with disabilities have special needs for physical assistance, medical care, and specialized training But the need for special assistance has nothing to do with taking responsibility for one's actions...
...As David Tell reports, now that our country is getting a bit more diverse, our bureaucrats are looking for more "sophisticated" measures of race to use in their quota and "affirmative action" programs ("Affirmative Action and the Black and Tan Fantasy," Feb...
...Perhaps this is an appropriate response: "Radical feminists have shown us they will not be happy until all males are singing soprano...
...All of the problems addressed by this bill could be corrected with a free-market solution...
...Robert B. McCurtain Westport, CT Disciplining the Disabled Stuart Anderson has revealed a dangerous trend in the public education system ("Why Schools Don't Dare To Discipline the Disabled," Feb...
...Admittedly, this explanation has its problems...
...Typical is his unconcealed glee at Hillary's shabby treatment by neighborhood bullies...
...The editorial states that "the bill limits the ability of insurance companies" to do certain things...
...Employers will respond by reducing or limiting the number of their employees...
Vol. 1 • March 1996 • No. 24
