Correspondence
Correspondence Laughiacophony Left's Cacophony Matt Labash's article "Mr. Hackney's Opus" (Feb. 26) has everything an outstanding conservative journal should: poignancy, insight, and a healthy...
...Naturally, if immigration reform is cloaked in a white hood, people of Asian and Hispanic ancestry will be frightened-but that can happen only when good men relinquish the issue of immigration reform to the kooks...
...In fact, it wouldn't be too far off the mark to typify our entire legal immigration system as nothing more than a permanent rolling amnesty for illegal aliens...
...As Rector points out, without reform, the total cost of SSI and Medicaid benefits for elderly non-citizen immigrants will amount to more than $328 billion over the next decade, reaching more than $67 billion per year by the year 2004...
...As Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation recently noted, under current immigration policy, the "U.S...
...While Clinton's umbrella policies probably included general provisions regarding defamation, I think one can safely assume that no sexual-harassment riders were written in...
...Jon Prescott Patten, ME Matt Labash's article on the National Conversation is riveting in its ability to make readers laugh, rather than cry out in outrage...
...William Wade Matchneer, III Alexandria, VA Ever mindful of its reputation, the establishment press did nothing to dishonor the president when the story of his "bimbo insurance" was revealed...
...Thomas M. Beattie Mount Vernon, VA They're Not Republicans It's not surprising Ralph Reed cannot get his Christian Coalition to assimilate into mainstream Republican politics ("Social Issues Strike Back," Feb...
...Nancy Jancourtz Eastchester, NY The Burden of Immigrants Your editorial "Republicans and Immigration" (Feb...
...Furthermore, the cartoon of the National Endowment for the Humanities bull by Michael Ramirez is perfect...
...26) correctly highlights Nicholas Eberstadt's point that statistics do not address the idea that pregnant mothers' attitudes are a large factor in the incidence of infant mortality and low birth weight...
...Though the Clintons did probably maintain "continuous" coverage for themselves, Lindberg was apparently led to think that this continuity somehow bound State Farm to defend Clinton against claims that arose prior to the date of their 1994 policy, i.e., the allegations of the Paula Jones case...
...Because the Paula Jones complaint seeks only $100,000 for defamation, $100,000 is likely the maximum exposure these carriers will face...
...In the United States, our dysfunctional legal immigration system is groaning under 30 years of accumulated foolishness: millions of people on waiting lists, a large and growing education gap between natives and immigrants, a politicized and racialized visa lottery, a refugee system that admits few genuine refugees, and a political-asylum policy that is metastasizing to cover virtually everyone on the planet...
...welfare system is rapidly becoming a deluxe retirement home for the elderly of other countries...
...Mark Krikorian Washington, DC Insurance Coercion As much as I enjoyed Tod Lindberg's piece on Bill Clinton's recently discovered recreational insurance ("State Farm Was There," Feb...
...Perhaps you were referring to some other country...
...domestic policy maker in the Carter and Clinton administrations), I asked Edley about this phenomenon...
...Lindberg was quite correct to conclude, in his kind way, that these carriers have knuckled under to threats, actual or implied, of the bad press Bennett and his client could generate...
...After a debate at Dickinson College between conservative author Dinesh D'Souza and Harvard law professor Christopher Edley, Jr...
...Just as I thought...
...As for "raw politics"-the GOP's prospects if it passes immigration reform-decades of polling show that Americans of all shapes and flavors are uncomfortable with high levels of immigration...
...26) warns that under pending Senate and House bills there are "almost 2.5 million people on waiting lists in the family immigration categories these bills would kill" and the "vast majority of them are related to full U.S...
...In response to my question about how more government dollars help these people, Edley shrugged his shoulders with regret...
...Is this a part of the Republican revolution we haven't been told about- buying votes with taxpayer dollars...
...Please allow a former insurance defense lawyer to add some perspective...
...26) has everything an outstanding conservative journal should: poignancy, insight, and a healthy dose of humor (although I'm afraid much of the latter falls into the "if you didn't laugh, you'd cry" category...
...The question is not whether there will be reform of legal immigration policy, but rather when and by whom-now, by men of good will, or later, by paranoids and rabble-rousers...
...People who lose group insurance have to dig deep into their own pockets to continue coverage...
...The group-to-individual portability provision and its potential to precipitate across-the-board rate increases may well lead to fewer people with coverage...
...Then, in 1994, the Clintons apparently chose to change their coverage to State Farm...
...Never reported are the results of a poll conducted by the Republican National Committee in 1993 of duespaying members, which concluded that 60 percent believe the current laws on abortion are right and that homosexuality is a privacy matter...
...Lindberg writes that the Clintons first obtained umbrella liability coverage with Chubb in 1988...
...Liberal political elites function most comfortably with "just the theories, ma'am...
...The editorial contends that rates for individual purchasers won't rise significantly if group-to-individual portability is guaranteed because insurers can charge "anything they want...
...And while there's no state-run television in America for the Clintons to control, the media's liberal bias ensures that the administration will be covered in a manner that would make Boris Yeltsin smile...
...This issue of attitudes is crucial and is practically ignored by liberal policy-makers and money-spenders...
...The editorial's idea seems to be that insurers will be able to avoid insuring the least healthy by offering them policies at unaffordable prices, with no net effect on the individual market overall...
...A recent internal State Department study found that 90 percent of Mexicans waiting for legal immigration visas appear already to be living in the United States...
...The conversations described by Labash are precisely the type of counterproductive exercise at which liberalism excels: a group of academic and fringe leftists bemoaning their collective plight and ranting about all the ways white, Eurocentric male society keeps them down...
...Since Reagan, people in "high places" have been making back-room deals with this group, as party loyalists hear the party being redefined by a bunch of independents...
...I cited specific at-risk young people who receive tens of thousands of dollars in educational, job-training, counseling, and other benefits, who nonetheless are carving themselves a place on the poverty-statistics chart with their self-destructive behavior...
...26), I suspect that Lindberg was thrown off the scent a bit when he spoke to defense lawyer Robert Bennett...
...Beth Klein Carlisle, PA Health Care Portability As president of the Health Insurance Association of America, I would like to respond to your editorial "An Ounce of Cure" (Feb...
...Considering conservatism's message of rugged individualism, a common American culture, equality of opportunity, and fair treatment for every citizen, one wonders how much longer these divisive figures will have any audience at all...
...Daniel John Sobieski Chicago, IL Iwas amused by your editorial on immigration, which observed that "we're managing that [legal] immigration quite well-and to good effect...
...Politics is about compromise, individual personal religious beliefs are not...
...The individual health-insurance marketplace is smaller and more price-sensitive than the group market...
...I believe that's why our forefathers thought separation of church and state a sound principle...
...As most people have heard by now, Chubb and State Farm have made a joint down payment of almost $900,000 toward Bennett's legal fees in the Paula Jones case...
...Bill Gradison Washington, DC...
...It makes a critical error when it implies that objections we raised to the bill's group-to-individual portability provision are without merit...
...Nor are legal and illegal immigration as separate as your editorial's bromides suggest...
...He brings forth the truth of Sheldon's Hackneyed rhetoric...
...This is not so, and State Farm's willingness to participate in this defense cannot be explained in terms of ordinary practice...
...But this simply isn't a credible scenario...
...But it's not surprising the Clintons are being given a free ride by the media...
...The vast majority are NOT Republicans-they are conservative Christian independents...
...Add to this the unheard-of extravagance of Bennett's billing practices, and the decision of Chubb and especially State Farm to involve themselves in this costly defense, rather than deny the claim, makes sense only if it was coerced...
...Elderly immigrants should be supported permanently by the relatives who sponsor their entry, so they do not become a future and permanent burden on the American taxpayer...
...Those most likely to take advantage of a group-to-individual portability provision will be the least healthy and the most likely to incur high medical costs...
...The overwhelming majority of non-citizen residents are elderly, and most get on the taxpayer-pulled wagon within five years...
...they choose not to face, or are ignorant of, the attitudes that lead to poverty-inducing behavior...
...This will drive up costs in the individual market, and drive up premiums within state-imposed limitations...
...State-specific "comprehensive" or high-risk pools are still the best way to provide affordable insurance to medically at-risk individuals who don't have group coverage...
...citizens, people who can vote...
...Perhaps they forget that character is forged in families, rather than expensive, well-intentioned, but not very effective government programs...
...In 1994, nearly 738,000 non-citizen residents were receiving aid from the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, a 580 percent increase in just 12 years...
...Tommye Torian Austin, TX Numbers Are Not Enough Bruce Chapman's review of The Tyranny of Numbers ("He's Numbers One," Feb...
Vol. 1 • March 1996 • No. 25
