Month: September 2003

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.