More national security leaks
September 26, 2006 | By Nathaniel Ward
The New York Times has once again published top-secret American intelligence materials. The newspaper cites the classified National Intelligence Estimate, a portion of which argues that the war in Iraq has increased terrorism. Of course, all we know of what the top-secret document says is what the Times tells us; the only way to know if the Times is reporting accurately would be to view the entire document, which is presumably classified for very good reasons.
“Don’t buy the various excuses that leaks can serve the public interest,” Heritage national security expert Peter Brookes wrote in June. “All government employees with access to classified information are duty bound to protect it, under penalty of law.”
Brookes recommended that the government act quickly to stop these already-illegal leaks. “Some Americans, especially media and government types, regrettably refuse to take the consequences of their actions into account. Until they get a clue, cracking down is a must.”
Liberals are already trying to use the New York Times revelations to score political points. The problem is, the Times report is premised on a liberal myth: that America is somehow bringing the terrorist threat on itself.
The biggest spending hike since 1990
“Federal spending in 2006 is set to rise 9 percent, the largest increase since 1990,” Heritage budget expert Brian Riedl reports. But Congress seems determined to make a bad situation worse by breaking through its self-imposed budget cap with a series of “emergency spending” bills.
These “emergencies” include:
- Replacing money raided from the Department of Defense to pay for domestic programs.
- Funding an unnecessary farm bailout.
- Reimbursing NASA for funds stolen to pay for wasteful pork-barrel projects.
Congress is ignoring a lesson that every American family knows well: set priorities and stick to a budget. Just as you and I make tradeoffs between dining out and eating in, Congress needs to make tradeoffs between its own spending priorities. It’s not possible for Congress to have its cake and eat it too.
“Calling these routine expenditures ‘emergencies’ has no effect other than to allow lawmakers to misleadingly claim that they stayed within the spending limits,” writes Riedl, the Grover M. Hermann Fellow in Federal Budgetary Affairs. “But taxpayers will not be fooled when they receive the inevitable tax bill for Congress’s excess.”
The ‘doughnut hole’ arrives
The expensive new Medicare prescription drug entitlement is a badly-designed product of Congressional committees. Nothing like it exists in the private sector. Now, as The Washington Post reports, millions of seniors with high drug costs are facing the program’s “doughnut hole,” an intentional gap in coverage where government stops covering prescriptions entirely.
Despite feigned surprise from big-government liberals, the doughnut hole was hardly a secret. Heritage health care experts were warning about it in 2003 when the bill was passed and have kept up their warnings ever since. “Without substantial reform, the massive drug entitlement will never work efficiently,” Heritage’s Andrew Grossman wrote earlier this year. “[A]s the year progresses, seniors will fall into the entitlement’s notorious ‘doughnut hole,’ where they must pay for all drugs out-of-pocket—as if they had no coverage at all.”
Liberals have proposed a big-government solution to this uniquely big-government problem. They want to “fill” the doughnut hole by spending even more taxpayer money. As it is, the program is projected to cost upwards of $650 billion over the next decade. The next big problem: private companies will start dropping retiree coverage because the taxpayer will pick up the tab.
The Chicago Tribune notes one minor Medicare reform: starting in 2007, seniors with higher incomes will pay higher Medicare premiums. Today, taxpayers pay 75 percent of all Medicare premiums, regardless of the beneficiaries’ income. While the Tribune points out that this little change will make clearer the program’s true costs to seniors, “far more profound reforms” are needed.
Get ’em while they’re hot
On November 16, The Heritage Foundation is sponsoring an event with talk radio host Rush Limbaugh at the Warner Theater in Washington, DC. Tickets are moving fast, so stop by TicketMaster.com today and reserve your spot before the event sells out.
Unfortunately, these aren’t jokes
Though members of Congress have been unable to reform immigration, rein in out-of-control entitlement spending or make the tax cuts permanent, they have found the time to pass inane new laws that needlessly expand the power of the federal government.
- A Congressional committee recently approved a $16 million law “designed to reduce the number of falls taken by senior citizens, which often lead to debilitating injuries or death,” CongressDaily reports (no link available). Heritage’s health care experts have promised to track Congress’ progress in reducing the number of falls, though they’re skeptical that throwing money at the problem will work when it’s failed so often before.
- As reported by the Associated Press, Congress has passed legislation to ensure that pets are evacuated in emergencies. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which has run into problems managing evacuations of people, will now be given the additional task of helping coordinate plans to evacuate animals as well. Shouldn’t it be up to individuals to plan for the evacuation of their own pets?
In other news
- An angry President Bill Clinton argued over the weekend that President Bush has not done enough to capture or kill Osama bin Laden. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today that these claims are “flatly false.”
- This morning, President Bush signed into law the Federal Funding Accountability Act of 2006, which increases transparency for Congressional earmarks and grants. “We spend a lot of time and a lot of effort collecting your money, and we should show the same amount of effort in reporting how we spend it,” President Bush said at the signing. “Taxpayers have a right to know where that money is going, and you have a right to know whether or not you're getting value for your money.”
- Japan’s parliament has chosen Shinzo Abe to be the country’s next prime minister. The 52-year-old Abe, a strong proponent of the US-Japanese alliance, is the country’s youngest leader since World War II.
- The Transportation Security Administration has announced a relaxation of some restrictions on carrying gels and liquids onto aircraft. Small containers of such things as cosmetics will now be allowed on board, as will beverages purchased inside airport security.
- When Congress sought to reform the National Endowment for the Arts in the 1990s, liberals cried that funding for the arts would dry up since only the federal government would support artists. The Boston Globe, though, reports on a new foundation with $20 million in seed money charged with funding artists no longer on the federal dole.
Coming up at Heritage
To attend these or any other Heritage Foundation events, RSVP at Heritage’s events website. Or you can watch these events live online at Heritage.org. All times are Eastern.
- On Wednesday, September 27 at noon, victim of Islamic terrorism and author Brigitte Gabriel will speak on the brutality of fundamentalist Islam and how the threat has been underestimated.
- On Thursday, September 28 at 11:00 am, John Blundell of London’s Institute of Economic Affairs will discuss the European Union and its relationship with the United States.
Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.
