The American Spectator

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Panic City

9.23.08 @ 12:01AM

(Page 2 of 5)

Why is it that they do not deserve the benefit of the doubt? If this was Senator McCain, judging by their past tactics in the campaign they would cite McCain's POW service as a reason he could be trusted. But is the hatred for Obama so intense that when he and another man are said to have a working relationship and both men deny it, people like Robert McCain assume Obama is lying. I think these are all valid points that deserve to be clarified. I thank you for your time and effort. I hope you will respond.
-- Tyrone Sevens
Cornell University

Robert Stacy McCain replies:
To begin with, I didn't refer to Jim Johnson as a "lobbyist," disgraced or otherwise. Johnson, whose Democratic Party activism dates back more than 30 years, was the CEO of Fannie Mae 1991-98. A federal investigation found that Fannie Mae failed to disclose the full amount of Johnson's compensation, reporting his 1998 compensation as about $6 million, when it was in fact about $21 million. (Source)

Fraudulent accounting to hide two-thirds of the CEO's pay from investors? If that doesn't qualify Johnson as "disgraced," I don't know what would.

I wrote, Obama "reportedly solicited advice from" Raines -- and, indeed, this was reported by the Washington Post. If you have a beef with the journalistic standards at the Post, perhaps you should take it up with Len Downie. As to whether their reporting is "completely discredited" merely because both Obama and Raines denied it, perhaps it is helpful to remember how a certain Washington Post article from January 1998 prompted a rather famous Democratic denial: "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky." (Youtube video)

It was during the tenure of Johnson, and his successor Raines, that Fannie Mae became mired in the unsound business practices that recently unraveled in its complete collapse. As noted in my article, Obama was second only to Chris Dodd in contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: (Source)

Nothing is more persistent in politics than the belief of liberals that no behavior by Democrats, however sleazy or even criminal, ever amounts to anything really scandalous. Tell it to Mary Jo Kopechne, sir.

EXPENSIVE KILLER
Re: David Hogberg's Death and the Uninsured:

Though 18,000 Americans without health insurance die each year, many times more Americans with health insurance die annually. The prudent course, then, would be NOT to hold insurance. Insurance is lethal.
-- David Govett
Davis, California

I wonder if they consider being kept alive and in a vegetative state as a good health outcome? I will bet that people who have auto insurance probably, on the whole, have better looking cars, especially if the deductible is low. Maybe the auto body guild ought to get together a study that would keep their people just as busy as those working in healthcare? If the government was getting the bill for your auto repair however, you might have to take a lot of cars to the crusher sooner than the owners wanted to. Of course, the SUV's would be the first to go.
-- Danny L. Newton
Cookeville, Tennessee

The "people die because they don't have health insurance" may be accurate, but it's not the complete story.

People will die because of inadequate health care in every system, whether it's private health insurance, fee-for-service, or government funded.

The difference is that if one chooses fee-for-service (preferring to spend the difference on something else, or unable to pay for private health insurance), then that person decides which medical services are worth the cost.

When health care is government-funded, then some bureaucrat or committee decides which medical services are to be funded.

Canada is a good example of this. There are a great many medicines which aren't available in Canada, because they've been deemed too expensive. That's great for the pocketbook -- except when the allowed medicines don't work, or have bad side-effects. So my wife would have been out of luck in Canada after she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of glaucoma -- we had to try a number of medicines (each one costing more than the previous type) until we found one which halted the damage to her optic nerves.

England also provides another good example -- it's nearly impossible to get heart surgery for a patient who's older than 70, and there are long waits for younger patients. That's of more-than-academic interest to me -- my father was visiting England in 1999, and began having heart problems while he was there. He was told "oooh...you'd better get your name on a waiting list, since you'll have to sit around for months before you can get coronary bypass surgery." He responded with "I'm an American, so I'll get that surgery as soon as I get home." And that's what happened =- my sisters met Dad and Mom at the airport, and drove Dad straight to the hospital.

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