Saturday, Sep 15, 2007
Boston, MA – Governor Mitt Romney issued the following statement today regarding the Independence Days of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua:
"Today, we express our best wishes to the people of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua on their Independence Day. We also celebrate the many contributions these communities make in the United States each day by upholding our mutual values and enriching our culture.
"During my business career, I had the privilege of working with several talented partners of Latin American descent, including Ricardo Poma and Miguel Dueñas. I learned from these friends about their own families' suffering and the agonizing pain of tyranny throughout Central America.
"In recent years, we have seen dramatic progress in this region which was torn apart by civil wars and strife in the 1980s. As democracy and free markets have taken root, their people have been empowered to build more stable societies. Central Americans are right to expect their leaders to continue governing democratically and to reject the populist solutions that have failed them in the past. The United States must continue to support these countries' efforts to generate economic opportunities for their people, and we must work to ensure the Central American Free Trade Agreement is fully implemented. We must also cooperate to boost security in the region at a time when international gang violence and drug trafficking are threatening the gains that have been made.
"On this day, we also acknowledge these nations and their people for continued cooperation in the global fight against terrorists and radical jihad, including El Salvador's commitment to bring greater peace to the Iraqi people. We need to continue to build stronger alliances with our neighbors to together confront these and other threats."
Also See:
Bringing The Market To Health Care
By: John F. Cogan And R. Glenn Hubbard
The Wall Street Journal
Saturday, Sep 15, 2007
"Presidential candidate Mitt Romney's recent health-care reform proposals, which rely on free-market principles and federalism, will go a long way to fixing our health-care system's woes.
"The centerpiece of Mr. Romney's plan is to attack the tax code's discrimination against cost-effective private insurance. He proposes to allow individuals to deduct out-of-pocket health-care expenditures from their taxable income, allow individuals who purchase health insurance premiums on their own - rather than through their employer - to deduct health insurance premiums, and to expand Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) by eliminating the requirement that a qualifying health plan contain a high deductible."
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"The tax preference's impact has been profound. It is the principal reason why nine out of every 10 private health-care plans in the U.S. are purchased through an employer. It is the principal reason why six out of every seven dollars of health-care spending is made by someone other than the person receiving the care. And, it is a key reason for the U.S. health-care system's excessive cost and waste.
"Many economists (including us) have emphasized the large benefits to health care of revoking the tax preference. Yet elected officials have repeatedly failed to enact the change because of strong political opposition."
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"Mr. Romney's proposal to allow individuals to deduct out of pocket medical expenses is a significant advance in this 30-year progression to a level tax playing field between out-of-pocket expenses and insurance. And a more level tax playing field would encourage individuals to choose health plans with lower premiums and higher copayments for their routine health-care purchases. With more 'skin in the game,' individuals would exert more control over their choice of health-care services. The health-care savings would be large. We estimate that a proposal such as Romney's would reduce private health-care spending by 6%."
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"We estimate that making out-of-pocket expenses tax deductible, combined with Mr. Romney's other proposals, will reduce the average premium of employer-provided family health plans by around $2,300 per year. Workers' wages will rise by this amount on average. To be sure, higher out-of-pocket expenses will offset part of this increase – $1,000 of it. But workers will still experience a net increase of $1,300 in (taxable) income. Mainly because of this economic effect, we estimate that the U.S. Treasury's revenue loss will be modest – about $10 billion per year.
"Mr. Romney's proposal also allows persons who purchase health insurance on their own to deduct their premium payments. This tax deduction will make insurance significantly less costly for unemployed persons and workers in firms that don't offer insurance coverage."
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"Mr. Romney's proposal to eliminate the 'high deductible' requirement will allow individuals to establish an HSA regardless of their health plan's deductible. Eliminating the high deductible requirement will maintain the cost-reducing benefits of HSAs."
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"The key to reducing the U.S. health-care system's excessive cost without damaging its ability to innovate is to allow competitive market forces to operate. These forces have worked in every other market to keep costs low and improve quality. There is no reason why they won't work in health care. Attacking the tax code's bias against efficient and cost-effective health insurance is fundamental to creating an economically sound health-care system."
Mr. Cogan, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, was deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Reagan. Mr. Hubbard, dean of Columbia Business School, was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush. They are both advisers to the Romney campaign.
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