The Health Care Argument That Should Have Been Made
March 28, 2012 by B. Lee Drake
President Obama during town hall in Ohio. Samantha Appleton/White House
Every year in the United States of America, 14,000 children die within the first year of their life – each death is preventable. If the deaths of these children were due to an enemy state, the US would declare war in a heartbeat. If terrorists had crept into hospitals in the dead night and stuck a AK-47 into every one of those 14,000 cribs, there would be almost no limit to the degree the government would pursue those organizations. There would be no difference between Democrat or Republican, conservative or liberal. The country would be united in its resolve to stare down the enemy.
Fundamental to any Democracy or Republic is the social contract – a central set of values and agreements that make people ‘a people’. Inherent in the social contract of the United States is the obligation to protect the lives of its citizens from existential threats. Every bullet fired from every military rifle for over two centuries has followed a course set by this logic. The people balance freedom and liberty against the need to protect each other – including those 14,000 children that die each year.
Argentina’s Economic Policy: Failing to Learn from History
March 28, 2012 by Patrick Hall
Cristina Kirchner with Dilma Rousseff. Photo by Roberto Stuckert Filho
Argentina is heading toward its second economic crisis in just over a decade and national leaders are unwilling to publicly acknowledge that the country’s growth is unsustainable. Since the country’s economic collapse a decade ago, President Nestor Kirchner (2003-2007) and President Christina Fernandez de Kirchner (2007 – present) have allowed the national economy to function without interference or direction. Senior officials have refused to dictate economic policy because domestic markets have been expanding and strengthening independently. They defend their position by citing the nation’s cheap currency and continual trade surpluses.
The reason for Argentina’s economic success is due to self-deception on the part of the national leadership. The international community has vocalized concern that it would be in Argentina’s best interest to slow down economic progress; however, these concerns were met with increased transportation and energy subsidies, as well as more funding being allocated for social programs. These policies were initially subsidized by the nationalization of private pensions, but, as spending continued to grow, the Central Bank began printing money.
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