Issue 551 March 28, 2008

Medicare trustees report troubling figures

The Medicare trustees released their annual report this week. Not surprisingly, they note the Medicare program will grow in the future. However, the rate of the growth is startling. The United States is standing at the edge of a demographic tsunami. As the Baby Boom generation begins to retire there are simply not enough younger workers to support those older Americans that are retiring, and beginning to collect Social Security and Medicare benefits. In the longer term, the trustees project Medicare spending to rise sharply over the next 75 years. The report projects that by 2082, overall spending on Medicare will more than triple, from 3.2 percent of national gross domestic product (GDP) to 10.8 percent—nearly twice the projected size of Social Security, and more than one in every ten dollars spent in the private and public sectors.

Democrat Lawmakers’ 2002 trip to Iraq funded by Hussein regime

During the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Saddam Hussein’s intelligence agencies secretly paid for a trip to Iraq by three Members of Congress. Representatives Mike Thompson (D-CA), Jim McDermott (D-WA), and David Bonior (D-MI) traveled to Iraq in October 2002. According to officials, the trip was arranged by Muthanna Al-Hanooti, who was indicted for his actions this week. Al-Hanooti arranged the trip at the request of Hussein’s regime, who paid for the trip through an intermediary and paid off Al-Hanooti with 2 million barrels of Iraqi oil for his efforts. The Politico, a Capitol Hill based newspaper, reported that the lawmakers were “innocent and unwitting victims of the scheme,” but noted that the revelation “calls attention to the problem of Iraqi spies operating within the United States before the invasion.” The paper went on to note that the “Justice Department has brought charges against roughly a dozen of Saddam’s agents operating within the United States since Operation Iraqi Freedom began in 2003.”

An inspirational story

Next week, my friend and colleague, Rep. Mike McIntyre (D-NC), will welcome a Vietnam veteran at the steps of the Capitol after an incredible cross country journey. Gene Roberts is a veteran who lost both of his feet and portions of his legs when he was hit by a land mine during his service in Vietnam. Starting last July, he began a nine-month journey across America to share his faith, raise money for charity, and inspire our nation’s wounded warriors. When he arrives next week in D.C., he will have run over 3,500 miles on prosthetic legs. Gene Roberts began his journey across the United States last summer at Camp Pendleton, in California. Averaging 16 miles a day, his travels have taken him through 11 states and over 80 different U.S. cities. Roberts has previously completed 5Ks, 10Ks, 2 half-marathons, and the 26.2 mile Baltimore Marathon using prostheses.

Saddam Hussein’s terrorism connection

The conventional wisdom in Washington has decided that Saddam Hussein had no connection to al Qaeda. In fact, a new Pentagon report out this week claims Hussein’s connections to worldwide terror groups were actually more extensive than previously thought. The Wall Street Journal noted the report and its lack of press coverage in an editorial this week. The White House had little to say about the report, and even Senator John McCain, a stalwart of the effort in Iraq, did little to point out that Hussein encouraged the use of terrorism against U.S. targets and supported state sponsored terrorism. The editorial noted, “On the basis of 600,000 items, the report lays out Saddam’s willingness to use terrorism against American and other international targets, as well as his larger state sponsorship of terror, which included harboring, training and equipping jihadis throughout the Middle East.”

Quote of the Week

"Our Chinese friends must understand the worldwide concern that there is about the question of Tibet.”

-- French President Nicolas Sarkozy, on the possibility of a French boycott of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics if China continues to crackdown in Tibet.