Impostor

The latest Cato Policy Report in my mailbox has a fantastic excerpt from Bruce Bartlett's new book, Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy. (The excerpt was apparently put up on the Cato website in January, so this is a little outdated). I will definitely buy this book. And if I was a donor to the National Center for Policy Analysis, I would ask for my money back for firing Bartlett for writing this book. Cowards!

On Bush's prescription drug plan:

I puzzled for a long time about why Republicans would write a bill that provided benefits even for those who had no need for them. They were making it more expensive without improving health care in any way at all. The answer became clear when the New York Times reported that the drug program would reimburse corporations for the drug benefits they were already providing to their retirees. The federal government would send huge checks to some of the largest corporations in the United States for the costs that they were already contractually obligated to pay. The final legislation provides a 28 percent tax-free subsidy that is expected to average $660 per retiree per year.

The numbers are huge. After passage of the legislation, the Wall Street Journal reported that General Motors anticipated receiving $4 billion to cover its prescription drug costs. Other recipients included Verizon ($1.3 billion), BellSouth ($572 million), Delphi ($500 million), U.S. Steel ($450 million), American Airlines ($415 million), John Deere ($400 million), United Airlines ($280 million), and Alcoa ($190 million).

Other companies planned to drop their drug coverage and let the federal program take over. Either way, the effect is to substantially raise corporate profits. Business Week estimated the aggregate profit increase at $8 billion per year—$6.5 billion for the subsidy itself and another $1.5 billion because the subsidy is tax-free.

On Bush vs. Clinton:

In light of Bush's big-spending ways, Bill Clinton now looks almost like another Calvin Coolidge. Compared with Ronald Reagan, Clinton was awful. Compared with George W. Bush, he looks a lot better.

On Bush and Nixon:

Increasing numbers of historians now view Nixon as basically a liberal, at least on domestic policy. They have learned to look past his rhetoric and methods to the substance of his policies and discovered that there is almost nothing conservative about them. I believe that in time George W. Bush may come to be viewed the same way.