CEI Daily Update
Issues in the News
1. CONGRESS
President Bush threatens to veto the 2007 Farm Bill.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Scholar Fran Smith on why the bill deserves a veto:
“These outdated farm programs not only carry a high cost for taxpayers, but can hit consumers with higher food prices. In addition, heavily subsidizing U.S. crops means that poor countries can’t compete in the world market.”
2. HEALTH
Michael Moore and Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) announce the distribution of DVD copies of Moore’s documentary Sicko to congressional offices.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Eli Lehrer on the need for health care reform everywhere:
“As always, Michael Moore continues his Canada fetish [in his health care documentary Sicko] and he romanticizes Canada’s health system like crazy…. Both [U.S. and Canadian health care] systems have an enormous state role. Both need overhauls. Were I Canadian, I would not want to impose the American medical system. Were I American, I would not want the Canadian system imposed on the U.S. We need a different option altogether.”
3. BUSINESS
The House Financial Services Committee considers several bills related to mortgage loans and housing.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Center for Entrepreneurship Director John Berlau puts recent foreclosure rates into perspective:
“…the ‘record number of foreclosures’ the media report are meaningless statistics without reference to the ‘record number’ of homeowners in the last few years. Thanks in part to the innovations in lending now under attack, the U.S. homeownership rate has climbed to nearly 70 percent. The overall foreclosure rate for the latest quarter, while increasing over the past year, is still well within historical norms at .58 percent of all mortgages, according to the latest National Delinquency Survey.”
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