About the deficit and "tort reform"

[question everything]

The strib gather these quotes from their sources, in case they were not posted here early.

* * *

Where the money goes

"Interest on borrowing is a big and growing budget item, one that cannot be cut except by slashing the debt itself. The $168 billion in annual payments, much of it to overseas holders of Treasury bonds, represents just over 7 percent of federal spending. That's more than the government will spend this year on education, housing, transportation, science, space and technology combined."

The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 21.

An example? Not really

"President Bush chose Madison County, Ill., to stump for proposal because, he said, 'the county illustrated the problems' of junk lawsuits.

"Nearly 700 malpractice/wrongful death suits were filed there between 1996 and 2003.

"But here's what Bush doesn't tell you: Since the system usually does work, most frivolous lawsuits are thrown out of court early in the process. Of those 700 lawsuits, for example, only 14 resulted in verdicts and only six of those favored the plaintiffs. And of those six, only one was actually large enough to be affected by the president's proposed $250,000 cap."

From Progress Report.


from http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/5175079.html

[DaedelusNemo]

1. Malpractice suits and costs are not increasing

They've been steady (in real dollars) for about the last thirty years and dropping a little lately. The problem for the insurance companies is the stock market, which is where they get most of their money.

Interest on the deficit is projected by Bush's commission on SS to already be a bigger problem than SS.