10 August 2009

Today’s Tabbloid
PERSONAL NEWS FOR lgn@limitedgovernmentnetwork.com

FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS • Share of members with a background in politics (meaning a prior
elected office or a prior job working for a politician): Canada 9% vs.
Government-Run Health Care U.S. 71%

Will Cost Much More than the Perhaps this explains why Canada’s economic policies have been far
superior to U.S. policies in recent years.
Politicians Are Telling Us [Cato
at Liberty]
AUG 09, 2009 10:12A.M. FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS

As my Cato colleague Chris Edwards has documented, government Cuba Is Running Out of Toilet
programs and contracts inevitably cost much more than first projected.
This pattern of inaccuracy exists for several reasons, one of which is Paper [The Club for Growth]
that politicians have an incentive to lowball cost figures. But a big reason AUG 08, 2009 04:09P.M.
for the mistaken numbers is that government budget estimators do not
understand the degree to which people will alter their behavior to get Hey, Cuba, how’s the communism thing working out for you? From
their hands on other people’s money. Yahoo:

I explained recently on Fox Business Network that this means any Cuba, in the grip of a serious economic crisis, is running short
government-run health care scheme will be much more expensive than of toilet paper and may not get sufficient supplies until the
we are being told today. end of the year, officials with state-run companies said on
Friday.

Officials said they were lowering the prices of 24 basic goods

Our friends at Reason TV address this issue in a very compelling three-
minute video that looks at how government programs — especially for
health care — have cost several times more than politicians claimed
when the legislation was first adopted.
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
to help Cubans get through the difficulties provoked in part
by the global financial crisis and three destructive hurricanes
that struck the island last year.
Cuba’s financial reserves have been depleted by increased
spending for imports and reduced export income, which has
forced the communist-led government to take extraordinary
measures to keep the economy afloat.

Politicians and Economic Policy

[Cato at Liberty]
AUG 08, 2009 10:55P.M.

A recent study compared the members of the lower house in the

Canadian legislature to the members of the U.S. House of
Representatives.

The findings reveal large differences between the two nations in the
backgrounds of their federal politicians.

• Share of members with a business or private sector background:

Canada 61% vs. U.S. 17%