NATIONAL CENTER FOR POLICY ANALYSIS
DAILY POLICY DIGEST
Monday, June 05, 2006
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IN TODAY'S DIGEST
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o Death tax repeal would raise federal revenues, say
observers... WALL STREET JOURNAL
o About one-third of U.S. counties use some electronic voting
systems... USA TODAY
o Journalists can't decide whether we face an ice age or
warming... BUSINESS AND MEDIA INSTITUTE
o Europe's social philosophers and academics want to undermine
marriage... UNITED FAMILIES INTERNATIONAL/NATIONAL REVIEW
ONLINE
o Unpaid internships may be bad for individual careers... NEW
YORK TIMES
o Property rights are necessary to reap the benefits of
globalization... SWISS FEDERAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
ZURICH
o Congress should kill the death tax... NATIONAL CENTER FOR
POLICY ANALYSIS
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DAILY POLICY DIGEST
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DYING FOR DOLLARS
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The House has already passed a permanent repeal of the estate tax and
the Senate takes up the debate this week. Under current law, the
so-called death tax is scheduled to go away in 2010 for one year only,
then return in 2011.
The Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) has issued some contradictory
numbers, according to the Wall Street Journal. First, according to the
JCT:
o From 2011, after the estate tax is restored, through 2015,
it is expected to collect $236 billion.
o The JCT claims permanent repeal would cost about $600
billion over 10 years.
However, the JCT's calculations aren't anywhere close to reality.
And the JCT's own numbers prove it, says the WSJ.
The current death tax repeal bill contains a compromise that
eliminates what is called the "step-up-basis at death on capital
gains." Under current law, the value of inherited assets is "stepped
up" to the market price at the time of death. This means that no
capital gains tax is applied to the increase in its value over the
original owner's lifetime. The change would require that the current
15 percent capital gains tax be paid on the full increase in value from
the time of purchase. (By comparison, death tax rates are as high as
50 percent.)
The government would get a share of the gain of heretofore
sheltered assets.
o JCT has calculated that changing this capital gains
treatment of inherited assets would raise $50 billion to
$60 billion a year -- more than the death tax actually
raises each year.
o The capital gains change would bring in $293 billion over
five years.
Inexplicably, says WSJ, Joint Tax estimates that the combination
of these tax changes would do the opposite and cost the government
about $45 billion more than the tax is expected to raise.
Source: Editorial, "Dying for Dollars," Wall Street Journal, June
5, 2006.
For text (subscription required):
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114946486603871066.html
For more on Taxes:
http://www.ncpa.org/pi/taxes/
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SEVERAL LAWSUITS TARGET E-VOTING
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Electronic voting machines, adopted widely after the disputed Florida
ballot count in the 2000 presidential election, are under legal attack,
say observers.
Lawsuits have been filed in at least six states, the most recent
last week in Colorado, to block the purchase or use of computerized
machines.
Voter Action, a nonpartisan advocacy group, led the challenge
filed Thursday against the state of Colorado and nine counties, as well
as similar lawsuits in California and Arizona this spring and New
Mexico last year. Court actions by others targeted the devices in
Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
o Most of the suits argue that the machines are vulnerable to
software tampering, don't keep an easily
recountable printed record and may miscount, switch or not record
votes and even add phantom votes.
o About one-third of the United State's 3,114 counties use
some electronic systems, according to Election Data
Services, a consulting group. It says half the counties
use optical scanners that read dots or marks that voters
pencil in on ballots.
o The rest vote by other means, mostly hand-counted paper
ballots in smaller communities but also lever-type
machines in New York and Connecticut.
No case yet has claimed intentional manipulation of electronic
vote data. System defenders say most problems occur because of hasty
set-up before elections or poor training of poll workers.
Electronic voting, in use for more than a decade, didn't catch fire
until Congress passed the Help America Vote Act in 2002. It overhauled
election standards and required states to replace old voting methods
such as punch cards, which fouled up the 2000 election in Florida.
Congress also gave states more than $300 million to replace outdated
systems.
Source: Patrick O'Driscoll, "Several lawsuits target e-voting;
Devices disputed in at least 6 states," USA Today, June 5, 2006.
For text (subscription required):
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20060605/1a_lede05.art.htm
For more on Government:
http://www.ncpa.org/pd/govern/govdex.html
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FIRE AND ICE
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The Business & Media Institute (BMI) conducted an extensive analysis of
print media's climate change coverage back to the late 1800s.
It found that many publications now claiming the world is on the
brink of a global warming disaster said the same about an impending ice
age -- just 30 years ago. Several major ones have reported on three or
even four different climate shifts since 1895.
In addition, BMI found:
o Several publications warned in the 1970s that global cooling
posed a major threat to the food supply. Now,
remarkably, global warming is also considered a threat to
the very same food supply.
o The media continue to point to glaciers as a sign of
climate change, but they have used them as examples of
both cooling and warming.
o The media treat global warming like it's a new idea. In
fact, British amateur meteorologist G. S. Callendar
argued that mankind was responsible for heating up the
planet with carbon dioxide emissions -- in 1938. That was
decades before scientists and journalists alerted the
public about the threat of a new ice age.
o Longtime readers of the New York Times could easily recall
the paper claiming "A Major Cooling Widely
Considered to Be Inevitable," along with its strong support of
current global warming predictions. Older readers might
well recall two other claims of a climate shift back to
the 1800s -- one an ice age and the other warming again.
The Times has warned of four separate climate changes
since 1895.
Newspapers that pride themselves on correction policies for the
smallest errors now find themselves facing a historical record that is
enormous and unforgiving. It is time for the news media to admit a
consistent failure to report this issue fairly or accurately, with due
skepticism of scientific claims, says BMI.
Source: R. Warren Anderson and Dan Gainor, "Fire and Ice," Business
and Media Institute, May 17, 2006.
For text:
http://www.businessandmedia.org/specialreports/2006/fireandice/FireandIce.pdf
For more on Global Warming:
http://eteam.ncpa.org/issues/?c=science
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EUROPEAN SOCIAL PHILOSPHERS AND ZOMBIE MARRIAGES
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In his recent article, "Zombie Killers: A.K.A. Queering the Social,"
Stanley Kurtz shows that the intent of the leading far left social
philosophers and academics in Europe and the United States who are
pushing for the legalization of same-sex "marriage" truly is to
radically transform and undermine the time-proven institution of true
marriage.
Consider just some of what these "leading thinkers" are advocating:
o Traditional marriage and the natural family are in reality
"zombie categories," which may appear to be alive
but are in reality dead.
o "Marriage 'in the traditional sense' is disappearing. It is
the gays who are the pioneers in this
respect...the prime everyday experimenters."
o The clear negative impact on children from this slide into
"zombieism" is really good for them because it will
actually equip them to better deal with the
consequences of the "the normal chaos of love" in the brave new
world of the "post-familial family."
o In these circles, those who want to try to "recuperate the
old values of family" are now considered
"reactionary."
For many, these ideas and concepts may seem so radical, so
misguided and so contrary to commonsense that no one could possibly
take them seriously. But they are making a big mistake in assuming
that, says Kurtz.
Certainly, we see these ideas and concepts circulating more widely
at the United Nations and various international conferences. From
there, they are increasingly filtering down to influence the debate on
legalizing same-sex "marriage" and other related family issues in
countries around the world, says Kurtz.
Source: Sharon Slater, "Same-sex 'Marriage' Advocates Really Do
Intend to Undermine Marriage," United Families International, June 1,
2006; based upon: Stanley Kurtz, "Zombie Killers: A.K.A., 'Queering the
Social,'" National Review Online, May 25, 2006.
For text:
http://www.unitedfamilies.org/Slater_Undermining_Marriage.asp
For Kurtz text:
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MTU4NDEzNTY5ODNmOWU4M2Y1MGIwMTcyODdjZGQxOTk=
For more on Social:
http://www.ncpa.org/pd/social/social.html
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TAKE THIS INTERNSHIP AND SHOVE IT
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A national survey by Vault, a career information Web site, found that
84 percent of college students in April planned to complete at least
one internship before graduating, with about half being unpaid. It is
often taken for granted that working without pay is the best possible
preparation for success, but that may not be the case says Anya
Kamenetz in the New York Times.
However, the growth of unpaid internships may be bad for individual
careers, considering the risks an intern is likely to face, including:
o Opportunity costs, including lost wages and living expenses
that pose significant challenges for the two-thirds
of students who need loans to get through college.
o Duties that range from the menial to quasi-professional --
unpaid internships are not jobs, only simulations.
And fake jobs are not the best preparation for real
jobs.
o No learning that work is a routine of obligation, relieved
by external reward, where you contribute value to a
larger enterprise.
o An overidentification with employers, perhaps explaining why
young workers are less likely to organize. Less
than 5 percent of young people hold a union card,
compared with an overall national private-sector union rate of
12.5 percent
Columbia University's Teachers College found that compared to
unpaid internships, paid placements are strongest on all measures of
internship quality. This shouldn't be too surprising, says Kamenetz --
getting hired and getting paid are what work, in the real world, is all
about.
Source: Anya Kamenetz, "Take This Internship and Shove It," New
York Times, May 30, 2006
For text (subscription required):
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/30/opinion/30kamenetz.html
For more on Economy:
http://www.ncpa.org/iss/eco/
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DOES FINANCIAL INTEGRATION SPUR ECONOMIC GROWTH?
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Does international financial integration boost economic growth?
According to a recent study by economists Moritx Schularick and Thomas
M. Steger, international capital market integration fostered economic
growth significantly in the historical period, but no longer does so
today. Schularick and Steger argue that the historical period (roughly
1870 - 1914), in stark contrast to the post-World War II period, was
characterized by:
o Low differentials in property rights protection between
countries
o A (comparably) stable monetary environment
o A higher degree of net capital mobility
o Substantial (net) capital movements from rich (core) to poor
(peripheral) regions.
The results draw the conclusion that those economies which open
themselves to the world economy need to first abolish domestic
distortions to reap the benefits of globalization. More specifically,
it seems especially important to establish good property rights in all
economies participating in the world economy, say Schularick and
Steger.
Source: Moritx Schularick and Thomas M. Steger, "Does Financial
Integration Spur Economic Growth? New Evidence from the First Era of
Financial Globalization," Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich,
Working Paper 06/46, March 2006.
For text:
http://www.cer.ethz.ch/research/wp_06_46.pdf
For more on Economics:
http://www.ncpa.org/iss/eco/
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