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WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2016
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EDITOR'SVOICE
SALLYPIPES
A night when students show they're focused
Single-payer health care is a failure
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hen the stage curtain opened at the beginning of Middletown Area High School’s Honors Night on Thursday, May 19 in the Middletown Area Middle School auditorium, it revealed a heartwarming sight: the National Honor Society, three tiers of students committed to scholarship, academics, and making the best out of their lives. Sixteen new members were inducted into the society in a solemn, and short, ceremony. Middletown formed its chapter of the National Honor Society in 1929, about eight years after the society sprung into existence nationally. Just think how many students over time have been a part of it. For those skeptics who say academics aren’t taken as seriously as athletics: Attend the school’s Honors Night – Lower Dauphin and Steelton-Highspire high schools have their own celebrations, too – and you might change your mind. There are young people who have taken their education very, very seriously, and have seized the opportunities and joys For those skeptics who say that their school offers – opportunities academics aren't taken as to lead in student government, excel in inspire with music. They are more seriously as athletics in high sports, focused than you know. school: Attend Middletown Middletown students collected scholarArea High School's Hon- ship money from 45 local scholarships awards, many created in honor of a ors Night – Lower Dauphin and former teacher, MAHS alumnus or sports and Steelton-Highspire high booster club.The amount topped $58,000 schools have their own – and that doesn’t include scholarships universities and outside sources. celebrations, too – and you from You can find a list of the winners in this might change your mind. edition of the Press And Journal. Local high schools will hold their commencement ceremonies in the next couple weeks – you can find the photos of seniors poised to graduate in our special section in this edition – and it seems quite a few already know what they want, and how to get an education to achieve it. That focus was palpable in the middle school auditorium as student after student marched up to the stage to collect their scholarship award. Before Middletown’s Honors Night was over, the Class of 2016 continued a Middletown tradition: It surrendered its control of a gold key, meant to symbolize the clubs and sports and activities and opportunities that MAHS has to offer – or, as senior class vice president Nicole Whittle described it, “the utmost in success and achievement – to the Class of 2017. Junior class president James Fitzpatrick accepted it and thanked the senior class. The night ended with the singing of the Middletown Area High School alma mater. It was encouraging and inspiring to see what the students have achieved, and observe their desire to achieve it. Parents, teachers, administrators, family – everyone should be proud, and encouraged. Congratulations to all, and to MAHS’ new graduates.
HOPEDEHNERT
Charging heroin dealers with murder is a bold step
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eroin overdoses should no longer be considered accidental deaths, and a county coroner in Pennsylvania is in agreement. Lycoming County Coroner Charles Kiessling has ceased logging heroin overdoses as accidental deaths – instead, he is logging them as homicides. In this era, heroin is more lethal than ever in its addiction and mortality rate. The drug is being cut with opioids such as fentanyl. It is such a problem that EMTs, police officers, and family members have been authorized to carry naloxone, otherwise known as Narcan – a prescription nasal spray that can bring a person back from an overdose. “We need to start calling these things as they are,” Kiessling said in an interview with the Washington Post. He believes that using the accidental death label doesn’t do anything about the heroin resurgence but sweep it under the carpet. Although the legality of prosecuting heroin dealers for the homicides of their customers is a lot easier said than done, it’s a start to hold people accountable. Pennsylvania dealers can be formally charged with drug delivery resulting in death, a charge that may result in imprisonment for up to 40 years. Combatting the heroin epidemic in the U.S. is a challenging matter in many respects. Changing our laws – charging dealers with murder – will not eliminate the problem. But it accurately reflects the seriousness of the issue at hand and will result in serious consequences for those dealing heroin – and thus will reduce the amount of overdoses and, in turn, deaths. Hope Dehnert is a 2014 graduate of Middletown Area High School and a student at Drexel University, Philadelphia.
Press And Journal PUBLISHER Joseph G. Sukle, Jr. joesukle@pressandjournal.com EDITOR Jim Lewis jimlewis@pressandjournal.com STAFF WRITER Dan Miller danmiller@pressandjournal.com STAFF WRITER Eric Wise ericwise@pressandjournal.com PRESS AND JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS 20 South Union Street, Middletown, PA 17057 OFFICE: 717-944-4628 FAX: 717-944-2083 EMAIL: info@pressandjournal.com CORPORATE WEBSITE: pandjinc.com
What's your reaction to George Zimmerman, who fatally shot unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in 2012 and was acquitted of all charges in the case, auctioning off the gun that he says he used in that incident? Bidding on the 9mm Kel-Tec PF-9 pistol began at $5,000 and within a short time reached more than $65 million. "My understanding was it only reached $65 million because people trolled the site and pushed the number up so no one would buy it..'' Beth Gannon-Rittenhouse "George Zimmerman is sick. Period.'' James Curry "The court should have lost it.'' Theresa Bastardi Hoover Townsend
"Great piece of history.'' Russ Shickley "Who buys a gun with a body attached to it?'' Pete McConnell " ‘Merica, HELL YEA! (Snark implied.)'' Jim L Fultz "At least you know it works...'' Jack Rotharmel
PAULHEISE
How income inequality gave us Donald Trump
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omething suppress wages nor was it some kind of fundamensecret cabal. It was businessmen doing tal in the what they do best: collude on the proAmerican economy grams they find most important to power kinked in the midand profits. One of these just happened to 1970s. be diminishing union bargaining power Productivity and, therefore, wage gains. continued its annual increase but wage Nevertheless the suppression of wages increases flatlined. The share of output goes far beyond research and political going to profits and capital gains continaction by businessmen. Wage suppression ued to increase; the share going to wages arises in the normal context of economic did not. This is what “income inequality” activity but, more importantly, in the perreally means. The rich get richer and the vasive sweep of the regulatory economy poor get poorer. and in the ability to break the law with The economic consequences of this was impunity. the Great Recession. The political conFirst, in a free enterprise economy, sequences were the rise of populism and natural competition puts downward presDonald Trump. sure on all prices, including the price For the last 40 years, and continuing to of labor. That’s normal. Trade theory is today, the most productive economy in more specific: The more that high-wage the world turned over virtually all the countries trade, the more downward increase in output to one small group of pressure on their wages. Innovation and persons, natural and corporate, the top 1 the implementation of other productivity percent of wealth-holders in the U.S. This measures will also pressure wages. Noramounts to trillions of dollars. If wages mal economic activities that impact wage had risen along with worker productivity, levels include outsourcing, off-shoring, a worker making $40,000 per year would inversions, environmentalism, safety, now be making $63,000 per year. health, obsolescence and unemployment. Why did wage increases falter? It is one Changes in population, workforce particithing to note a weakened labor movepation, education and skill training can ment, increased automation and globalall be used to suppress wages. But they ization, as most labor economists do. It are situations where the government can takes another level of concern to ask the ameliorate the impact. source of the power The second source to suppress wage of wage suppresincreases so efsion is the regulafectively. Someone economy where The economic consequences tory usurped the power policymakers of "income inequality'' was constantly decide to control wages. It had to be deliberate. the Great Recession. The the size and shape of It goes back to that wage bill. These political consequences were the kink in the 1970s. include: managed the rise of populism and trade, trade agreeThe political and economic upheavDonald Trump. ments, the regulaals of the 1960s tion and deregulafrightened the tion of transportaAmerican business tion, energy, finance, community into believing it was under at- antitrust, globalization, pensions, tax tack. In 1971, Lewis Powell, a corporate policy, investment protection treaties like lawyer and soon-to-be Supreme Court WTO and TPP and labor laws in regard Justice, sent a confidential memo to the to rights and obligations and working U.S. Chamber of Commerce arguing that condition. Anywhere there is regulatory “the American economic system is under responsibility, there will be the temptation broad attack.” (He copped the title from a to use it to hold down wage increases. warning by Milton Friedman.) Wage suppression also comes from The Koch brothers have their variation crimes, pure and simple. Many corporaof the call-to-arms, The Structure of Sotions have abandoned the rule of law as cial Change, which addresses “the intelfar as labor laws and unions are conlectual framework for social transformacerned. It is common corporate practice tion” of universities, policy development to ignore minimum wage, overtime pay, organizations and citizen activist groups. union recognition and organizing regulaPowell wanted to counterattack to save tions. The failure of government to enthe American system. His memo called force investment and finance laws also infor an educational program focusing on vites wage suppression. The whole world colleges, universities and think tanks – of shadow banking, offshore accounts, even onto the evaluation of textbooks. He too-big-to-fail and too-big-to-jail are used proposed a political action program that to manipulate the pressure on wages. would use political power aggressively. The suppression of wages led to income The Powell Memo is important because inequality, which led to poverty, debt it proposed what actually happened over and the inability to meet home mortgage the next 40 years. Business moved agand other debt payments. That triggered gressively across the cultural spectrum, the Great Recession and, eventually, the purchasing politicians as they went. Busi- financial crisis. ness, with prominent names like Koch, And that is also how income inequality Scaife and Coors, set up the Business – that is, poverty – led to the hollowing of Roundtable, the American Legislative the middle class, the populist uprising and Exchange Council, the Heritage Foundato Trump. tion, the Cato Institute and the Manhattan Institute, all in the 1970s. Paul A. Heise, of Mount Gretna, is a proThis far-reaching and fundamental shift fessor emeritus of economics at Lebanon in the Chamber’s agenda was widely Valley College, Annville, and a former applauded. It was not explicitly set up to economist for the federal government.
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illary Clinton just dipped her toe a little bit further into the waters of single-payer health care, prodded by her competitor for the Democratic presidential nomination, Bernie Sanders. She recently called for allowing more people to join Medicare – the government-run healthcare program for seniors – by allowing those “55 or 50 and up” to buy into it. Sanders can no doubt take credit for pulling her further left – his proposal to expand Medicare to all Americans has evinced cheers from his partisans. But the record of other single-payer systems should silence those cheers. Single-payer would destroy health care quality and rob patients blind in the process. Sanders has been agitating for singlepayer for decades. The supposed price tag of his latest proposal for “Medicarefor-All?” About $14 trillion over 10 years, he’s claimed. But according to studies from the Urban Institute and the Tax Policy Center, the real cost would be about $33 trillion. Even after accounting for the revenue that Sanders’ plethora of new taxes would take in, the government would still need $16 trillion. Nevertheless, Sanders’ focus on singlepayer has attracted attention. A recent survey found that 63 percent of people had a positive reaction to the term “Medicare for all.” Meanwhile, thousands of doctors recently signed on to a plan similar to Sanders’ plan. Some states could even green-light single-payer in the coming months. This November, Colorado voters will decide whether to create a state-level single-payer system. The initiative would cost $38 billion annually and require billions in new taxes. Coloradans should take note of another The promise of state that tried single-payer to implement a single-payer sys- health care – tem and failed high-quality, – Sanders’ home universally state of Vermont. accessible, free Vermont’s attempt at single- – is nothing like payer in 2014 the reality of was projected such a system. to cost $4.3 billion – almost Taxpayers pay equivalent to dearly for the the state’s entire promise of such $4.9 billion budget. To fund care. the program, Vermont would have needed an extra $2 billion in revenue – plus new taxes on businesses and residents. Officials abandoned the idea because it would have collapsed the state’s economy. The recent history of single-payer systems sponsored by the federal government isn’t much more encouraging. Take the Veterans Health Administration, which continues to subject beneficiaries to lengthy waits for care. In March, the Government Accountability Office tracked the experience of 180 newly-enrolled vets and found that 60 waited as many as 71 days to see a primary care doctor. Sixty more never even managed to get an appointment. Patients haven’t fared much better under single-payer systems abroad. Horror stories from Britain’s National Health Service emerge almost daily. Recently, a government investigation found that hospitals are discharging elderly patients without ensuring that they’re fit to go home. This spring, thousands of junior doctors went on strike. Patients had no choice but to wait for the walkout to end, as hospitals postponed more than 112,000 appointments and 12,700 operations in response. Canada has similar issues. Canadians must wait an average of 18.3 weeks to see a specialist after getting a referral. That wait time is 97 percent longer than it was in 1993. Almost 900,000 Canadians are waiting for treatment. The promise of single-payer – highquality, universally accessible, free – is nothing like the reality of such a system. Taxpayers pay dearly for the promise of such care. This fall, voters must not allow themselves to fall prey to the siren song of single-payer. Sally C. Pipes is president, CEO, and Thomas W. Smith Fellow in Health Care Policy at the Pacific Research Institute, San Francisco.