Archive for February 16th, 2007
The Buffalo News is now giving consideration to the merits of letting the Government tell us what we can eat.
The trans fat debate in this region has broadened. A proposed ban on the use of trans fats in city restaurants, unwise because it’s too thinly focused in a region where city dining establishments face stiff cost and popularity competition with suburban ones, now has a countywide counterpart proposal that makes more sense and should be explored.
My question for the Buffalo News is, where does it end? This list of potentially harmful edible products is nearly endless.
There is evidence that the use of trans fats in cooking is a serious health issue, no small matter in a region that has high levels of coronary disease. There is a public interest as well, because communities and taxpayers share in health care costs. The quickest way to improve public health is through policy, and the fairest way to implement policies like this would be at the broadest possible levels.
The lack of logic in the preceding statement is cause for genuine concern regarding the ability of the Buffalo News to objectively report issues. The evidence of a serious health issue from trans fats is mitigated by the fact that many things consumed in excess can be harmful. Trans fats are no different. In fact, many people are able to digest trans fats with little or no detectable harm to their health.
There is no public health threat unless you buy in to the notion that government should be responsible for the health care of citizens. Unfortunately, that is a costly notion at best, and needs to be reevaluated in terms of service efficiency, availability of services and overall costs.
There is no implicit fairness in a broad policy that takes the freedom of individuals away and prevents them from deciding how to feed their own bodies.
Source: Buffalo News - Trans fat plans simmer
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The County collects approximately $6.5 million per year from the bed tax. It has reallocated the funds for other purposes and now is willing to put some of it back to the cause that led to the tax initially. Either return the whole bed tax to its original purpose or eliminate it. I favor eliminating the bed tax entirely. If it were eliminated local hotels would have the option to set rates and fund tourism promotion voluntarily. Then, if the funding works, it will be continued. If it is a waste of money, it will be ended. Residents of Erie County win under either scenario.
After months of lobbying, the Erie County Legislature late Thursday unanimously agreed to dedicate $500,000 from bed tax dollars towards the Buffalo Niagara Convention & Visitors Bureau and some related organizations.
Source: Legislature allocates $500,000 to tourism - Business First of Buffalo:
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Erie County Medical Center is supporting Mayor Byron Brown’s proposed gun buyback program with a $10,000 donation.
The funding — and a challenge to other area businesses to commit funds to back the program — was announced during a press conference Friday morning.
The mayor’s proposed gun buyback program to get illegal weapons off the streets is a component of a multifaceted approach to curbing crime.
With all the talk about the high cost of too many hospitals, why is ECMC donating money for this program? It makes no sense.
Gun buyback programs are nothing more than a publicity stunt, wasting the taxpayers’ money, designed to make the politicians look good. Buyback programs do not lower crime. Buyback programs do not address the causes of crimes.
Politicians need to wake up and take actions that have a real and verifiable affect on shooting crimes. A good first step would be to acknowledge the fact that many innocent people are shot and killed as a result of criminal drug activity. Legalization of drugs would end this needless carnage. Sadly, very few politicians have the balls to advocate this measure because it is perceived to be politically unpopular.
Source: ECMC backs gun buyback program - Business First of Buffalo:
On Tuesday, an estimated four thousand parents, teachers, and students descended on Columbia to participate in the Rally for Real School Choice.
Attendees were encouraged by the vocal support of Governor Mark Sanford, Lt. Governor Andre Bauer, Senator Glenn McConnell and Representative Tracy Edge. Each official spoke about the need for a state policy that incorporates as many options as possible into any school choice education reform effort.
Their call for comprehensive school choice was echoed by several citizens who made compelling arguments in favor of giving as many children as possible the opportunity to find an education that best suits the child’s individual needs. They included Lorraine Simmons, a grandmother who now is the primary care provider for six of her grandchildren; Hollie Bennett, a social worker and public school mother of three; and Rontrell Matthews, an inspiring 9th grade student who shared his story of finding a job and paying his own tuition in order to be in a learning environment that he felt suited him best.
Parents yearning for the ability to have more of a say in how and where their children are educated should have high hopes that real school choice is right around the corner.”
Or, is government involvement in health care the problem? The answer can be found by looking at our neighbor to the North.
The story is no better in Canada’s national health care system. The Vancouver, British Columbia-based Fraser Institute has a yearly publication titled, “Waiting Your Turn.” Its 2006 edition gives waiting times, by treatments, from a person’s referral by a general practitioner to treatment by a specialist. The shortest waiting time was for oncology (4.9 weeks). The longest waiting time was for orthopedic surgery (40.3 weeks), followed by plastic surgery (35.4 weeks) and neurosurgery (31.7 weeks).
Canadians face significant waiting times for various diagnostics such as computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound scans. The median wait for a CT scan across Canada was 4.3 weeks, but in Prince Edward Island, it’s 9 weeks. A Canadian’s median wait for an MRI was 10.3 weeks, but in Newfoundland, patients waited 28 weeks. Finally, the median wait for an ultrasound was 3.8 weeks across Canada, but in Manitoba and Prince Edward Island it was 8 weeks.
Despite the long waiting times Canadians suffer, sometimes resulting in death, under federal law, private clinics are not legally allowed to provide services covered by the Canada Health Act. Regardless of this prohibition, a few black-market clinics service patients who are willing to break the law to get treatment. In British Columbia, for example, Bill 82 provides that a physician can be fined up to $20,000 for accepting fees for surgery. According to a Canada News article, “Shortage of Doctors and Nurses Could Hurt Medicare Reforms” (3/5/03), about 10,000 doctors left Canada during the 1990s.
There’s help for some Canadian patients. According to a Canadian Medical Association Journal article, “U.S. Hospitals Use Waiting-List Woes to Woo Canadians” (2/22/2000), “British Columbia patients fed up with sojourns on waiting lists as they await tests or treatment are being wooed by a hospital in Washington state that has begun offering package deals. A second U.S. hospital is also considering marketing its services.” One of the attractions is that an MRI, which can take anywhere from 10 to 28 weeks in Canada, can be had in two days at Olympic Memorial Hospital in Port Angeles, Wash. Already, Cleveland is Canada’s hip-replacement center.
If you want longer wait times, increased overall costs and shortages of medical service providers, then by all means support the push for increased government health care services.
If you want fast, efficient, cost controlled and convenient medical service providers, tell your legislators that you want the government out of the health care business altogether. The cost savings alone will result in much greater accessibility for even the “poor” and “unfortunate” among us.
Senator Schumer, apparently knows more about how a private business should run than the owners. Shouldn’t our elected officials try to do something of value with our highly inefficient, bloated government instead of meddling in private enterprise? Yes, I know, the NFL benefits from tax dollars for things like stadium funds. That is more of a testament to the wastefulness of government with our tax dollars than an excuse to run the NFL.
U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer has asked the National Football League to assemble a schedule that will help reduce TV blackouts involving Buffalo Bills games at Ralph Wilson Stadium.
The New York Democrat forwarded his request to Commissioner Roger Goodell saying a more favorable slate will allow fans throughout Western New York to see the Bills. In 2006, the Bills had four late-season home games and, with the team virtually out of playoff contention, none sold out in time to lift the local TV blackout. NFL rules states that, unless other considerations are granted, all tickets must be sold 72 hours in advance of kickoff to allow games to be broadcast in the home team’s market.
“It is in the best interests of the Bills and the NFL to have to the widest possible fan base for this team,” said Schumer. “The NFL needs to do everything it can to prevent blackouts next season.”
I would like to extend a welcome to a couple of new local blogs.
The first one is The Liberal Spiel, by Robert Harding, which can be found at http://liberalspiel.speakupwny.com. The writer is a frequent contributor on the Free New York Blog, writes a weekly column for The Journal-Register in Medina and a student at SUNY Fredonia. Robert joined us on the Free Buffalo/Free New York blog because of his shared desire for reduced governmental spending and taxes to spur economic growth in New York State. His home county, Orleans, has been hard hit by the economic stagnation in our area.
The second blog is Hamburg First found at http://hamburgfirst.speakupwny.com. As the title implies, the main focus is on the political activities in Hamburg.
