By Annie Berman – Talk Radio News Service

At a Capitol Hill briefing held by the Cato Institute Friday, economic experts recommended factors that should be included in immigration reform including a guest worker program, taxes on work visas, and tighter internal enforcement and border security.

Peter Dixon, an economist from Australia who holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University, argued that illegal immigrants who hold low skill, poorly paid occupations are more likely to be unreliable workers than an employee who is a citizen of the U.S.

“The main reason for their productivity being low is their wages. Economic theory suggests that people will be employed up to the point where their wage is equal to their productivity,” Dixon said. “If wages were higher than their productivity, well then they will get fired. If wages are lower than their productivity, then you want more of them…They systematically earn lower wages than legal residents.”

Dixon explained that if the U.S. imposed tighter border security and tighter internal enforcement, it would cost twice as much for an illegal immigrant to cross the border. Therefore, a reduction in the labor force of low skilled, low wage workers would cause vacancies to open up at the top of the job market.

“Border crossing is a dangerous thing to do. You’ve got to give money to smugglers, it might not be successful, you might be sent back home…We’ve built the fence higher in a way that’s equivalent to potential illegals thinking in terms of it costing them an extra $5000 [for example] for a crossing,” Dixon said.

To counteract a reduction in the number of jobs available to citizens, Dixon suggested a guest worker and legalization program wherein employers may obtain visas that are taxed. The taxes from the visas would go to the government and an incentive for employers to higher immigrants that want to work in the U.S. would be created. With a guest worker program, there is the possibility that each guest worker would bring more productivity with them, the economist added.

Dixon explained that the U.S. standard of living will go up because because there would be more productivity, but without any drain on public expenditures due to only a small rise in population. Dixon also made clear that the guest worker program would not be a “path to citizenship”. Immigrants who choose to participate in the guest worker program would simply be guests, not automatic citizens, Dixon said.

“It has to be made completely clear that this is not a path to citizenship. This is a way in which the U.S. gets a job done. It’s like trade. You are importing labor to do a particular job and then go away again. So it’s not meant to be a path to citizenship.”

Annie Berman – Talk Radio News Service

“The hardest thing about deployment is coming home,” said Rep. Patrick J. Murphy (D-Penn.), an Iraq War Veteran who served in Iraq in 2003, at a hearing Wednesday before the House Subcommittee on Military Personnel.

In an effort to ease the process of coming home from deployment, the military has developed a number of programs aimed at combatting military suicides. The Marine Corps in particular has developed a “family readiness” program that is intended to help soldiers and their families cope with all of the stages of serving in the military, from basic training to deployment, to coming home.

As the number of military suicides continues to rise, leaders in the armed forces have grown frustrated with programs that have been put in place to lower this figure.

“The reality of it is, the target for [these programs] needs to be the assimilation of those who have served back into the general population dealing with the day to day whether it’s families, their kids, their education, their bills, and the relationship stressors associated with it,” said Admiral Patrick M. Walsh, Vice Chief of Naval Operations at the U.S. Navy.

General Peter W. Chiarelli, Vice Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, explained that it’s not necessarily a matter of whether or not the programs are working, but rather a matter of finding ways to best match a specific program with an individual service member’s needs.

The U.S. Army has commissioned the National Institute of Mental Health to conduct a study entitled: “Collaborative Study of Suicidality and Mental Health in the U.S. Army,” a study that Chiarelli believes will help him and his colleagues understand what causes soldiers to commit suicide.

“[This is] the largest study of behavioral health ever undertaken by the Army…..[it] will examine behavioral health, psychological resilience, suicide risk, suicide-related behaviors, and suicide deaths across the active and reserve components over all phases of a soldiers career,” he said.

Another initiative to helping soldiers cope with the stresses of deployment and coming home is a web based program that would provide online counseling via video, email, live chat, or instant messaging.

“[There is] a stigma of seeking mental health help. We’re trying to do everything possible to try and get rid of that stigma…It’s been done in Australia. They’ve had tremendous success. The people have been more willing to open up online and that gets the geographically separated people who don’t have the cocoon of the military post,” said Chiarelli.

By Annie Berman – Talk Radio News Service

The current health care system is not bankrupting America; Rather, outrageously high medical bills, mounds of credit card debt and expensive mortgages are what cause Americans to file for bankruptcy, experts said Tuesday at a hearing before the House Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law.

Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of one-time Democratic Presidential hopeful John Edwards, shared statistics with the committee regarding vast medical costs forcing Americans into declaring bankruptcy. Edwards explained that such costs force households into cutting back on what they spend on health care.

“According to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey, concerns about affording needed medical care led insured individuals to cut back on care due to cost. Responses included postponing care (34%), skipping a recommended medical visit or treatment (30%), not filling prescriptions (27%), and skipping doses or cutting pills (21%),” said Edwards.

University of Michigan Law Professor and bankruptcy expert John A. E. Pottow offered his definition of medical bankruptcy to the committee.

“It could mean someone whose medical debts exceed…a certain percentage of their income. Or it could mean someone who lost income or a job, or even had to mortgage his or her home, due to medical bills,” said Pottow.

Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, a physician and Harvard University medical professor, argued that only a single-payer system can make health care coverage available and affordable to all Americans, and would “save hundreds of billions we now waste on insurance overhead and bureaucracy”. Woolhandler also claimed that private insurance is fundamentally defective and the tremendous amount of over-treatment by doctors causes medical bills to go way up.

However, the committee’s ranking Republican member, Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), took issue with Woolhandler’s sentiments.

“Here’s my big concern, and that is that somehow the answer to medical bankruptcy is nationalized healthcare…If a [nationalized healthcare system] saves hundreds of billions of dollars, it would be a first in history for government to do something of this complexity and actually save money,” said Franks.

“If indeed private insurance is fundamentally defective…with all the crises that people face with healthcare, if you put it in government hands, even to a partial extent, you will diminish the dignity of the patient and the pressure will be on giving less healthcare…I am convinced that healthcare will become more expensive…Instead of having financial bankruptcy, we will have health bankruptcy,” said Franks.

By Annie Berman – Talk Radio News Service

America needs health care reform that doesn’t discriminate against medical patients with pre-existing conditions, said House Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and others during a press conference on Thursday.

“Our health care system has also stood against equality. Insurers are regularly permitted to discriminate against Americans with pre-existing conditions. As a result, millions of Americans have found it essentially impossible to secure health coverage,” said Hoyer.

Also at the press conference were Reps. Ed Perlmutter (D-Col.) and Marcia L. Fudge (D-Ohio) who also criticized the private insurance industry for prioritizing profits over the health of customers.

“The [insurance companies] want to insure healthy people and deny coverage to sick people because it’s better for their stockholders. That’s the way the system works. It’s a broken system, an immoral system, and it’s unconstitutional under the fourteenth amendment which requires equal protection for all of us,” said Perlmutter, whose daughter has epilepsy and will be excluded from receiving health insurance when she is no longer on her parents’ plan.

“The bottom line is, Americans all over this country know that health care is essential,” said Hoyer.

Hoyer is a strong supporter of the Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, which would expand health coverage to millions of Americans who are presently uninsured. Funding for this new health care system would derive in part from taxes on the wealthy, cuts to Medicare and Medicaid and increased government spending.

Annie Berman – Talk Radio News Service

Taxpayers are not being told what is happening with the money they have involuntarily invested in the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Treasury Special Inspector General Neil Barofsky testified to the Oversight and Government Reform Committee that the most important recommendation that he could give to the committee would be a push for more transparency.

Tuesday’s hearing was a part of a series of hearings in which the TARP program is assessed and new developments of the program are reported to the committee.

Barofsky made sure that he was able to answer all questions honestly and thoroughly, as he recognized the concern that the committee has over transparency.

“The full transparency that we [the committee] asked for, which this President and this administration has promised is being blocked by the bureaucracy that often seems to say ‘just trust us and we will deliver,’” said Ranking Member Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.).

Issa also brought up the staggering $23.7 trillion figure that has everyone on the Hill buzzing, and possibly a little scared. Issa asked Barofsky if he ever said in his reports that the U.S. would lose such an enormous amount of money in assurances and insurances.

“Of course not, and we explicitly point out in the report the existence of collateral…If every program is maximized to the greatest extent possible, that’s what that number is.”

In the last 3 months of the TARP, there have been an expansion of programs including expansion of the mortgage modification program to which approximately $18 billion has been allocated. There have also been more than $70 billion in TARP paybacks, and the Public Private Investment Program (PPIP) was launched with an allocation of approximately $30 billion in taxpayer money.

“Unfortunately, in rejecting SIGTARP’s basic transparency recommendations, TARP has become a program in which taxpayers are not being told what most of the TARP recipients are doing with their money, have still not been told how much their substantial investments are worth, and will not be told the full details of how their money is being invested,” said Barofsky in his opening statements.

Barofsky’s position was created to specifically oversee what happens to TARP funds. He and his office carry out audits on institutions that have received TARP funds, and carry out investigations of issues concerning securities fraud, suspected accounting fraud, insider trading, mortgage service misconduct, mortgage fraud, public corruption, false statements and tax investigations. These investigations were developed through tips or leads provided anonymously to the SIGTARP Hotline (877-SIG-2009) and online at www.SIGTARP.gov.

Pro-life advocates and Sotomayor supporters demonstrate outside the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Monday morning. The two groups were not affiliated with each other.

By Annie Berman – Talk Radio News Service

It is still unclear if the American Recovery Reinvestment Act (ARRA), also known as the stimulus bill, is helping states create and retain jobs, despite the current 9.5 percent unemployment rate.

This is the third in a series of hearings the Oversight and Government Reform Committee has held to discuss the ARRA, specifically to review the state and local uses of Recovery Act funds and the Government Accountability Office’s second bi-monthly report of those allocations.

According to Robert Nabors, Deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, the stimulus bill is having a positive impact.

“The Recovery Act is making significant resources available to states that are struggling…funding has relieved pressure on state budgets, allowing them to provide better service and avoid job cuts,” Nabors said.

Nabors also stressed that states should not rely on stimulus money in
the long term.

“We always view the Recovery Act as a short term effort. The President has been very clear that we need to get the economy jump started. We need to expend resources now to actually get them started. But over the long term, the funding levels that are contained within the Recovery Act should not be thought of as permanent,” said Nabors.

The three governors that testified at today’s hearing maintained that direct aid to states provided by the stimulus plan has greatly helped their states’ economies through job creation and projects such as highway restorations and solar energy panels for buildings.

“Things are happening,” said Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell (D). “Construction and manufacturing. It’s working. And the good news is it’s going to get better…you are going to see a huge impact. I think the stimulus is going to work. Any judgment on it is premature. Let’s see how it works. I’d like to see a second stimulus dedicated solely to infrastructure.”

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif) voiced strong opposition to the possibility of a second stimulus bill, even though he voted in favor of the first.

“The U.S. economy lost 433 net jobs in June bringing the unemployment rate to 9.5%,” said Issa. “These job losses pump on the heels of other declining economic indicators that bring total American job losses since President Obama took office to 2.6 million…fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.”

A report released today by The Outdoor Resources Review Group recommended allocating $3.2 billion annually toward the conservation of American land.  The report, entitled “Great Outdoors America”, also includes recommendations for recreational trends, identification of policy failures, and a description of technological changes that have affected the U.S.’ outdoor resources.

Honorary Co-Chairs Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) presented the report to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.  

Patrick Noonan, Chairman Emeritus of The Conservation Fund and Member of the President’s Commission on Americans Outdoors, briefly outlined a number of recommendations from the report including better coordination with the Department of the Interior and new tax incentives for non-profit and private conservation groups.

“We recommend a nationwide system of blueways and water trails to mobilize communities and organizations to improve water quality close to home,” said Noonan.

The report builds on the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Campaign of 1962 and the President’s Commission on American Outdoors of 1987.

“Much has changed since [the previous reports]: demographics are different, there are more of us…larger minority participation, different roles of women, urbanization…cities have grown to 80% of our population,” said Henry Diamond, partner at Beveridge & Diamond and former commissioner of the New York Department of Environmental Conservation.

Diamond added,“Federal government plays a substantial role and spends a lot of money but it is rather disorganized in this field.  There are many agencies…that we think needs changing.  We think the land and water fund has a history of being starved.”  

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar emphasized that action to conserve America’s landscapes is necessary now because of the troubled economy, wars, and health care issues Americans face today.

“It is in the most difficult times of our country that we look to the landscapes to refuel the spirit and the greatness of our country,” Salazar explained.

Salazar provided three reasons why conservations efforts should be a top priority including job creation, health benefits, and response to climate change.

By Annie Berman-Talk Radio News Service

Participants of a meeting with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Medical Review Board suggested Wednesday that medication used to treat certain psychological disorders may affect the safety of commercial drivers.

“These drugs may affect cognitive and psycho motor abilities that could contribute to crash risk,” said James Reston, a Senior Research Analyst at the ECRI Institute during the review board’s public meeting.

The medication in question is called benzodiazepine, a drug that is used to help treat certain psychological disorders such as anxiety, insomnia, and seizures.

“Individuals who are diagnosed with one of the psychiatric disorders of concern should demonstrate that they are likely to be able to perform their normal duties by undergoing an evaluation of both physical and mental functions by qualified psychiatrists,” said Jessica Williams of the Manila Consulting Group.

Board member Dr. Benjamin Hoffman also proposed a recommendation to allow any licensed medical professional that has obtained a Masters degree or higher to evaluate an individual who is a high-risk driver due to their prescription drug use and psychological disorder. The panelists did not choose to discuss this recommendation during their deliberations, but said they would discuss it in the future.

The effects of daytime sleepiness on the safety of commercial drivers was also addressed.

“The other risk factors [for crash] that we found in terms of a sleep disorder in general include having sleep apnea, insomnia, or the quality of sleep…The time of day was associated with increased crash risk. People driving at night…sleep habits, [etc.],” said Stephen Tregear of the Manila Consulting Group

“Sleepiness is episodic,” added review board member Dr. Barbara Phillips. “So much of sleepiness depends on behavior. We don’t have to have an illness to have a crash based on sleepiness. It really depends on our behavior. Whether or not you take antihistamines, sleeping pills, [etc.]…there has to be a real time evaluation in order for this to have any meaning.”

By Annie Berman — Talk Radio News Service

In a second hearing on the merger between Bank of America and Merrill Lynch, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testified that he did not threaten to fire Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis if the merge was not finalized.

In his June 11, 2009 testimony, Lewis claimed that he had decided to invoke a Material Adverse Change (MAC) clause, which would have stopped the merger between Bank of America and Merrill Lynch. Based on this information, it is possible that Lewis knew about Merrill Lynch’s major losses before the merger was finalized.

Bernanke claims that he was advising, not threatening, Lewis to not invoke a MAC clause because doing so would have been bad for the economy.

“[Bank of America] was obligated to make the choice they believed was in the best interest of their shareholders and company. I did not tell Bank of America’s management that the Federal Reserve would take action against the board or management if they decided to proceed with the MAC. Moreover, I did not instruct anyone to indicate to Bank of America that the Federal Reserve would take any particular action under these circumstances,” said Bernanke in his opening statements.

Lewis confirmed in his testimony that he wanted to invoke a MAC clause, but claimed that he had no prior knowledge of the huge fourth quarter losses that Merrill Lynch suffered in 2008. The committee concluded that Lewis would not have tried to invoke a MAC clause if he did not know about Merrill Lynch’s potential losses.

In this morning’s testimony, Bernanke also claimed that he did not know about Merrill Lynch’s losses prior to the merger.

“Mr. Bernanke, your staff believed that bank of America knew about Merrill Lynch’s accelerating losses in mid November, a full month before coming to you and weeks before it’s shareholders voted to approve the merger. Those 4th quarter losses rose to over $15 billion out of the pockets of Bank of America’s shareholders… The Fed knew what Bank of America knew [about the Merrill Lynch losses],” said Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio).

Additional hearings regarding the merger are expected to take place in July. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson is expected to testify in these hearings.