wrote in message
ups.com...
JohnH wrote:

I can't disagree with that. The Army now is getting their hearing aids
through
the Veteran's Administration. The Army is not allowed to negotiate with
the
companies, but the VA is.

I don't know if the same is true of drugs, but it was kind of
interesting. A
doctor at Walter Reed told me this last week.

**********

Good lord, John. We agree on something? One of us needs to see a
doctor, right away. :-)


The Medicare reform gives one pause to consider the next target, Social
Security.
Here's the "person of foreign parentage" hiding in the woodpile with
the proposed Social Security "reform": If under the Bush plan, where
the money diverted from private accounts
can only go to a "limited group of securities", won't the enterprises
represented by those securities see their stock prices shoot over the
moon?

Who will pick which lucky companies the billions of diverted dollars a
year will be buying up?
Who will make multiple millions merely by knowing, in advance, which
securities will be "approved"?

Why can't we reform a system without creating a windfall for one
special interest group or another? Reformed shouldn't really mean
"reshaped" into a funnel, with a campaign booster's
open wallet at the bottom. I'm sure plenty of previous presidents from
both parties have done the same thing, but it was and remains wrong.


I can envision a very simple computer system that would randomly distribute
trades amongst the various specialists (assuming we're talking stocks for
the moment). An entire industry would still benefit, but not one particular
firm.

Don't hold your breath, though.