Word: programed
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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There is still plenty of room for improvement, according to the AAA. The CLASS Act doesn't include sufficient funding to market the program, meaning participation will be low - the CBO says 5% of the population would sign up, the CMS actuary says 2.5%, and AAA says 6%. Such low participation would not allow risk to be spread out enough to keep premiums affordable; in that case, the program could end up in an "insurance death spiral," in which premiums are so high, only those who know they'll need coverage sign up, driving up premiums even further until they...
...longtime CBO analyst and now senior fellow at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, says the CLASS Act doesn't have strong enough work requirements, which are intended to be a proxy for physical fitness. Americans who perform only seasonal work, for example, could qualify for the program. He adds that penalties for letting premium payments lapse are not strong enough. "The criticisms are absolutely true, but you design things the best you can. If we only did [legislation] that entailed no risk, I don't think we'd ever do much of anything...
...They helped cops last week locate a sophisticated, 260-yard narco-tunnel beneath Tijuana that almost reached the U.S. border.) Despite that, Mexican officials concede they have an utterly inadequate witness-protection system in place. "There is a vacuum regarding the rules and how to operate a witness-protection program," a high-level source inside the Mexican attorney general's office (PGR, after its Spanish initials) tells TIME. "We keep [informants] in secure houses, but they can move around and do as they want. This does not work like the American system - we do not have [protective] marshals...
Attorney General Arturo Chávez says he'll review Mexico's witness-protection program. But it will be difficult to build a proper protection apparatus when the Mexican cops assigned to do the protecting can so rarely be trusted. The Mexican government has vowed to investigate Bayardo's murder; presumably one of the key focuses will be whether any officers inside the witness-protection program itself tipped off cartel bosses as to his movements and whereabouts...
...epic levels that Mexican drug-trafficking and violence have reached today, the government needs every intelligence resource it can get. The U.S. has pledged almost $1.5 billion for Mexico's war against the cartels, and critics say more of it should be directed to software like police-modernization programs instead of hardware like Blackhawk helicopters. A reliable witness-protection program should be on that list before more soplones get whacked...