Word: systemize
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...Financial reform is complex, and it's hard for nonexperts to follow which proposals for a derivatives clearinghouse or systemic risk council have teeth and which are sops to the industry. One political attraction of the CFPA is its simplicity: you're for it or against it. After sketchy subprime mortgages helped crater financial markets, even laissez-faire ideologues like Alan Greenspan called for stronger regulations to curb abuses and stabilize the system. And given the well-documented outrages pervading the industry these days - exorbitant overdraft fees, late fees, nuisance fees and balloon payments buried in opaque legalese, slimy yield...
...plan's many warts. Among the elements of his proposal, Ryan wants to privatize Social Security by establishing opt-in individual accounts funded partly by payroll taxes. He also wants to raise the eligibility age for Medicare benefits for Americans currently under 55 and scrap the current system for one in which vouchers would be used to purchase private insurance. While the Congressional Budget Office upheld Ryan's contention that the plan would ultimately bring the ballooning federal deficit under control - escalating health care costs would outpace the value of the vouchers, for instance, and thereby save the government money...
Blowing up the system was the point, of course - and it's the main reason that Ryan has become the GOP's man of the moment. A telegenic supply-side conservative, Ryan cut his teeth as a speechwriter for Jack Kemp and Bill Bennett in the mid-1990s. Even back then, says Wehner, for whom Ryan worked at Empower America, "it was clear that he was a bright star in the constellation." After serving as legislative director for Kansas Senator Sam Brownback, Ryan mounted a successful bid for Wisconsin's First Congressional District seat...
...never thought I would let the grim stories I'd heard about Indonesia's health care system turn me into one of those expats who left the country at the slightest hint of a sore throat. I may have been skeptical of undergoing any major procedure in the country where I've been living since 1994, but I was pretty confident local doctors could handle a run-of-the-mill condition like vernal conjunctivitis. I was wrong...
...that Indonesia's health care system is inadequate is, well, far from adequate, so let me quote a former head of the Indonesian Doctors' Association. "We have no health system," Dr. Kartono Mohammad recently told a group of journalists. "There is no quality control." At a time when Indonesia is striving to reach the ranks of the BRIC countries, strong fundamentals and an economy set to grow around 5% this year have yet to boost the hopes of millions in need of basic, reliable health services. For 2010, the health ministry has been allocated $2.2 billion, which is a slight...