Rationing

Late last month, as the Senate Finance Committee labored to produce its version of a healthcare bill, the Republican whip, Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, renewed an old warning. If the federal government intervenes to hold healthcare costs down, Kyl said, the result would be something nobody wants: rationing. "The federal bureaucrats would, in effect, reduce the payment to providers, forcing them to reduce the care," Kyl warned. "It's not the government directly that is actually rationing care; now, we wouldn't want to do that.

Last week, the Senate voted on a proposal by New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez to end some of the billions of dollars in handouts enjoyed by the fossil-fuel industry. The Repeal Big Oil Tax Subsidies Act was a curiously skimpy bill that targeted only oil companies, and just the five richest of them at that. Left out were coal and natural gas. Even so, the proposal didn't pass. But that hasn't stopped President Obama from calling for an end to oil subsidies at every stop on his early presidential-campaign-plus-fundraising blitz.

When Sarah Palin said that the emerging healthcare reform legislation would lead to "death panels" and government rationing of care, her language was explosive, but her premise about rationing was not. The most critical test of any reform proposal is whether it will empower individuals or impose on them. It is a fact that the leading bills in Congress would increase the power of government and decrease individual freedom. You cannot spend an additional $1 trillion of taxpayer money and reduce the role of government.

As calls mount, especially in Israel, for military action against Iran's nuclear program, the main counterargument has been seductively simple: Iran is rational. Indeed, our country's top military official, Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, recently rejected the need for airstrikes because, as he put it, "We are of the opinion that the Iranian regime is a rational actor. " By this logic, we should not risk war to prevent Iran from going nuclear because even if Iran acquired nukes, it would never use them offensively, never share them with terrorists and never utilize them as a shield for regional adventurism.

Already-scarce water gets even scarcer this weekend for millions of Mexicans. One of the world's largest cities is launching a rationing plan in a drastic -- and some say overdue -- effort to conserve water after rampant development, mismanagement and reduced rainfall caused supplies to drop to dangerously low levels. Starting Saturday, water will be cut or reduced to homes in at least 10 boroughs in Mexico City plus 11 other municipalities in the state of Mexico, which surrounds the capital.

At the request of Supervisor Mike Antonovich, the county will consider amendments addressing what he believes are inequities in the water rationing plan approved in May. Under the plan, residents of unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County are supposed to cut water use to 80% of the district average during each comparable month in 1990. For heavy water users, such as large families and farms, the average might be unrealistically low, Antonovich said.

Water rationing will be imposed on 1.1 million households in the east San Francisco Bay Area as a result of drought conditions, officials have announced. East Bay Municipal Water District officials said residents in much of Contra Costa and Alameda counties, beginning next month, will have to cut back water usage by 25% or have their rates increased. The largest impact will likely be felt in hotter, inland regions where people may see their yards dry up, a district spokesman said.

Officials today announced that the Soviet capital will ration meat, grain, vodka and wine in a stark acknowledgement that they expect the local economy of nearly worthless money and empty stores to worsen this winter. President Mikhail S. Gorbachev's decree taking 50- and 100-ruble notes out of circulation disrupted banks and commerce for a third day, and rumors swept the government of impending increases in state-controlled prices.

Re "Rx for Universal Care," editorial, Dec. 29: Although every caring person agrees that the debate on universal care needs to be moved into the mainstream arena, considerable confusion remains. Should we build on the current system of employer-sponsored plans and public programs or should we replace them with a single-payer system? Although continuing to use private plans would perpetuate the tremendous administrative excesses that waste resources that should be directed to patient care, fewer public tax dollars would be required to expand coverage to everyone.

Supervisor Mike Antonovich asked Tuesday that the county Board of Supervisors end the mandatory water rationing program in county waterworks districts. The program, which required a 20% reduction, actually resulted in user cutbacks of more than 30%, according to Antonovich. Because of heavy winter rains and additional State Water Project deliveries, Antonovich said he would ask that mandatory rationing be replaced by a program calling for a voluntary reduction of 10%.

What rational basis is there for telling same-sex couples they can't marry? Why … none, really, as the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals wisely confirmed Tuesday by upholding a federal judge's decision that Proposition 8 violates the U.S. Constitution. There has to be a good reason for any law if it restricts the rights of a group of people who have long been the targets of bigotry. Proposition 8 never had such a reason. It was, rather, an ill-advised expression of bigotry that the court exposed.

California's proposed bullet train is being recalibrated. And designers may finally be on the right track. Sensitive to growing public and political opposition, high-speed rail officials seem to be coming to a rational conclusion: It makes good sense to begin service ASAP in urban areas where people might actually ride the trains. Construction still would start next fall in the rural San Joaquin Valley, the thinking goes. But simultaneously there'd be major upgrades to conventional lines in the Los Angeles and San Francisco regions.

Congressional Republicans were shocked, shocked , when President Obama circumvented a Senate filibuster by appointing a director for the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau without the consent of Congress. The appointment of former Ohio Atty. Gen. Richard Cordray did, in fact, push the edge of the constitutional envelope. But it was a rational response to an increasingly gridlocked Congress and a growing willingness among lawmakers to employ procedural tools to stop the executive branch from functioning.

Jasmine Delgado is one of the lucky ones. With advice from an older sister, the Santa Monica College student developed a plan that has helped her enroll in the classes she needs to transfer next year to a four-year university. But many California community college students lack the motivation, guidance and resources to reach that goal. So, for the past year, a statewide task force has been studying ways to help them get there. The panel held its first town hall meeting this week at the L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce, attracting a packed audience of educators, community members and students who were given an overview and the chance to comment on draft recommendations that will be presented to the California Community Colleges' Board of Governors.

Life and death Re " Putting a price on added life ," Column, Sept. 2 As I expected, your article — that a health insurer refused to pay for a life-extending treatment that it had previously paid for, and that had worked, for the same person — both saddened and angered me. I can't get my head around the insurance companies and our healthcare situation. But the irony was another article in the Business section titled "Health Insurers ordered to publicly justify rate hikes.

Nearly half the country's population sweltered under essentially triple-digit temperatures, as brutal heat and humidity afflicted a vast swath of the nation from New England to Texas. At least 15 states were under heat warnings Tuesday. The heat advisories — issued when the combination of temperature and humidity makes the perceived temperature more than 100 degrees — covered areas where 150 million people live, representing nearly half the nation's 310 million people, said Eli Jacks of the National Weather Service.

City Council President John Ferraro on Tuesday said "there is a strong possibility" that Los Angeles will resort to water rationing this summer in the face of a projected 12% shortfall in water supplies. But Ferraro, following a council committee hearing on the Department of Water and Power's projections, said he does not believe that strict enforcement methods are necessary or cost-effective in saving water.

Faced with a fifth year of drought and dwindling water supplies, the City Council recently enacted the most stringent water rationing in Los Angeles history. Beginning March 1, the city's 3.5 million resident s will be required to cut water use by 10%, and by another 5% on May 1, based on 1986 levels. Those who fail to comply face penalties.

John Bryson's nomination to be President Obama's next secretary of Commerce has been met with the predictable combination of delusion and obstructionism that characterizes the modern confirmation process. Some Senate Republicans vow to hold him hostage to the passage of several long-sought free-trade agreements; others insist they will reject him based on his presumed politics, which they wish were more like theirs. None has advanced an argument worthy of defeating this nomination, and though sensible people will withhold a final judgment until after Bryson is questioned, his credentials are encouraging, as are the endorsements of those who know him. Bryson is a familiar figure in Los Angeles.

The most troubling thing about the current drug accusation against Lance Armstrong is that, at first blush, it doesn't seem to be all that troubling. Famous cyclist, seven-time winner of the Tour de France, is accused of enhancing his performance. Yawn. Yet another of his former teammates points a finger, and does so on national television, CBS' "60 Minutes," no less. The teammate, Tyler Hamilton, with little comprehensible reason to lie, fesses up to his own drug-enhancing use and goes into detail about wheres, whens and hows of Armstrong's use. In some cases, he does so as an eyewitness.