Don’t look now, but the 2012 election is turning into a national referendum on what to do about Medicare.Democrats want to run on the issue ― and to charge that Republican proposals to change Medicare into a voucher-based system would end the current guarantee of virtually unlimited health care for the elderly.The chairman of their House campaign committee, Rep. Steve Israel, D-New York, has told candidates to stress three issues: “Medicare, Medicare and Medicare.”At least some Republicans ― suc

Viewpoints Feb. 21, 2012

Both parties and both houses of Congress appear to have worked through their differences and are poised to extend a payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits and avoid drastic cuts in reimbursement rates for physicians treating Medicare enrollees.The optimist thinks, “So Congress CAN deal with real problems, even in a campaign year.”The pessimist thinks, “The Republicans’ radical wing already lost this fight in December, and party leaders saw no reason to follow the fringe to a repeat defeat in

Viewpoints Feb. 21, 2012

The solitary campaign of Rep. Kang Yong-seok against Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon with allegations of impropriety in having his son exempted from military conscription seems to be paying off. Park has agreed to open his son’s spinal image to the public.Rep. Kang has volunteered a “sniper’s role” against leading liberal figures, including Seoul Education Superintendent Kwak No-hyun and Mayor Park. The sons of both Park and Kwak were disqualified from active duty because of their physical conditions.

Editorial Feb. 21, 2012

Intelligent Koreans find it increasingly difficult to tell the whole truth from half-truths and outright lies these days. “Facts” about people are disseminated through the media and the social networking service channels, but their respective audiences should exercise great discretion to decide whether the information is true or not.Most dangerous are half-truths which make people believe the whole information is true when it is partly false. This can be compared to a recently circulated nude pi

Editorial Feb. 21, 2012

The horrifying inferno that engulfed a prison in Honduras and claimed 355 lives or more didn‘t have to happen. In the months preceding this disaster, Honduran officials, beginning with President Porfirio Lobo, ignored multiple warnings that conditions at the jails were ripe for a calamity.One report by the United Nations said overcrowding was out of control by any standard. On any given date, 800 prisoners were confined in a facility built for 500. Those numbers, outrageous in themselves, were b

Viewpoints Feb. 21, 2012

Austerity alone cannot solve Europe‘s economic and financial crisis. Growth and jobs need to be promoted with equal zeal. European Union leaders now recognize this: kick-starting growth in 2012 was high on the agenda at the European Council’s meeting on January 30. But the big question remains: How?The need for immediate action is clear. The eurozone’s economy contracted in the last three months of 2011; even Germany’s shrank. The new year is looking grim. France is flat-lining (as is Britain).

Viewpoints Feb. 21, 2012

A surge of foreign tourists, most conspicuously from China and Japan, is an encouraging thing in otherwise generally bleak economic environment these days. As the Chinese government allowed overseas tourism for residents of cities first and then gradually eased travel restrictions, Korea emerged as one of the most popular destinations because of its geographical and cultural proximity. Travelling in Korea, the Chinese witness political and economic advancement of Koreans and visualize the future

Editorial Feb. 20, 2012

Leaders of the euro area’s wealthier nations are increasingly raising a provocative question: Might the common currency now be strong enough to end the bailout agony and let Greece go? The short answer is no. In fact, the euro area is probably more vulnerable to a Greek disaster than ever. Until recently, European officials dismissed the idea of Greece leaving the euro as unthinkable. They seemed to recognize that such a move would amount to mutually assured destruction. Aside from the horrendou

Viewpoints Feb. 20, 2012

The upheaval in the Arab world has damaged Israel’s strategic environment. Its peace treaty with Egypt, a pillar of national security for more than three decades, is in question. More important, the events in the Arab world have deflected attention from Israel’s most feared scenario, a nuclear Iran, playing into the Iranian strategy to buy time in order to present the world with a nuclear fait accompli. Israel’s leaders fear that the international response is now unlikely to impact Iranian polic

Viewpoints Feb. 20, 2012

“The one who can beat Obama: Rick Santorum,” the television commercial proclaims. That boast brings cheers from two quarters: the faithful followers of the conservative Republican presidential candidate, and the Democratic president’s political strategists. The former Pennsylvania senator is on fire in the Republican contest, threatening the front-runner, Mitt Romney, in the critical Michigan primary next week and nationally. Still, President Barack Obama’s campaign, the super-PACs supporting it

Viewpoints Feb. 20, 2012

“Hana” means one in Korean, but the Hana Financial Group will operate with two separate banks for five years after its takeover of Korea Exchange Bank. As the new owners reached a deal with the KEB union last week, new KEB CEO Yun Yong-ro reported to his office Monday, a week after he was appointed by the HFG. The gist of the deal made on the day before the scheduled start of a strike by the union is that KEB, keeping its present name, will have “independent management” until the end of 2016 wit

Editorial Feb. 20, 2012

Recently in Bangkok, I found myself wandering through the strange but distinctive arena for one of Asia’s latest conflicts: CentralWorld, supposedly the biggest shopping mall in Southeast Asia. Protesters supporting Thaksin Shinawatra, Thailand’s populist ex-prime minister, had set up base camp in the mall’s plaza in May 2010. During a widely covered clash with security forces, they had set the building on fire, destroying much of it. The newly renovated mall ― and the traffic outside, restored

Viewpoints Feb. 16, 2012

In 1982, I interviewed Syrian Information Minister Ahmed Iskander in Damascus, shortly after the regime had killed at least 10,000 people in the city of Hama.On his office wall hung a painting of an old Hama neighborhood with one of the waterwheels for which the city was famous. “That is our lovely city of Hama,” he told me calmly. “It’s perfectly peaceful. You should visit it someday.”He knew that I knew this neighborhood had been leveled to the ground.Back then, under the regime of Hafez al-As

Viewpoints Feb. 16, 2012