mr. cannon.r. cannon as the cato institute director of health policies. previously served as domestic policy analyst for the u.s. senate republican policy committee under chairman larry craig, where he advised the senate leadership on health, education, labor, welfare and the second amendment. he co-authored a book on competition and health care. mr. cannon has had his work published in media publication and as also appeared as a commentator on television and radio. i want to thank you, mr. cannon and ms. pollitz. it is the policy on reform to swear in witnesses before they testify. i would ask that you rise and raise your right hand. do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? >> i do. >> thank you very much. let the record reflect the witness is have answered in the affirmative. i am going to come as we did with the first panel, asked each witness to give a summary of his or her testimony and keep the summary under five minutes in duration, keeping in min

mr. cannon and i would agree on that.they've ended up with incredibley high prices and very small markets. the mandate is the only way to make insurance market reform effective and lower prices. >> ifill: how about the discussion which the president was having over the weekend and max baucus doesn't agree with him on is whether this constitutes a tax. when you fine people for not buying something they would buy. is that a tax. >> let's be clear. the mandate itself is not a tax. now, you can take... mr. cannon and i can debate the linguistics of that but there's only one authority that matters here which is the congressional budget office. the congressional budget office decides whether or not this qualifies as a tax. they've explicitly said this is not a tax. >> ifill: let me ask mr. cannon, is this linguistics. >> first if i can respond to something that jonathan said previously. health insurance in massachusetts are growing 20 to 40% faster in the rest of the country. they are not falling. there are projections that cam

mr. cannon, you have a number of large community service days every year. tell us about some of the others. >> sure, sure. there's the national day of service, which was this past friday. we also have our serve-a-thon which brings together upwards of volunteers to come out and do service projects. we do a day of service on martin luther king day typically at five to six local public schools. >> how important is it to -- we talked about how students are contributing via their community service work. how important is it to teach young people today not to be so self-absorbed? at a time when tv and when much in the media and in their lives and their community, their environment teaches them to focus pretty much on what they want and on getting what they want when they want it. it seems to me that do children need to be taught early on so that they grow up learning that volunteerism is a good thing, that serving others and being extroverted is a good thing? >> right. so that the world that they have grown up in, like you said, has been centered around them. they

mr. cannon, is this linguistic >> first if i can respondto sothing that jonathan said previously.alth iurance in massachusetts are growing 20 to 40% faster in t rest of the country. they are not fling. there are projectis that came out recently tha premiums wil grow by 10% in massachusettin 2010. next year. whereas they' going to grow probably about 5-7% projected for the st of the country. health insurance premium are t falling in masshusetts. the opposite is happening. as for whethe a mandat is a tax, the president... what the president said was nobo thinks it's a tax. actually i think most economists would agree thait is a t. the prident was ovlooking the writings of princeton health insurance reinhart, his owndvisor larry summers who has written th mandates are like a benefits tax or i'm sorry a public programs nance by aenefits tack. his n appointee to the assistansecretary for planning and evaluation at the depament of health and hum services has wrien that mandates are like a tax. the congressionalbudget office h said that the penaltiefor not comy ing th the mandate are ata

and then she got a tattoo of your -- that says -- >> mrs. cannon.uint real hard you can see it. >> let's again compare the size of these tattoos. lawsuit luft -- [ laughter ] and your respective names. it seems like you didn't get the better of the deal here. >> but you know what it is? because like she has these millions and millions of fans who have like her whole face tattooed on their chest and all that. so if -- i've got to top the fans so i have to sprawl my back out there and put it out there. >> so you don't have that? you don't have people with nick cannon tattooed on their bodies? >> that would be a little freaky. >> even after "america's got talent"? >> there might be a couple of strange people. >> speaking of strange people, you work with david hasselhoff. [ laughter ] >> i love the hoff. he's gangster. >> what does that mean, the hoff is gangster? >> the hoff is gangster. you don't want to rub the hoff the wrong way. >> i wouldn't rub him at all, to be honest with you. [ l laughter ] but he is a real character. isn't hehe? >> yes. see,

mr. cannon's most serious allegations against churchill which is that effectively, the first world war precipitated events that led inevitably to the disaster of the second and that churchill's blidge rennes obstructed the possibility of avoiding the first world war by obstructing the kaiser's last efforts to get off the look. >> thank you. other questions, one here? that one. and the one up here perhaps that i can't see. this light is very difficult to deal with. yes. >> yes. i -- i have the impression on both sides of the argument speakers have slightly tiptoed around the issue of -- what was really crucial about 1940. and my question therefore is this. if churchill had not stood out as he did against km mice and discussion with hitler and with the fascist, what would the consequences have been? after all, the soviet union was in alliance with nazi germany and the united states was neutral. >> thank you. >> let's -- a third question, right over there. >> could we get a microphone there and then we'll start the answers. >> poland loomed quite large in the debate on both sides. and i wondered on th