Progress Report: Soaking Seniors

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#160;#160;DON'T MISS

ECONOMY: American Progress CEO John Podesta and

Progress Reporter David Sirota on the Late, Great

Middle Class.

 

OIL AND ENERGY: What America is saying

 

9/11: A look back at the day before.

 

ABU GHRAIB: White House memo played critical role.

 

 

DAILY GRILL

" We're calling upon Congress to be wise with the

taxpayer's money. We look forward to working with them

to bring fiscal discipline to the appropriations

process. "

 

- George W. Bush, 2/2/04

 

" The Congressional Budget Office is projecting that

this election-year's federal deficit will reach $422

billion. "

 

- USA Today, 9/7/04

 

 

DAILY OUTRAGE

While former President Bill Clinton was recovering

from quadruple bypass heart surgery, Vice President

Dick Cheney accused him of " teaching terrorists that

'they could strike us with relative impunity.' "

 

 

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by David Sirota, Christy Harvey, Judd Legum and

Jonathan Baskin

 

SEPTEMBER 7, 2004

ECONOMY Labor Day

HEALTH CARE Soaking Seniors

UNDER THE RADAR Go Beyond The Headlines

 

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ECONOMY

Labor Day

 

A spate of economic reports released around Labor Day

show workers are still suffering from ineffective Bush

administration policies tilted toward the wealthiest

Americans. The Bush administration spent Labor Day

touting the 144,000 jobs the economy reportedly added

in August " because of our tax relief, " but as Knight

Ridder reports, the day was " anything but a picnic for

the vast majority of America's 147 million member

labor force. " Analysis of Commerce Department and

Census Bureau data indicates wage and income gaps are

increasing on several levels, causing millions of

Americans to forgo health insurance or sink into

poverty, even as the president and vice president

bombarded Labor Day audiences with news of our " strong

economy. " For more on the latest jobs figures, see

senior fellow Scott Lilly's statement and senior

economist Christian Weller's column.

 

TAX CUTS NOT TRICKLING DOWN: Yesterday, Vice President

Cheney said, " Every American who pays federal income

taxes benefited from the Bush tax cuts, and so has our

economy. " This would be news to most working

Americans, only one-third of whom " are willing to say

tax cuts helped the economy. " That feeling is backed

up by the numbers, which show the tax cuts have

provided minimal relief for Americans in the middle of

the income spectrum while draining resources from

programs utilized primarily by middle-class families.

The Baltimore Sun reports, " The latest income, poverty

and health insurance data from the Census Bureau belie

the Bush administration's insistence that the

president's tax cuts for the well-off would trickle

down to benefit the whole nation#8230; From 2000

through the end of 2003#8230;real median household

income has fallen, poverty has risen, and so has the

number of Americans without health insurance. "

 

THE WIDENING WAGE GAP: A look behind the most

publicized numbers shows the economy's rising tide is

lifting some boats while it drowns others. According

to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP),

Commerce Department data indicates " troubling

developments in the current economic recovery. Of

greatest concern, wage and salary growth for workers

has been exceptionally poor while corporate profits

have enjoyed unusually large gains. " In a typical

economic " recovery, " CBPP notes, the share of income

growth going to wages and salaries easily outpaces the

share going to corporate profits. But in the Bush

administration's recovery, that share equals about

one-third as much as has gone to corporate profits.

CEPR Co-Director Mark Weisbrot notes that " the average

real wage #8211; that is, adjusted for inflation

#8211; has actually fallen over the past year#8230;In

other words, even when the economy is growing, most of

the people who make it grow aren't getting anything

out of it. " Check out American Progress' coverage of

our " Upside down " economy.

 

THE WIDENING GENDER GAP: Census Bureau data indicated

the Bush administration's uneven recovery has

disproportionately affected women. Numbers for 2003

showed the first " statistically significant " decline

in women's pay since 1995, with women earning just

75.5 cents to every dollar men earn. The Institute for

Women's Policy Research (IWPR) has stated that the 1.4

percent decrease in the gender wage ratio is the

largest backslide since 1991. IWPR President Heidi

Hartmann said, " No progress on the wage ratio has been

made since 2001, and women actually lost ground this

year#8230;The economic recovery continues to

disadvantage women by failing to provide strong job

growth at all wage levels. "

 

FEELING DISPLACED: Even as the Bush administration

advertises job gains, evidence demonstrates many

Americans are far more insecure in new jobs than they

were in old ones. The Center for Economic and Policy

Research (CEPR) reports that from 2001 to 2003, " about

5.3 million workers or 4.0 percent of the work force

were displaced from 'long-tenure' jobs (those held

three years or longer). This compares with a

displacement rate of 3.6 percent, or 4.5 million

workers, in the period from 1991 to 1993. " The

economic costs of job displacement are " high and

rising. " By 2004, more than two-thirds of displaced

workers who had found a full-time job were being paid

less than that they had been at their prior job. Over

one-third of those had taken a pay cut of 20 percent

or more at their new job.

 

HEALTH CARE

Soaking Seniors

 

In his acceptance speech at the Republican National

Convention last Thursday night, President Bush touted

his efforts to help the elderly afford health care.

What he didn't mention: the very next day, the

government announced Medicare premiums were going up a

whopping 17 percent. It's the largest increase in

Medicare history, raising the monthly expense for

millions of elderly and disabled patients by $11.60,

to $78.20. (Keep in mind, Social Security, which many

seniors rely upon to pay their Medicare premium, is

only expected to rise 3 percent this year.) It's a

devastating blow for the nation's elderly and a direct

result of the administration's mismanagement of health

care. Time and again, the White House has rewarded

corporate interests at the expense of the nation's

seniors, and now the elderly and disabled are paying

the price. As Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) put it: " This

administration has had four years to improve Medicare

and instead have made it worse. Today's news reflects

the reality, not rhetoric, of this administration's

bad record on Medicare. "

 

EXPLODING COSTS: The Bush White House cites the rising

cost of health care as the reason for the

wallet-shattering increase in the Medicare premium.

Take a look at the White House record on curbing

health care costs, though: in a sop to the powerful

pharmaceutical companies last year, the White House

blocked efforts to allow Medicare to use bulk

purchasing power to negotiate lower drug prices.

 

CORPORATE SUBSIDIES: Looking for a way to keep

Medicare costs down? Why not start with curbing the

massive corporate subsidies? Starting in 2006, the new

Medicare program will pay corporations $89 billion to

" discourage " employers from dropping retirees from

their plans. For example: General Motors Corp. stands

to gain as much as $940 per retiree after the program

kicks into effect; the chemical giant DuPont stands to

pull in $525 million over 15 years; and the parent

company of United Airlines said it would save $280

million. The loophole: corporations receive the

subsidy even if they cut support for pensioners. And

many are doing just that. Of the " Employers' Coalition

on Medicare " #8211; an organization made up of

corporations that have given President Bush and the

RNC more than $47 million since 2000 #8211; at least

10 have either tried in the past or are trying to

slash retiree benefits.

 

INSURANCE FRAUD: The White House has it backwards:

This new increase is taking money from America's

seniors and using it to line the pockets of wealthy

insurance companies. The head of Medicare, Mark

McClellan, acknowledged this weekend that 15 percent

of this premium increase " results from the billions of

dollars Medicare is paying insurers to encourage them

to offer private plans. " You get what you pay for: The

insurance industry has flooded President Bush and his

friends in Congress with over $70 million in campaign

contributions since 2000.

 

THE REVERSE ROBIN HOOD EFFECT: Medicare recipients are

paying to lure insurance companies into offering

private health plans. However, private plans have

higher administrative costs and thus are more

expensive than Medicare, meaning that many of the

seniors paying to subsidize these plans won't be able

to afford them for themselves, in effect taking money

from poor seniors to set up private plans for the

wealthier. (American Progress takes a look at how the

move toward greater privatization of Medicare has

threatened the long term stability of the program.)

 

SURPRISE!: In the past, announcements concerning

Medicare premium increases have come in October, " at

the same time that cost-of-living increases to Social

Security checks are announced. The twin announcements

allow the elderly to calculate how much they will be

receiving the following year. " This year, however, the

White House announced the enormous hike on Friday

night, " just as much of official Washington was

heading out for a three-day weekend and the Republican

convention and a hurricane moving toward Florida were

dominating the news. " This administration has

perfected the art of burying bad news on a

traditionally slow news day, when " fewer people are

reading newspapers or watching television news over

the weekend. " Among the long list of Friday Surprises

are unpopular environmental policies, controversial

judicial nominations, and updates on the growing ranks

of the poor.

 

Under the Radar

 

INTELLIGENCE #8211; THE SAUDI COVER-UP?: According to

the Philadelphia Inquirer, U.S. Sen. Bob Graham

(D-FL), who was the chairman of the Senate

Intelligence Committee, is releasing a new book that

details how " the Bush administration and FBI blocked a

congressional investigation " into the relationship

between the Saudi Arabian government and al Qaeda. The

book says at least two of the 9/11 hijackers had a

support network in the United States that included

agents of the Saudi government. Such a discovery

" would draw a direct line between the terrorists and

the government of Saudi Arabia . " But according to

Graham, when congressional investigators in 2002

uncovered evidence, it " triggered an attempted

cover-up by the Bush administration. " Graham " makes

clear that some details of that financial support from

Saudi Arabia were in the 27 pages of the congressional

inquiry's final report that were blocked from release

by the administration, despite the pleas of leaders of

both parties on the House and Senate intelligence

committees. " The Los Angeles Times has previously

reported that the 27 classified pages " depict a Saudi

government that not only provided significant money

and aid to the suicide hijackers but also allowed

potentially hundreds of millions of dollars to flow to

al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. "

 

HOUSING #8211; TELL FDIC TO DO ITS JOB: The Bush

administration is quietly considering weakening the

Community Reinvestment Act by relieving some 2,000

banks of their obligation to provide investments and

services in low-income areas. Today, banks with $250

million or more in assets must demonstrate the

distribution of their loans by geography and income

and show that they provide both services and

investments that benefit low- and moderate-income

households and neighborhoods in their communities. But

under the Bush rollback, banks with assets of $1

billion or less would be exempted from these rules.

According to FDIC data, the states with no

institutions with more than $1 billion in assets are:

District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho and Wyoming.

States with four or fewer such institutions are:

Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota,

Montana, North Dakota, New Hampshire, Oregon, South

Dakota, Vermont and West Virginia. To register your

objection to these rules, go to the FDIC's website and

look for the 8/20/04 Community Reinvestment proposed

rule. At the far right column, you can click on

" Comments " to submit yours electronically.

 

WAR ON TERROR #8211; ATTACKING A DEAD MAN & A SICK

MAN: Despite the recent death of President Ronald

Reagan and the fact that President Bill Clinton was on

the operating table, Vice President Dick Cheney laced

into both men on the campaign trail yesterday.

According to the New York Times, Cheney blamed the

Clinton and Reagan administrations for being weak on

terrorism. Cheney, of course, did not mention how the

Bush administration repeatedly declined to go after

Abu Musab Zarqawi, one of the top terrorist threats to

America today. He did not explain why the Bush

administration shifted Special Forces and intelligence

resources out of Afghanistan and the hunt for Osama

bin Laden in 2002. He also did not explain why when

the White House received pre-9/11 warnings about a

terrorist attack, the Bush administration " curtailed a

highly classified program to monitor al Qaeda suspects

in the United States. "

 

IRAQ #8211; SOME CITIES MAY BE EXCLUDED FROM ELECTION:

According to Lt. Gen. Thomas F. Metz #8211; operations

chief of more than 150,000 mostly U.S. troops in Iraq

#8211; " violence could force authorities to exclude

hotspots such as the western city of Fallujah from

voting " when elections are held in January. Metz's

statement was the first by a U.S. or Iraqi official

" conceding that the security situation is so perilous

that some areas may not be pacified in time for

elections. " The plan to exclude unstable cities from

the election " could detract from the election's

credibility, foment discontent in Iraq and leave other

countries reluctant to acknowledge any government

chosen in the vote. "

 

IRAQ #8211; THE PROSPECT OF CIVIL WAR: According to a

report released by the prestigious Royal Institute of

International Affairs, " Iraq could splinter into civil

war and destabilize the whole region if the interim

government, U.S. forces and United Nations fail to

hold the ring among factions struggling for power. "

The report called civil war " the most likely outcome "

of the situation in Iraq. Read the full report.

 

HEALTH CARE #8211; WHAT IS HE TRYING TO SAY?: " Too

many OB/GYNs aren't able to practice their love with

women all across this country. " #8211; President Bush,

9/6/04 (See the video for yourself.)