Selling the White House to the Top Bidder

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http://www.alternet.org/election04/19879/

 

Selling the White House to the Top Bidder

 

By David Donnelly, AlterNet. Posted September 15, 2004.

 

Last week Dick Cheney claimed that unemployment numbers and consumer

spending figures weren't an accurate reflection on how well the

economy was doing because they didn't account for... eBay?!?

 

" That's a source that didn't even exist 10 years ago: 400,000 people

make some money trading on eBay, " said the Vice President in Cincinnati.

 

In fact, if anyone has profited off the eBay phenomenon, it's the Bush

administration. While a few hundred thousand people may have made

" some money " from selling things like their vintage Star Wars action

figures on the online auction site, the Bush/Cheney White House has

auctioned off policy left and right to the highest-bidding special

interest contributors.

 

Here's a quick run down of three areas:

 

Medicare. For his two presidential campaigns, President George W. Bush

received at least $5.2 million from insurance/HMO industry and $1.4

million from pharmaceutical industry. HMOs got $12 billion in

subsidies to lure people out of Medicare, and $6.8 billion for

privatized " health savings accounts. " Pharmaceutical drug corporations

got $139 billion in projected profits, and prohibitions on the

re-importation or federal bulk purchasing of prescription drugs, both

of which would lead to lower prices.

 

What did seniors get? Higher prescription drug prices, and managed

care through the shifting of Medicare service to HMOs, and the highest

Medicare premium hike in history.

 

Air Quality. Bush received $1.3 million from electric utilities

industry in 2000 and 2004. Electric utilities got a rollback in the

Clean Air Act, allowing coal-fired plants to expand production without

updating the pollution controls. Along with it, utilities might

possibly get a " get out of jail free card " from pending lawsuits

brought under the provisions that Bush's EPA just gutted.

 

What did we get? With more pollution from these plants children and

seniors – the most vulnerable among us – are likely to experience an

increase in asthma attacks among children and seniors.

 

Tax Policies. President Bush raked in $18.4 million from those

associated with commercial banks and securities and accounting firms.

What did they get? For starters, Bush hasn't cracked down on offshore

tax shelters. During his term there has been a sharp decline in audits

of corporations. And let's not forget that capital gains, dividend and

personal taxes were cut so much that investors pay a lower rate than

workers.

 

What did middle class families get? A bigger share of tax burden to be

sure. Here's just one example: the government loses $85 billion a year

in lost revenue from the off-shore tax loophole alone.

 

Examples of special interest influence over the policies of this

Administration are everywhere. The debate in this election should not

be about who did what 30 years ago. It should be about who gave away

the store as payback for campaign contributions, and who put the needs

of wealthy contributors before the public interest.

© 2004 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.

View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/19879/