Fri, 15 Oct 2004: The Progress Report.

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Fri, 15 Oct 2004 09:11:19 -0700

Progress Report: Republicans Running Scared

" American Progress Action Fund "

<progress

 

 

The Progress Report.

 

by Christy Harvey, Judd Legum and Jonathan Baskin

OCTOBER 15, 2004

 

 

ECONOMY Making Offshoring Work For American Workers

ELECTION Republicans Running Scared

UNDER THE RADAR Go Beyond The Headlines

 

 

ECONOMY

Making Offshoring Work For American Workers

 

Days after Americans learned the economy had added just 96,000 jobs in

September (population grew by 220,000), a new report says the trend of

offshoring, when U.S. companies send jobs overseas, " will grow by 20

percent per year through 2008. " At that point, about 60 percent of

U.S. firms will send at least some technology work abroad. The Bush

administration has called outsourcing " a good thing, " but done little

to make the practice palatable for American workers. A new report and

column by American Progress addresses what the U.S. must do to address

the impact of offshoring on the American economy. Globalization may be

here to stay, but " there are steps policymakers can and should take to

alleviate the negative side effects that occur when jobs move abroad. "

 

CREATE A SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR AMERICAN WORKERS: In the short term,

American Progress calls for the U.S. to adopt a universal assistance

system for workers displaced by offshoring, with a cushion that

includes healthcare, retraining, wage insurance and an updated

unemployment insurance system. One plan, by Lori Kletzer and Robert

Litan, would cover 50 percent of a worker's wage difference when he or

she lost a job and took a new one for less pay. In addition, Congress

should offer employees the opportunity to retrain before they are laid

off, giving them a better chance of finding a new job with wages

comparable to the old one, and support measures that protect the

rights of employees to organize.

 

REFORM THE TAX CODE: The Bush administration has " embraced foreign

outsourcing " and endorsed tax policies which encourage job flight. The

cumulative effect of current loopholes and tax havens reduces the

average effective tax rate that U.S. companies pay in foreign

countries to 21 percent, compared to the 31 percent effective rate

they pay in the United States. American Progress recommends the

government close loopholes in the tax code that provide incentives for

companies to move jobs abroad rather than invest at home.

 

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION: In the long term, America needs to

improve its research and development climate, so it does not lose its

edge in high-tech industries. The Bush administration's latest

five-year budget would cut research and development budgets in 21 of

23 scientific agencies and its post-9/11 visa policies have had a

negative affect on the flow of foreign scientists to the U.S. This

endangers America's ability to create new industries and jobs.

American Progress recommends that the research and experimentation tax

credit be made permanent, that the administration increase support for

scientific and technology research and update immigration policies to

reflect the critical role that immigrants play in enhancing U.S.

innovation and competitiveness.

 

WITH MYTHS LIKE THESE…: When confronted with the loss of U.S. jobs to

offshoring and other causes, Treasury Secretary John Snow has a

strategy: deny the problem exists. He told an Ohio audience last week

that " Claims like the one that Bush will be the first president to end

a term with fewer jobs than when he started are nothing more than

'myths.' " Really? Webster's dictionary says a " myth " is a " fictitious

story or unscientific account. " Unfortunately for working Americans,

every credible scientific measure indicates the Bush job loss record

is dead real. After a " disappointing " addition of just 96,000 jobs in

September, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show the economy

has still shed 1.6 million private sector jobs and 821,000 jobs

overall since the president took office.

 

ELECTION

Republicans Running Scared

 

As the election gets closer, the Republican Party has turned to voter

suppression efforts to try to sway the election, by keeping voters

" off of the rolls and away from the polls. " (Paul Krugman has the

latest rundown on Republican efforts to block the vote.) The Center

for American Progress joined 23 concerned parties in a joint statement

on how to protect the vote and uphold democracy in the upcoming

election. Voters should not be intimidated by fears of a stolen

election. If voters don't get out and vote, the election will not be

stolen but given away. Instead, everyone should get out and vote, vote

early, and – to be safe – bring an I.D. Also, any voter experiencing

problems on Election Day should call the Election Protection hotline,

at (866) OUR-VOTE.

 

SPROUL'S REGISTRATION MALFEASANCE: This week, explosive new evidence

emerged of direct ties between the RNC and a Republican consulting

firm being investigated by Oregon and Nevada for perpetrating

widespread voter fraud. Sproul & Associates, paid $500,000 by the

Republican National Committee, created a voter registration front

group in several states. Some of the canvassers the company hired say

they were told they wouldn't be paid for registering Democrats.

Employees in the two western states have accused the firm of

destroying, dumping or shredding the forms of Democrats who thought

they were registered to vote. Also, an employee in West Virginia quit

after she was told to only register individuals who would confirm they

were planning to vote for President Bush. The head of Sproul &

Associates, Nathan Sproul, has long ties to the GOP: he was the former

executive director of the Arizona Republican Committee. Sens. Patrick

Leahy (D-VT) and Ted Kennedy (D-MA) have asked Attorney General John

Ashcroft to launch an immediate investigation on the federal level.

(The New Yorker provides a look at how Ashcroft's Justice Department

itself has politicized the voting process.)

 

OHIO'S VICTORY: U.S. District Judge James Carr ruled yesterday against

Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell's efforts to stop voters who

show up at the wrong polling place from casting a provisional ballot,

even if they are voting in the county in which they are registered. (A

provisional ballot allows properly registered voters who don't show up

on the registration rolls to still vote.) Carr ruled that voters in

Ohio who show up at the wrong polling place on Election Day could

still vote as long as they were voting in the county in which they

were registered. According to Carr, " Lessened participation at the

polls diminishes the vitality of our democracy. "

 

CHECK THIS BOX IF YOU DON'T WANT YOUR RIGHTS SUPPRESSED: Florida

Secretary of State Glenda Hood – appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush in 2003 –

recommended trashing any registration forms on which voters did not

check a box at the top to indicate they were U.S. citizens, even

though they had already signed an oath at the bottom of the form

swearing that they were. Even after the problem was realized, election

officials did not process some of the fixed forms in time. Other

registrants weren't even told their forms were flawed. The San

Francisco Chronicle reports, " labor unions and voting-rights groups

sued to stop the disqualification of more than 10,000 incomplete

registration forms in Florida, accusing the state of overly

restrictive rules that disproportionately hurt minority voters. " And

according to a suit filed by People for the American Way, the American

Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and the AFL-CIO,

" more than a third of the incomplete forms in Broward and Miami-Dade

counties came from African American registrants, even though African

Americans make up only 17 percent of the electorate in Broward and 20

percent in Miami-Dade. "

 

MISTAKES IN MILWAUKEE: Mayor Tom Barrett asked Milwaukee County to

print 938,000 ballots to accommodate a possible flood of new voters in

his city. (Wisconsin has same-day registration, so turnout is often

unpredictable.) County Executive Scott Walker – a Republican –

refused, telling the Associated Press that having extra ballots could

cause " chaos " at understaffed polling places. He's only allowing the

city about 10,000 more ballots than were printed for the last

presidential election. People For The American Way has a petition you

can sign to help get Milwaukee enough ballots.

 

 

Under the Radar

 

PRISON ABUSE – RUMSFELD TO PROMOTE MAN IN CHARGE OF ABU GHRAIB: Army

Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez oversaw detention facilities in Iraq,

including the infamous Abu Ghraib prison. Now the Pentagon is planning

on rewarding him with a promotion. Secretary of Defense Donald

Rumsfeld recognizes " that Sanchez remains politically 'radioactive' "

and will " wait until after the Nov. 2 presidential election and

investigations of the Abu Ghraib scandal have faded before putting his

name forward. " The move " reflects the Bush administration's insistence

that the prisoner abuse affair — which began in Abu Ghraib outside of

Baghdad and then drew scrutiny to military jails in Afghanistan and at

the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — was an aberration. "

 

IRAQ – IRAQI PRESIDENT SAYS ELECTIONS MAY NEED TO BE POSTPONED:

President Bush and other top members of his administration have been

insistent that elections in Iraq will occur as scheduled, on 1/31/05.

But yesterday, " President Ghazi Ajil Yawer was quoted in Baghdad by

the newspaper Asharq al Awsat as saying that the vote could be

postponed because of security threats. " President Yawer said, " If we

see that elections held by that date without security or conditions

favoring a fair and comprehensive vote … will have a negative impact

on our country, then we will not hesitate to change its date. " Bush

" has repeatedly pointed to the January elections as evidence that

Iraq's recovery is on schedule. "

 

CORRUPTION – HOMELAND SECURITY ADVISOR DOING BUSINESS WITH ROGUE

NATIONS: Newsday reports, " The chairman of the nation's Homeland

Security Advisory Council was helping to guide America's security

strategy at the same time he was a top executive with an international

banking firm [uBS] that was investigated and eventually fined more

than $100 million for cash transfers to rogue nations, including Iraq,

Iran, [and] Libya. " The official in question, Joseph Grano, " said he

assumed [secretary of Homeland Security Tom] Ridge and the

administration already knew about the federal investigation of UBS. "

Ridge has " repeatedly emphasized the panel's importance in overseeing

the billions of dollars poured into the national infrastructure since

Sept. 11, 2001. "

 

ELECTION – LUNTZ ADVISES, JUST STAY AWAY FROM THE FACTS AND YOU'LL BE

FINE: Republican pollster Frank Luntz writes in the Financial Times

that it's time for Bush to get nervous about the election. He says in

order to connect with voters, the GOP candidate should " forget about

using statistics " when talking about the economy and instead reference

terrorism. Voters " feel squeezed by reduced employee benefits and

higher prices, " advises Luntz, so Bush is on better footing talking

about terror. And if anyone points out the president " should not have

chosen tax cuts over national security " ? In that case, Luntz says,

Bush has to twist the focus away from those tax cuts by attacking

Kerry's record in the Senate.

 

BUDGET – ADMINISTRATION TOUTS RECORD-BREAKING DEFICIT: The Treasury

Department reports that the U.S. budget deficit for FY 2004 was $413

billion, marking the fourth consecutive year of fiscal deterioration.

It is the first time the deficit has grown as a percentage of GDP for

four straight years since the United States entered World War II.

Nevertheless, the Bush administration claims the $413 billion deficit

reflects an " improvement in the nation's budget picture. " The Center

on Budget and Policy Priorities reports, " Such a claim is misleading

at best. The Administration's claim comes about only because the

deficit did not increase as much in 2004 as the Administration earlier

predicted it would. This is like a football coach predicting his team

will go from a record of 6 wins and 10 losses to a 4-12 record the

next year, and then celebrating when the team 'improves' to 5-11. "