Progress Report: Baby, It's Cold Outside

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Wed, 08 Dec 2004 08:50:54 -0800

Progress Report: Baby, It's Cold Outside

" American Progress Action Fund "

<progress

 

The Progress Report

by Christy Harvey, Judd Legum and Jonathan Baskin

 

December 7, 2004

ENERGY Baby, It's Cold Outside

UNITED NATIONS The Right-Wing's Smear Campaign

INTELLIGENCE Readers Report

UNDER THE RADAR Go Beyond The Headlines

 

 

ENERGY

Baby, It's Cold Outside

 

For millions of low-income Americans, it's going to be a long, very

cold winter. Fuel prices have skyrocketed – according to the Center on

Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), the average cost of home heating

this winter will be a whopping 24 percent higher than last year. To

make matters worse, the number of people living in poverty, who are

especially likely to need help paying their energy bills, rose last

year by 1.3 million to 36 million people, or 12.5 percent of the

population. Yet Congress is underfunding the Low-Income Home Energy

Assistance Program (LIHEAP helps poor households – many of which

include people who are elderly or disabled – pay their heating bills

during the coldest months of winter). About 30 million households

qualify for help, but a lack of funding means only about one out of

every seven families receives assistance. And initial sampling shows

that this year, with temperatures dropping, fuel prices soaring and

more Americans living in poverty, requests for assistance could reach

an all-time high.

 

THE CHILLING STATISTICS: Energy costs can be devastating for

low-income families. According to a survey conducted by the National

Energy Assistance Directors' Association, families assisted by LIHEAP

" spend three times as much of their income on energy costs as

middle-income families. " The survey also found a quarter of people the

program serves skipped medical care or paying their rent or their

mortgage at least once because of energy bills. One out of every five

said they skipped meals because they were forced to " use food money to

pay a utility bill. "

 

CONGRESS'S FROSTY RESPONSE: In early October, a bipartisan group of 17

governors wrote to Congress, asking that funding for LIHEAP " include a

larger base grant and $600 million in emergency funding. " Millions of

low-income families and frail elderly citizens, the governors wrote,

" will likely be forced to choose between eating, paying rent or

mortgages, buying prescription drugs or paying their heating bills. "

Congress didn't come through. In the recently enacted omnibus bill,

the paltry increase in LIHEAP funding was " $164 million less than

needed to cover the expected 24 percent increase in home heating

costs. " In fact, according to research by the CBPP, " adjusting for the

price of fuel, the 2005 level of LIHEAP funding is lower than in any

of the previous five years – 23 percent lower than the funding level

for 2001. "

 

BUSH'S COLD SHOULDER: President Bush has shown a decided lack of

dedication to getting poor Americans funding for heat. In his first

budget, for the 2002 fiscal year, Bush actually tried to cut LIHEAP

funding by $300 million as compared with the previous year, despite

higher unemployment and a colder winter. While energy costs have

soared, " funding for LIHEAP and other energy assistance programs grew

7 percent under the Bush administration, barely matching inflation. "

When LIHEAP started 22 years ago, the program helped about 7 million

families. Today, it only helps about 5 million.

 

STATES LEFT HOLDING THE BAG: With the federal government failing to

provide necessary funding, the burden is falling on the states. Some

governors are ready to take on the challenge: In Montana, Gov.-elect

Brian Schweitzer announced he intends to make low-income heating

assistance a budget priority next year. Wisconsin's Gov. Jim Doyle

also got a jump on the crisis, opening LIHEAP enrollment a month ahead

of schedule in anticipation of heightened need and the state is

" kicking in $18.5 million to help keep Badger State residents warm. "

Many states are not as lucky. Colorado, for example, is slashing the

amount of money eligible families will receive by $100. The state's

lawmakers passed a bill to tack a voluntary 25-cent surcharge onto

utility bills to subsidize the state's heating assistance program, but

it was vetoed by Gov. Bill Owens " because it required utility

customers to 'opt out' of paying the surcharge and he preferred an

'opt in' approach. "

 

UNITED NATIONS

The Right-Wing's Smear Campaign

 

The right-wing has found an excuse to dust off its plans to undermine

the United Nations. Without a doubt, the illegal exploitation of the

United Nations' oil-for-food program by Saddam Hussein is a serious

matter that deserves careful scrutiny. But it does not justify the

dishonest and manipulative campaign by the right-wing lynch mob, led

by Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN), against U.N. Secretary-General Kofi

Annan. Fox News, predictably, has skipped over the question of whether

Coleman's allegations – which he claims oblige Annan to resign – are

true, and jumped right to the broader conclusion that the United

Nations itself is hopelessly corrupt and incompetent. This Sunday, Fox

News' Brit Hume said " The deeper problem here, of course, is the U.N.

itself. This scandal is really, really a sign of what the U.N. has

become. It is an enormously corrupt bureaucracy up there. It's a world

unto itself. Self-dealing, I think, is rampant. " For anyone sick of

the bluster from people like Hume, here are the facts – we report, you

decide: (Click here for our list of ten things you should know about

the U.N. oil-for-food scandal.)

 

THE SECURITY COUNCIL WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR MONITORING THE PROGRAM:

Coleman and others are calling for Annan's head because he was at the

helm of the United Nations bureaucracy while the scandal took place.

But the U.N.'s oil for food program was developed and directed " not by

U.N. civil servants but by the U.N. Security Council, as are all the

organization's sanctions regimes. " In other words, the people who ran

the program didn't work for Annan, they " worked for the council's

member states, including the United States and the four other

permanent members. " Therefore, diplomats from members of the Security

Council – including the United States – are far more culpable for any

problems with the oil-for-food program than Annan, who had no direct

authority over it.

 

SECURITY COUNCIL MEMBERS IGNORED U.N. OFFICIALS: Since the Security

Council ran the program, its members were responsible for rejecting or

accepting contracts to do business with Iraq. On 70 occasions, U.N.

officials – who were under the control of Annan – reported evidence of

oil pricing scams to the council. The Security Council, including

officials from the United States, ignored all of these warnings. They

ended up approving 36,000 contracts to do business with Iraq, but

didn't hold up a single one on the basis that it could be used to

siphon money.

 

LIES, DAMN LIES AND COLEMAN'S STATISTICS: Coleman issued a press

release stating that " Saddam accumulated more than $21 billion through

abuses of the Oil-for-Food program and U.N. sanctions. " But Coleman

fails to specify that two-thirds of this money had absolutely nothing

to do with the oil-for-food program. Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) explained

on CNN on 12/3/04 that $15 billion was acquired by Saddam through

" direct oil sales...by Iraq to Jordan and to Turkey and to Syria. "

This was no secret to the White House or Congress. According to Levin,

" both President Clinton and this President [George W.] Bush knowingly

waived that problem by notifying Congress that those sales were taking

place in violation of the oil-for food program, but nonetheless they

didn't want to do anything about it relative to stopping foreign aid, "

as generally required under United States law.

 

THE OIL-FOR-FOOD PROGRAM WORKED: The two most important facts are

ignored by Coleman, Fox News and rest of the right-wing's anti-U.N.

mob. First, according to the administration's hand-picked weapons

inspector, the sanctions regime was completely successful in

preventing Saddam from acquiring weapons of mass destruction. Second,

the oil-for-food program mitigated the effect of the sanctions on the

Iraqi people. The Financial Times notes, while the oil-for-food

program was in place, " malnutrition was halved, whereas since last

year's invasion of Iraq it has almost doubled. "

 

COLEMAN'S TORTUROUS HYPOCRISY: Coleman claims that " as long as Mr.

Annan remains in charge, the world will never be able to learn the

full extent " of the problems. But there is already a comprehensive

independent investigation underway " headed by Paul Volcker, the former

Federal Reserve chairman " for Ronald Reagan. Coleman has provided no

evidence that Annan is impeding the investigation. Moreover, Coleman

did not argue that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld step down so

the military could make an independent investigation of the Abu Ghraib

scandal that occurred under his watch. Instead, Coleman offered

Rumsfeld words of support after he testified before Congress (calling

his testimony " contrite, candid and thorough " ) and expressed

confidence that a special commission investigating the scandal would

be effective.

 

INTELLIGENCE

Readers Report

 

The House of Representatives recently had the chance to engage in

deliberate, careful consideration and come up with a sensible plan to

reform America's intelligence committee. They flubbed it. As Roll Call

editorialized this morning, the legislative process behind the bill

which passed last night was " handled miserably by the House. " The

Washington Post agrees, charging the 600-page legislation was not

" read or carefully considered by the vast majority of members,

including some of those most involved in its construction. " Yesterday,

we asked concerned Progress Report readers to call their members of

Congress and ask whether or not they'd had time to read the massive

600-page bill. Hundreds rose to the challenge – here's some of what

they reported back:

 

I talked with Rep. Issa's (California, 49th district) office, and

they said " I believe he has read it, but we don't comment on his

actions; we only take recommendations on how to act. " I " recommended "

that he read the bill. – D.C.

 

I called Senator Kennedy's office in Washington. The young man who

answered the phone said, " I assume he has. But I don't follow him home

at night, so I can't say for sure. " – S.E.

 

I called my Pennsylvania representative's office about 1:45 p.m.

(EST); at this point, the bill was not on the floor for a vote. I was

told that he is currently in meetings relating to the final draft of

the bill and therefore, at this point, has not read it. I asked

whether he expects to read it before he votes and was told that he

will. We'll see when the bill is presented for a vote. I doubt that he

is a speed reader. – S.E.

 

I spoke to Rep. Ellen Tauscher's office this morning and was told

that the final form of the bill was not yet released. Ellen has real

concerns that a vote will be pushed in less than 24 hours and that not

enough time to read the entire bill will be allowed. – G.S.

 

Major Owens is my Rep (D-11 NY). His staff said they hadn't

received the bill yet. (this is 12:45 p.m., Tuesday). They were

waiting for a " ruling " which describes how long they'll have before

voting. He said that they'll probably have 2 hours to debate before

voting. That's 300 pages an hour. Hard to read that fast. He said that

if I really wanted to help, I might call Rep. Dreier (CA), who is in

charge of the ruling, and ask him if he's going to give enough time to

read and debate the bill. This person said that 3 days would be

sufficient. But he expected to get hours. And he said that " they could

put anything they want in there " in the meantime. Is this really how

our govt. works? Scary. – T.C.

 

I called Rep. Waxman's office today and was told by one of his

assistants that the intelligence bill was not available yet and

therefore he had not read it. She also told me that Rep. Waxman had

helped draft a letter to the leadership requesting that every bill is

available five days in advance for review. – C.S.

 

I called Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen's office and asked if

she had read the new version of the intelligence bill. The nice woman

who answered the phone said, " I believe she has. " I asked, " Really?

All 600 pages of it already? " The response: " I know we printed it out

for her and I believe she's in the process of reading it right now. "

Maybe she took one of those speed reading courses. – B.G.

 

 

Under the Radar

 

DETAINEES – BEYOND ABU GHRAIB: Over the strenuous objections of the

Bush administration, dozens of documents detailing America's brutal

and often illegal treatment of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and

Guantanamo Bay were made public yesterday, filling in a picture of

systematic prisoner abuse that stretches above and beyond Abu Ghraib.

One classified report shows that one of Defense Secretary Donald

Rumsfeld's closest advisers, Stephen Cambone, " learned of allegations

that a clandestine military task force in Iraq was beating detainees,

ordering Defense Intelligence Agency debriefers out of the room during

questioning, confiscating evidence of the abuse and intimidating the

debriefers when they complained. " But the Washington Post reports,

" There is no record…that makes clear whether the abuses…have stopped

or whether anyone has been held responsible for them. " The Bush

administration, " which continues to portray prisoner abuses as

isolated events and the Pentagon's response as swift, fought

vigorously to keep the new documents from public view, " but was

compelled to release them – still heavily censored – after the ACLU

filed a lawsuit.

 

INTELLIGENCE – LATE TWEAKS WATER DOWN BILL: Compromises and tweaks

made at the last minute to ensure conservative support for the new

intel bill " have left many government officials and espionage experts

skeptical that key reforms will amount to more than an administrative

reshuffling – or will make the nation any safer. " Slate notes the

legislation " falls far short of the measures urged by the 9/11

Commission, " with House changes to the bill vastly limiting the

authority of the new national intelligence director. Curbs to the

director's power, urged by House Armed Services Committee Chairman

Duncan Hunter (R-CA), include " strict limits " on budget authority and

an inability to fire the heads of intelligence agencies. Other areas

of the bill also limit the effect of changes; the Wall Street Journal

reports the new National Counterterrorism Center will have " strict

limits " on how far it can go " in planning actual antiterrorism

operations. "

 

MILITARY – TROOPS ASK RUMSFELD THE TOUGH QUESTIONS: Defense Secretary

Donald Rumsfeld was peppered with questions yesterday regarding the

short supply of vehicle armor in Iraq and the Pentagon's controversial

" stop loss " policy – not by the Washington press corps, but American

troops about to enter Iraq. After listening to the secretary's

prepared speech, the group of mostly National Guard and Reserve

soldiers at Camp Buehring in Kuwait presented Rumsfeld with a few

" criticisms of their own – not of the war itself but of how it is

being fought. " One " complained that active-duty Army units sometimes

get priority over the National Guard and Reserve units for the best

equipment in Iraq. " Another wondered " how much longer the Army will

continue using its 'stop loss' power to prevent soldiers from leaving

the service who are otherwise eligible to retire or quit. " And Army

Spc. Thomas Wilson asked, " Why do we soldiers have to dig through

local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic

glass to uparmor our vehicles? " as a " big cheer arose from the

approximately 2,300 soldiers in the cavernous hangar. "

 

MEDICARE – POOR NOT SIGNING UP FOR DISCOUNT DRUG CARDS: A year after

the Medicare overhaul became law, AP reports, " the Bush administration

is struggling to get the poor signed up for a drug discount card that

comes with $1,200 in aid between now and 2006. " According to Medicare

chief Mark McClellan, about 1.5 million low-income Americans have

signed up for a card, but the administration had forecast that more

than three times that many would enroll in the program by year's end.

More than 7 million people are eligible. Advocates for the poor say

the administration is ignoring history " and taking the wrong approach

by insisting that enrollment be voluntary. Instead, they say, the

government should enroll everyone eligible, and those who object

should be allowed to opt out of the program. "

 

HOMELAND SECURITY – NEW CHIEF OBSESSED WITH IMAGE: Newsweek notes that

President Bush's nominee for new Homeland Security Chief, Bernard

Kerik has a penchant for being " vainglorious. " For instance, " Kerik

reportedly used $3,000 of Police Foundation funds to order up 30 busts

of his own likeness, complete with bristling mustache. " The Police

Foundation's money is supposed to be used " to improve public safety in

New York City by providing resources and support to the New York City

Police Department that are not readily available through other means "

– not make gaudy statues of egotistical politicians. According to

Newsweek, Kerik also " likes the glittery celebrity life. After he

stopped being a street cop, he cut his ponytail and began wearing

silk-thread suits and Italian loafers. "