No Spin News: Inauguration, Bush Social Security Plan, Conyers Asks DOJ to Inves

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Fri, 14 Jan 2005 18:42:58 -0800 (PST)

 

 

 

No Spin News: Inauguration, Bush Social Security Plan, A

" Declaration Of War' On working people & Congressman Conyers Asks

Justice Department to Appoint Special Counsel to Investigate Ohio

 

 

 

 

Big-Money Contributors Line Up for Inauguration

 

 

By Thomas B. Edsall and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum, Washington Post Staff Writers

 

President Bush (news - web sites) wants to lower barriers to building

nuclear power plants, and the lobby that promotes nuclear energy could

not be happier. To show its thanks, the group has given $100,000 to

help pay for his inauguration.

 

" He's a big supporter, " said John E. Kane, chief lobbyist for the

Nuclear Energy Institute. " Our donation is just a small way of

supporting him. "

 

The nuclear energy industry's contribution is part of a

record-breaking outpouring of corporate cash for next week's inaugural

festivities. At least 88 companies and trade associations, along with

39 top executives -- all with huge stakes in administration policies

-- have already donated $18 million toward a $40 million goal for the

country's 55th inaugural celebration.

 

Wall Street investment firms seeking to profit from private Social

Security (news - web sites) accounts; oil, gas and mining companies

pushing the White House to revive a stalled energy-subsidy bill; and

hotels and casinos seeking an influx of immigrant labor are among the

44 interests that have each given $250,000 and the 66 that have

donated $100,000 to $225,000. And the money keeps pouring in.

 

Practically all the major donors have benefited from Bush

administration policies, especially from corporate and individual tax

cuts, deregulation and the new prescription drug benefit that is part

of Medicare. Most also stand to boost profits further because of

Bush's second-term proposals, which include limiting medical

malpractice suits, creating private investment accounts as part of

Social Security and making a tax-code revision that is expected to

reduce taxes on investments.

 

Many donors are corporations and executives that are regulated by the

federal government, dependent on government tax and spending policies,

or both. At least 16 donors are from the finance industry, 14 are from

the energy sector, six are real estate developers, and at least five

are from both the health and telecommunications industries. The

Washington Post Co. has pledged $100,000.

 

In the era of campaign finance reform, such largesse is all but

forbidden. Federal law limits individual donations to $2,000 per

election, and corporations cannot give from their own treasuries

directly to candidates or parties. But for the inauguration, the law

does not apply, and the administration has decided that private

interests may contribute as much as $250,000 each. That is a 150

percent increase over the $100,000 maximum accepted during Bush's

first inauguration four years ago.

 

An inaugural committee spokeswoman said the higher ceiling is needed

to meet its fundraising goal. The committee plans to raise $35 million

to $40 million to help defray the costs of the four-day celebration,

including fireworks, the swearing-in, a parade and nine balls. In

2001, the committee raised $40 million.

 

In 1993, President Bill Clinton (news - web sites)'s inaugural

committee spent $33 million, raised primarily from souvenir and ticket

sales, although there were 13 donors who gave $100,000 apiece and one

who gave $250,000.

 

Critics see the high contribution limit as a vehicle for groups with

business before government to buy more access to the people who make

big-dollar federal decisions.

 

" Donors are going to say it's civic participation that motivates them,

but they also use their contributions to buy access to lawmakers and

the administration, " said Sheila Krumholz, research director of the

Center for Responsive Politics. " The advantage is enormous. "

 

" The donations give executives another chance to rub up to

politicians, " agreed Bill Allison, managing editor at the Center for

Public Integrity, a nonpartisan watchdog group.

 

For corporations in particular, the benefit is almost unique. With the

exception of the presidential nominating conventions, companies do not

have legal ways to give significant amounts of cash to assist

politicians. Even the now-ubiquitous independent groups, called 527s,

that bought millions of dollars of advertisements during the

presidential campaign have proved to be ill-suited to company

contributions.

 

As a result, Krumholz said, " The inaugural committee provides

opportunities to corporations that are hampered by the 'soft money'

ban. " Three years ago, Congress passed the McCain-Feingold law barring

companies from donating unlimited amounts of money -- also called soft

money -- to the political parties.

 

The only restraint on giving is the voluntary $250,000 limit, but that

has been circumvented. In a few instances, both the parent company and

its subsidiaries have donated. Marriott International Inc. delivered

$250,000 to the committee, as did each of two units: Marriott Vacation

Club International and the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co.

 

In addition, Ameriquest, a mortgage company specializing in financing

housing purchases in heavily minority neighborhoods, gave $250,000,

along with $500,000 from two subsidiaries, for a total of $750,000.

 

Marriott and other hoteliers are pushing hard for the type of

liberalized immigration laws favored by the president to gain a larger

labor pool. Ameriquest and others in what is known as the sub-prime

mortgage industry are seeking legislation that would set national

standards preempting tougher laws in a number of states.

 

Roland and Dawn Arnall of Los Angeles, the chairman and co-chairman,

respectively, of Ameriquest, and their companies are more than

contributors to the inauguration. They are also the single biggest

source of financial support for Bush since 2002. Over the period, they

gave and raised at least $12.25 million.

 

Dawn Arnall gave $1 million to the Republican National Committee (news

- web sites) in 2002 and $5 million to the pro-Bush 527 group called

Progress for America Voter Fund. She served as a co-chairman of the

New York Republican Convention Host Committee, with an obligation to

raise at least $5 million.

 

Roland and Dawn Arnall were major fundraisers in 2004, earning the

title of " Ranger " for collecting at least $200,000 for the Bush-Cheney

ticket and " Super Ranger " for collecting at least $300,000 for the

RNC. Roland Arnall hosted a Bush-Cheney fundraiser at his home in

August 2004 that produced more than $1 million. Shortly after winning

reelection, Bush announced the appointment of the Arnalls as honorary

co-chairmen of the inaugural fundraising committee.

 

A spokeswoman said that " the Arnalls do not grant interviews. "

 

Another $250,000 donor to the inauguration who played a major role in

the 2004 election is T. Boone Pickens, a Texas oilman and corporate

raider. He gave $2.5 million to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth,

which attacked John F. Kerry's record in Vietnam, and $2.5 million to

the pro-GOP 527 organization Progress for America.

 

Similarly, the $250,000 inaugural contribution of Alexander G. Spanos,

a real estate developer and owner of the National Football League's

San Diego Chargers, was a small fraction of the $5 million he gave to

Progress for America and the $1 million he gave to the New York City

Convention Host Committee, which helped to fund the Republicans'

presidential nominating convention last summer.

 

Many of the inauguration's benefactors are veteran Republican and Bush

backers. Thirty-nine of the individual donors were substantial

fundraisers in 2004 for the Bush reelection campaign, the Republican

National Committee or both. Twenty-one entities or individuals also

helped underwrite the Republican National Convention. Nine inaugural

contributors funded one or more pro-Bush 527 organization.

 

Donors offer a range of reasons for participating in the inauguration.

One is simply to get good, guaranteed seats and tickets. All donors of

$100,000 or more receive benefits keyed to the four-day tribute. These

include 38 tickets to 10 balls, receptions, galas and the swearing-in

ceremony. Givers of $250,000 get 80 tickets to the 10 events. In

addition, big donors' names, or the names of their corporations, will

appear on official printed materials.

 

Edward L. Yingling, incoming president of the American Bankers

Association, which gave $25,000, said: " We gave enough to get the sets

of tickets we need for bankers, some of our staff and some friends of

the industry who want to go to certain events. "

 

Patrick Butler, vice president of The Washington Post Co., said the

company, which is the parent of this newspaper, agreed to donate to be

sure that it has enough tickets to the Inaugural Ball to cover its

major corporate advertisers, which The Post fetes at the event every

four years.

 

A spokesman for the Boeing Co., which gave $100,000, said the money is

" to help in celebrating the defining event in the American democratic

process. " Boeing is dealing with federal probes into the tactics it

used to win a contract to lease and sell to the Air Force 100

refueling tankers for $23.5 billion.

 

A few groups are forthright about their desire to see and be seen. " We

want our presence to be known here in Washington and at the

inauguration, " said Lucien Salvant, spokesman for the National

Association of Realtors, which contributed $50,000. " We consider

ourselves the chief spokesman for real estate issues and property

rights, and we want people to recognize that. "

 

Research database editor Derek Willis contributed to this report.

 

http://story.news./news?tmpl=story & cid=1803 & ncid=1803 & e=2 & u=/washpost/2\

0050113/pl_washpost/a5058_2005jan12

 

 

 

also

 

 

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES

http://www.gp.org

 

For Immediate Release:

Friday, January 14, 2005

 

Contacts:

Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624,

cell 202-487-0693, mclarty

Nancy Allen, Media Coordinator, 207-326-4576,

nallen

 

GREENS CALL BUSH SOCIAL SECURITY PLAN A

'DECLARATION OF WAR' ON WORKING PEOPLE

 

Reasons for privatizing Social Security are just

as fraudulent as President Bush's first-term

reasons to invade Iraq, say Greens.

 

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green Party leaders called on

the American people and Congress to reject

President Bush's plan to divert Social Security

into private investments.

 

" President Bush's plan to privatize Social

Security will likely be the focus of his

inaugural and 2005 State of the Union addresses,

just as his 2003 State of the Union spelled out

his reasons for invading Iraq -- and the

President's rationales will be just as

fraudulent, " said Jody Grage Haug, co-chair of

the Green Party of the United States.

 

" In his first term, Mr. Bush fabricated an Iraqi

crisis, based on a counterfeit reports of WMDs,

collusion between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda,

and an imminent threat to the U.S. This year,

Mr. Bush is relying on manufactured claims of an

impending Social Security crisis in order to

achieve the long-time Republican goal of

dismantling one of our most successful and

necessary social programs. By attacking Social

Security, President Bush is declaring war on

people who work for a living, " added Ms. Haug.

 

Greens note that the Social Security Trustees'

pessimistic assumption in 1999 of long-term

economic growth rate at just 1.7%, which would

project a Social Security system failure in 2029,

turned out to be false. The projected failure

date was later pushed back to 2042 in 2004 when

the economic growth rate continued at 3%.

 

By current conservative estimates, Social

Security will still be able to pay three quarters

of anticipated benefits in 2052. President Bush

continues to insist erroneously that the system

will go " broke, flat bust " by 2040.

 

Greens blame former President Clinton for

parroting conservative claims of a crisis in the

last year of his second term, and say that these

claims have allowed President Bush to get away

with false statistics like a projected $10-11

trillion in " unfunded " Social Security liability.

 

" All of these doomsday projections are based on

economic failure in the coming decades, but the

absurdity of President's plan is that, if the

economy really did fail, the last place you'd

want your retirement money would be Wall Street, "

said David Cobb, the Green Party's 2004

presidential candidate. " The only people who'll

benefit from Social Security privatization will

be investment companies, people with large

investments in investment companies, and

Republican and Democratic politicians who take

campaign contributions from investment

companies. "

 

Green Party leaders noted that Social Security

would never be imperiled at all if the well-being

of older Americans were given the same priority

as the military budget, or if the Social Security

Trust Fund weren't looted to cover President

Bush's tax breaks for the wealthy or the war on

Iraq.

 

" If the American people, the media, and Congress

swallow President Bush's Social Security plan as

quickly as they swallowed the Iraq invasion,

we'll see the second major disaster of the Bush

years, with billions in lost savings and vanished

retirement money, " said Greg Gerritt, secretary

of the Green Party of the United States. " The

economics of the Bush plan are as phony as the

economics of his November, 2003 Medicare reform

bill, which favored pharmaceutical firms at great

cost to older Americans who depend on

prescription drugs. We all need to stand up and

say no to the pillage of Social Security. "

 

 

MORE INFORMATION

 

The Green Party of the United States

http://www.gp.org

1700 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 404

Washington, DC 20009.

202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN

Fax 202-319-7193

 

2004 Cobb/LaMarche Campaign: News on the recount

efforts http://www.votecobb.org

 

also

 

January 14, 2005

Congressman Conyers Asks Justice Department to Appoint Special Counsel

to Investigate Ohio

 

Congressman Conyers Has Asked the Justice Department to Appoint a

Special Counsel to Investigate Possible Criminal Conduct in Connection

with the Ohio 2004 Election by J. Kenneth Blackwell.

 

In this detailed letter, Conyers stated that through the House

Judiciary Democrats' investigation, they had learned of " numerous

instances of voter intimidation and misinformation,improper purging,

caging of minority voters, misuse of Help America Vote Act (HAVA)

funds, voting machine tampering, perjury, and most recently, potential

misuse of the federal seal in a campaign solicitation by Ohio

Secretary of State Blackwell. Since this and other apparent violations

by the Secretary of State presents such an obvious conflict for your

office, we would ask that you appoint a special counsel to investigate

this matter. "

 

Full text of the letter:

http://miamedia.com/news/20050114dojelectionspconltr.pdf

or http://www.BradBlog.com/Docs/SpecialCounselLetter.pdf

or http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/dojelectionspconltr11405.pdf

or http://shadowbox.i8.com/HJCletter2DOJ.pdf