Progress Report: Broken Moral Compass

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Wed, 09 Feb 2005 09:27:32 -0800

Progress Report: Broken Moral Compass

" American Progress Action Fund "

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The Progress Report

by Christy Harvey, Judd Legum and Jonathan Baskin

with Nico Pitney and Mipe Okunseinde

..February 9, 2005

 

 

 

VALUES The Right-Wing's Broken Moral Compass

MEDICARE The $913 Billion Boondoggle

UNDER THE RADAR Go Beyond The Headlines

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VALUES

 

The Right-Wing's Broken Moral Compass

 

Congressman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and 114 conservatives in the

House of Representatives are pushing hard for a bill – the REAL ID Act

– that would make it more difficult for people persecuted for their

religious beliefs to receive asylum in the United States. Under the

legislation, many refugees tortured, raped and brutalized on the basis

of their race, national origin or political opinions would also be

turned away. Sensenbrenner claims the law is necessary " to prevent

another 9/11-type attack by disrupting terrorist travel. " But current

law already bars anyone who poses a security risk from being granted

asylum. The bill also contains other provisions that are an affront to

core American principles, including federalism, environmental

stewardship and the rule of law. (Share your thoughts on the

right-wing's moral values at ThinkProgress.org.)

 

FAITH-BASED GROUPS SPEAK OUT: A diverse coalition of faith-based

groups – including an arm of the National Association of Evangelicals,

B'nai B'rith International and the Midland Association of Churches –

have spoken out against the legislation. An interfaith statement

signed by the religious groups says, " We believe that the religious

traditions which we embrace calls us to oppose a narrowing of the door

to asylum by some of the world's most at risk persons. We are

committed to resisting a fear driven agenda which violates our faith

based principles. "

 

BIPARTISAN COMMISSION CONDEMNS TREATMENT OF REFUGEES: The REAL ID Act

will add more problems to an already flawed system. The bipartisan

United States Commission on International Religious Freedom recently

released a report that found " thousands of people who come to the

United States saying they are seeking refuge from persecution are

treated like criminals while their claims are evaluated. " Refugee are

frequently " strip-search, shackled and...thrown into solitary

confinement in local jails and federal detention centers. " Some

refugees are given no privacy to use the toilet and little chance to

exercise outdoors. Others are allowed to work but paid only $1 per

day. The commission recommended " a high-level protector of refugees be

appointed to monitor the system and correct inequities. "

 

AN AFFRONT TO FEDERALISM: The REAL ID Act would also dictate to states

driver's license eligibility requirements. Most significantly, it

would invalidate all driver's licenses in 10 states that grant

licenses to undocumented immigrants until they changed their policies.

Officials in Washington State say such a mandate would endanger its

residents because it would prevent many immigrants on the roads from

obtaining automobile insurance. The bill, which contains no privacy

protections, would also require sensitive state driver's license data

to be shared with Canada and Mexico.

 

2005 = 1984: In an Orwellian touch, the REAL ID Act contains a

provision that authorizes the Department of Homeland Security to

" waive any and all laws in the course of securing the borders from

illegal immigration. " The bill also contains " exemption from judicial

review that not only shields the waiver decisions from court scrutiny

but also strips courts of any power to order remedies for anyone

harmed by the consequences of such decisions. " The provision " would

empower the DHS Secretary to give no-bid contracts for border

construction to private companies and then shield those contractors

from all employment discrimination and workplace safety laws. " Another

big concern: the provision gives DHS free reign to waive environmental

laws across thousands of acres of federal lands.

 

MEDICARE

The $913 Billion Boondoggle

 

According to the administration's new budget, the president's Medicare

prescription drug bill will cost $913 billion from 2006 to 2015. It's

a far cry from the initial estimate – in his 2003 State of the Union,

remember, President Bush assured the nation his plan would cost just

$400 billion. Immediately after his legislation was rammed through a

reluctant Congress, in a classic bait-and-switch, the administration

admitted the cost would be closer to $534 billion from 2005 to 2014,

although it " never offered a detailed breakdown of that estimate. "

Here's a look back at the history of this misguided legislation.

 

THE PROBLEMS: The first stage of the law – the introduction of

prescription drug cards – has been a bust with seniors. Why? The

system is confusing, with 73 different cards all covering different

medications. And once seniors have signed up for a specific card, they

are locked into it, even though the drug companies are allowed to

change prices as often as once a week. And the discount isn't

guaranteed. In fact, to offset the potential loss in profit, drug

companies jacked up the price of medicines over the past year an

average of 7.4 percent, " or more than three times the 2.3 percent rate

of general inflation in that period. " Finally, studies have shown

seniors can find cheaper drugs without using the cards.

 

THE COSTS: The Medicare bill may not have been good for seniors, but

it was huge boost for the pharmaceutical industry and corporate

interests. The White House, for example, blocked efforts to allow

Medicare to use bulk purchasing power to negotiate cheaper drug

prices. On top of that, the Medicare program will give corporations

$89 billion to " discourage " employers from dropping retirees from

their plans. The loophole: corporations receive the subsidy even if

they cut support for pensioners…and many are taking the money and

running. (The AARP recently sued the administration over this

provision.) Also, the nonpartisan CBO said billions have been added to

the cost of the bill because of excessive payments to private insurers

and HMOs.

 

THE THREATS: Before the Medicare legislation passed in 2003, the chief

Medicare actuary, Richard Foster, knew it was going to cost a lot more

than the White House was promising. But the administration, desperate

to hide the true cost of the bill, threatened to fire him if he told

the truth to any key lawmakers on the Hill. Foster alerted the White

House five months before the vote that the Medicare drug bill was

likely to carry a hefty price tag of $551 billion. But 13

conservatives in Congress had promised to block any bill over $400

billion. Thus, the White House told Foster he would be fired if he did

not keep quiet, bury the estimates, and publicly assert the bill would

not cost more than $400 billion until after the legislation passed.

 

THE TRICKS: Conservatives relied on a whole bag of dirty tricks to ram

the Medicare legislation through Congress. The vote on the bill was

scheduled to last the typical 15 minutes; when conservatives realized

they didn't have the necessary support, House Speaker Dennis Hastert

(R-IL) kept the vote open for an unprecedented three hours, from 3 to

6 a.m. Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-TX) used that time to strong-arm

bleary-eyed Republicans who had voted against the bill, demanding they

switch their votes.

 

THE BRIBES: Last year, the House Ethics Committee publicly criticized

Rep. DeLay for trying to bribe a House member reluctant to endorse the

Medicare bill for his vote. DeLay offered to endorse the son of Rep.

Nick Smith, who was running to replace his father after he retired, in

exchange for Smith's vote on the Medicare Reform Act. According to the

committee, DeLay told Smith that if he voted for it, " I will

personally endorse your son. That's my final offer. " Smith did not

vote for the Medicare bill and his son lost his bid for the Republican

nomination to succeed him. The Republican in charge of the Ethics

Committee that voted to censure DeLay, Rep. Joel Hefley (R., CO) was

subsequently removed from the committee and replaced with a

DeLay-friendlier face.

 

 

Under the Radar

 

STATE WATCH – " A NEW LOW IN GOVERNMENT " : Joseph Steffen, " [l]ongtime

campaign operative of [Maryland] Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., " has

stepped down from his position with the state. It's part of a futile

effort to stave off embarrassment after Steffen orchestrated an

Internet smear campaign against Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, who

is likely to challenge Ehrlich in next year's governor race. Rather

than Steffen's own conscience, the impetus for the resignation was a

Washington Post reporter confronting Steffen with evidence that showed

he was behind a series of conservative Web site postings defaming the

mayor's marriage. In an attempt to deny that Ehrlich knew what one of

his right hand men was doing, Ehrlich administration officials are

decrying and disavowing any prior knowledge of Steffen's actions. So,

according to Steffen, what was the indignant and outraged response

that the officials gave when Steffen told them of his resignation:

" They were basically like, 'If you think that's what you need to do.' "

 

ADMINISTRATION – PACKING IN THE DOLLARS: In Monday's Department of

Defense press briefing on President Bush's 2006 budget, Secretary

Rumsfeld stated, " The only way you can look at this budget is to look

at the supplementals with it… " He may not know how right he was.

Various analysts of the defense budget are now stating that Rumsfeld's

use of supplemental funding requests to bankroll the ongoing military

operations in Iraq and Afghanistan " masks the true size of the U.S.

defense budget and inhibits congressional oversight. " By budgeting the

wars separate from the rest of defense spending, the

supplemental-seeking secretary is then not forced to make cuts in

programs (like his nuclear bunker buster) to prioritize pay for

soldiers. Experts have described this strategy as " tantamount to

'using that little jar of money you keep for rainy days to buy

groceries.' " The supplementals that will eventually be sent to

Congress lack the details of a regular budget and so further impede

" lawmakers in their effort to oversee military costs. "

 

POLITICS – ROVE RISING: " There is no precedent in any modern White

House for what is going on in this one: a complete lack of a policy

apparatus, " a former senior aide to President Bush observed in 2002.

" What you've got is everything, and I mean everything, being run by

the political arm. " If that wasn't true then, it's certainly bound to

be now: Machiavellian political strategist Karl Rove, former protégé

of Watergate conspirator Donald Segretti and the " architect " of

President Bush's reelection campaign, yesterday was named White House

deputy chief of staff in charge of coordinating domestic policy,

economic policy, national security and homeland security. " Many in the

White House said the new position largely formalizes what was already

true, " the Washington Post reports, though Rove " will now for the

first time…have a formal hand in foreign policy " as well as domestic

affairs.

 

MILITARY – PUTTING OFF FOR TOMORROW WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE TODAY:

Setting aside the fact that the Army has been considerably strained

due to the ongoing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan,

" Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the Army's senior leadership

have agreed to delay at least until 2006 a decision on whether to

expand the Army permanently. " The ad hoc nature with which the

military is currently addressing the stress on the troops – " back to

back deployments of active-duty soldiers and the automatic

mobilization of the Reserve and National Guard " – have angered

Congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle who continue to call

for an increase in troop numbers. More so, the decision comes in light

of senior Army officials' agreement with a private assessment that

found the current numbers in service are insufficient " to fulfill

commitments to domestic security and the global campaign against

terrorists, as well as to meet expected threats. "

 

IRAN – U.S. URGED TO ENGAGE: Three global leaders on nuclear security

and Iranian human rights this week warned of the risks of a military

assault on Iran, urging the Bush administration to avoid repeating

mistakes made during the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq. Noting an

" eerie similarity to the events preceding the Iraq war, " former Iraq

Survey Group head David Kay on Monday questioned " the ability to the

U.S. government to honestly assess Iran's nuclear status and to craft

a set of measures that will cope with that threat short of military

action by the United States or Israel. " Also on Monday, former chief

U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix praised France, Germany, and Great

Britain for negotiating with Iran, saying he feared " a huge Iranian

nationalist backlash " if the country were invaded. In yesterday's New

York Times, Iranian Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi argued

that " for human rights defenders in Iran, the possibility of a foreign

military attack on their country represents an utter disaster for

their cause. "

 

DAILY GRILL

 

" For example, there's a program called Even Start. It was created more

than 16 years ago to build literacy in low-income families…The problem

is, is that after three separate evaluations it has become abundantly

clear that the program is not succeeding. People are not becoming more

literate. Families in Even Start have made no progress toward literacy. "

 

– President Bush, 2/8/05

 

VERSUS

 

" On the whole, Even Start projects are meeting their legislative

mandate. They recruit and serve needy families. And, a high percentage

of families take part in all three core services and receive an amount

of service that compares favorably with other existing programs. "

 

– Third National Even Start Evaluation, 2001

 

 

DAILY OUTRAGE

 

Christian Science Monitor reports a " steadily rising " number of

returning troops from Iraq and Afghanistan are " sleeping on the

streets. " Already stretched thin, " there's a lot of fear out there

that " Veterans Housing programs are " going to be cut even further. "