Progress Report: Bush Breaks Nation's Promise to Veterans

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Tue, 31 May 2005 07:41:33 -0700

Progress Report: Bush Breaks Nation's Promise to Veterans

" American Progress Action Fund "

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AMERICAN PROGRESS ACTION FUND

The Progress Report

by Christy Harvey and Judd Legum with Nico Pitney and Mipe Okunseinde

www.progressreport.org

5/31/2005

 

For news and updates throughout the day, check out our blog at

ThinkProgress.org.

 

VETERANS

 

Bush Breaks Nation's Promise to Veterans

 

Appearing yesterday at the Arlington National Cemetery to honor

generations of sacrifices by American servicemen and women, President

Bush said, " At our national cemetery, we take comfort from knowing

that the men and women who are serving freedom's cause understand

their purpose and its price. " Yet the reality has been that the

administration that most recently has sent those men and women to

fight for freedom's cause has failed for live up to government's

age-old promise to " care for him who shall have borne the battle and

for his widow, and his orphan. "

 

BUSH'S 2006 VA BUDGET HITS VETERANS HARD: President Bush's 2006 budget

proposal included legislation that would raise veterans' premiums more

than 100 percent on prescription drugs and add an annual $250

enrollment fee for veterans who want care for conditions not directly

caused by military service and who generally earn more than $25,000 a

year. The administration has recommended these same proposals in each

of the past few years, only to have them beaten back by Congress each

time. The user fee would increase costs for nearly 2 million veterans

nationwide.

 

WAR VETERANS EXCLUDED FROM COST OF WAR ON TERROR: Conservatives in

Congress rebuffed an effort to include $2 billion in emergency money

for veterans' health care in the recently passed $82 billion Iraq war

supplemental. The president's request increased the VA budget a mere

2.7 percent (including the increased co-pays and enrollment fees),

hardly sufficient to deal with an expected influx of Afghanistan and

Iraq war veterans in the coming years. Nearly 28,000 soldiers who

served in Iraq and were discharged have already sought care at a VA

facility. Of the nearly 245,000 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan

already discharged from service, 12,422 have been in VA counseling

centers for readjustment problems and symptoms associated with

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. VA Secretary Jim Nicholson has said

the budget circumstances are not " dire, " yet Senate Veterans Affairs

Committee Chairman Larry Craig (R-ID) was forced to increase the 2006

budget request by $1 billion. Dave Autry, a spokesman for the Disabled

American Veterans, said, " Vets are owed a debt and the government has

said they are eligible for health care. The government needs to pay

for it. It's a continuing cost of our national defense. "

 

BUSH WANTS TO SHUT DOWN VETERANS HOSPITAL IN HIS OWN BACKYARD:

Veterans in Bush's backyard, near his ranch in Crawford, Texas, are

protesting his administration's decision to close a VA hospital in

their town. " It would be, in my opinion, a tragic mistake to shut down

our hospital, especially during a time of war when tomorrow's veterans

are in harm's way today, " said U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards (D-Waco). In May

2004, then-VA Secretary Anthony Principi announced he would be closing

three veterans hospitals nationwide and partially closing eight

others. For his work, Principi was rewarded with an appointment to the

chairmanship of the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) commission.

 

VETERANS GROUPS SLAM BUSH BUDGET: More than 300,000 veterans' claims

are pending before the VA, according to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune,

and the number of claims pending for more than six months rose from

47,000 in 2003 to 75,000 at the end of March 2005. The deteriorating

condition of VA health care has elicited plenty of criticism. The

American Legion called Bush's budget " the wrong message at the wrong

time to the wrong constituency. " The Vietnam Veterans of America said

the budget did a " disservice to those of us who donned the uniform to

defend the rights, principles, and freedoms that we hold dear. " And

the Veterans of Foreign Wars decried Bush's decision as " especially

shameful during a time of war. "

 

PUBLIC HEALTH

 

Drug Industry Hides Facts, Bends Truth in Ads

 

Last year, the pharmaceutical giants Merck and Pfizer came under heavy

criticism for endangering the lives of millions of people by failing

to disclose the cardiovascular risks associated with two prescription

painkillers, Vioxx and Bextra. Months later, the two companies are

still hiding the risks of the drugs they market from the public by

refusing to consistently publish the results of clinical trials. In

September 2004, the pharmaceutical industry agreed to publish the

results of most studies on a government website, clinicaltrials.gov.

But Merck, Pfizer and several other companies " have filed only vague

descriptions of many studies, often failing even to name the drugs

under investigation. " A bill co-sponsored by Sens. Charles Grassley

(R-IA) and Chris Dodd (D-CT) would " convert clinicaltrials.gov into a

national registry for both new trials and results and impose civil

penalties of up to $10,000 a day for companies that hide trial data. "

But the bill remains stalled in Congress and patients remain in the dark.

 

FDA FEEBLE ON FALSE ADS: While the pharmaceutical industry hides the

results of clinical trials, it continues to push its drugs on the

public with misleading advertisements. Drug companies spend about $9

billion a year on ads targeted to consumers and doctors. According to

" several lawmakers, consumer advocates and even former FDA [Food and

Drug Administration] officials … the FDA needs more resolve and

resources to effectively police drug marketing. " USA Today reports

that the " FDA's drug-marketing enforcement office has only 40

employees to review more than 30,000 pieces of promotional material a

year. " So far, the FDA has cited just 13 drug pitches for running

afoul of marketing rules, a pace that is " well off historical levels. "

The FDA encourages unethical advertisements " by handing down weak

punishments " and not acting " until the promotions had ceased. "

 

FDA'S HARSHEST PUNISHMENT BOOSTS SALES: The FDA lacks the will to

crack down on drug industry ads, but it also lacks the way. The FDA

can't review ads in advance and has no power to fine drug companies,

no matter how much they flout the law. The most serious punishment it

can impose is forcing a company to take " corrective action. " This

involves requiring a company to run a new advertising campaign

correcting the error. Bradley Pharmaceuticals CEO Daniel Glassman said

that after the company was ordered by the FDA to run corrective ads

for the drug Pamine, sales of the drug rose.

 

BUSH ORDERS FDA NOT TO SPEAK TO CONGRESS: As the drug industry does

whatever it pleases, the FDA – under orders from the White House –

refuses to speak to Congress. The Bush administration " directed acting

administrator Lester Crawford not to testify " before the House

Appropriations Committee. The administration claims Crawford won't

testify because the Senate has not confirmed him as the permanent

commissioner. But his nomination is " stalled in committee as an

inspector general investigates allegations of misconduct. " A letter

was sent to the committee that raised serious questions " about

Crawford and a woman in the FDA commissioner's office who recently

received significant promotions. " Overall, " the FDA has paid staff

bonuses totaling more than $19 million since 2003. "

 

Under the Radar

 

STATE WATCH – CORRUPTION IN THE BUCKEYE STATE: A new scandal is

rocking conservatives in the Buckeye State. For nearly a decade,

Thomas Noe has been one of the top wheeler-dealers in right-wing Ohio

politics. Today, he's under " at least six investigations or audits "

involving shady investments and corrupt campaign fundraising. (Today

federal investigators are even " looking into his contributions to

President Bush's 2004 campaign as a 'Pioneer.' " ) In one remarkable

case, Noe convinced the Ohio Workers' Compensation Bureau to invest

$50 million in state money in a rare coin fund he owned. He made $3

million off of the venture; the state, however, wasn't as fortunate.

Coins worth nearly $400,000 mysteriously went missing. Noe's excuse?

The coins were lost in the mail. And last week Noe's lawyers admitted

as much as $13 million of the fund's assets are simply missing.

Complicating the issue, Noe has ties to nearly every politician in the

state. For example, when " a series of lawsuits seeking an inventory of

Mr. Noe's coin investments was brought before the Ohio Supreme Court

recently, " five of seven justices were forced to recuse themselves.

All had received campaign contributions from Noe.

 

IRAQ – BONUSES FOR BEING WRONG: In another failure to hold people

accountable for mistakes, two of the Army analysts responsible for

" part of a key intelligence failure on Iraq … have received job

performance awards in each of the past three years. " The rewarded

analysts were behind the " completely wrong " assertion that Saddam

Hussein was seeking aluminum tubes for Iraq's nuclear weapons program.

Investigations regarding the breakdown in prewar intelligence have

specifically cited the work of these analysts as " a serious lapse in

analytic tradecraft " and noted that the two " could and should have

conducted a more exhaustive examination of the question. "

 

HOMELAND SECURITY – PUTTING THE CART BEFORE THE HORSE: The Bush

administration recently announced plans to conduct a " high-level

internal review of its efforts to battle international terrorism, "

planning to focus less on al Qaeda and more on " a broader 'strategy

against violent extremism.' " However, key critics of the plan point

out that " the policy review comes only after months of delay and lost

opportunities while the administration left key counterterrorism jobs

unfilled and argued internally over how best to confront the rapid

spread of the pro-al Qaeda global Islamic jihad. "

 

EDUCATION – RENEWED SUPPORT FOR EDUCATION: The Center for American

Progress's Robert Gordon has some advice for progressives looking to

weigh in on education in America: Think Big. In his recent article in

the New Republic, Gordon says for far too long Democrats have allowed

the education discussion to focus only on money. Progressives, he

says, should not be content to merely attack No Child Left Behind;

instead, there are serious questions to be answered surrounding

culture and institutions. It's time, he charges, to " speak hard truths

about our schools and support essential changes. " His suggestions: big

expansions for high-quality early education, renewed support for

public school choice, greater accountability to a national standard

and strengthening the quality of teachers.

 

ENVIRO – GIVING NATURE OVER TO THE ENERGY INDUSTRY: In the recently

passed emergency military spending bill, Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS)

inserted an amendment that will " give energy companies the right to

explore for oil and gas inside a sprawling national park " for the

first time. Already signed by President Bush, the bill " allows

drilling for natural gas under the Gulf Islands National Seashore – a

thin necklace of barrier islands that drapes the coastline of the Gulf

of Mexico. "

 

DON'T MISS

 

TALKING POINTS: Dishonoring Veterans.

 

FAITH: Harpers exposes the " Soldiers of Christ " at the National

Religious Broadcasters convention.

 

INTELLIGENCE: CIA expanding operations using charter flights.

 

SUDAN: Kristof on 141 days of Bush silence on Darfur.

 

DAILY GRILL

 

" We know it's a repressive regime. Everyone in the world knows that.

It's been that way for decades. Anyone who's read Amnesty

International or any of the human rights organizations about how the

regime of Saddam Hussein treats its people – heck, he used chemicals

on his own people, as well as on his neighbors. "

 

- Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, 3/27/03

 

VERSUS

 

" For Amnesty International to suggest that somehow the United States

is a violator of human rights, I frankly just don't take them seriously. "

 

- Vice President Dick Cheney, 5/30/05

 

DAILY OUTRAGE

 

Appearing on ABC's This Week, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) misrepresented

basic facts about the filibuster.

 

© Copyright 2005 by American Progress Action Fund. All rights reserved.