Progress Report: A Year of Accomplishment for Special Interests

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Progress Report: A Year of Accomplishment for Special Interests

" 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

 

8/1/2005

 

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

ThinkProgress.org.

 

CONGRESS

A Year of Accomplishment for Special Interests

 

As he headed to his ranch in Crawford for the month of August,

President Bush gave himself a pat on the back. On his radio address

Saturday, Bush said, " this year Congress and I have addressed many key

priorities. " The only problem is, this administration's priorities are

different from your priorities. Every major legislative initiative

signed by the president this year has been a boon to special

interests, but ignored the real needs of the American people.

 

FOR SPECIAL INTERESTS -- HIGHWAY BILL: On Friday, Congress sent to

President Bush a six-year $286.5 billion highway bill which was

overflowing with wasteful pork spending. Take the $25 million " Bridge

to Nowhere, " connecting two South Carolina towns with a combined

population of 2,000. Or the $95 million appropriated to widen a

highway in Sheboygan and Fond du Lac counties in Wisconsin -- " a

widening that the state Department of Transportation says is

unnecessary for 15 to 20 years and that legislators approved after

bypassing the DOT and a commission charged with developing major road

projects. " And thanks to Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), known as " Uncle Ted "

for his willingness to spoil his constituents with pork projects, the

bill also includes $200 million for a one-mile span linking Ketchikan,

Alaska, with Gravina Island (currently, fifty people live on Gravina

Island -- " they reach Ketchikan by taking a seven-minute ferry ride " )

and $1.5 million for a single bus stop in Anchorage, Alaska.

 

FOR SPECIAL INTERESTS -- CAFTA: President Bush hailed the final

passage of the Central American Free Trade Agreement by saying that

the House " has acted to advance America's economic and national

security interests by passing the CAFTA-DR agreement. " But the

combined economies of the six other CAFTA nations " only equal that of

New Haven, Conn. " and " account for barely one percent of U.S. trade. "

The biggest winners in the so-called CAFTA victory are the drug and

telecommunications industries, not the American worker. Meanwhile,

" the Bush administration's fiscal irresponsibility with tax cuts and

unnecessary spending priorities has crippled our ability to help

workers retrain and compete on the international stage. " Furthermore,

President Bush " has tightened the eligibility requirements for [the

Trade Adjustment Assistance program], denying many workers even the

modest resources available under that program, " " pursued policies that

leave many workers who qualify for TAA benefits without access to this

program, " and essentially taken the safety net out from under real

workers with real families directly affected by CAFTA.

 

FOR SPECIAL INTERESTS -- ENERGY BILL: Next up was energy legislation

that lavished the fossil-fuel industries with $515 million in new

subsidies, including " $125 million to reimburse oil and gas producers

for 115% of the costs of remediating, reclaiming, and closing orphaned

wells. " The House managed to add $35 billion of pork to the energy

bill in just the last three weeks before it was passed – " a total of

$88.9 billion in subsidies to industry over 10 years in the bill. "

Despite these handouts, Congress admits the bill will " do nothing in

the short term to drive down high gasoline and other energy prices or

significantly reduce America's growing reliance on foreign oil. " A

2004 analysis by the administration's Energy Information

Administration found that the Bush-backed energy bill will actually

raise gas prices and increase oil demand nearly 14 percent by 2010.

 

FOR SPECIAL INTERESTS -- BANKRUPTCY BILL: Then came the " bankruptcy

reform " monstrosity, which made it more difficult for average

Americans suffering from financial misfortune to declare bankruptcy.

The credit card industry, which took in $30 billion in profits last

year and doled out more than $7.8 million to candidates in the 2004

election cycle, lobbied relentlessly for the bill, pushing the fiction

that bankruptcies occur because of " irresponsible consumerism " (in

bill sponsor Charles Grassley's (R-IA) words). In fact, " ninety

percent of all bankruptcies are triggered by the loss of a job, high

medical bills or divorce. " In recent years, personal bankruptcy rates

have shot to record highs amid a weak labor market and declining

health insurance coverage. The bill created several " new hurdles " that

will make it harder and more expensive for Americans to recover from

such episodes, while failing to stop the actual abuses that plague the

system.

 

FOR SPECIAL INTERESTS -- IRAQ SUPPLEMENTAL: Even the Iraq supplemental

spending was covered with special interest fingerprints. Though the

bills were passed without any provisions to hold the White House

accountable for its flailing Iraq strategy, and failed to deal with

the equipment shortfalls plaguing our troops, they did offer major

cash for questionable contracts and corrupt and incompetent

corporations. At the same time, the Pentagon has pursued " back-door

budgeting for the wars. " Gordon Adams, director of security policy

studies at George Washington University, referenced " reduced training,

exercises and operating tempo, slowdowns in maintenance, [and] delays

on maintaining facilities " as ways that the Pentagon has tried to get

around paying for the bloated war costs. Other strategies appear to be

not paying soldiers what they are owed and deducting money for debts

that do not even exist.

 

FOR SPECIAL INTERESTS -- TORT REFORM: And finally, there was the

so-called " tort reform " legislation, pushed by conservatives who

claimed " the prospect of big jury awards in medical malpractice cases

was causing insurance rates to soar and doctors to abandon their

practices. " If you scrape away the overheated rhetoric and look at the

reality, however, a very different picture emerges. The legislation

has no real effect on the cost of health care: the nonpartisan

Congressional Budget Office found malpractice costs account for less

than 2 percent of health care spending, and that capping medical

malpractice would affect private health insurance premiums by a measly

one half of 1 percent. Moreover, the caps would " disproportionately

affect " children and seniors who live on fixed incomes. According to

the CBO, it also would " undermine incentives for safety " while at the

same time making it " harder for some patients with legitimate but

difficult claims to find legal representation. "

 

HEALTH CARE

The 40 Year Success Story

 

On July 30, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the bill that

created Medicare and Medicaid, the programs that provide health care

to the nation's poor and elderly. On that day, President Johnson said,

" there are men and women in pain who will now find ease. There are

those, alone in suffering who will now hear the sound of some

approaching footsteps coming to help. There are those fearing the

terrible darkness of despairing poverty -- despite their long years of

labor and expectation -- who will now look up to see the light of hope

and realization. " Forty years later, Medicare and Medicaid have proved

to be two of the most successful government programs in history.

Today, the two programs provide health care to 87 million Americans.

Among other things, Medicare and Medicaid provide immunizations and

doctor visits for kids, prenatal care for moms-to-be and nursing home

care for the elderly. At a time when the ranks of the uninsured are

growing rapidly, America needs Medicare and Medicaid more than ever.

But the Bush administration is pursuing policies that could undercut

their effectiveness.

 

MEDICAID AND MEDICARE REMARKABLY EFFICIENT: Medicaid provides health

care more efficiently than the private sector. According to an Urban

Institute study, " medical expenditures for adults in Medicaid were 30

percent lower than these adults' medical costs would be under private

health insurance. " Government is famous for bureaucracy but

" administrative costs for Medicaid (at 6.9 percent of total costs) are

about half as large as administrative costs under private health

insurance (which average 13.6 percent of costs). " In addition, costs

for health care paid for by Medicaid are growing more slowly than in

the private sector. An Urban Institute study found " Medicaid acute

care costs per enrollee rose an average of 6.9 percent per year

between 2000 and 2003, or a little more than half of the 12.6 percent

annual growth during this period in private health insurance

premiums. " Medicare is also more efficient than the private sector. A

March 2003 Urban Institute study found " Medicare spending grew at an

average annual rate of 9.6 percent, slower than the average annual

growth rate of 11.1 percent for private health insurers, " from 1970 to

2000.

 

BUSH ADMINISTRATION SEEKS TO SLASH FUNDS FROM MEDICAID: The Bush

administration is proposing to cut $10 billion from Medicaid over the

next five years. If enacted, the budget " would likely lead to

increases in the number of uninsured and underinsured Americans by

weakening states' ability to fund health and long-term care coverage

for low-income populations. " The proposed cuts come at a time when

Medicaid beneficiaries are already feeling the pinch. Out-of-pocket

expenses for Medicaid beneficiaries are growing 9.4 percent per year,

while beneficiaries' incomes are growing 4.6 percent.

 

THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S MEDICARE REFORM BOONDOGGLE: The

administration has bungled efforts to improve Medicare with a

prescription drug benefit. According to its most recent budget, the

program will cost $913 billion from 2006 to 2015, the first 10 years

the legislation will be fully implemented, far more than the

administration promised. There are reasons for the excess costs. The

White House, for example, blocked efforts to allow Medicare to use

bulk purchasing power to negotiate cheaper drug prices. 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. Also, the nonpartisan CBO said

billions have been added to the cost of the bill because of excessive

payments to private insurers and HMOs.

 

Under the Radar

 

SUDAN -- INCOMING VP GARANG DIES IN HELICOPTER CRASH: Dr. John Garang,

" who led Sudan's southern rebels for two decades before making peace

and joining the government he fought, has died in a helicopter crash. "

The news comes just months after Garang's southern Sudan People's

Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the government in Khartoum agreed on a

peace settlement -- in which Garang played a critical role -- to end

what had been Africa's longest-running civil war. Kenya's Lt. Gen.

Lazarus Sumbeiywo, " the chief mediator in the Sudan peace talks, "

said, " It's shocking -- the loss of a visionary leader. My prayer is

that the Sudanese will remain level-headed. " Though riots have already

occurred and there are concerns for the stability of the peace

agreement, both the SPLM and the Khartoum government have " vowed to

maintain the peace agreement Garang had helped create. "

 

SUPREME COURT -- ROBERTS WRONG FOR CIVIL RIGHTS: As a Reagan

administration employee in the attorney general's office, President

Bush's Supreme Court nominee John Roberts was entrusted with providing

advice on a wide range of contentious issues, with a special focus on

civil rights. And, perhaps more than in any other realm, it is there

that Roberts revealed his most worrying positions: he argued in favor

of reducing the reach of the Voting Rights Act, challenged affirmative

action and opposed broadening the ability of individuals to bring

civil rights suits against their states. He even wrote a memo

maintaining that it was constitutionally acceptable for Congress to

strip the Supreme Court of its ability to hear many civil rights

cases. But there is little reason to believe that Roberts was just a

dispassionate cog in the machine: " Everybody was there with similar

goals and intentions, " says Charles Cooper, a coworker at the time.

 

IRAQ -- INSECURITY HINDERING RECONSTRUCTION: Due to mounting security

costs and funds mismanagement, the United States has little to show

for the billions of dollars it has spent on Iraqi reconstruction

efforts. According to a report conducted by the U.S. special inspector

general for Iraq reconstruction, soaring security costs have made it

impossible for U.S. agencies to determine how much money will be

needed to finish the already stalled projects. The Government

Accountability Office has issued a report with similar findings:

security costs are consuming more than a third of reconstruction funds.

 

INTELLIGENCE -- LAWSUIT OVER THE SILENCING OF IRAQ INTEL: A former

Central Intelligence Agency officer has filed a lawsuit alleging that

the " CIA was told by an informant in the spring of 2001 that Iraq had

abandoned a major element of its nuclear weapons program, but the

agency did not share the information with other agencies or with

senior policy makers. " The former officer, a 20-year veteran of the

agency who was fired last year, also charges that " his dismissal was

punishment for his reports questioning the agency's assumptions on a

series of weapons-related matters. Among other things, he [charges]

that he had been the target of retaliation for his refusal to go along

with the agency's intelligence conclusions. " The information that the

officer cites " would have arrived at a time when the CIA was starting

to reconsider whether Iraq had revived its efforts to develop nuclear

weapons. The agency's conclusion that this was happening, eventually

made public by the Bush administration in 2002 as part of its

rationale for war, has since been found to be incorrect. "

 

HOMELAND SECURITY -- U.S. REMAINS " WOEFULLY UNPREPARED " AGAINST

BIOTERRORISM: Despite a $20 billion investment in bioterrorism

preparedness, the United States is still " woefully unprepared to

respond to bioterrorism attacks, " according to recent reports. The

studies show that while the government has created stockpiles of

medical supplies, no major city is prepared to distribute them in the

case of a major emergency. Additionally, the nation's 5,000 hospitals

are grossly unprepared to handle a major surge of patients. " Irwin

Redlener of Columbia University's National Center for Disaster

Preparedness states, " We're almost four years after [september 11th],

and we've made maybe six months' progress. " William Ruab, who runs the

Department of Health and Human Services' emergency preparedness

division, adds, " This challenge is larger than anything we've ever faced. "

 

GOOD NEWS

 

Yesterday, preaching a fervent message of tolerance, several " black

religious leaders and politicians held a revival meeting ... aimed at

countering what organizers said was a surge in anti-gay rhetoric

coming from pulpits in conservative parishes. "

 

DON'T MISS

 

HUMAN RIGHTS: Lawmakers forge ties to fight for human rights

 

IRAN: In defiance of EU, Iran to resume nuclear work

 

CIVIL LIBERTIES: Senior federal prosecutors charge trials for

detainees had been corrupted

 

DAILY GRILL

 

" White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove told [special Prosecutor

Patrick] Fitzgerald that he first learned the identity of the CIA

agent [Valerie Plame] from syndicated columnist Robert Novak,

according to a person familiar with the matter. " -- Bloomberg, 7/22/05

 

VERSUS

 

" As the investigation tightens into the leak of the identity of covert

CIA operative Valerie Plame, sources tell TIME some White House

officials may have learned she was married to former ambassador Joseph

Wilson weeks before his July 6, 2003, Op-Ed piece criticizing the

Administration. That prospect increases the chances that White House

official Karl Rove and others learned about Plame from within the

Administration rather than from media contacts. " -- Time, 7/31/05

 

DAILY OUTRAGE

 

Senior administration officials have confirmed that President Bush

will bypass Congress, through a recess appointment, to name John

Bolton as the nation's U.N. ambassador.