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archived: 28 Mar - 3 Apr, 2004 Back Next IN THE DARK Richard S. Foster’s revelation that Bush’s administration withheld cost estimates of the recently passed Medicare bill is another fascinating portrayal of how the neoconservatives work. Foster testified before Congress that: The Medicare program's chief actuary told lawmakers yesterday he gave analyses last June to the White House and the president's budget office -- which were not shared with Congress -- predicting that prescription drug benefits being drafted on Capitol Hill would cost about $150 billion more than President Bush said he wanted to spend. . . .
[H]e confirmed two weeks ago that administration officials threatened to fire him if he directly provided lawmakers with his cost estimates on the changes to Medicare, which were among Bush's top domestic priorities. . . .
The committee's ranking Democrat, Rep. Charles B. Rangel (N.Y.), chided his GOP colleagues. "We know you would not have had the votes to pass this bill if the true cost of the bill was known," Rangel said, adding he was astonished "how far the majority party was willing to go to keep the Congress in the dark." -- Washington Post RELATED ARTICLE: Time magazine’s provides the best overall coverage of how Bush kept Congress in the dark in order to secure the votes to pass this bad piece of legislation. – Time 9-11 Readers have certainly been following the testimony before the 9-11 Commission. TPJ has focused on finding excellent articles that readers may not have access to in their daily readings. Tuesday’s TPJ Junkie Up(date) will attempt to feature the “best of the best.” HAITI Controversy continues to surround President Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s removal from office. Bush has denied that the US “removed” Aristide from power. In a display of unity demonstrating that Bush’s word as President of the United States of America is no longer good enough to be trusted, “the 15-nation Caribbean Community withheld recognition from Haiti's U.S.-backed interim government Saturday as leaders closed a summit renewing calls for a U.N. investigation into the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. . . . The leaders said they would ask the U.N. General Assembly or Secretary-General Kofi Annan to oversee an investigation into Aristide's claims he was abducted at gunpoint by U.S. agents when he left Feb. 29 as rebels threatened to attack Haiti's capital.” – Yahoo Another example that Bush has depleted American prestige abroad to the point that the word of the President of the United States is not longer accepted as trustworthy. JUST A JOKE “Bush provided amusing descriptions of photographs Wednesday night during the annual dinner of the Radio and Television News Correspondents Association. Some showed the president in awkward poses as he looked behind furniture in the Oval Office. For those photos, Bush told the audience, "’Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere ... nope, no weapons over there ... maybe under here?’" – Yahoo Sen. Kerry framed the best possible response. "If George Bush thinks his deceptive rationale for going to war is a laughing matter, then he's even more out of touch than we thought." – Yahoo ECONOMY IS NO JOKE The National Association for Business Economics, certainly no progressive think thank, surveyed its members on the current state of the economy. The results? Even business leaders are discovering that Bush’s deficits are a threat to all Americans: “The major economic risk has now moved to job growth and the deficit rather than terrorism, according to the latest canvass of NABE members on policy issues,” says Duncan Meldrum, President of NABE and Chief Economist, Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. “In the longer run, the deficit is joined on the list of worries by the rising elderly population, health care, and education.” – NABE Policy Survey Business leaders are joined in their concerns by no less than Federal Reserve President Timothy Geithner. Geithner issued the following warning:
"The current
deterioration in the U.S. fiscal position and the acute decline in the net
national savings rate represent risks to the financial system and the
economy as a whole," Geithner told the New York Banker's Association. In its simplest terms, the US government and Americans are up to their eyeballs in debt. We can tolerate this level of debt only because interest rates are historically low. If interest rates rise substantially that debt could become a very real threat to the economy. For those who are concerned, there is reason to be:
Analysts at Morgan
Stanley believe that inflation in the US economy has bottomed and is
likely to rise over the next few months. IN HARM’S WAY Bush fanatically touts American troops as the best armed in world and seeks every photo op to praise American troops. The photo ops hide a darker reality: Soldiers headed for Iraq are still buying their own body armor -- and in many cases, their families are buying it for them -- despite assurances from the military that the gear will be in hand before they're in harm's way.
Body armor distributors have received steady inquiries from soldiers and families about purchasing the gear, which can cost several thousand dollars. Though the military has advised them not to rely on third-party suppliers, many soldiers say they want it before they deploy.
Last October, it was reported that nearly one-quarter of American troops serving in Iraq did not have ceramic plated body armor, which can stop bullets fired from assault rifles and shrapnel. – CNN
Last Update: 03/27/2006 |