Bad Deeds for 2-4-2009

Income of 400 Richest Americans Doubled During Bush Era – The 21st century Gilded Age party really got going before the U.S. economy went bust. It was a party disproportionately enjoyed by high-income Americans, the 400 wealthiest of which actually doubled their share of all U.S. income between 1996 and 2006, new statistics released by the Internal Revenue Service show.

During the first six years of George W. Bush’s presidency, the average income of those 400 people actually doubled to $263.3 million, according to the data. Between 2005 and 2006, those 400 Americans saw their income rise nearly 23 percent, and through the first six years of the Bush administration their average tax rate fall by a third, to 17.2 percent. That 17.2 percent tax rate was the lowest the group has paid on average since the IRS began keeping track of the country’s 400 biggest taxpayers in 1992, the agency’s data shows.

 

Border Fence Not Doing Its Job – Drug smugglers and illegal immigrants continue to breach the U. S. – Mexico border fencing that is up, forcing Border Patrol agents and contractors to return again and again for repairs. The smugglers build ramps to drive over fencing, dig tunnels under it, or use blow torches to slice through. They cut down metal posts used as vehicle barriers and replace them with dummy posts, made from cardboard.

 

Projects to Help Americans Called Wasteful by Republicans – On Monday, Congressional Republican leaders put out a list of what they call wasteful provisions in the Senate version of the nearly $900 billion stimulus bill that is being debated:

• $600 million to buy hybrid vehicles for federal employees. (Who needs to lower emissions and save fuel?)
• $400 million for the Centers for Disease Control to screen and prevent STD’s. (Who needs to prevent disease?)
• $1.4 billion for rural waste disposal programs. (Who needs to dispose of waste in the country?)
• $125 million for the Washington sewer system. (Who needs to dispose of waste in the city?)
• $75 million for salaries of employees at the FBI. (Who needs the FBI? Terrorism anyone?)
• $500 million for flood reduction projects on the Mississippi River. (Who needs to prevent floods?)
• $10 million to inspect canals in urban areas. (Who needs to prevent floods in cities?)
• $6 billion to turn federal buildings into “green” buildings. (Who needs to save energy?)
• $500 million for state and local fire stations. (Who needs fire protection?)
• $650 million for wildland fire management on forest service lands. (Who needs fire protection?)
• $412 million for Center for Disease Control buildings and property. (Who needs to prevent disease?)
• $500 million for building and repairing National Institutes of Health facilities in Bethesda, Maryland. (Who needs health?)
• $5.5 million for “energy efficiency initiatives” at the Department of Veterans Affairs National Cemetery Administration. (Who needs to save energy?)
• $850 million for Amtrak. (Who needs mass transit and to save energy?)
• $100 million for reducing the hazard of lead-based paint. (Who needs health?)
• $200 million in funding for the lease of alternative energy vehicles for use on military installations. (Who needs to lower emissions and save fuel?)

(Notice that “tax breaks for the rich” are not on the Republican list of wasteful spending.)

 

Conservatives Call $40 Billion Increase for Military a Budget ‘Cut’ – Conservatives howled, when word leaked that the Obama White House might be looking to “cut” the Pentagon’s budget request for the next fiscal year. But it’s only under the odd rules of Beltway bizarroland that this can be considered in any way a trim. Team Obama wants an eight percent, $40 billion increase in the Defense Department budget — from $487.7 billion in 2009 to $527.7 billion in 2010. But this uptick is only about half the size as the one the Joint Chiefs originally requested, in a $584 bill. The $527 billion figure is “what the Bush people thought was the right number last February and that’s the number we’re going with,” an Office of Management and Budget official tells Rogin. “The Joint Chiefs did that to lay down a marker for the incoming administration that was unrealistic. It’s more of a wish list than anything else.”

 

Palin Pushes for Road to Nome(where) – Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, to the dismay of some state legislators, is making a push for what could be a $2 billion road to Nome. Palin highlighted the project in her State of the State speech 10 days ago, declaring that she’s pursuing a road to Nome, while in the same speech acknowledging a potential budget shortfall of more than a billion dollars. Some lawmakers are scratching their heads. (But that’s what most people do when they hear her speak.)

 

Palin Pulls a McCain – When House Republicans planned their annual winter retreat, they extended an invitation to Alaska Gov. Sara Palin, hoping the party’s 2008 vice presidential nominee would give a morale-building speech to the more than 130 Republican members of Congress gathered this weekend in Hot Springs, Va.

Retreat organizers tell ABC News that Palin politely declined, giving a perfectly understandable reason. According to the Congressional Institute, which hosted the conference, Palin said she simply could not make it to the retreat because pressing state business made it impossible for her to leave Alaska last weekend. So where was Palin last weekend? She was in Washington, D.C., attending the super-elite Alfalfa Dinner.

“She lied to us,” said a Republican at the retreat. (Hey, if McCain can do it to Letterman, …)

 

Norm Coleman Lawyer Was at Center of 2004 Swift Boat Vets Scandal – Norm Coleman’s efforts to force a reconsideration of the recount that showed him losing his Minnesota Senate seat to Democratic challenger Al Franken are being led by attorney Ben Ginsberg, who has a long history of involvement in questionable Republican campaign activities.

Not only was Ginsberg one of the senior lawyers in the Bush v. Gore recount case in 2000, but in 2004 he was at the center of a Republican scandal when he was found to be advising both the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and the Bush-Cheney ’04 campaign.

Regards,

Jim