More War, More Rich,
More Poor—
More Hell on Earth:
Reasons to
Re-elect
George W. Bush.
(Part 1)
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Over 100 high-level officials appointed by the Bush administration now oversee industries they previously represented as lobbyists, lawyers, or company advocates. Many of those appointees have pushed for more favorable policies for their respective industries from within the Food and Drug Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Interior Department, and other agencies. Six have been the subject of ethics investigations or have resigned due to conflicts of interest.
The Bush-appointed chief counsel for the FDA, Daniel E. Troy, is a former lobbyist for pharmaceutical firms. Last December, he met with several hundred pharmaceutical attorneys and offered them the government's help in dismissing lawsuits against their companies. By then, Troy had already officially intervened on behalf of Pfizer in several cases. A 2002 General Accounting Office study of the FDA's new system for notifying companies of rule violations, implemented by Troy, concluded that warning notices "have taken so long that misleading advertisements may have completed their broadcast life cycle before FDA issued the letters."
In 2001, Ann-Marie Lynch, who had lobbied against price controls on prescription drugs on behalf of a trade group, was made the deputy assistant secretary in the office of policy within the Department of Health and Human Services; she has since discouraged the administration from adopting price caps. A report issued by Lynch helped persuade Congress to ban Medicare from negotiating for lower drug prices. She has also blocked the release of about a dozen research reports that challenged the claims of drug companies.
Charles Lambert, a former meat-industry lobbyist, became a deputy undersecretary in the United States Department of Agriculture in December 2002. As a USDA official, he has argued that mad cow disease is not a threat to the U.S. and that meat-labeling programs are unnecessary. Six months after he told Congress that the disease would not reach America, it was discovered in a cow brought here from Canada. More than a dozen other USDA officials also have connections to the meat industry.
Jeffrey Holmstead worked as a lawyer at Latham & Watkins representing a chemical company and a trade group for utility companies until October 2001, when he was appointed to the EPA. The agency's proposed changes to air-pollution rules, released January 30, included at least a dozen paragraphs taken from a proposal submitted to the Bush administration by Latham & Watkins in 2003. Those rule changes will allow many plants to continue to avoid emissions reductions.
In June 2001, Bush chose J. Steven Griles, an energy-industry lobbyist, to be the Interior Department's second-highest official. An investigation by the department's inspector general concluded that Griles's appointment had created an "ethical quagmire." A former Griles client has been awarded $2 million in no-bid contracts, and he has pressed the EPA to allow gas drilling by several companies he once represented.
(Source: Anne C. Mulkern, "When Advocates Become Regulators," Denver Post, May 23, 2004. See article at: commondreams.org.)
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More than 100,000 Iraqis have died as a result of the war, according to a study prepared by American and Iraqi scientists. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University, and Al-Mustansiriya University in Baghdad designed and conducted the household survey that was used to gather data. The authors attributed the vast majority of deaths to coalition air strikes, and wrote that "most individuals reportedly killed by coalition forces were women and children." Other nongovernmental estimates of civilian casualties in Iraq range from 10,000 to 30,000.
(Source: Emma Ross, "Household Survey Sees 100,000 Iraqi Deaths," The Associated Press, October 29, 2004. See article at: washingtonpost.com.)
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In March 2001, President Bush's EPA announced that it would withdraw a new standard for arsenic in drinking water and reinstate an outdated standard established in 1942. The lower standard cuts costs significantly for the mining industry and water suppliers.
The new standard—10 parts per billion (ppb)—was implemented by the Clinton administration after a decade of testing and studies. One of those studies authorized by Congress cost $2.5 million annually from 1997 to 2000. Another report, by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in 1999, concluded that the previous 50 ppb standard could "easily" result in a 1-in-100 cancer risk and recommended that acceptable levels be lowered "as promptly as possible."
When the president made the decision to go back to the original 50 ppb standard, he said: "At the very last minute, my predecessor made a decision, and we pulled back his decision so that we can make a decision based upon sound science and what's realistic." His EPA administrator, Christine Todd Whitman, said the standard had not been based on the "best available science."
In October 2001, following a new NAS study concluding that the 10 ppb standard was scientifically justified and possibly not low enough, the EPA finally adopted that standard. But by this time it was widely recognized that a 3 ppb standard (the lowest level that EPA studies consider technically and economically feasible to achieve) would best safeguard consumers. In fact, studies now show that the 10 ppb standard presents cancer risks 10 times higher than the level EPA considers acceptable in regulating other water contaminants.
(Sources: David Corn, "The Other Lies of George Bush," The Nation, September 25, 2003. www.nrdc.org.)
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President George W. Bush announced in July 2004 that the $34 million Congress had set aside for the U.N. Population Fund would be used for other purposes. This is the third year in a row that the president has denied funding for the organization, which works with governments in over 140 countries in the areas of population and reproductive-health programs.
The funding was denied because $3.5 million out of the program's $300 million annual budget was appropriated to China. Because some counties in China allow coercive abortion and involuntary sterilization, the administration explained, it could not send UNFPA aid to the country. The decision was made despite the fact that no evidence has ever been found to connect the UNFPA's work with such coercive practices.
The head of UNFPA's Washington office, Sarah Craven, said: ''That money could have prevented up to 2 million unwanted pregnancies, 800,000 induced abortions and maternal deaths, and 77,000 infant and child deaths annually."
(Source: Jim Lobe, "Bush Extends Jihad Against UNFPA," Inter Press Service, Saturday, July 17, 2004.)
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On Monday, September 13, the ban on semiautomatic assault weapons expired. President Bush, who officially endorsed the ban, took no action to move it through Congress. A study by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence found a 66 percent drop in use of assault weapons in crimes after the ban was first enacted in 1994, prohibiting the sale of 19 types of semiautomatic weapons. A report by the Consumer Federation of America on the expiration of the ban concluded that "assault weapons will be more lethal and less expensive."
A poll by the National Annenberg Election Survey found that 68 percent of Americans wanted the ban extended. But Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said last week, "I think the will of the American people is consistent with letting it expire, so it will expire." At least 2,000 sheriffs, police chiefs, law enforcement groups, and prosecutors also endorsed the ban and asked the president to extend it. Joseph M. Polisar, the president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, said that the White House ignored a request for a meeting.
(Sources: Fox Butterfield, "As Expiration Looms, Gun Ban's Effect Is Debated," New York Times, September 10, 2004. See article at: nytimes.com. "Bringing on the Guns," Washington Post, September 12, 2004. See article at: washingtonpost.com. Dan Eggen, "Enthusiasts Eye Assault Rifles as Ban Nears End," Washington Post, September 8, 2004. See article at: washingtonpost.com.)
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In the summer of 2003, the Bush administration passed a bill that added a $400-per-child tax credit to middle- and upper-income families. However, in a last-minute change to the bill, the tax break was denied to families who earn just above minimum wage.
Over 6.5 million families, and 12 million children in households earning less than $26,625 a year, did not benefit from the administration's increased tax refunds.
Senator Blanche Lincoln, the Arkansas Democrat who tried to extend the tax credit to low-income families, said: "I don't know why they would cut that out of the bill. These are the people who need it the most and who will spend it the most. These are the people who buy the blue jeans and the detergent and who will stimulate the economy with their spending."
(Sources: David Firestone, "Tax Law Omits Child Credit in Low-Income Brackets," New York Times, May 29, 2003. "Dems, GOP Spar Over Tax Cut Provision," CNN, May 30, 2003. See article at: cnn.com. cbpp.org.)
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The Central Intelligence Agency now has fewer case officers assigned to its Osama bin Laden unit than it did on September 11, 2001. Michael F. Scheuer, the former chief of the unit, said in a letter sent to Congress that "there has been no systematic effort to groom Al Qaeda expertise among Directorate of Operations officers since 11 September. Today, the unit is greatly understaffed because of a 'hiring freeze' and the rotation of large numbers of officers in and out of the units every 60 to 90 days—a process in which experienced officers do less substantive work and become trainers for officers who leave before they are qualified to support the mission. The excellent management team now running operations against Al Qaeda has made repeated, detailed, and on-paper pleas for more officers to work against the Al Qaeda—and have done so for years, not weeks or months—but have been ignored."
(Sources: James Risen, "C.I.A. Unit on bin Laden Is Understaffed, a Senior Official Tells Lawmakers," New York Times, September 15, 2004. See article at: nytimes.com. "CIA Officer: al-Qaida Efforts Still Lag," The Associated Press, September 17, 2004. See article at: nytimes.com. Spencer Ackerman, "Iraq'd," The New Republic Online, September 16, 2004. See article at: tnr.com.)
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In February 2002, Bush unveiled his "Clear Skies" air pollution plan. In it, he declared: "For the first time ever, we will cap emissions of mercury, cutting them by 69 percent ... Clean Skies legislation will ... reduce the risk to children exposed to mercury during a mother's pregnancy."
The "Clear Skies" initiative, however, allows for three times more toxic mercury emissions than previous laws permitted, and gives U.S. power plants until 2018 to cut their mercury emissions, violating the Clean Air Act.
Announcing the proposal, Bush said that "[the White House would] give transferable credits to companies that can show real emission reductions." This means that companies in violation of the legal mercury limit can buy credits from law-abiding companies in order to reach the legal limit.
Mercury exposure causes learning disabilities and neurological damage in children and fetuses.
(Sources: http://www.whitehouse.gov. John Byrne Barry, "Bush Plan Falls Short on Mercury," The Planet. June/August 2003. J.J. Fialka, "Mercury Threat to Kids Rising, Unreleased EPA Report Warns," Wall Street Journal, February 20, 2003. Guy Gugliotta, "Mercury Threat to Fetuses Raised," Washington Post, February 6, 2003.)
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OTHER McSWEENEY'S FEATURES:
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More War, More Rich, More Poor—More Hell on Earth: Reasons to Re-elect George W. Bush (Part 1)
Situation Report From Oz By James Warner
I Lost My Greeting-Card Gig Because of My Drinking By Dan Kennedy
Grimace Speaks to a Geneticist By David Ng
I'm Afraid the Children Are Our Future By John Moe
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