Progress Report: Party Like It's 1999

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Thu, 18 Nov 2004 08:46:02 -0800

Progress Report: Party Like It's 1999

 

" American Progress Action Fund "

<progress

 

The Progress Report

 

by Christy Harvey, Judd Legum and Jonathan Baskin

 

November 18, 2004

CLINTON LIBRARY Party Like It's 1999

FLU VACCINE Sickening Incompetence

UNDER THE RADAR Go Beyond The Headlines

 

CLINTON LIBRARY

Party Like It's 1999

 

Does the opening of the Clinton Library in Little Rock make you

nostalgic for grunge music and a time when life was like a box of

chocolates? Waiting for your " Rachel " haircut to come back in style?

Still convinced " the truth is out there " ? You're in luck. Unpack your

flannel, crack open a Crystal Pepsi and settle back to remember the

good old days. Here is a look at life in the 1990s, compared to how

things are today.

 

POVERTY: During the Clinton years, poverty fell by 25.2 percent.

Poverty climbed steadily under President Bush, however. According to

the most recent data from the Census Bureau, the number of Americans

living in poverty has " risen ten percent since 2000. " That means

" nearly 36 million Americans – one in eight – now live in poverty and

tens of millions are considered working poor. "

 

WAGES: Wage growth has fallen dramatically over the past four years.

In 2000, median weekly wages grew by 4.9 percent. This fell to a mere

2.0 percent in 2003, meaning that adjusted for inflation, " wages fell

slightly in real terms in 2003 for the first time since 1996. " For

those who have found work, the recovery is of questionable value in an

" upside down " economy where profits have soared yet families' benefits

are nullified by the rapidly rising costs of housing, education, and

medical care – all of which jumped at double digit rates.

 

UNEMPLOYMENT: There are more people unable to find work than four

years ago. In 2000, the unemployment rate was 4 percent. During his

terms, President Clinton created 22.7 million jobs. Putting that in

historical perspective, that's " the most created under any single

president since the 1920s, according to the Bureau of Labor

Statistics. " Under President Bush, 490,000 jobs disappeared, making

him the first president since Herbert Hoover to have fewer available

jobs at the end of his term than at the beginning.

 

DEFICITS: Under President Clinton, the U.S. government had " its first

budget surpluses since 1969, and its largest surpluses on record. " Not

only was there a total budget surplus of $176 billion, the Clinton

Treasury " actually paid off $362.5 billion of debt held by the

public. " President Bush reversed this trend, racking up a record $422

billion deficit. Instead of paying down the debt, the Bush Treasury

has needed three debt ceiling increases over the past four years and

is calling this week for a fourth. According to the nonpartisan

Congressional Budget Office, there's no end in sight; if President

Bush succeeds in passing his 2005 budget – with the extension of his

tax cuts – there will be $6.2 trillion in additional debt between now

and 2014, nearly doubling our current debt ($7.38 trillion) for a

total of $14.5 trillion.

 

ABORTION: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,

during the Clinton years, the abortion rate fell by about 27 percent.

A new independent study by an ethics professor at Fuller Theological

Seminary finds that today, " contrary to popular assumption, abortion

has risen in the U.S. during George W. Bush's presidency. "

 

FLU VACCINE

Sickening Incompetence

 

The Bush administration's cronyism and incompetence will cost millions

of Americans dearly this flu season. More than 1,000 pages of

documents obtained by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) reveal, in striking

detail, " that despite being aware of major problems at the [Chiron]

vaccine manufacturing facility as early as June 2003, [the Food and

Drug Administration] missed repeated opportunities to correct them. "

(The Chiron facility was located in Liverpool, England, but Chiron is

a California company whose operations are regulated by the FDA.)

Sixteen months later, British regulators shuttered the facility

because of contamination problems and the United States was left with

a massive flu vaccine shortage. The incident draws focus to bipartisan

concerns about the impact of the Bush administration's personal and

financial ties to the drug industry. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA)

said, " The kind of mismanagement we've seen this year by the Food and

Drug Administration demands tough scrutiny. One of my concerns is that

the FDA has a relationship with drug companies that is too cozy.

That's exactly the opposite of what it should be. The health and

safety of the public must the FDA's first and only concern. "

 

FDA VISITED PLANT IN JUNE 2003, FOUND HIGH LEVELS OF CONTAMINATION: In

June 2003, the FDA inspected the plant and " found high levels of

overall bacterial contamination. " FDA inspectors, in some instances,

" found records of bacteria concentrations that were more than a

thousand times higher than inspected. " The inspectors also " identified

poor sanitary practices that could contaminate sterile parts of the

production process. " Significantly, the FDA found the company was not

doing enough to correct the problems.

 

TOP OFFICIALS REJECT INSPECTORS' RECOMMENDATION FOR MANDATORY ACTION:

The FDA team that visited the facility recommended official

enforcement action against the facility. That means issuing a warning

letter to Chiron outlining the problems that must be fixed. If Chiron

failed to fix the problems, the FDA could have initiated legal action

against the company. Instead, FDA officials overruled the

recommendation of inspectors and instead submitted a request for

voluntary action by Chiron.

 

FDA DELIVERS REPORT TO CHIRON NINE MONTHS LATE: Even when it

recommends voluntary action, the FDA is " supposed to send the

manufacturer the full inspection report to help the manufacturer

understand what corrective actions are needed. " The report wasn't sent

to Chiron until a year later – June 2004 – nine months after it was

supposed to have been sent. The biggest problem: by that time

" manufacture of the 2004 vaccine supply was already well underway. "

Chiron requested a meeting with the FDA after the 2003 inspection, but

the agency never granted the request.

 

FOR 16 MONTHS FDA DOESN'T INSPECT THE PLANT: For 16 months, the FDA

failed to send inspectors to the plant to see if Chiron had fixed the

problem. FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford " defended the decision not

to send inspectors into the plant. " Crawford claimed that occasional

conference calls with the company were " a form of 're-inspection.' "

(For more on the Chiron debacle, check out this column.)

 

CRAWFORD FALSELY CLAIMS THAT 2003 PROBLEMS WERE UNRELATED: At an Oct.

21 press conference, Lester Crawford claimed, " what happened in 2003

has no relevancy for 2004. " That isn't true. When the FDA's own

inspectors finally visited the facility last month – after it was shut

down – they reported that at least three sources of contamination were

" not corrected from [the] previous inspection of 2003. "

 

CRAWFORD SAID HE WOULD DO VIRTUALLY EVERYTHING THE SAME: The FDA's

negligence has put the health of tens of millions of Americans at

risk. But appearing before the House Reform Committee Crawford

testified, " except for the late delivery of its full report, the FDA

has done nothing wrong – and would do nothing differently if given the

chance. " Sound familiar?

 

 

Under the Radar

 

CONGRESS – GOP CLEARS WAY FOR CRIMINAL LEADERS: It's official: House

Republicans voted yesterday to " abandon an 11-year-old party rule that

required a member of their leadership to step aside temporarily if

indicted. " After all, said bill sponsor Rep. Henry Bonilla (R-TX),

" you can be indicted for just about anything in this country. "

Republicans took a less generous stance toward potentially criminal

behavior in 1993, when they adopted the indictment rule to " spotlight

the legal troubles of prominent Democrats. " But the rule now

threatened Republican House Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), whose three Texas

associates already face indictments for " illegally using corporate

money to help Republicans win state legislative races in 2002. " Not

all Republicans agreed with the change, however: Rep. Christopher

Shays (R-CT) said it was a " mistake. " Call or e-mail your

representative and find out whether he or she supports these

closed-door efforts to protect the majority leader from ethical scrutiny.

 

ENVIRO – WELL-TRAVELED ROADS: As the deadline for public comment

expired on Monday, Democrats and environmentalists " called on the Bush

administration to withdraw a proposed rule change to ease a

Clinton-era ban on road building in remote national forests. "

Environmentalists call the federal " roadless rule " an important

protection. The administration's plan, encouraged by the timber

industry, would require governors to decide by 2006 whether to

petition the Forest Service to block road-building in about 58 million

acres of national forests where it is now prohibited. " There's not a

mandate for the Bush administration to open up the nation's roadless

areas,'' said New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D). " And there's no

reason the Forest Service needs to create a convoluted ... process for

protecting these areas. " GOP lawmakers trotted out their

characteristically illogical defense that, after all, protecting too

many trees can lead to " catastrophic wildfire. "

 

SCIENCE – THANK GOD FOR THE GRAND CANYON: In National Park Service

(NPS) affiliated bookstores at Grand Canyon National Park, visitors

can now " find literature informing them that the great chasm…was

formed about 4,500 years ago, a direct consequence of Noah's Flood. "

Indeed, this is " the ill-informed premise of 'Grand Canyon, a

Different View,' a handsomely-illustrated volume written by Tom Vail,

who with his wife operates Canyon Ministries, conducting

creationist-view tours of the canyon. " Pro-science groups tried to get

the book pulled off the shelf, noting it was " based on a specific

religious doctrine " and should not be promoted by the state, but they

were " overruled by NPS headquarters, which announced that a high-level

policy review of the matter would be launched. " To date, Grand Canyon

National Park no longer offers an official estimate of the age of the

canyon, and the NPS has blocked publication of guidance intended for

park rangers that reminds them there is no scientific basis for

creationism.

 

IRAN – PURSUING THE BOMB: According to departing Secretary of State

Colin Powell, " The United States has intelligence that Iran is working

to adapt missiles to deliver a nuclear weapon, further evidence that

the Islamic republic is determined to acquire a nuclear bomb. " Powell

claimed Iran is in the process of " matching warheads to missiles, "

indicating the country is " trying to master the difficult technology

of reducing the size of a nuclear warhead to fit on a ballistic

missile. " Separately, an Iranian opposition exile group charged in

Paris that Iran is enriching uranium at a secret military facility

unknown to U.N. weapons inspectors. Powell told reporters the United

States remains noncommittal on what to do with Iran. During the

debates, President Bush claimed non-proliferation was his first

priority, but, distracted by Iraq, the president has left European

leaders to deal with the problem in Iran. For more, read James

Fallows's run down of the options in this month's Atlantic Monthly.

 

HEALTH CARE – SENATE FOCUSES ON MERCK: A Congressional hearing today

will focus on internal documents and e-mails showing " tensions both

within Merck & Co. and with the Food and Drug Administration over the

painkiller Vioxx. " The Senate Finance Committee is likely to raise

tough questions about how Merck and federal regulators responded to

safety concerns about Vioxx, " which was withdrawn by the company after

a clinical trial showed a higher rate of strokes and heart attacks in

people taking the medicine for more than 18 months. " New details

continue to emerge about Merck's handling of the drug, which included

burying evidence the drug led to heart attacks in an effort to compete

with rival Celebrex. The FDA, for its part, is expected to face

accusations from David Graham, an official in the agency's drug-safety

office who found evidence of a link between Vioxx and heart problems,

but clashed with superiors over his conclusions.