Values

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Wed, 22 Mar 2005 08:50:36 -0800

Values

" American Progress Action Fund "

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AMERICAN PROGRESS ACTION FUND

The Progress Report

by Christy Harvey, Judd Legum and Jonathan Baskin with Nico Pitney and

Mipe Okunseinde

www.progressreport.org

3/22/2005

 

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

ThinkProgress.org.

 

VALUES

 

'Defending Life for All Americans'

 

President Bush said that he intervened in the Terri Schiavo case

yesterday morning because he believes in " defending life for all

Americans, including those with disabilities. " Supporting life,

however, takes more than political grandstanding. Time and again the

Bush administration has pursued policies that undermine the lives and

health of the American people. While the Schiavo case is being

considered by the federal courts, President Bush has an opportunity to

show his commitment to " defending life for all Americans " by

reconsidering his policies that affect millions of Americans.

 

ELIMINATING HEALTH CARE FOR THE POOR: According to the Institute of

Medicine, lack of health insurance already " causes roughly 18,000

unnecessary deaths every year in the United States. " Since President

Bush took office the number of Americans who are uninsured has swelled

by more than 5 million people. Now he's poised to make the situation

worse. President Bush is proposing significant funding cuts to

Medicaid and the related State Children's Health Insurance Program

(SCHIP). Bush's 2006 budget slashes funding for the programs – which

provide vital health coverage to 1 in 6 Americans and 1 in 4 children

– by more than $20 billion over five years. According to Heather

Boushey, an economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research,

" the cut would make 1.2 million children unable to access the system. "

Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR) said of Bush's proposed Medicaid cuts:

" [P]eople need to remember that to balance the federal budget on the

backs of the poorest people in the country is simply unacceptable....

You don't pull the wheelchair out from under the child with muscular

dystrophy. "

 

EXPOSING CHILDREN TO TOXIC MERCURY: Mercury is a powerful toxin that

can have serious neurological effects, especially in kids. It is known

to directly harm the nervous systems of children, causing birth

defects and other maladies. Currently, 600,000 babies born in the

United States every year " may be exposed to dangerous levels of

mercury in the womb. " Yet, the Bush administration recently issued

rules which would allow some power plants to " increase [mercury]

pollution, while others turn a profit selling unused pollution

allowances. " The new " cap-and-trade " policy rolls back a plan created

by the EPA in 2000 which " would have mandated curtailing emissions at

every plant by the maximum amount possible, which proponents said

could bring a 90% reduction in three years using existing technology. "

 

UNDERMINING PROPER NUTRITION FOR BABIES: Bush's proposed budget

significantly reduces funding for the Women, Children and Infants

(WIC) program – " a major preventative against low-weight babies. " In

2010, for example, Bush's budget would cut funding for the program by

$658 million, which would require eliminating coverage for 660,000 women.

 

LEAVING THE DISABLED ON THE STREET: Bush's statement about his

intervention in the Schiavo case implies that he is a champion for the

well-being of the disabled. Not quite. He is proposing " to stop

financing the construction of new housing for the mentally ill and

physically handicapped. " The program has existed for three decades.

 

UNITED NATIONS

 

A Blueprint for Reform

 

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan unveiled a bold plan on

Monday designed to overhaul the world's largest international

organization so it is more responsive to world crises, better able to

combat human rights violations and harder on terrorism. Annan's

proposals " include enlarging the Security Council; creating rules on

when it can authorize military force; creating a new human rights

agency; writing a clear definition of terrorism and condemning

terrorism in all its forms. It would also establish a radical program

to combat poverty. " Presenting his proposal to the 191-member General

Assembly – which he called on to ratify the plan at a summit in

September – Annan argued for " the idea that development, security and

human rights go hand in hand. " At a time when the Bush administration

is seeking to undermine the United Nations by appointing a

representative who has publicly advocated its demolition, Annan's

proposal represents an attempt to respond to criticism and remold the

institution as an " effective instrument [for the] cause of larger

freedom. "

 

COMMITTING TO HUMAN RIGHTS: Human rights groups are welcoming Annan's

proposed revamp of the U.N.'s " much-criticized human rights

commission, so that it would no longer include habitual human rights

violators which used commission membership to protect themselves from

criticism. " In the past, the U.S. has been among the critics of the

Commission, which included rights abusers like Libya, Cuba, Sudan and

Zimbabwe. Annan recommended replacing the 53-member Commission with a

smaller, more active Human Rights Council, whose member states " should

undertake to abide by the highest human rights standards. " Amnesty

International said Annan's proposed commission would be a " 'huge step

forward' for promoting human rights around the world. " Human Rights

Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth called it a " courageous proposal. "

 

COMBATING TERRORISM: Annan's proposed changes seek to clarify and

bolster the U.N.'s response to terrorism. The proposal calls for the

General Assembly to unite behind a " comprehensive convention on

terrorism … which would make it clear that … any action constitutes

terrorism if it is intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to

civilians or non-combatants with the purpose of intimidating a

population or compelling a Government or an international organization

to do or abstain from doing any act. " Significantly, that definition

would " outlaw terrorism as a tool for national resistance. " Annan also

reiterated his five step strategy for confronting terrorism,

including: " dissuading the disaffected from choosing terrorist

tactics; denying terrorists the means to carry out attacks; deterring

state support of terrorism; developing state preventive capacity; and

defending human rights in the struggle against the scourge of terror. "

 

BUILDING PEACE: Annan cited a " gaping hole in the United Nations

institutional machinery, " acknowledging there is no mechanism for

" helping countries with the transition from war to lasting peace. "

According to Annan, that gap led directly to some of the " devastating

failures " of the early 1990s, " for instance in Angola in 1993 and in

Rwanda in 1994. " Learning from those tragedies, Annan has proposed " an

intergovernmental Peacebuilding Commission, as well as a Peacebuilding

Support Office within the United Nations Secretariat. " Among other

things, the Commission would improve the U.N.'s planning for sustained

recovery, focus early efforts to establish the necessary institutions,

help to ensure financing, improve post-conflict coordination, and

provide a forum for productive information sharing from past

post-conflict experiences. Such a body could have been helpful, for

instance, in Iraq.

 

USE OF FORCE: Annan also sought to address the lack of " basic

consensus and implementation " on issues of force and security, which

led to confusion over Iraq and has hindered action in Sudan. Annan

urged the Assembly to seek a formal " agreement on when and how force

can be used to defend international peace and security. " In cases of

genocide, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity, " Annan urged

all states to accept that there is a 'responsibility to protect' those

being killed, which requires collective action. "

 

UNDER THE RADAR

 

EPA – HEAR NO EVIL, SPEAK NO EVIL: Last week the Environmental

Protection Agency released the Clean Air Mercury Rule, limiting

harmful mercury emissions from U.S. power plants, but officials shied

away from making the controls any more stringent, stressing that

further limitations would have an averse effect on industry that " far

exceeded the public health payoff. " Such a conclusion is easy to make

when one chooses to ignore the data to the contrary; although the EPA

paid for a Harvard University study " co-authored by an EPA scientist

and peer-reviewed by two other EPA scientists, " the agency's top

officials " ordered the finding stripped from public documents. "

Dealing with the study, which includes an analysis that " estimated

health benefits 100 times as great as the EPA did, " would have forced

reconsideration of the pro-industry rules favored by the Bush

administration and industry groups. When a top EPA official was

questioned on the omission, he blamed the late submission of the study

and flaws in its analysis; however, " interviews and documents " dispute

both of those critiques. The ultimate question is, " Are you saving the

industry a billion dollars but taking away $10 billion worth of

benefits for the general public? "

 

SOCIAL SECURITY – RHETORIC DOESN'T MATCH REALITY: In promoting

President Bush's struggling Social Security plan, Vice President

Cheney meant to be encouraging when he said, " we are going to tie your

future as you retire to the overall health and function of the

American economy. " But the latest study on retirement accounts,

conducted by " a prominent finance economist, " will have people

thinking twice before they jump on this administration's privatization

bandwagon: nearly 75 percent of " workers who opt for Social Security

personal accounts under President Bush's 'default' investment option

are likely to earn less in benefits than those who stay with the

traditional Social Security system. " Conducted by Yale economist

Robert Shiller, the study uses global rather than domestic rates of

return, " which Shiller says more closely track future conditions, " to

estimate life-cycle portfolios, and reveals " a disappointing outlook

for investors in the personal accounts relative to the rhetoric of

their promoters. " If anyone wants to question how well Shiller knows

the stock market, this is the same economist heralded as " a leading

researcher in stock market volatility who gained fame in the late

1990s for his warnings of a stock market bubble. "

 

TORTURE – NO LONGER JUST MORALLY SUSPECT: Apologists for the Bush

administration's lax stance on detainee abuse have clung to claims

that such techniques were vital to U.S. intelligence aims, regardless

of other drawbacks. Not so, according to U.S. law enforcement agents

employed at Guantanamo Bay. FBI memos released yesterday by Sen. Carl

Levin (D-MI) state that intelligence acquired from aggressive

interrogation techniques was " suspect at best " and that such practices

" could undermine future military trials for terrorism suspects held at

Guantanamo Bay. " The FBI memos in question were originally released in

December to the ACLU – so why are we only hearing about these

particular critiques now? Because the Justice Department (acting on

advice from the Pentagon) initially redacted those portions, citing

bogus " national security " concerns. As Sen. Levin noted, " the

previously withheld information had nothing to do with protecting

intelligence sources and methods, and everything to do with protecting

the DOD from embarrassment. "

 

BOLTON – ARCH-UNILATERALIST MAY ALSO BE PARTISAN HACK: Did U.N.

Ambassador nominee John Bolton play a role in a 1994 outfit that

illegally funneled money from a Hong Kong businessman to the

Republican National Committee? According to American Prospect editor

Michael Tomasky, it's a question worth asking. In the 1990s, Bolton

worked for a nonprofit research institute called the National Policy

Forum (NPF) that happened to be headed by Haley Barbour, then chairman

of the Republican National Committee. In 1994, the NPF received a $2.1

million loan from a Hong Kong businessman and Taiwanese citizen which

may have ended up in the coffers of the RNC, to which the NPF owed

$1.6 million. The story got even murkier, and eventually was

investigated by the Senate, but Bolton never explained his role in the

affair. Though several senators wanted him to appear, Bolton " reported

an important business meeting in Europe the week he was scheduled to

appear, and he canceled at the last minute. " (Remember – you still

have time to write your senators and urge them to oppose Bolton's

nomination.)

 

DON'T MISS

 

DAILY TALKING POINTS: A Genuine Commitment to Vulnerable Requires More

than Political Grandstanding.

 

SCHIAVO: Federal Judge Declines to Order Reinsertion of Feeding Tube.

 

CORRUPTION: David Brooks on the new sleazemasters.

 

STEROIDS: Big Mac, no longer America's favorite slugger.

 

HOMELAND SECURITY: Is DHS going too far in keeping secrets?

 

DAILY GRILL

 

" The legislation he [bush] signed is consistent with his views.... The

legislation was there to help ensure that actions were being taken

that were in accordance with the wishes of the patient or the

patient's family. "

 

– Scott McClellan, 3/21/05

 

VERSUS

 

If the patient or the person responsible for the health care decisions

of the patient is requesting life-sustaining treatment that the

attending physician has decided and the review process has affirmed is

inappropriate treatment.... The physician and the health care facility

are not obligated to provide life-sustaining treatment after the 10th day.

 

– Texas Law, Section 166.046, Subsection (e)

 

DAILY OUTRAGE

 

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is manipulating the tragic case of

Terri Schiavo to justify his own ethical lapses. He told a conference

organized by the Family Research Council, " [o]ne thing that God has

brought to us is Terri Schiavo, to help elevate the visibility of what

is going on in America.... This is exactly the issue that is going on

in America, of attacks against the conservative movement, against me

and against many others. "

 

© Copyright 2005 by American Progress Action Fund. All rights reserved.