EARTH DAY
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

Today is Earth Day and millions of Americans will celebrate by doing something to improve the environment – cleaning up trash in a local park, planting a tree, or making their home more energy efficient. Meanwhile, the Bush administration will celebrate Earth Day by inviting oil-industry officials to the Environmental Protection Agency to discuss a plan to relax pollution standards for gasoline. The plan would allow higher sulfur content gasoline to be sold during the summer months. According to Frank O'Donnell of Clean Air Trust "because sulfur is a prime contributor to both urban smog and soot, it could also result in an increase in health problems." That is a large price to pay for a plan that would only temporarily "trim oil prices by as much as a nickel a gallon" – and not necessarily in all markets.

EXEMPTING MILITARY & CONTRACTORS FROM ENVIRO LAWS: Also on the Earth Day agenda: the administration is pushing to exempt the Defense Department from "the Clean Air Act and from hazardous waste laws at thousands of firing and bombing ranges nationwide." If Congress grants the exemption, "state and federal authorities would be helpless to prevent more perchlorate contamination in Southern California drinking water" and other locations across the nation. The move would also make it harder to purify water supplies after they became contaminated because it would "make it more difficult for local governments to obtain reimbursements either from the Pentagon or local defense contractors." As a result, cash-strapped states would have to try to scrape together cash for cleanups.

ARNOLD'S HUMMER BUMMER: While a candidate, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger responded to environmental critics by promising to retrofit one of his six "gas-swilling Hummers to run on eco-friendly hydrogen power." Seven months after the promise, "the high tech Hummer has yet to hit the road." David Caldwell, a Hummer spokesman, said the hydrogen Hummer is "not something that exists currently. It's not something you would expect to see in the near future." Caldwell added ominously: "we would never do a Hummer on any energy source that would not perform like a Hummer is supposed to perform." The latest version of the Hummer weighs 6400 pounds and gets 8 to 10 miles per gallon. Gov. Schwarzenegger has also yet to produce a strategy to meet his promise to reduce California air pollution by 50 percent. Meanwhile, the Bush administration pushed through a tax break actually giving consumers an incentive to buy bigger, more fuel-inefficient cars.

HERITAGE PRESIDENT – CARS HAVE CLEARED OUR AIR: Think you are not getting the straight story from the left? Just want the straight facts about the environment? Here's what you'll get from the right: Edwin J. Feulner, President of the Heritage Foundation, in a piece cleverly entitled "Down to Earth Day," comes to the stunning conclusion that cars "helped...clear our air." Feulner chides his readers "not [to] forget what autos replaced: horses." If not for cars, our streets would be "filled with manure." Also, "horses required tons of hay, which meant thousands of acres of farmland were needed to grow food for animal use, not human consumption." Another benefit: "cars enabled people to move out of crowded cities into suburbs where they are in closer contact with nature."

IRAQ
In Search Of A Plan

As violence erupts and security remains elusive, more American allies are signaling their concerns about the situation in Iraq. Following this week's removal of Spanish, Honduran and Dominican troops, Britain announced it would not send additional troops and Poland started to show cracks in its commitment. Reconstruction efforts are being suspended, and the administration is left to flip-flop on policy, with no solid strategy in place. (Stunningly, in the past two weeks, the only measure the White House has taken to prepare for the transfer of power on June 30 is the controversial naming of John Negroponte to be Ambassador.) Meanwhile, the pressure on U.S. troops is increasing as the highly-touted Iraqi security forces are not yet performing as promised: "About one in every 10 members of Iraq's security forces 'actually worked against' U.S. troops during the recent militia violence in Iraq, and an additional 40 percent walked off the job because of intimidation."

NEEDED – MORE MONEY: The forces in Iraq need more money. Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the House Armed Services Committee yesterday "that the increased tempo of operations in Iraq and the extended deployment of 20,000 troops means there could be a $4 billion shortfall for this budget year, ending Sept. 30, slightly more than a month before the November elections." Any delay by President Bush to request more money – his administration has planned to put off asking for more funds until next January, after the election - could be deadly: "With the Congressional recess only months away," failure to authorize more money "would automatically delay passage of the funds until September at the earliest "forcing our troops to deal with potential resource shortfalls through what is likely to be a hot summer marked by continuing attacks.

RECONSTRUCTON EFFORTS DAMAGED: According to the NYT, two major contractors, General Electric and Siemens, have "suspend[ed] most of their operations there, raising new doubts about the American-led effort to rebuild the country as hostilities continue." These suspensions come at a time when the country was finally supposed to have a working electricity system: "Between the G.E. lockdown and the inability to get materials moved up the major supply routes, about everything is being affected in one way or another," said Jim Hicks, a senior adviser for electricity at the provisional authority. Originally expected by late April/early May, power plants now may not be operational until at least June. The work product of Halliburton has also been affected, with shipping having "been slowed down in terms of the number of routes and convoys they can run." The company is "having a difficult time hiring truck drivers to work in Iraq" and the overall number of Halliburton convoys is down an estimated 35%.

COMING TO GRIPS WITH REALITY: Contrary to previous assertions, U.S. officials have now started to explore including former Iraqi military officers and Baath Party officials in the new government. Previously, these Iraqis were prohibited from serving in top positions. But now many Iraqis, U.S. military field commanders and international officials believe the effort has gone too far, "depriving the new Iraqi government of needed skills and dangerously alienating the Sunni minority." Said one senior U.S. official, "The decisions made a year ago have bedeviled the situation on the ground ever since. Walking back these policies is a triumph of the view in the field over policies originally crafted in Washington."

A WHOLE SERIES OF FLIP-FLOPS: A review of the most recent series of flip-flops in Iraq: "First, Coalition Provisional Authority chief administrator L. Paul Bremer was adamant that U.S. troops were going to arrest firebrand Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada Sadr. Now, they are not." Second, the administration was "adamant" that the United States wouldn't seek the support of the United Nations "at the expense of delegating any authority there." Now the president is going hat-in-hand to U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi for assistance. Third, "in his 2002 State of the Union speech, Bush boldly condemned Iran along with Iraq as a fellow member of the so-called 'Axis of Evil.' Yet now, Bush is eagerly courting Iran as a key facilitator in negotiations with the Shiite rebels in Iraq."

HEALTH CARE
Drug Prices Take Center Stage

Facing a groundswell of support from local citizens, municipal and state governments, a bipartisan group of Senators yesterday agreed to introduce a bill permitting the importation of lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada and other industrialized nations. The FDA last month acknowledged that it would need just $58 million to set up a system to insure imported drugs are safe – a bargain compared to the potentially hundreds of millions of dollars U.S. consumers could save on drug prices. The Financial Times notes that the debate over reimportation "may prove a catalyst for changing federal drug-pricing policy" as "the issue has sparked a much wider debate over how drugs are priced in the U.S." American taxpayers currently fund up to one third of all prescription drug research and development for the pharmaceutical industry, yet are forced to pay the highest prices for medicines in the world. The problem has gotten so bad, that even Sen. Trent Lott, "a conservative friend to the pharmaceutical industry" said he could no longer defend drug prices to his elderly mother.

DON'T GET TOO EXCITED YET: Despite the bipartisan coalition pushing reimportation, the bill may have some very powerful opponents in Congress. The NYT notes that while Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) agreed last month to work with pro-reimportation lawmakers, he "has been leery of such proposals, on the ground that they could endanger patients." But with the FDA unable to produce solid evidence that reimporting drugs from other industrialized countries is dangerous, Frist appears to be using the "safety" red-herring to shill for the drug industry, which opposes the legislation because it would cut into its profits. For his trouble, the pharmaceutical industry has showered Frist with more than $120,000 in campaign contributions since 2000. Similarly, Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) who controls a committee overseeing health policy, plans to introduce an alternate bill after holding hearings next month. With Gregg's campaign pocketing more than $88,000 from the industry, drug companies may seek to use that alternative to water down more legitimate efforts to lower prices. Gregg, however, does face pressure at home: New Hampshire Gov. Craig Benson, a conservative Republican like Gregg, is one of the leading proponents of reimportation.

PAWLENTY STANDS UP FOR CONSUMERS: The St. Paul Pioneer-Press reports that "Anyone doubting these are strange political times should consider: On Thursday, Gov. Tim Pawlenty - a tough-on-crime, pro-business, laissez-faire Republican who launched a Web site showing Minnesotans how to defy the federal government and import drugs from Canada - will tell a major corporation that it makes too much profit. Then, citing moral and economic grounds, he'll ask the company, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc., to make less money." Pawlenty said, "It really torques me off that they are going to such lengths to try and suffocate our little modest efforts to allow reimportation from Canada." The governor will travel to Pfizer's annual shareholder's meeting in St. Louis on Thursday to speak in support of a religious group's shareholder resolution seeking to limit drug price increases to no more than the annual rate of inflation. For his ongoing efforts, the Progress Report recognized the conservative Pawlenty in its year-end awards edition.

DRUG INDUSTRY CHIEF STILL SPREADING LIES: Nervous that seniors' refusal to continue being fleeced might mean slightly lower profits for the wealthy drug companies, top drug industry lobbyist Alan Holmer has resorted to outright distortions in a campaign of fear and dishonesty. Writing in the Boston Globe, Holmer says consumers and local governments would save as "little as 1% of their total drug costs" from reimportation. But as a study from University of Minnesota Professor Steven Shondlemeyer indicates, American consumers could save up to $38 billion if the United States purchased medicines at Canadian and European prices. The city of Springfield, Massachusetts, alone reported saving $2 million in just nine months of its pilot program to purchase lower-priced drugs from Canada. Holmer instead says the real answer is to simply take the word of the drug companies or chain drug stores: he says consumers should take advantage of drug "company-sponsored discount card programs, or even shop around at different pharmacies" even though those are offered sporadically and without guarantee. He also says seniors will be able to rely on the new Medicare drug cards, even though those also offer no guarantee of lower prices or sustained coverage.

NEW STUDY REFUTES KEY INDUSTRY CLAIM: While the drug industry always claims that lower prices brought on by reimportation will mean less profits and less research and development on new drugs, a new study proves otherwise. According to top Boston University researchers, because reimportation would allow more people to buy drugs who don't buy them now, industry profits and R& D funding could actually rise. Reimportation "raises hope that it is possible to win affordable medications for all Americans at a low added cost—essentially the cost of manufacturing and distributing more pills—without harming drug makers' capacity to finance research, or even their profits. It therefore appears that what is politically popular may also be in the interests of patients, payers, and drug makers themselves."







RAIDING PRIVATE RYAN'S SAVINGS: In a veritable slap in the face, the House of Representatives yesterday voted to allow troops to tap into their retirement savings without penalty. Instead of giving financially strapped soldiers additional pay, interest free loans, or better benefits for their families, the legislation instead pushes troops to ravage their retirement savings accounts to make ends meet while fighting the war and losing income. Currently, many of the soldiers deployed to fight the war are in financial trouble: "employers are not required to make up lost pay for employees activated to duty, nor do they have to continue providing benefits like health insurance." Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA) points out "withdrawals would still be taxed as income, and service members would have to withdraw more from their accounts than they actually need to pay for those taxes." Rep. George Miller (D-CA) "said National Guard and Reserve troops shouldn't be forced to undermine their own retirement security in order to pay their bills while serving their country."

RIGHT-WING – "STATING THE OBVIOUS" QUOTE OF THE DAY: ""I kind of like ducking questions." - President George W. Bush, speaking to a large gathering of newspaper editors, publishers and executives.

$700 MILLION – MORE HONESTY NEEDED: With pressure mounting to adequately fund the troops, Congress is also pushing for the White House to be more honest than they've been in the past about the cost of war. Case in point: the WSJ today reports, "The Pentagon acknowledged that in tandem with its secret planning for the Iraq war two years ago, it funded 21 military-related projects in the Mideast when the Bush administration had yet to seek a war resolution from Congress." The White House, which diverted $700 million from the war on terror, "was required to consult with lawmakers, and the military" and the administration was well aware at the time that Congress was sensitive to Iraq spending. "Just as the 21 projects were being funded in August and September 2002, for example, lawmakers were resisting demands by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for a $10 billion reserve fund that lawmakers feared would be applied to Iraq."

VOTING REFORM – TROUBLE ON THE HORIZON: The WSJ reports "Four years after the muddled 2000 election...there is no guarantee that pregnant chads and other problems have been eliminated." While the "federal government tried to spur changes with the 2002 Help America Vote Act, or HAVA...delays in distributing its $3.9 billion in funds, among other problems, have election watchers worried." Specifically, "the Election Assistance Commission set up to distribute the funds wasn't confirmed until December 2003, nearly 10 months behind schedule." Even where money is available to finance new electronic voting systems they "bring the risk of new types of glitches." Problems with electronic voting have already had an impact – in "the 2002 primary race for Florida governor, electronic voting machines were shut down improperly, leaving some votes uncounted on election night. During the Florida presidential primary in March, some electronic ballots were improperly coded, forcing election workers to recount ballots by hand."

TECHNOLOGY – OUTSOURCING THE COMPETITIVE EDGE: In today's NYT Thomas Friedman voices the concerns of "high-tech entrepreneurs" in Silicon Valley, who are worried America is "losing its competitive edge vis-à-vis China, India, Japan and other Asian tigers, and that the Bush team is deaf, dumb and blind to this situation." One reason America is losing its high-tech advantage: "the Department of Homeland Security is making it so hard for legitimate foreigners to get visas to study or work in America that many have given up the age-old dream of coming here. Instead, they are studying in England and other Western European nations, and even China." In addition, Friedman notes, "U.S. government investments are flagging in basic research in physics, chemistry and engineering…And what is the Bush strategy? Let's go to Mars. Hello?"



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