Watch a recap of events with Windows Media Player at:
UNDER THE RADAR

BUDGET
Passing Problems to States

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities today released a report analyzing how the Bush administration's federal policies have affected state budgets – and the findings are not pretty. All told, states have faced $190 billion in deficits over the past three years, and this year face another $40 billion hole. Of that budget gap, $175 billion has been the direct result of federal policies, including the White House's refusal to fully fund federal mandates like the No Child Left Behind Act and its elimination of various taxes on the wealthy which states rely on for revenue. Make sure to see the report's state-by-state section, detailing how federal policies have affected where you live.

TAXES INCREASING ON MIDDLE CLASS, DECREASING ON WEALTHY: An analysis by the Urban Institute-Brookings Tax Policy Center shows that two-thirds of the Bush tax cuts this year are going to the top fifth of the population, while at the same time, many states have been forced to raise taxes and fees that disproportionately hit the middle class. Under President Bush, states have raised taxes by a total of $14.5 billion, after seven consecutive years of cutting taxes – all while cutting key health care and education services for the middle class.

BUSH EDUCATION SHORTFALLS ON DISPLAY IN VISIT TO ARKANSAS: The refusal to fully fund the No Child Left Behind Act, special education and other programs has left states facing a $72 billion unfunded mandate. The president tried to defend that underfunding in a visit to Arkansas yesterday, but though the local statistics there are grim: Because the president has not fully funded his own education bill, more than 12,000 disadvantaged children from the area Bush visited in Arkansas (the 3rd district) will be left out of Title I assistance, and more than 6,000 will not be able to enroll in the Head Start program. While Bush told the Arkansas audience that he "understands that people need extra help" with education and that "the federal government is responding," his budget leaves a total of 60,000 disadvantaged Arkansas kids out of Title I assistance this year. Meanwhile, Bush's federal policies drain more than $1 billion from the state's revenues. See a congressional district-by-district breakdown of how the White House's underfunding of education affects your area.

OTHER EDUCATION CUTS HAMMERING THE STATES: The one-two punch of underfunding education and the federal revenue siphon is reverberating in other states across America: In Kentucky, where Bush policies have meant more than $2 billion less in state revenues, the legislature is considering massive cuts to technical colleges. In California, where Bush policies have reduced revenues by more than $23 billion, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) is considering major cuts to higher education. And in Mississippi, where Bush policies have drained $1.8 billion from state revenues (more than 10 percent of the entire state's budget), the legislature recently completed a budget that local newspapers note "leaves deep cuts in many agency budgets, including K-12 education."

THE HEALTH CARE SQUEEZE ON THE STATE LEVEL: The CBPP report also points out that the administration's refusal to enact a serious prescription drug benefit and to address the burgeoning health care crisis is squeezing state Medicaid budgets. States are now spending about $28 billion to provide medicines to low-income elderly. A new report by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that state, local and federal governments are absorbing $34.6 billion in costs to cover medical care for the uninsured, in the absence of a serious national health care program.

HEALTH CARE
Cover the Uninsured Week

This week is national Cover the Uninsured Week, meant to highlight proposals that would provide coverage for America's 44 million people without health insurance. Unfortunately, to celebrate, House conservatives will offer three proposals that threaten to exacerbate our current problems. The first two measures, to enact association health plans (AHPs) and place caps on non-economic malpractice awards, are warmed-over proposals "virtually identical to bills the House already passed." The third involves Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) which would, according to experts, result in "sharply higher health insurance deductibles" for most employees. Meanwhile, as the administration spins its wheels on health care, several new reports explore the issue of the uninsured, which affects not just those without health care, but America's economy as a whole.

LEAVING AMERICANS UNINSURED HURTS EVERYONE: What is needed is a comprehensive plan to cover the nation's uninsured. A new study released by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured shows that "leaving a large share of the population without health insurance affects not only those who are uninsured, but also the health and economic well-being of the nation." The study concludes the government would need to spend $48 billion per year on top of the $125 billion it already spends for uncompensated care to cover America's 44 million uninsured. Moreover, the study estimates an annual economic value of $103 billion in "foregone health" or unused productivity for America's uninsured, "a sum considerably larger than the $48 billion in increased costs of expanding coverage to all of them."

AHP'S FAVOR SPECIAL INTERESTS AND HEALTHY: As part of their effort to de-regulate health insurance and ignore the sick, House conservatives will propose White House-backed AHPs as insurance arrangements targeted at small businesses, but largely exempt from federal and state safeguards. AHPs would have an incentive to associate with healthy groups and avoid sick ones, otherwise known as "cherry picking." This would "increase financial burdens on more-comprehensive state-regulated plans by leaving them with an older, sicker and thus more expensive pool of covered workers." So who's in favor of this plan? As states struggle to provide coverage for the elderly and poor, AHPs could mean a windfall for high-powered trade associations like the National Federation of Independent Business – a group that has donated huge sums of cash to conservatives in Congress. For more on the problems with AHPs read this new American Progress column.

CAPS ON MALPRACTICE SUITS WOULD SAVE LITTLE: The House's second proposal, also backed by the president, will seek to place caps on "frivolous lawsuits," supposedly a "major cost driver" of skyrocketing health care costs. Though popular with the insurance industry, this too is a non-starter. A CBO study in January found malpractice costs amounted to "less than 2 percent of overall health care spending." Even a significant reduction of such costs "would lower health care costs by only about 0.4 percent to 0.5 percent."

HSA'S WILL MEAN HIGHER DEDUCTIBLES FOR WORKERS: The third Bush administration-endorsed proposal by House conservatives will be an expansion of Health Savings Account, which would enable employers to shift health care costs to workers. Promoted as allowing more flexibility for employers and employees, in reality the tax-free accounts are another example of the White House putting the wealthy ahead of the middle class. HSAs only benefit those who can afford to contribute to them, and if widely adopted they would drive up the average annual deductible paid by everyone else. Analysts predict they will "mainly benefit the rich and could ultimately leave workers paying the majority of their own health costs, much as pensions were replaced by 401(k) savings accounts at many workplaces." See this report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities about how HSAs could also swell the ranks of the uninsured.

SUPPORTING HMO'S WHILE STIFFING MEDICARE: As the administration searches for more ways to undermine Medicare and reward friends in the pharmaceutical and insurance industries, AP reports "The government will give managed-care plans in Medicare an increase in payments of at least 6.6% in 2005." As the federal Medicare Payment Advisory Commission pointed out, "the government already pays Medicare managed-care plans 7% more than it would cost to treat the same patients in the traditional Medicare program." Analysts fear increases in HMO and other managed-care subsidies will "provide incentives to lure the elderly to managed-care plans as part of an effort to undermine traditional Medicare." HMOs, on the other hand, are laughing all the way to the bank, while showering President Bush in campaign cash: according to a new study, profits were up 52% last year, with $6.7 billion in the first nine months of 2003 alone – all while the insurance industry gave more than $2 million to the Bush campaign this year alone.

IRAQ
We Need Answers

Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba testified yesterday in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee about his report on the now-infamous abuses at Abu Ghraib prison. In clear, precise language, he outlined how the abuse happened: "Failure in leadership, sir, from the brigade commander on down. Lack of discipline, no training whatsoever and no supervision. Supervisory omission was rampant." These comments come as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is set to testify before the Senate Appropriations Committee. There, he is sure to face more questions about the prison abuse scandal, as well as inquiries into whether the administration deliberately circumvented Congress and secretly spent $700 million in preparation for an Iraq invasion in 2002.

QUESTIONS FOR RUMSFELD TODAY: One vital question for Secretary Rumsfeld today: Why is the White House requesting only $25 billion for the war for the fiscal year which starts in October when the minimum cost for the coming year will be more than twice that level? Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz testified that as of last January, expenditures for Iraq exceeded $4.7 billion per month. That would indicate a requirement for the coming year of at least an additional $56 billion even before the decisions of the past month are factored into military spending plans. And costs will run well above the $56 billion level. The Pentagon has announced that we will have at least 135,000 U.S. troops stationed in Iraq for all of fiscal 2005. The mix of troops includes a significantly higher proportion of guard and reserve units than the pre-March levels. The operation tempo has increased since significantly since January and shows no sign of slowing down. The $4.7 billion operations calculation did not include funds for necessary repair and reconditioning of equipment. In short, the $25 billion figure is designed to provide cover to the White House's political agenda rather than our troops in the field.

WHO'S IN CHARGE? WHAT ARE THE RULES?: Maj Gen Taguba disagreed sharply with the Pentagon's undersecretary of intelligence Stephen Cambone "over who had ultimate control over the prison and over the appropriateness of collaboration between military police and intelligence operatives to set the conditions for interrogating detainees." One of the murkiest questions in the abuse charges has been about who was in charge of interrogations at Abu Ghraib, the military police or intelligence officials? Taguba stated that an order last November from the top American officer in Iraq "effectively put the prison guards under the command of the intelligence unit there." Cambone equivocated, saying "the order put military intel in charge of the prison 'facility,' not the guards." As Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) asked, "How do you expect the M.P.'s to get it straight if we have a difference between the two of you?"

NEW QUESTIONS SURROUNDING BOYKIN: The LA Times reports that military sources say Lt. Gen. William Boykin could be at the center of the controversy. Rumsfeld has permitted Boykin to remain head of military intelligence, despite last year touching off a firestorm by giving speeches in uniform referring to the war on terrorism in religious terms. Boykin said America was fighting the war on terrorism because "we're a Christian nation, and the enemy is a guy named Satan." He also said that while fighting a Muslim warlord in Somalia, he "knew that my god was a real god and his was an idol." Senators were told yesterday that Boykin "briefed a top Pentagon civilian official last summer on ways military interrogators could gain more intelligence from Iraqi prisoners." Critics have suggested those recommendations "amounted to a senior-level go-ahead for the sexual and physical abuse of prisoners." As one former military intelligence official said, "Somewhere at the bottom of this you'll find Cambone and his deputy, Boykin."

OUTRAGE AT HIS OUTRAGE AT THE OUTRAGE: Despite the Red Cross noting that between 70% and 90% of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib were "arrested by mistake," Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) declared he was "more outraged by the outrage" than by the abuse, and claimed "These prisoners, you know they're not there for traffic violations. If they're in cellblock 1-A or 1-B, these prisoners, they're murderers, they're terrorists, they're insurgents." Fellow Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) rebuked his colleagues, saying, "There's some Republicans who are playing on raw emotions that are undercutting us in terms of our international standing...Anytime Republicans bring up the idea that we are overreacting and that these abuses really are not that bad or others did worse, we should not even go down that road." And Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) had the perfect response to Inhofe: he walked out of the room, refusing to listen to the rest of Inhofe's statement.





___________________________________________________________________