Liberal Repercussion

Just two days after the White House proposed serious budget cuts and the President said he's "calling upon Congress to be wise with the taxpayer's money," the Bush Administration announced a massive taxpayer-funded television ad campaign to promote its controversial Medicare bill (you can download the ad). Specifically, the White House will use $9.5 million from the Department of Health and Human Services – money that is supposed to be used to implement the law and could go to restore some of the cuts to social services for the poor – on political commercials that "rebut criticism of the new Medicare law." The TV ads will be augmented by $3.1 million in print, radio and Spanish-language ads. The effort represents an "uncommonly aggressive campaign by the administration and congressional Republicans to promote legislation that already has become law" by using scarce taxpayer funds expressly for partisan political purposes at a time when lawmakers are trying to amend the bill. And while the White House claims to be very concerned with the deficits, the new ads – and the past record of opening the spigot of taxpayer money for partisan political purposes – raises questions. First and foremost, does the blatant misuse of taxpayer funds for political purposes violate federal law under 31 USC 1301(a) and 5 USC 7321? Secondly, how much other waste, fraud and abuse is being promoted throughout the government?

THE AD'S DISTORTIONS: The new Medicare ads urge citizens to call 1-800-MEDICARE to hear more about the new law. And in "Big Brother" style, when you call that number you have to actually say out loud "Medicare improvement" in order to get information. The information you then receive is filled with distortions. The hotline claims the new Medicare "is the same Medicare you have always counted on" – failing to disclose that the law includes provisions which try to force more seniors into private HMOs. The hotline claims that seniors will be able to find "immediate savings between 10% to 15% from a new drug discount card program." But the cards, which were written into the bill by one of President Bush's closest business associates, actually do not guarantee any savings at all. The hotline also says the new prescription drug program under Medicare "will provide significant savings for seniors." But as the Center for Economic and Policy Research notes, "seniors in the middle income quintile will pay an average of $1,650 a year in out-of-pocket expenses for prescription drugs in 2006 - a figure nearly 60% more than they paid in 2000."

HHS FUNDS HAVE BEEN RAIDED BEFORE: HHS is the agency charged with helping low-income citizens find health care and social services, which means its funds have been historically shielded from overt politics. But that changed when, last year, the WP reported "the White House billed HHS's Office of Family Assistance $210,000 to help pay for five trips in which President Bush promoted welfare reform at official events and made separate fundraising appearances for GOP candidates." By tapping agencies such as HHS for part of the costs "the president can stay on the campaign trail without socking all the costs to the Republican Party" – instead forcing taxpayers to foot the bill. When HHS was pressed about how much the White House had siphoned off from programs for low-income families and into bankrolling partisan fundraising trips, "they said they could not provide the total scope of White House billing to all of HHS." Meanwhile, the "White House said they were unable to determine the total scope of billings for White House travel costs to other domestic departments."

TAXPAYER FUNDS FOR POLITICAL MAILING: Shortly after passing the controversial 2001 tax cut, the White House announced it would use more than $30 million to mail a letter to every household touting the legislation. According to the 6/19/01 NYT, the Administration claimed "the letter contains the information that we believe the taxpayer needs" despite the fact that all the letter said was that "President George W. Bush signed into law [a bill], which provides long-term tax relief for all Americans who pay income taxes" and that "you will be receiving a check [so] you need to take no additional steps." When the House voted on bipartisan legislation to cancel the letter and save the $30 million, the Administration opposed it, and only after holding the vote open after the bill had won was the legislation defeated. Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI),who supported the effort, chastised the White House for its misuse of taxpayer funds, saying, "I remember when we used to think $30 million was a lot of money."

TAXPAYER FUNDS FOR POLITICAL FUNDRAISING: Just last month, President Bush used a visit to Dr. Martin Luther King's grave as a pretense for forcing taxpayers to foot the bill for a $2,000-a-plate political fundraiser in Atlanta. It was just the latest example of the how the Bush White House deviously "combines the President's political rallies with an official event, to defray even more of the party's cost." And while all Presidents have engaged in the practice to some extent, USA Today noted in 2002 that President Bush and Vice President Cheney are "setting records for publicly subsidized political travel." Even after that story, the disregard for taxpayer money didn't stop. As the WP reported, the President took a two-week political fundraising tour in which "most of the campaign travel was paid for by the government, including the costs of Air Force One" which some estimate to be about $57,000 per hour. As Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) wrote in a letter to the White House, "Spending taxpayer money on political campaigning and fund-raising is the type of frivolous spending I thought President Bush vowed to curb. During a time of war and deepening recession, are these appropriate expenditures to American taxpayers?"

TAXPAYER FUNDS RAIDED FOR POLITICAL CRONIES: In 2002, the LA Times reported that the Bush Administration "reinstated a controversial bonus program under which high-ranking political appointees would be eligible for annual awards of $10,000 or more - a practice banned in 1994 amid concerns of possible abuse." Under the new directive "approximately 2,000 political appointees throughout the administration became eligible for such bonuses" – at the very same time President Bush "cited the war against terrorism as the reason" for refusing to provide an adequate cost-of-living pay increase to non-political federal workers. In 2002 alone, "nearly $1.5 million in bonuses went to the Administration's political appointees."

FORCING TAXPAYERS TO FOOT PERSONAL BILLS: During the energy crisis in 2001, the Bush Administration blocked efforts to establish temporary price caps to prevent companies like Enron from exploiting the situation. Instead, the NYT reported "the White House cited the large and unpredictable energy bills of the vice president's official residence in urging Congress to relieve him of using any of his official budget to pay for electricity." Specifically, the White House wanted the U.S. Navy (aka. the taxpayers) to pay the $186,000 in increased costs. When critics in Congress tried to block the plan, the Administration opposed them, and their legislation was voted down

posted by Rei Toei @ 6:51 p.m.