[Mb-civic] What a world! sez Paul Krugman AND some Senate Republican leaders...

[Mha Atma Khalsa]

What a world!  sez Paul Krugman AND some Senate
Republican leaders...

NY Time Op-Ed
The Way It Is
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/tsc.html?URI=http://select.nytimes.com/2005/09/30/opinion/30krugman.html&OQ=hp&OP=795e69bdQ2F,6dQ3E,IQ5CRQ26Q26I,7xxQ2A,x3,ox,Q26Q510H0Q26H,oxQ5ERPQ3CQ24hHQ3DrIQ24A

By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: September 30, 2005

Bill Frist, the Senate majority leader, is under
investigation by the
Securities and Exchange Commission. He sold all his
stock in HCA, which
his father helped found, just days before the stock
plunged. Two years
ago, Mr. Frist claimed that he did not even know if he
owned HCA stock.

According to a new U.S. government index, the effect
of greenhouse
gases is up 20 percent since 1990.

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a 33-year-old Wall Street insider
with little
experience in regulation but close ties to drug firms,
was made a
deputy commissioner at the F.D.A. in July. (This
story, picked up by
Time, was originally reported by Alicia Mundy of The
Seattle Times.)

The Artic ice cap is shrinking at an alarming rate.

Two of the three senior positions at the Occupational
Safety and Health
Administration are vacant. The third is held by
Jonathan Snare, a former
lobbyist. Texans for Public Justice, a watchdog group,
reports that he
worked on efforts to keep ephedra legal, a dietary
supplement that was
banned by the F.D.A.

According to France's finance minister, Alan Greenspan
told him that the
United States had "lost control" of its budget
deficit.

David Safavian is a former associate of Jack Abramoff,
the recently
indicted lobbyist. Mr. Safavian oversaw U.S.
government procurement policy
at the White House Office of Management and Budget
until his recent
arrest.

When Senator James Inhofe, who has called scientific
research on global
warming "a gigantic hoax," called a hearing to attack
that research, his
star witness was Michael Crichton, the novelist.

Mr. Safavian is charged with misrepresenting his
connections with
lobbyists - specifically, Mr. Abramoff - while working
at the General
Services Administration. A key event was a lavish
golfing trip to Scotland
in 2002, mostly paid for by a charity Mr. Abramoff
controlled. Among those
who went on the trip was Representative Bob Ney of
Ohio.

It's not possible to attribute any one weather event
to global warming.
But climate models show that global warming will lead
to increased
hurricane intensity, and some research indicates that
this is already
occurring.

Tyco paid $2 million, most going to firms controlled
by Mr. Abramoff, as
part of its successful effort to preserve tax
advantages it got from
shifting its legal home to Bermuda. Timothy Flanigan,
a general counsel at
Tyco, has been nominated for the second-ranking
Justice Department post.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans is
awash in soldiers
and police. Nonetheless, the Federal Emergency
Management Agency has hired
Blackwater USA, a private security firm with strong
political connections,
to provide armed guards.

Mr. Abramoff was indicted last month on charges of
fraud relating to his
purchase of SunCruz, a casino boat operation. Mr. Ney
inserted comments in
the Congressional Record attacking SunCruz's original
owner, Konstantinos
"Gus" Boulis, placing pressure on him to sell to Mr.
Abramoff and his
partner, Adam Kidan, and praised Mr. Kidan's
character.

James Schmitz, who resigned as the Pentagon's
inspector general amid
questions about his performance, has been hired as
Blackwater's chief
operating officer.

Last week three men were arrested in connection with
the gangland-style
murder of Mr. Boulis. SunCruz, after it was controlled
by Mr. Kidan and
Mr. Abramoff, paid a company controlled by one of the
men arrested,
Anthony "Big Tony" Moscatiello, and his daughter
$145,000 for catering and
other work. In court documents, questions are raised
about whether food
and drink were ever provided. SunCruz paid $95,000 to
a company in which
one of the other men arrested, Anthony "Little Tony"
Ferrari, is a
principal.

Iraq's oil production remains below prewar levels. The
Los Angeles Times
reports that mistakes by U.S. officials and a
Halliburton subsidiary,
which was given large no-bid reconstruction contracts,
may have
permanently damaged Iraq's oilfields.

Tom DeLay, who stepped down as House majority leader
after his
indictment, once called Mr. Abramoff "one of my
closest, dearest friends."
Mr. Abramoff funneled funds from clients to
conservative institutions and
causes. The Washington Post reported that associates
of Mr. DeLay claim
that he severed the relationship after Mr. Boulis's
murder.

Public health experts warn that the U.S. would be
dangerously unprepared
for an avian flu pandemic.

As Walter Cronkite used to say, That's the way it is.

***

LA Times, September 29, 2005
Senators Fume at White House Disdain for Katrina
Healthcare Plan
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-hearing29sep29,1,5851279.story
Finance Committee members of both parties want to give
Medicaid to
victims for months. A Cabinet member says that's
unnecessary.

By Mary Curtius, Times Staff Writer


WASHINGTON - Senate Finance Committee members accused
the
White House on Wednesday of blocking a bipartisan
$9-billion healthcare
package for Hurricane Katrina victims.

Republicans' publicly deepening dispute over the
federal role in the
recovery came at a hearing where the governors of
Alabama, Mississippi and
Louisiana, the three states hardest hit by Katrina,
pleaded for more help.

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco told the
panel that 41% of her
state's businesses had been destroyed or forced to
close. "To bring our
folks home, we need jobs, housing and rebuilt
communities," she said.

Committee members promised to consider additional tax
breaks and other
measures to encourage reconstruction, but they spent
much of their time
fuming about administration opposition to the
healthcare package
introduced last week by Finance Committee Chairman
Charles E. Grassley
(R-Iowa) and Vice Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.).

The debate over legislation is a piece of the Capitol
Hill fight over
reconstruction costs and ways to offset them. House
conservatives insist
on deep budget cuts to help pay for rebuilding,
expected to cost at least
$100 billion.

Grassley's legislation threatens conservatives'
efforts to limit costs and
the federal government's role.

The bill would give five months of Medicaid coverage
to adult Katrina
survivors who would otherwise have no health
insurance, and President Bush
would be able to double the program's length. The bill
would also r equire
the federal government to pay all 2006 Medicaid costs
in Louisiana,
Alabama and Mississippi.

Grassley and Baucus expected the bill to pass by a
voice vote Monday, but
it was blocked by Republicans John E. Sununu of New
Hampshire and John
Ensign of Nevada. Sununu told senators the time had
come to exercise
greater caution in the relief effort.

"We need to do much more to try to find ways to cover
this additional
spending so we do not increase the deficit and leave
an unfortunate
financial legacy for future generations," he said.

Baucus told Blanco on Wednesday that opposition to the
healthcare
package was fueled by concerns in the Senate about how
hurricane
relief had been spent so far.

"There are senators who already say, 'Well, that's too
much.' We've
appropriated $62 billion, basically, in disaster
assistance. Much of
that's wasted," Baucus said. "That's one of the main
reasons why we're
having a hard time getting this Medicaid bill passed,
frankly."

Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt
outlined the
administration's opposition to Grassley's healthcare
proposal in a letter
to Senate leaders Tuesday, calling it "inadvisable"
and a duplication of
administration efforts.

Leavitt's criticism triggered an unusual outburst and
a rare threat from
the normally taciturn Iowa senator at Wednesday's
hearing.

"I would suggest that people at the White House need
to know that the
chances of our getting a reconciliation bill moving
out of my committee
are very difficult if we don't get this behind us,"
Grassley said,
referring to a key spending measure for the 2006
budget that his panel is
supposed to finish by Oct. 19.

The threat elicited gasps from the packed hearing
room. Grassley is
usually one of the administration's staunchest
supporters, and he had
previously urged senators to quickly move the spending
bill, which
includes a recommended $10 billion in cuts to Medicaid
over five years.

The power of his threat lies in his committee's key
role in the budget
process. Congress is struggling, for the first time in
eight years, to
slow the growth of such entitlement programs as
Medicaid and student
loans. The budget passed in April called for $35
billion in spending
reductions over five years to such programs, a plan
attacked by Democrats
and moderate Republicans even before Hurricane Katrina
hit.

If Grassley chooses not to let his portion of the
spending bill out of
committee, the entire effort is likely to collapse,
Senate aides said.

"It would severely weaken the reconciliation process,"
said one senior
aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "The
Finance Committee has
one of the largest cuts on the table."

Grassley's stance won support from Democrats and
Republicans on the
Finance Committee.

"We can work with everybody, including the
administration, or against
them, but I'm prepared to go either way.. I'm going to
look after our
people first," said Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.).

A furious Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) said the
Senate had been
"paralyzed over the web of red tape that this
administration is spinning
over the ability to provide the basic needs of
healthcare to people who
have been devastated." She agreed with Lott that no
one wanted to pick a
fight  "but sometimes you do have to fight, for people
who can't fight for
themselves right now."

In his letter to the Senate leadership, Leavitt said
the Grassley-Baucus
bill would duplicate efforts underway. The
administration is negotiating
state-by-state waivers that allow states housing
hurricane survivors to
quickly expand Medicaid programs without creating a
new federal program,
he said.

Grassley's bill, Leavitt said, "requires a new
Medicaid entitlement for
Katrina survivors, regardless of whether that will
work best for those
survivors or the states."


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