Posts from — November 2007

Our own fierce anti-tax warrior Peter Roskam just met a tax cut he didn’t like. Kind of freaky until you understand whose taxes would be cut.

On Friday, November 9th, the House voted, pretty much along party lines, to pass H.R. 3996: Temporary Tax Relief Act of 2007. Peter Roskam and the Republicans voted against passage.

The purpose of the bill is to prevent 23 million middle class families from being subjected to the Alternative Minimum Tax. Tax law normally puts me right to sleep but here’s what I understand about this one. The AMT was introduced in 1969 and was designed to ensure that wealthy individuals and corporations who were escaping tax liability completely through the use of deductions and loopholes beforced to pay some tax: 26-28% for individuals, 20% for corporations. The problem is that the threshold for the AMT was not indexed to inflation, and now some not so wealthy people may become subject to the AMT, perhaps 20% of all taxpayers by 2010.

The Democrats, in introducing this bill, aimed to make the AMT back into what it was intended to be: a minimum tax for the wealthy. Democrats believe in progressive taxation, that is, that the very wealthy, whose fortunes are built on the labor of all of us, should have a greater tax responsibility in proportion to their greater resources.

Peter Roskam, who normally loves a tax cut, voted against this one because it wasn’t designed to help his wealthiest constituents, but rather to help ordinary folks like you and me. Peter believes in regressive taxation - taxes that fall most heavily on those of modest means, taxes that help the rich get richer and the rest of us get poorer.

How does Peter Roskam show his support for the troops on Veteran’s Day? Why by voting against spending any money to help improve their lives, that’s how.

Actually, the vote took place on 11/6, this past Tuesday. It was the vote on passage of the conference version of H.R. 3043: Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2008. The bill passed and has been Presented to President Bush who has threatened a veto. The bill includes provisions to help veterans including:

• $228 million for employment programs for veterans
• $3.6 billion for job training programs
• $3.4 billion in unemployment-insurance and employment-services programs
• $906 million for mental health services
• $23.6 million for homeless veterans

Veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are having a tough time. Reservists returning from active service often face job loss, despite the legal protections that exist to prevent it. Post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide are epidemic among returning vets. Hundreds of vets are returning home with traumatic brain injuries and an estimated 500-1000 veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq are homeless.

This bill would offer concrete assistance to help veterans. But Peter Roskam and George Bush prefer to show their support by making speeches and having their pictures taken with wounded vets. They don’t want to have to spend any money.

The irony is, of course, that they do want to keep pouring billions into Iraq and Afghanistan and to keep the flow of wounded veterans coming.

Veterans of the 6th Congressional district, Peter Roskam is not your friend.

One of the more disturbing aspects of the Bush presidency has been the administration’s ideological bent against regulation of industry. Given his way Bush, would return the country to the way it was before the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) worked to protect the quality of the air we breathe and the water we drink, before the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) existed to protect workers from workplace hazards, before the Consumer Products Safety (CPSC) was established to protect Americans from injuries associated with consumer products, and before the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) was in place to improve health and safety conditions in America’s mines. Bush and like-minded Republicans want to diminish the powers of agencies such as the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the Department of Agriculture to assure the quality and safety of the medicines we take and the food we give to our children.

The administration has taken concrete steps to begin the dismantling of this regulatory infrastructure including:

• Appointing industry lobbyists and lawyers to key positions in the agencies regulating the industries from which they came
• Disregarding scientific opinion in favor of political ideology
• Reducing enforcement of existing regulations
• Under-funding regulatory agencies
• Allowing industry representatives to draft legislation
• Blurring the boundaries between the regulators and the regulated

Peter Roskam is on board for this agenda of de-regulation of industry to the detriment of public welfare. The story of Peter and the Popcorn Worker is a case in point.

Bronchiolitis obliterans is an obstructive lung disease that results from inflammation and scarring of the bronchioles - the smallest airways in the lungs. This can happen as a result of a toxic exposure or a respiratory infection or sometimes as a complication of lung transplantation. The onset is relatively acute, within a few weeks of the causative event. It is irreversible and progressive, and, ultimately, fatal. It can be treated with anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive drugs, and sometimes by lung transplantation.

Diacetyl is a chemical ingredient used in the manufacture of artificial butter flavior commonly used in microwave popcorn. Beginning in 1992, previously healthy workers in plants manufacturing popcorn began to be diagnosed with bronchiolitis obliterans with unusual frequency. Studies have indicated a link between the workers exposure to diacetyl in the workplace and the development of the disease.

Despite validation of the risk to workers and recommendations for protective measures developed by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) the Bush administration chose to ignore the science and OSHA refused to implement standards to protect workers.

House Democrats grew impatient with the administration’s foot-dragging and introduced H.R. 2693: Popcorn Workers Lung Disease Prevention Act which would direct the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to issue a standard regulating worker exposure to diacetyl.

The White House reacted with a statement strongly opposing the bill, preferring its own evaluation of the hazard to that of scientists and insisting that the evidence be unequivocal” before it would be prudent to take steps to protect workers.

And Peter, remember this story is about Peter, what did he do to help the Popcorn Worker?

Well, actually, he did nothing.

H.R. 2693 came to a vote in the House on September 26th. Peter, and a bunch of other Republicans figured President Bush knew more than a bunch of damn scientists and voted against it.

The good news is that Peter and his corporatist pals didn’t win, at least not yet. The bill passed in the House, 260 to 154 and has been passed on to the Senate where it is on the calendar for consideration. But even if it passes there, there is the chance that the President will veto the bill and a lot more popcorn workers may die before the science is “unequivocal”.

There was an interesting post by Amanda at Think Progress yesterday. She noted Karl Rove bloviating about liberal bloggers in a speech at Yahoo’s Citizen 2.0. Karl said that “the Web has given angry and vitriolic people more of a voice in public discourse” and suggested that many bloggers are “angry kooks”. Angry, yes. Kooks, no. How can anyone with any sanity watch what this President and his party are doing to our country and not be angry. And I’m royally pissed that Peter Roskam is letting him do it. Every citizen in Peter’s district should be pissed too.

On Wednesday, November 7th, Peter Roskam once again gave his rubber stamp of approval to anti-gay bigotry by voting against the passage of H.R. 3685, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). The bill, if signed into law, would provide federal protection of workers against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

In doing so, Roskam remained in lock-step with President Bush, who is also opposed to equal rights for gay people and has previously threatened to veto the measure.

The measure passed 235 to 184. The bill’s future in the Senate is uncertain and, even if passed, would likely be vetoed by Bush. Still, it’s passage on Wednesday was something of a triumph for civil rights. Democratic legislators had been trying to pass similar legislation for over 30 years but have been blocked by Republicans like Roskam who who are opposed to allowing gay people the same rights that other citizens enjoy under our Constitution.

Roskam’s corporate clientele are largely ok with protecting gay people in the workplace, many large corporations having established policies that ban discrimination and, in some cases, even confer benefits on same-sex domestic partners. Roskam’s vote, therefore is best viewed as an attempt to obtain the votes of Christian extremists, many of whom believe that interference with their persecution of gay people is a violation of their religious freedom.

Sadly, the final version of ENDA which passed in the House lacked protections for transgendered persons.

On November 5th, President Bush bestowed on former Congressman Henry Hyde of the Sixth Congressional District the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award that the President can confer. In awarding the medal, the President remarked:

“He used his persuasive powers for noble causes. He stood for a strong and purposeful America — confident in freedom’s advance, and firm in freedom’s defense. He stood for limited, accountable government, and the equality of every person before the law. He was a gallant champion of the weak and forgotten, and a fearless defender of life in all its seasons.”

Pardon me a moment while I dry my eyes…

Hyde is in fine company. Others who have received this award from President Bush include:

• Noted neoconservative crackpots Irving Kristol and Norman Podhoretz, godfathers of the faction that promoted our glorious and freedom producing invasion, occupation, and destruction of Iraq and is presently lobbying for our upcoming glorious and fredom producing bombing and destruction of Iran, and possibly the world as we know it.
• George Tenet, the man responsible for our crack prewar intelligence regarding Iraq, the many weapons of mass destruction that we recovered there, and the subsequently proven links between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda.
• Tommy Franks, military genius and architect of Operation Iraqi Freedom, who brought the war to a rapid conclusion and is in no small measure responsible for the peace and freedom enjoyed by the people of Iraq today.
• L. Paul Bremer, the 2nd Viceroy of Iraq, the brilliant administrator who presided over the reconstruction, virtually overnight, of Iraq after the war and the establishment of its highly successful constitutional democracy, all the while ensuring that the war was profitable for American contractors and other looters.

Are you noticing a pattern here? It’s really a shame the poor bastard can’t award a freedom medal to himself.

But I digress. We’re here to honor Henry Hyde’s unflagging efforts in the cause of Freedom.

Freedom has been on the march for the past several years and through it all, Henry Hyde, has stood by our President, unprotesting and obedient, as he has advanced the cause of freedom through his program of preemptive war, torture and rendition, endless extra-judicial detention, domestic spying, and extra-constitutional enhancement of presidential power. Yes, Henry Hyde did his part to ensure that the Congress never stood in the way of the President in his quest. And when it came time for him to step aside, he hand-picked our own Peter Roskam to carry on the fight for freedom in his stead.

Had I more time, I’d tell of Henry’s efforts for freedom during the Reagan years but, alas, I have homework. Perhaps later.

In the meantime, thank you Henry, and get well soon.

Peter Roskam’s website today announces his co-sponsorship of Secure America with Verification and Enforcement Act of 2007 (SAVE). I haven’t had much time to look at this legislation yet. According to the website, it will add 8,000 new border patrol agents by 2012, mandate employers use the E-verify system to verify employee eligibility, add Immigration and Customs enforcement agents, and train state and local law enforcement agents to aid in immigration enforcement.

Roskam asserts that “millions of people cross our border illegally every year to work in a shadow economy, often in dangerous conditions and for wages the American worker can’t take” and calls this a “common sense approach to our nation’s massive illegal immigration problem”.

Well I may be the only person left who believes this but I think this immigration crisis rhetoric is bullshit. This is a crisis that was dreamed up by Republicans to distract the citizenry while they were picking their pockets. And now it disgusts me to see Democrats jumping on the “tough on illegal immigration” bandwagon.

Where Peter is correct is in saying that these undocumented workers often work in dangerous conditions for unjust wages. But I think he’s wrong to suggest that they are taking jobs from American workers. They are taking jobs that Americans don’t want and are paying federal, state, and local taxes on their incomes and purchases.

If Peter is serious about helping alleviate their dangerous working conditions and unjust wages, he should be pushing his party to expand the minimum wage and increase OSHA enforcement. Intensification of verification efforts and involving state and local officials in enforcement is likely to adversely affect workers who are here legally and increase hardship in immigrant communities.

I don’t care if I’m the only one who thinks so but all this so-called immigration reform legislation is just plain mean-spirited. It is worse still to see it promoted by self-described people of faith. They would do well to revisit Deuteronomy 10 where care of the stranger is described as part of the very essence of the law:

“For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of Lords, the great God , mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. You also shall love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”

I am totally opposed to the present efforts of legislators, Democratic and Republican alike, to lay more burdens on the backs of undocumented workers.