Download New York Times - Education and Democracy

The Total Budget
TheBudgetGraph.com
Outlays $2.9 Trillion +4%
Income
Security
Interest
on
National
debt
Personal
Income taxes
+7%
Corporate
income taxes
- 8%
Receipts $2.7 Trillion +5%
INCOME SECURITY: provide aid (other than health insurance or Social
Security benefits) to individuals and families facing hardship.
This includes:
the “refundable” portion of the earned-income and child tax credits, which
assist low and moderate-income working families through the tax code
programs that provide cash payments to eligible individuals or households,
including the Supplemental Security Income program for poor people who
are elderly or have serious disabilities and the unemployment insurance
program
various forms of in-kind assistance for low-income families and individuals,
including food assistance through the food stamp and school meals
programs, low-income housing assistance, child-care assistance, and
assistance in meeting home energy bills
various other programs such as those that aid abused and neglected children
Census data show that all together these programs lifted
12.6 million Americans out of poverty in 2005, the most recent
year for which data are available, and reduced the depth of
poverty for another 20.4 million people.
67%
33%
TOTAL OUTLAY: $2.9 Trillion
Discretionary Budget $1075 Billion
• Military, Vets, Homeland Sec, $881 Billion
• Non National Security, $284 Billion
Must be Approved by Congress
Paid mostly with Federal Income Taxes
Global War on Terror, $145 Billion???
Non Discretionary Budget $1196 Billion
• Social Security, $608 Billion
• Medicare, $386 Billion
• Medicaid (incl SCHIP) $202 Billion
Paid mostly with payroll taxes
Air Force
Navy/Marines
Air Force
Intelligence
War on Terror
Army
Dept of Defense
Defense Health
Program -2%
Dept of Defense
$77 Billion
+7%
Missile
Defense
Agency -6%
Former Soviet Union
Threat Reduction
-6%
War-Crimes Prosecutor Quits in Pentagon Clash NYT,
October 6, 2007, William Glaberson
2002 - first detainees arrive at Guantanamo
2004 - Supreme Court says detainees can challenge their status in federal courts
2006 Congress creates Military Commission to try “enemy combattants”
2007 - 330 detainees remain, from original 800, NONE have been tried,
one has accepted a plea bargain
Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether detainees can challenge their
status as enemy combattants in federal courts
Saturday -- chief military prosecutor resigns (Colonel Davis)
General Hartman = legal adviser to judge of military court
Hartman pressed lawyers under Davis to produce charges quickly and frame
charges with bold terrorist accusations and seek death penalty so as to draw
public attention to the process
Davis resigned to protest conflict of interest -- Hartman can’t assess adequacy of
cases (judge) if he is involved in decision to file (prosecutor)
Defense lawyers will have a field day with this!!!! Undermine process.
AIR FORCE $136 BILLION +5
PROCUREMENT
$34 BILLION
Personnel
$31 BILLION
RDT & E
$34 BILLION
Operations and Maintenance $41 BILLION
Intelligence Budget $45 Billion
CLASSIFIED
The New York Times
October 11, 2007
Watchdog of C.I.A. Is Subject of C.I.A. Inquiry
The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Gen. Michael V. Hayden, has
ordered an unusual internal inquiry into the work of the agency’s inspector
general, whose aggressive investigations of the C.I.A.’s detention and interrogation
programs and other matters have created resentment among agency operatives.
….In his role as the agency’s inspector general since 2002, Mr. Helgerson has investigated
some of the most controversial programs the C.I.A. has begun since the Sept. 11 attacks….
…spring of 2004 warned that some C.I.A.-approved interrogation procedures appeared to
constitute cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, as defined by the international
Convention Against Torture.
… a withering report about the C.I.A’s missteps before the Sept. 11 attack — a report that
recommended “accountability boards” to consider disciplinary action against a handful of
senior officials.
Personnel
$46 Billion + 8%
ARMY $130 BILLION + 16 %
RDT & E $11 Billion - 3%
Operation and Maintenance
$37 Billion + 18%
Procurement
$24 Billion + 44%
NAVY/MARINES $119/$20 BILLION +6/+38
Operation and Maintenance
$33 Billion +6%
Procurement
$38 Billion +25%
e.g., OSPREY
$2 Billion +24 %
Taking Flight Despite the Turbulence, NYT, Oct 7, 2007,
Week in Review
Osprey Helicopter, 25 years to develop, 30 dead test pilots
Dick Cheney tried to kill the project 4 times
Problems: inherent instability (especially in desert conditions), severe
flight restrictions, vulnerable to attack
Work spread over 40 states
100 Representatives formed a “Tiltroter Technology Coalition” to lobby for
the jobs the project has created in their districts
2008 Budget: 458 Ospreys ordered and additional $35 billion for future
NAVY
AND MARINES
(CONTINUED)
Personnel
$27/ $12 Billion
-1% / +9%
RDT and E
$17 Billion
+1%
Procurement
$40 Billion
Global War on
Terror
$145 Billion
Operations and
Maintenance
$79 Billion
Department of Veterans Affairs
Department of Veterans Affairs
$39 Billion +19 %
Medical Care
$34 Billion
+17 %
Psychiatric Care
$1 Billion +5 %
Department of Justice
Department of Justice $20 Billion +4%
Federal Prison System
$5.4 Billion +9 %
FBI
$6.4 Billion +13%
Office of Violence Against
Women
$0.4 Billion - 11 %
US Attorneys
$2 Billion + 11%
Debate Erupts on Techniques Used by CIA, NYT,
October 5, 2007, David Johnston and Scott Shane
2004 Justice Dept Lawyers rebel against administrative demands that
they find legal justification for waterboarding, head slapping and exposure
to harsh temperatures
2004 Alberto Gonzales appointed Attorney General and immediately
quells rebellion
May 2005 Justice Department secret memo gives CIA expansive approval
for harsh interrogation methods
December 2005, Congress explicitly outlaws “cruel, inhuman and
degrading” punishment by government officials
Last week, Congress learns from NYT of secret DOJ memo after trying
to get it for two years.
CIA has stopped using harsh techniques -- don’t work; excuse for other
countries to use it on their agents
This controversy will influence hearings on new appointee for Atty Gen
The New York Times, October 20, 2007
Plainly, a Justice Department Pick of Like Mind
By ADAM LIPTAK
The senators questioning Michael B. Mukasey, President
Bush’s nominee for attorney general,
. . . Mr. Mukasey believes presidential power to be robust,
expansive and sometimes beyond the power of Congress to
control.. . .
Mr. Mukasey did denounce torture in the abstract, but he would
not say what it is. . .
He disavowed a 2002 Justice Department memorandum
authorizing harsh interrogation techniques — but the department
itself had disowned the opinion in 2004.
Department of Homeland Security
Department of Homeland Security
$34 Billion
Customs and
Border +36%
Coast
Guard
TSA
FEMA -14%
ICE +8%
Immigration Customs Enforcement
ICE used to be INS
The New York Times October 14, 2007
No Need for a Warrant, You’re an Immigrant
. . . The agents had rousted American citizens and legal immigrants from their beds in the
night. . . without a warrant. “We don’t need warrants to make the arrests,” responded Peter J.
Smith [ICE agent]. . . . more than 1,300 arrests across the country over the summer
. . . broad authority to question people . . . search them and their homes. . . . no Miranda
rights . . . . right to a lawyer, but only one they can pay for. . . discretion in deciding where to
hold immigrants detained for deportation.. . . the Constitution does not specifically
address the government’s power to control immigration.
. . . The reduced protections in modern-day law were shaped by some of the darker
episodes of the . . 1930’s . . . 1950’s
37.1 million [immigrants] now living in the United States.
22 million are not naturalized
10 million legal residents
12 million illegal immigrants
[lawsuits] . . . spurred by people like Peggy Delarosa-Delgado, a naturalized citizen born in
the Dominican Republic whose Long Island home was raided twice. She described the
shock of having a dozen ICE agents march into her living room, terrifying her children.
Executive Office
$0.3 Billion -12%
Farm Subsidies
$15 Billion +3%
Department Of Agriculture
$20 Billion +3%
Legislative
Branch
$5 Billion +16%
Judicial Branch
$7 Billion +14%
Court of Appeals
District Courts
$6.7 Billion +8%
Department Of Commerce
$6 Billion +8%
The New York Times
October 15, 2007
Interim Heads Increasingly Run Federal Agencies
. . . .With only 15 months left in office, President Bush has left whole agencies of the
executive branch to be run largely by acting or interim appointees — jobs that would
normally be filled by people whose nominations would have been reviewed and
confirmed by the Senate. In many cases, there is no obvious sign of movement at the
White House to find permanent nominees, suggesting that many important jobs
will not be filled by Senate-confirmed officials for the remainder of the Bush
administration. That would effectively circumvent the Senate’s right to review and
approve the appointments. It also means that the jobs are filled by people who do not
have the clout to make decisions that comes with a permanent appointment endorsed by
the Senate, scholars say.
While exact comparisons are difficult to come by, researchers say the vacancy rate for
senior jobs in the executive branch is far higher at the end of the Bush
administration than it was at the same point in the terms of Mr. Bush’s recent
predecessors in the White House. [what is the axe that the NY TIMES is grinding?]
Energy
Health and Human Services
National Nuclear Security Administration
$9 Billion +5%
National Institute of Health
$28 Billion +1%
Department of Energy
$24 Billion +6%
FDA + 10%
Dept of HHS $68 Billion +0%
Medicare Audits Show Problems in Private Plans, NYT,
October 7, 2007, A1
Medicare’s new prescription Druge Benefit Program
91 audits By HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES of 11 companies
$700,000 ----- fines for marketing violations; failure to provide timely notice
of change in costs and benefits; and for handling appeals and grievances
For example: Medicare terminated contract with a Florida company after
determining it posed an imminent and serious threat to 11,000 members, ie
delaying access to needed medications
For example: Wellpoint had a backlog of 354,000 claims, averaged 27
minutes to answer phone calls from members
Kathleen Healey (Alabama dept of Senior Services) “Despite the
prohibition of door-to-door marketing, agents arrive on residents’ doorsteps
stating that the president sent them, or that they represent Medicare.
Some telemarketers insist they are calling from Medicare, and they tell
beneficiaries that they will lose their Medicare if they do not sign up for
the telemarketer’s plan.”
The New York Times October 12, 2007
Sliming Graeme Frost by Paul Krugman
The Frosts and their four children are exactly the kind of people S-chip was intended to help:
working Americans who can’t afford private health insurance.
The parents have a combined income of about $45,000, and don’t receive health insurance
from employers. When they looked into buying insurance on their own before the accident,
they found that it would cost $1,200 a month — a prohibitive sum given their income. After
the accident, when their children needed expensive care, they couldn’t get insurance at any
price.
Fortunately, they received help from Maryland’s S-chip program. The state has relatively
restrictive rules for eligibility: children must come from a family with an income under 200
percent of the poverty line. For families with four children that’s $55,220, so the Frosts
clearly qualified.
……… all-out smear campaign against him and his family.
Soon after the radio address, right-wing bloggers began insisting that the Frosts must be
affluent because Graeme and his sister attend private schools (they’re on scholarship), because
they have a house in a neighborhood where some houses are now expensive (the Frosts bought
their house for $55,000 in 1990 when the neighborhood was rundown and considered
dangerous) and because Mr. Frost owns a business (it was dissolved in 1999).
New York Times, October 20, 2007
F.D.A. Panel Urges Ban on Medicine for Child Colds
By GARDINER HARRIS
A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted Friday to ban popular
over-the-counter cold products intended for children under the age of 6.
The panel found there was no proof that the medicines eased cold symptoms in
children, while there are rare reports that they have caused serious harm.
. . . .But manufacturers said they would fight the new recommendations.
. . . If the agency decides to adopt the committee’s recommendation, it must
undertake a rule-making process that can “take anywhere from one to many
years,” Dr. Jenkins said.
EPA
HUD
Clean and Safe Water
$3 Billion - 9%
Environmental
Protection
Agency
$7 Billion - 4%
Superfund
$1 Billion +2%
Clean Air and Global Climate Change
$1 Billion - 3%
Public Housing
$4 Billion +4%
Department of Housing
and Urban Development
$35 Billion +2%
Official’s Ties to Contractor Are Scrutinized, NYT,
October 5 , Philip Shenon
Two Investigations, one completed, one ongoing
1. Inspector General of Housing and Urban Development
HUD Secretary, Alphonso Jackson, directed his staff to steer federal housing
contracts to Bush supporters. Former chief procurement officer of HUD
quoted as telling investigators that Mr. Jackson had told her that “it drives
him nuts” when contractors made clear that they were critics of Mr. Bush but
expected to be considered for government housing contracts. NO
EVIDENCE THAT STAFF COMPLIED.
2. Justice Department
Investigating ties between Jackson and his friend William Hairston
• HUD paid Hairston $485K for housing contract in New Orleans
• Hairston and Jackson golfing buddies at Hilton Head Island, SC
•Jackson lied???? to Congress when he testified that he had not
steered federal housing contracts to friends and Bush supporters
Corps of Engineers
Dept
of
Education
Small Business Administration
K-12
$31 Billion
+ 7%
Department
Of Education
$60 Billion
+ 0%
Guaranteed Small
Business Loans
$29 Billion
+ 10%
Pell Grants
$13 Billion
+ 5%
Flood Control
$0.3 Billion
- 11%
Higher Ed
$24 Billion
-6%
Small Business Administration
$0.5 Billion +5%
U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers
$5 Billion +3%
From Wikipedia: Pell Grants
For 2006-07, the maximum Pell grant available to students remains
$4,050. Students with less need will receive smaller amounts. Grant
moneys can only be used for tuition, fees, and educational expenses
(such as textbooks or required materials for a class). The money cannot
be used for housing or food.
. . . . The maximum grant is to increase to $5,400 by 2012.
Due to high increases in the cost of post-secondary education and slow or
no growth in the Pell grant program, the value of Pell grants has eroded
significantly over time. In 2005-06, the maximum Pell grant covered
one-third of the yearly cost of higher education at a public four-year
institution; twenty years ago, it covered 60% of a student's cost of
attendance.
From the USACE website -- Fragmented supervisors!!!????
http://www.usace.army.mil/commander.html
The Army's Corps of Engineers works under the direction of the
Secretary of the Army and the Army Chief of Staff. The Secretary is
supported by five Assistant Secretaries. The Corps works most closely with
the Assistant Secretary for Civil Works, plus the Assistant Secretary for
Installations and Environment and the Assistant Secretary for Research,
Development and Acquisition.
The Chief of Engineers has separate and distinct command and staff
responsibilities. As a staff officer, the Chief advises the Army on engineering
matters and serves as the Army's topographer and the proponent for real
estate and other related engineering programs. The Chief is directly involved
in Engineer support to the Army, including two components of the Army
Engineer team assigned to other commands.
The Corps' programs are directed by the President and the Congress,
and this is the annual funding program ($12.3 billion). It consists of: Direct and
reimbursable funding for the military program ($7.2 billion) and the civil works
program ($5.1 billion) which the Congress funds through public works, not
military appropriations. Non-federal sponsors share in the costs of civil
works projects.
Department of Interior
$11 Billion + 3%
Department of Treasury
$12 Billion + 6%
IRS
$11 Billion + 6%
Department
of Labor
$11 Billion
- 10 %
NASA
$17 Billion
+ 7%
The New York Times
October 15, 2007
Banks Create a Fund to Protect Credit Market
Three of the nation’s largest banks, working together at the behest of
the Treasury Department, confirmed today that they are creating a large fund
to serve as a buyer of bonds and other debt at a time when many investors are
avoiding them. . . . will not resolve the longer-term problem many SIVs face
with more risky mortgage bonds, he said.
. . . The Treasury’s role in bringing together the banks is similar to the 1998
Federal Reserve effort that brought together major Wall Street banks to
prevent the hedge fund Long Term Capital Management from collapsing
under the weight of its aggressive financial positions. It is also an indication
that Washington officials feel that the crisis in the credit market merits
some intervention
National Science Foundation
$ 6 Billion +15%
Foreign Military Financing
$ 5 Billion +2%
Israel
$2 Billion
+3 %
NLRB
$0.3 Billion
+2 %
Department of State
$ 35 Billion +21%
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
$ 0.4 Billion - 25 %
Other Agencies
$ 7 Billion +15%
September 22, 2007 New York Times
At State Dept., Blog Team Joins Muslim Debate
Walid Jawad was tired of all the chatter on Middle Eastern blogs and Internet forums in
praise of gory attacks carried out by the ''noble resistance'' in Iraq.
So Mr. Jawad, one of two Arabic-speaking members of what the State
Department called its Digital Outreach Team, posted his own question: Why was it that
many in the Arab world quickly condemned civilian Palestinian deaths but were mute about the
endless killing of women and children by suicide bombers in Iraq?
Among those who responded was a man named Radad, evidently a Sunni Muslim, who wrote
that many of the dead in Iraq were just Shiites and describing them in derogatory terms. But
others who answered Mr. Jawad said that they, too, wondered why only Palestinian dead were
''martyrs.''
The discussion tacked back and forth for four days, one of many such conversations prompted
by scores of postings the State Department has made on about 70 Web sites since it put its two
Arab-American Web monitors to work last November.
Some analysts question whether the blog team will survive beyond the tenure of
Karen P. Hughes, the confidante of President Bush who runs public diplomacy. The
department expects to add seven more team members within the next month -- four more in
Arabic, two in Farsi and one in Urdu, the official language of Pakistan.
The New York Times October 12, 2007
Crackdown Upends Slaughterhouse’s Work Force
Last November, immigration officials [ICE?] began a crackdown at Smithfield Foods’s giant
slaughterhouse here, eventually arresting 21 illegal immigrants at the plant and rousting
others from their trailers in the middle of the night.
Since then, more than 1,100 Hispanic workers have left the 5,200-employee hog-butchering plant,
the world’s largest, leaving it struggling to find, train and keep replacements. . . .
Fannie Worley, a longtime resident of Dillon, S.C., a largely African-American town of sagging
trailers and ramshackle bungalows, quit her $5.25-an-hour, part-time job making beds at a Days Inn
motel four months ago to take a $10.75-an-hour job at Smithfield. But Ms. Worley remains
ambivalent. “It pays a lot better,” she said. “But the trip is too long.”
….60 percent of the new workers quit within 90 days of being hired, compared with 25 percent
to 30 percent two years ago when many new employees were illegal immigrants.
…. arrests have also created problems for the union, the United Food and Commercial
Workers Union, which has spent 15 years seeking to organize the plant. …..The Tar Heel workers
voted against unionizing in 1994 and 1997, but the National Labor Relations Board ruled
that Smithfield had broken the law by intimidating and firing union supporters.
Foreign Military Financing
$ 5 Billion +2%
Consumer Product Safety
Commission
$ 0.063 Billion +2%
Israel
$2 Billion
+3 %
Department of State
$ 35 Billion +21%
Dangerous Sealer Stayed on Shelves After Recall, NYT
October 8, 2007, A1
Consumer Product Safety Commission [independent agency, created 1973]
Roanoke’s (now BRTT) Stand ‘n Seal (aerosol to seal grout) on the
market in 2003 for exclusive sale at Home Depot
Spring, 2005, Zonyl 225 replaced by Flexipel S-22WS, which causes
severe damage to lung tissue if inhaled
A few weeks after new cans on shelves, calls from customers and
emergency room doctors poured into poison control centers and CPSC’s
hotline.
3 months between first report to Roanoke and official recall by CPSC
• Roanoke took weeks to notify CPSC (federal law says 24 hours)
• Agency lab equipment can not detect Flexipel S-22WS so had to
rely on Roanoke’s insistence it had solved the problem
CPSC says any can bought after June 2005 is safe
Roanoke then re-supplies Home Depot with 50,000 cans still with Flexipel at least 2 deaths and thousands hospitalized since 2003
March 2007, Roanoke and Home Depot acknowledge source of problem
NO FINES HAVE BEEN ISSUED BY CPSC
Department of Transportation
$64 Billion + 10%
Federal Railroad Administration
$ 1 Billion -19%
Amtrak $0.8 Billion
- 28 %
Federal Transit Administration
$ 9 Billion + 10%
(Bus Grants)
Federal Aviation Administration
$12 Billion - 5 %
Federal Highway
Administration
$37 Billion + 18%
Discretionary Spending
Military
67%
NonMilitary
33%
New York Times 9/23/07 (for updates: http://thomas.loc.gov/home/approp/app08.html)
Senate has passed only 4 of the 12 appropriations bills sent from the House for
the 2008 fiscal year, which starts October 1.
Bush has threatened to veto all of them. Total Difference is $22 Billion
2008 Congress
2008 Bush
2007
$ 19 Billion
18
18
54
51
50
459
463
420
Energy and Water
32
30
30
Financial services and
general govt
21
22
20
Interior and Enviro
28
26
26
151
141
145
4
4
4
Homeland Security
36
34
32
Military construction;
veterans affairs
65
61
50
State/foreign ops
34
35
31
105
100
99
Agriculture
Commerce, Justice,
Science
Military
Labor, HHS, Education
Legislative branch
Transportation/HUD