ECONOMY
A Taxing Economy

Today is the deadline for Americans to file their tax returns. This past year has been tough on U.S. taxpayers, with their hard-earned money going toward the Bush administration's misplaced priorities: a personal chef for an ineffective Housing and Urban Development Secretary and new contracts for an exploding defense contracting industry. Even the Internal Revenue Service is wasting $37 million in taxpayers' money by hiring expensive, ineffective private debt collectors to "pursue tax scofflaws," a task that could arguably be done more effectively by the agency itself. Most importantly, as Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilmes note in "The Three Trillion Dollar War," each American household is spending approximately $100 each month toward the "current operating costs" of the Iraq war (p. 138). Not surprisingly, the majority of Americans are pessimistic about the U.S. economy as the gap between the rich and the poor widens and Bush's tax cuts fail to deliver on their promises. Consumer confidence is at an all-time low, and fewer Americans now "than at any time in the past half century believe they're moving forward in life."

FALLING INTO THE GAP: In January's State of the Union address, Bush claimed, "In the long run, Americans can be confident about our economic growth." He has also repeatedly attempted to tie his tax cuts and the Iraq war to economic growth. A new Washington Post-ABC News poll released this tax day finds that seven in 10 Americans "now give negative ratings to the president's stewardship of the sinking U.S. economy." American families are facing a "perfect storm" of "[m]assive amounts of debt, falling house prices, disappearing jobs, flat wages, lower benefits, and skyrocketing costs for the most important consumer items." This devastating economic situation has been exacerbated by the Bush administration's policies. A recent study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) finds that the "gap between the richest and poorest families, and between the richest and middle-income families, grew significantly in most states over the past two decades." Average income fell by 2.5 percent for people in the bottom fifth of income earners and 1.3 percent for those in the middle fifth but rose nine percent for people in the top fifth. Seventy-nine percent of respondents in a new Pew Research Center poll say "it is more difficult now than five years ago for people in the middle class to maintain their standard of living."

BOOSTING LARGE CORPORATIONS: Not only has the income gap widened, but the wealthiest Americans have also seen their tax rates drop. According to EPI, between 1960 and 2004, "the average tax rate has fallen by about 14 percentage points (from 44.4% to 30.4%) for the top 1% of earners (those making more than $435,000 in 2007), while it has increased slightly (from 15.9% to 16.1%) for those in the middle 20%." Additionally, in FY 2007, the nation's largest corporations -- with $250 million or more in assets -- were audited at the "lowest level in the last 20 years." At the same time, audits of smaller corporations -- with $50 million or less in assets -- are climbing. The Bush administration has also been turning a blind eye toward federal contractors, who owe $8 billion in unpaid federal taxes. For example, KBR, which until last year was a subsidiary of Halliburton, has avoided paying more than $500 million "in federal Medicare and Social Security taxes by hiring workers through shell companies" based in the Cayman Islands. The Bush administration has aided this tax dodging. One of KBR's shell companies was set up two months after Cheney became Halliburtion's CEO in 1995. Congress is currently considering a bill "to bar federal agencies from awarding contracts to people or companies that have failed to pay their federal taxes."

DOUBLE PENALTIES ON DOMESTIC PARTNERS: Employer-provided health coverage continues to be the backbone of health coverage for American families. Approximately 60 percent of Americans received employee health benefits in 2007, with the majority of employers also providing coverage for the employee's spouse and dependents. Only 22 percent of employers, however, cover same-sex partners of employees, and just 28 percent cover different-sex domestic partners. As a result, "married workers who get family health insurance benefits get a double benefit -- they get health insurance coverage for their spouses and children and are not taxed on the value of that coverage." Workers with an unmarried domestic partner are not so lucky and are doubly burdened. Their "employers typically do not provide coverage for domestic partners; and even when partners are covered, the partner's coverage is taxed as income to the employee." As an analysis by the Center for American Progress and the Williams Institute notes, employees with domestic partners "now pay on average $1,069 per year more in taxes than would a married employee with the same coverage."

Under the Radar

ADMINISTRATION -- CONGRESS SAYS BRADBURY IS ILLEGALLY LEADING OLC: In July 2005, President Bush nominated Steven Bradbury to head the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), but his nomination was blocked in the Senate when it became apparent that Bradbury authored two secret memos authorizing the CIA to use torture against detainees. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) kept the Senate in pro-forma session through winter recess to prevent Bush from renominating Bradbury as a recess appointment, but Bush refused to withdraw Bradbury's nomination, stating, "It's Brabury, or nobody." As acting head, Bradbury has nevertheless been in charge of "daily operations" of the OLC. The Hill reports that Senate Democrats find that Bradbury's leadership of OLC may be in violation of the Vacancies Reform Act, a law implemented by conservatives in 1998 that "limits the time a person can serve in an acting capacity" to 210 days. "A Republican-controlled Congress created the law retaliating against the Clinton White House’s decision to keep controversial acting appointments in departments without Senate consent." Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), "a swing vote on the panel," has suggested she would vote against Bradbury if the committee scheduled a vote on his nomination.

MEDIA -- PRESS IGNORES STORY ON BUSH APPROVAL OF TORTURE TECHNIQUES: Last Wednesday, ABC News reported that, beginning in 2002, top officials in the White House specifically approved torture techniques, including waterboarding. On Friday, President Bush admitted that he, too, was aware of and approved the discussions. Yet the White House press corps has yet to ask the White House spokesmen a single question on the issue in the three briefings held since the story broke. Reporters did, however, find time to cover the Little League tee-ball all-star game and the President’s weekend plans to clear brush at his Crawford ranch. Yesterday, the Washington Post's Dan Froomkin noted that the mainstream media is treating ABC's torture story as old news: "There was no mention of Bush's admission in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal or the Los Angeles Times. There was nothing on the major wire services. And nothing on CNN, CBS or NBC," he wrote.

MILITARY -- McCAIN INDICATES HE WILL NOT SUPPORT NEW GI BILL: Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) consistently claims he is "obviously committed" to "quality education" for veterans. But today, he indicated  he will not support "bipartisan legislation that would greatly expand educational benefits for members of the military returning from Iraq and Afghanistan under the GI Bill." The measure "would more than double the GI Bill benefit" for returning veterans and "give benefits to members of the National Guard and Reserve." Veterans would receive education benefits equaling the highest tuition rate of the most expensive in-state public college or university and a monthly stipend for housing. Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA), the bill's chief sponsor, introduced the legislation last year and recently reintroduced the bill with support from Sens. Chuck Hagel (R-NE), John Warner (R-VA), and Ted Stevens (R-AK), who were all GI Bill recipients. In order to push more conservatives to support the bill, Webb previously urged McCain "to get on the bill," saying it should not be considered a "political issue." Yet, McCain has been largely absent on the issue. ABC News reports that McCain instead "indicated he would offer some sort of alternative" to Webb's bill.

Think Fast

A new Washington Post/ABC News poll found that 70 percent of Americans disapprove of President Bush's handling of the economy, an all-time high for that poll. "Bush's overall rating stands at 33 percent, a percentage point above his all-time low in Post-ABC polling."

"At 39 months in the doghouse," President Bush has surpassed Harry Truman's record as “the postwar president to linger longest without majority public approval. Bush hasn't received majority approval for his work in office in ABC News/Washington Post polls since Jan. 16, 2005 — three years and three months ago. The previous record was Truman's during his last 38 months in office."

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld "is working on a memoir to be published by Penguin Group (USA) in 2010" and will donate proceeds to a non-for-profit foundation he founded. "His memoir will be released by Sentinel, a conservative imprint of Penguin." "This will be a story that will span my lifetime," Rumsfeld said.

Refugees International reports today that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government has "failed to support millions" of "internally displaced persons who are instead being aided by militias." The study found that, "with many displaced Iraqis living in poverty," Moqtada al-Sadr's militia group has become Iraq's "largest 'humanitarian' organization.'"

Eighty-three percent of Arabs have "an unfavorable view of the United States and 70 percent had no confidence in the superpower," according to a poll of six Arab countries, which also found that only "6 percent believed the US troop buildup in Iraq in the last year has worked."

"Some of the country's most prominent Jewish liberals are forming a political action committee and lobbying group aimed at dislodging what they consider the excessive hold of neoconservatives and evangelical Christians on U.S. policy toward Israel." The group "will fill a void" as a counterweight to the right-leaning American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

"Home foreclosure filings surged 57 percent in the 12 month-period ended in March and bank repossessions soared 129 percent from a year ago," according to real estate data firm RealtyTrac. "For the month of March, foreclosure filings, default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions rose 5 percent.'

And finally: On a section of John McCain's campaign website site called "Cindy's Recipes," you can find seven recipes attributed to Cindy McCain, each with the heading "McCain Family Recipe." The Huffington Post reports that at least three of the recipes are "word-for-word copies of recipes on the Food Network site."

Good News

"A multibillion-dollar loophole that would have helped conceal abuse of overseas contracts has been eliminated from a Bush administration proposal to protect taxpayer dollars," after an inquiry from Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT).

State Watch

FLORIDA: "Florida continues to be one of the leaders in the number of homes being repossessed by banks."

HEALTH CARE: "The American medical system is woefully unprepared for the flood of aging baby boomers."

ECONOMY: "As the economy sputters, states are taking extraordinary measures to help people keep food on the table."

Blog Watch

THINK PROGRESS: Right-wing video warns that "gay activists" are plotting to "take over the cities of America."

WONK ROOM: As Earth Day nears, White House pretends to take action on climate issues.

ATTACKERMAN: Even the Weekly Standard's Stephen Hayes thinks Iraq War architect Doug Feith's new memoir is "misrepresenting" the facts.

VF DAILY: The State Department resisted lifting Nelson Mandela's travel restrictions for years.

Daily Grill

"This administration anticipated these times."
-- President Bush, 4/14/08, on the recent economic downturn.

VERSUS

"[T]he economy's going to continue to grow."
-- Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, 1/8/08

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