The Blue State

Cartoon: All Tricks, No Treats

(By Andrew Wahl, The Wenatchee World, Offthewahl.com)

Sorry it is one day late.

Iraq Roundup: Frist advises GOP candidates to stop talking about war

On the same day as more violence erupted all across Iraq, Senator Majority Leader Bill Frist gave Tennessee Senate candidate Bob Corker and the rest of his party some campaign advice:

"The challenge is to get Americans to focus onpocketbook issues, and not on the Iraq and terror issue," Frist said inan interview with the Concord Monitor on Tuesday.

Tennessee state term limits are forcing the U.S. Senator to retire.  His Senate seat will be replaced by the winner of the race between Republican Bob Corker and Democrat Harold Ford.

Meanwhile, over at the White House, the President wasn't paying attention to Frist's strategy advice.  He told reporters that the violence is "a serious concern to me," and said it is time to change tactics.  However, he did not way whether or not his Administration would enact the strategy advice from the Baker Commission, which reports its findings conveniently after the election.  Many retired military analysts favor a change in policy.

There were a number of security incidents all across Iraq today.  Here they are:

 

TAL AFAR - A bombkilled three Iraqi soldiers and wounded three others as they entered ahouse in the northern town of Tal Afar, 420 km (260 miles) northwest ofBaghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol wounded twopolicemen in the Christian neighborhood of Camp Sara of Baghdad, anInterior Ministry source said.

DIWANIYA - A grenade thrown at ahouse wounded four people in the southern city of Diwaniya, 180 km (112miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

DIWANIYA - Gunmen wounded a policeman in Diwaniya, police said.

MAHMUDIYA- The bodies of four people, bound and gagged, were found in the townof Mahmudiya, in an area dubbed the Triangle of Death south of Baghdad,police said.

YUSUFIYA - A mortar round killed a man and wounded three others in Yusufiya, 15 km (9 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD- A raid backed by U.S. air strikes killed four people and wounded 20in Shi'ite Sadr City district of Baghdad, the government said, in anoperation the U.S. military said was targeted at a death squadcommander.

Lastly, an audit released today by the inspector general reveals that half of all US taxpayer money given to contractors has gone to pay for administrative costs, not actual building work.

Estate tax cut: No estates under $3.5 million would benefit

Bill Frist's estate tax cut for the very rich is a shame.  According to a study from The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, 43% of that tax cut would go to estates with values of $20 million or greater.  In total, no one with an estate worth less than $3.5 million would get a dime from this tax cut.

Why is an estate tax cut so much more important to Bill Frist than a minimum wage hike?  That was a rhetorical question.  Frist is paying back the super lobbyists that have been supporting him all these years, making darn sure they will continue to support him when he run for president.
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Other sites blogging about this issue: Daily National news, Random Musings, Mutualist Blog, TPM Cafe, The Ford Report, Left of Calvary, Pink Dome, Progressive Thinking, Americablog, Grouchy's Liberaltopia, Economist's View.

Senate Democrats continue to stand firm on Paris Hilton tax

We all know that the Democrats have tried for the last six years to pass a minimum wage hike.  In June, Republicans blocked such legislation from even coming up for a vote.  Now, with the possibility of the Democrats taking back the House and Senate becoming more real, the Republicans are reversing course.  But there's a twist.  Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist unveiled a minimum wage bill that also included a repeal of the estate tax on the richest Americans.  There was some worry that if the Democrats opposed such a measure those inside organized labor would flip out.

But after the Democrats stood firm late last night and rejected the bill, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney understood why it needed to be done:

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said the proposed estate taxreduction, estimated to cost hundreds of billions of dollars,would have led to cuts in health care, food stamps and othergovernment benefits and "end up hurting the very same peoplethat a minimum wage increase is supposed to help."

Republican Senator Charles Grassley admitted that Bill Frist's legislation was pretty stupid:

"The bottom line is that we bet on the wrong horses,'' saidFinance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican.  "Maybe we should've taken a bet that was more likely to payoff.''

But Bill Frist still tried to spin it as a Democratic Party attack on working Americans:

Frist countered that the failed package was "important to millions ofhard working Americans." And he said the "death tax" on inheritedwealth has meant "90 percent of family businesses do not survive thatthird generation" because they cannot afford the taxes or the cost offinding tax shelters.

Because the Democrats only developed a spine very recently, it doesn't surprise me that Bill Frist thinks he can get away with a comment like that.  It is factually inaccurate that the estate tax, or the death tax as he calls it, causes 90% of third-generation family businesses to go under.  Why?  The estate tax only affects the richest 2% of all American households.  Removing the tax would only increase the division between the wealthiest Americans and everyone else.

Let me put it in perspective.  Thirty years ago, the richest 1% owned one-fifth of America's wealth.  Today, the top-1% own one-third.  Eliminating this estate tax is just part of Bill Frist's effort to empower the already powerful.  Illinois Senator Dick Durbin (D) alluded to the same idea immediately after the vote:

"They (Republicans) can get 6.6 million Americans an increase in theirbasic minimum wage as long as we promised that the fattest of cats inAmerica would get a great big bowl of tax cuts," said Sen. RichardDurbin of Illinois, the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate.

I would like to see the Democrats reintroduce their own minimum wage bill once again, which unlike the Frist legislation does not include a tax cut for people like Paris Hilton.

The minimum wage and Paris Hilton do not go together

The Democrats want to raise the minimum wage.  The Republicans want to repeal the estate tax.  Bill Frist's latest tactic to get the estate tax passed shows just how connected he and his party is to the wealthiest lobbyists on Capitol Hill.  The Senate Majority Leader is telling Democrats that the only way a minimum wage hike will pass the Senate is if a repeal of the estate tax is part of the bill (morphing two unrelated bills into one).  Keep in mind that the estate tax affects only the richest 1% of estates.  And repealing it would add $1 trillion to the National Debt between 2012 and 2021.

In order to satisfy their big donors, the Republicans Senate leadership has been fighting hard for the last few months to do away with the estate tax, or what many refer to as the Paris Hilton tax.  Democratic Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid summed it up best:

"The only road to legislative heaven in this Republican-dominated Congress is to repeal the estate tax," he said.

So what do the Democrats do?  Should they continue to allow themselves to get bullied around by the GOP Senate majority?  Or do they vote it down?  If the Democrats vote against this bill, then the Republicans can come back and say that the Democrats were against the minimum wage being increased.  See the tactic!

I think it's a toss-up either way.  It's hard to support a measure that would add to the National Debt.  On the same token, a few incumbent Democratic Senators up for reelection might be put on the hot seat by their constituents if they oppose a measure that would raise the minimum wage for the first time since 1997.  Regardless, this is a sick tactic on the part of Bill Frist.  You'd think that because Frist is retiring from the Senate this year, he would want to leave with some integrity.
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Other blogs writing about Bill Frist: Americablog, The Carpetbagger Report, Hotline, Daily Kos, Wonkette, Political Translator, At Home, Not So Humble, Angry Bear, Volunteer Voters, Left Word, Political News.

Bill Frist fools Iowans on health care

In his last year as Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist took a trip to Iowa over the weekend as he pondered a possible 2008 presidential bid.  The doctor-turned-Republican Senator focused on the affordability of health care, which he considers to be his number one strength.

While speaking in front of Iowans, he claimed to be an advocate of lower health care costs:

"If we can't address that (health care) thataffects our global competitiveness ... we are in real trouble," Fristsaid at a forum on the topic with several prominent physicians andhealth care executives and Iowa GOP House candidate Mike Whalen.

Bill Frist, as is the case with others in politics, correctly relates health care costs to our ability to compete in that sector worldwide.

But if the Iowans who attended that speech took a good look at Bill Frist's health care record in the Senate, then they probably would have had looks of disgust on their faces while listening to him.  Back in 1996, Frist opposed medical savings accounts.  In 1999, Frist voted against a bill that would have guaranteed a patient's bill of rights.  In 2000, he voted no on a bill that would have established a prescription drug program through the Medicare Health Insurance Program.  In 2005, Frist even opposed a measure to allow the government to negotiate with drug manufacturers to ensure the best possible prices for consumers.  And just this year, as seniors groups nationwide begged the President to have the Medicare enrollment deadline extended, Frist opposed it.

Even though he consistently votes against the interests of patients, he does stick his neck out for other lawmakers.  In October of 2004, he used his Senate office as a make-shift clinic to give his colleagues flu shots.  This was during the same year that the country faced a severe shortage of flu vaccines.

As most of us know, part of the problem with health care costs being so high is that median wages are so low.  I bet you know where I am going with this one!  Frist opposes a minimum wage increase, while at the same time advocating for a repeal of the estate tax that only impacts the richest 0.5% of the country.

So please, if you are a health care voter, please think twice before listening to this man spin his record on health care.  It is a dismal one!

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Other blogs writing about the Republicans and their record on Health Care: Entertainment News, This side of the railroad tracks, The Examined Life, Dos Centavos, The Future was Yesterday, Democratic Governors Association, Steve Sailer Sucks, Politics in Mudville, Cato-at-Liberty, State of the Division, Confined Space, Equality for Feingold.

Wednesday Editorial: More politics than science for GOP

The embryonic stem cell bill, which passed the House last year and cleared the Senate yesterday, will be vetoed by President Bush.  To this day, the President has yet to veto one spending bill.  Many ask why the first veto of the Bush Administration has to be one against science?  To some in the scientific community, it is like a slap in their face and a rejection of the hope that lives could be saved by embryonic stem cell treatment.

In my view, Bush's stance has even more to do with politics.  Ever since 2004, the year Bush heavily pandered to the Evangelical community, I have said that Bush is a Rovean first, a supply-side big-business conservative second, and a religious man third.  Try telling me that I'm wrong about that now!  You find out that I am right by contrasting his policy decisions every even election year with policy decisions every odd election year.  This guy must think of religious conservatives as short-term thinkers, who allow themselves to be betrayed until an election is right around the corner, and then take the President at his word when he panders to them for five straight month months.  This election season, Evangelical Christians have a great opportunity to show this President that they know he is not one of them, and that one veto will not win their votes.

But honestly, I think Bush's tactic may work.  The Democrats have done much more of a poor job exposing the Republicans this week on the stem cell issue than they did one month ago when they were at the top of their game on issues like gay marriage, flag burning and the estate tax.  Maybe it has something to do with all the Middle East coverage.

In any event, for almost every Republican leader, it is political.  Bill Frist probably thinks that by this embryonic stem cell bill all of us will forget when he runs for president about his video diagnosis of Terry Schiavo back in 2005. 

President Bush is vetoing the bill because Karl Rove is betting on more single-issue conservative voters showing up to vote on election day than affluent conservatives who support embryonic stem cell research. 

Rick Santorum is probably the most political of them all.  Trailing his Democratic Senate challenger by a long shot, Santorum voted against the embryonic bill, but wrote his own bill, which passed, that allows basically every other kind of stem cell funding.  In other words, he is now able to take credit for authoring a stem cell bill even though he voted against the one that really mattered.

It's all politics with these guys, and no solutions for tomorrow.  Is this the party you want running Congress?

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Other blogs writing about this issue: Daily Kos, The Democratic Daily, Crooks and Liars, Media Matters, The Reaction, Democrats.com, Brian Patton, Political Forecast, Cake or Death, Faithful Progressive, All Network Posts, Wot is it Good 4, Truth Dig, Maine Democrats, The Next Left, Science Blogs, Swing State Project.

Frist is getting desperate

Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist was hoping to end his last term as a U.S. Senator in a way that would put him in the best position possible to run for president in 2008.  His agenda included immigration, gay marriage, flag burning and the estate tax.  As of this moment, he is 0 for 3 -- following yesterday's defeat of a constitutional amendment against flag burning, which failed by one vote.

With the estate tax repeal the only thing left on his agenda, Frist knows that he had better get this one through.  The vote was supposed to take place yesterday, until Senate Majority Leader Frist realized that he did not have the necessary votes.  He is now looking for support among some Democrats to get the 60 votes that are needed:

Senate Majority Leader Bill Fristpostponed a vote on a measure to exempt most multimillionairesfrom federal estate taxes after conceding Republicans lack thevotes to pass legislation adopted by the House last week.                

The delay is the third since Frist began his quest to repealor reduce the tax last year and the second time this month hisambitions were thwarted by Democrats who say the government needsthe revenue generated by the tax. The House passed thelegislation 269-156 on June 22 after Frist urged it to act beforethe Independence Day recess next week.

``The Senate will vote on a permanent reduction to thistax,'' Frist said in a statement. ``The vast majority of myDemocratic colleagues have so far refused to address this issue;it's my hope that their constituents will use the upcoming recessto explain the importance of supporting a reasonable andpermanent solution to this unfair tax.''

Actually, their constituents are wondering about the skyrocketing National Debt, which is nothing more than a birth tax on young and unborn Americans.  Repealing this tax on multimillionaires will add $1 trillion to the National Debt over the next ten years.  Maybe we should do our children and our children's children a favor by not adding to it.  Just a thought.

It is still unknown whether Democratic Senators will cave in and support Frist's legislation to repeal the estate tax.  If they do, you can bet that they will be exposed.

Just a side note: Warren Buffet, who announced that he will be donating $30 billion to the Bill Gates charity, said yesterday that a repeal of the estate tax would be offensive to the American tradition of meritocracy.

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Other blogs writing about this: Vox Verax, Jarrett House North, J-Dub!, Paul Krugman Archive.

GOP 0 for 2 this week

While the mainstream media was salivating over the great news that Abu Musab al Zarqawi was killed in a spectacular use of force by the U.S. military, the Senate was busy debating whether or not to repeal the estate tax -- a tax that affects only five out of every 1,000 people nationwide (that's only 0.5% of the country, for those of you scoring at home!).  The repeal would have added more than $1 trillion to the National Debt, or in other words add to the birth tax of future generations.

The measure required 60 votes to end the filibuster.  The Republicans could only muster as much as 57 votes.  So the measure was rejected today.

A repeal of the estate tax and a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage are the two top priorities for the Republican-controlled Senate before the summer recess.  This week, both measures failed: putting their current batting average at .000 (0 for 2).  Good luck trying to find a contract with voters this November!

Bill Frist presses hard to increase birth tax

After helping President Bush push to the Senate an amendment that would ban gay marriage, Republican Majority Bill Frist plans to move onto what his party believes is the second most important issue facing the nation: upper class tax relief.  The estate tax, which only affects 2% of estates, adds more than $2 trillion in revenue to the U.S. Treasury.  The Republicans call this "the death tax," and want to repeal it immediately.  Such a repeal would add to the national debt, therefore increasing what young people call "the birth tax."  But Frist sees it differently:

Opponents of the estate tax, which is levied by the federal governmenton wealth of more than $2 million, say Thursday's Senate vote is allabout repealing an onerous levy they have dubbed the "death tax."

"It is said that the only certain things in life are death and taxes,but when Ben Franklin coined that phrase, he surely didn't envisionbeing taxed after death," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.,said in a statement. "Yet this is exactly what the death tax does."

If Congress makes full repeal of the estate tax permanent, about $1trillion would be added to the nation's current national debt of $8.36trillion over 10 years.

I know that it is easy for the GOP to tax those that have not been born yet, especially since they will not anymore votes for his party this November.  But thinking about the future is a rational thing to do every now and then.

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