Room for a View

NEWS & VIEWS
Short Takes, Updates & Calls to Action

Presidential Papers Sealed Forever?

Under the 1978 Presidential Records Act, the White House papers of former presidents are to be released to the public 12 years after the end of the president’s term of office, except for those withheld for reasons of national security or personal privacy. This was instituted after Nixon attempted to keep the public from knowing what was in his papers and tape recordings. Former President Reagan would be the first affected by the act.

But that act of Congress has apparently (and illegally, say some) been overturned by executive order. George W. Bush now says any sitting or former president has the power to veto the release of the papers... thus ensuring that the papers of every president from Reagan forward could be kept hidden from the public. Under Bush’s order, even a former president who wanted his papers made public could be overridden by a sitting president.

Some 68,000 pages of Reagan’s papers were supposed to be released in January 2001. The Bush administration delayed the release of Reagan’s papers three times, and now it appears they may remain sealed forever.

What is in Reagan’s papers that Bush doesn’t want revealed? Perhaps it has to do with former Reagan administration officials now working for Bush. Among them are Secretary of State Colin Powell, Budget Director Mitch Daniels Jr. and White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card. Perhaps there is something in the former president’s papers that would prove embarrassing to Bush, Sr. Perhaps there are untold details of the Iran-Contra affair.

We may never know.

—Todd Paul

All They Will Call You Will Be Deportees

illustration by carl welden

The Washington Post reported in mid-October that “an unknown number of men with Middle Eastern names” were being held in solitary confinement in Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center. Detained on suspicions of terrorism—or perhaps they were simply material witnesses?—these men had no contact with their families and limited access to an attorney. They were being held in eight-by-ten-foot cells, and were rousted every two hours for a headcount. A few who were released complained of abuse at the hands of guards.

The report highlights growing concerns about an unknown number of people detained on terrorism-related charges after September 11. Their names are not available to the public and no records exist to show why they were detained, but at least hundreds and perhaps thousands are believed to have disappeared into holding cells around the country.

Some may disappear more permanently. Under Bush’s new executive order, non-US citizens detained on terrorism-related charges may now be tried, convicted and executed by secret military tribunals—without the benefit of an attorney, without proof of their guilt, and without the public’s knowledge.

—TP

Terrorism Sparks Corporate Feeding Frenzy

In the wake of the September 11 attacks and the US economic downturn, the Bush administration proposed an economic stimulus package. Apparently, the administration’s idea of economic stimulus is to repeal and retroactively refund taxes for big corporations and oil companies.

The $212 billion package passed by the House (Senate Republicans want to raise this to $220 billion) would refund corporate taxes retroactively for 15 years. The biggest winner, IBM, would net $1.4 billion. Next in line: Ford, getting a $1 billion rebate, General Motors, with an $833 million rebate, and General Electric, getting $671 million.

The bill would also repeal the alternative minimum tax, meaning many corporations could avoid paying any income tax whatsoever in the future. This would cost the country over $12 billion in revenue next year alone.

Cuts would also benefit wealthy individuals. According to Citizens for Tax Justice, more than half of the tax cuts proposed by Senate Republicans for next year would go to the wealthiest one percent of all taxpayers, whose average tax cut in 2002 would be $33,843 each. By contrast, only six percent of the proposed 2002 tax cuts would go to the poorest three-fifths of taxpayers, whose average 2002 tax cut would be $67.

One interesting aspect of the giveaway—which, by the way, will be achieved by raiding Social Security—is how it benefits segments of the economy dear to the hearts of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

As New York Times columnist Paul Krugman noted in an October 31 editorial: “It’s not too surprising that calculations by Citizens for Tax Justice show General Motors, with its 380,000 workers, getting a check for $800 million. But it’s quite amazing that TXU (formerly Dallas Power and Light), a company with only 16,000 employees, would get a check for $600 million. And there are a number of medium-sized companies that, like TXU, are in line for surprisingly big benefits. These companies include ChevronTexaco, Enron, Phillips Petroleum, IMC Global and CMS Energy. What do they have in common?

“Well, they tend to be in the energy or mining businesses, and they tend to be based in or near Texas.”

They also tend to have donated heavily to Republicans in the most recent presidential election. In fact, more than $6.3 billion will be given to just 14 corporations that, over the last 10 years, have poured almost $15 million in soft money into the national committees of both parties. Evidently a sound investment.

In another column, dated November 11, Krugman argues that the retroactive tax cuts for the wealthy are just another example of an administration cynically using the September 11 attacks as a cover to push through a pre-existing agenda. Similarly, expect to see other Bush agenda items—the proposal to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, for example—revived as indispensable tools in the fight against terrorism.

Paul Krugman’s columns are available at www.nytimes.com. The Citizens for Tax Justice Web site is at www.ctj.org. The Web site of the US Senate, where the bill is currently being discussed, is www.senate.gov. To contact the government regarding the bill, go to www.moveon.org/warprofiteering.

—TP

Pin the Tail on the World Contest

In late January, as George W. Bush was about to celebrate his inauguration, the editors here at Chronogram started to wonder how our next president would attempt to legitimize himself and assert his presidential power. We realized that President Bush would most likely do exactly what his predecessors have done—go to war, rallying the country around the flag. In light of our conviction that the US would indeed go to war, we ran a contest in our February issue asking readers to guess what country the US would war upon, what rationale the Bush administration would use for the attack and when the war would begin. The contest contained a map of the world with a missile for a tail, inviting readers to pin the missile on our future foe.

In case you’ve forgotten, here’s what we wrote:
“The reign of the illegitimate has begun. What will George W. Bush do to consolidate his purloined power, having been installed by party hacks and Supreme Court justices on the payroll after the voters rejected him? We’re betting he’ll do the same thing any president does when the congress is divided, the economy is headed south and the people are threatening revolt—he’ll go to war.”

Following the publication of the February issue, we received a number of responses to our contest, which were dutifully filed away, to be tallied on the dread day we might actually go to war. After recovering from the tragic events of September 11, we remembered the contest, and sifted through the entries. Many of the entries prophesied that we would find our enemy in the Middle East; Iraq being the number one choice of respondents. To our amazement, however, we found one contestant who not only had picked the country we had gone to war against, but had also stated the reason why we would go to war.

Keagan Allen of Poughkeepsie sent us a map with the missile pointing directly at Afghanistan, with Afghanistan outlined in red marker. The reason Ms. Allen gave for our war against Afghanistan? “The Taliban government refuses to offer Osama bin Laden for trial.” Her prediction of when the war would begin, was, though not exact, damn close—only four months shy of the real thing. Her contest entry was eerily clairvoyant, precisely predicting the reason given by the Bush administration for our attack on Afghanistan.

For her efforts, Ms. Allen will receive a free year’s subscription of Chronogram, as well as a Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Donkey game.