Bush Lied

From CNN’s Jack Cafferty. President Bush and top administration officials publicly made 935 false statements about the risk posed by Iraq in the two years following 9/11 according to a study done by two nonprofit journalism groups.

The study found President Bush led the pack with 260 lies, but he wasn’t alone. Other officials listed include: Vice President Dick Cheney, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, among others.

The study points to at least 532 times where officials said that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or was trying to get them or had links to al Qaeda. They say the statements “were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses.”

Here’s my question to you: What do you make of a study that shows President Bush and his top aides made 935 false statements about the threat from Iraq in the two years after 9/11?

SOD's response: No surprise. Anyone paying attention to Bush’s wooden rhetoric knows it’s peppered with distortions and nose growing falsehoods. It’s the famous Bush reality of which his advisors speak. Condi Rice is in Switzerland, telling the World Economic Forum about “American realism.” My guess is the audience simply wants her and her boss to just go away. But that could just be projection, otherwise known as my reality…

(Published here, but still awaiting CNN's approval some 18 hours later.)

Adults Acutely Feel U.S. Health Care's Non-System

The Centers for Disease Control published extremely low vaccination rates for adults despite widespread public attention the last few years for shots that prevent three diseases, shingles, whooping cough and cervical cancer.

Only about 2 percent of Americans ages 60 and older received a vaccine against shingles in its first year of sales.

About 2 percent of adults ages 18 to 64 got a booster shot against whooping cough in the two years since it hit the market. The force from coughing associated with this disease is strong enough to break a rib. (What do you see on that x-ray, Mr. President?)

About 10 percent of women ages 18 to 26 have received at least one dose of a three-shot series that protects against the human papillomavirus, or HPV, that causes cervical cancer.

The AP report said the main barrier couldn't be cost as people got vaccinated at the following rates for much cheaper shots. Among people 65 or older, a high-risk age, CDC found only 69 percent get an annual flu shot; just 66 percent have had a one-time pneumonia vaccine; and 44 percent had received a tetanus shot in the past 10 years.

I don't know who does the math at the AP but a 2-10% rate for vaccines ranging from $150 to $300 is much lower than 44-69% coverage for the less expensive shots. My flu shot cost around $25 with my insurance paying not one dime. With 47 million uninsured Americans and two thirds of those meeting the President's definition of low income (less than 200% FPL), it's easy to see why so few people received the recommended shots. It's another tribute to the U.S.'s health care nonsystem.

Republican Foot Dragging on Healthcare for Kids

Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said health care issues are divisive. Funny, I thought issues were issues. However, people's approach to them could be divisive. Take children's health insurance and taxing private equity fund mangers as recent examples.

Why won't Congress act to provide coverage for children as health insurance coverage becomes increasingly unaffordable for millions of working parents? Their "government run healthcare" rationale for denying expanded insurance doesn't bear out in reality. Most state CHIP plans are provided by private insurers. So what's the real reason?

It seems they don't want to ask others to pay their fair share, via taxes. Hospitals call the part of the bill not covered by insurance, patient responsibility. Instead of taxes, we should call our payments to the government, citizen's responsibility.

Who's not paying their fair share? Private equity managers pay 15% taxes on carried interest, vs. regular tax rates on income. While Congress debated this inequity, it choose to do nothing to correct the malformation in our tax code. Democrat Chuck Schumer helped block efforts to have rich PE managers pay their fair share.

An infamous private equity underwriter, The Carlyle Group, just announced the sale of affiliate CDM Resource Management for $655 million. The PEU purchased the company in May 2003 for $50 million, giving it a $605 million profit. Taxed at the old capital gains rate of 20%, Carlyle would pay $121 million to Uncle Sam. But with George W.'s lowering of the rate, the PEU will pay less than $91 million, an over $30 million savings. How many kids could be covered with those funds?

But will the Democrats really take on private equity? My Eight Ball just returned the verdict. Signs point to "no". The question is how long children will go without health coverage so the candidates can continue gorging at the campaign money trough?

State of the Same

It seems both political parties like to be seen with their high dollar supporters. Bob Johnson, BET founder, made the headlines recently with his dig on Barack Obama and subsequent apology. Bob attempted to support Hillary Clinton, but got carried away.

The news failed to mention billionaire Bob's joint venture deal with The Carlyle Group. It neglected to call him a "small business owner and community banker", like President George W. Bush did in fall of 2006.

Given his strong defense of Hillary, what is Mrs. Clinton's position on taxing private equity carried interest?

As for The Carlyle Group, co-founder David Rubenstein had to deal with protests during today's speech at Wharton. He defended allegations of layoffs at ManorCare by saying "we've only owned the company two weeks." Let's see what other healthcare companies had Carlyle owned two weeks when something catastrophic happened? That would be LifeCare, the hospital with the largest number of patient deaths from Hurricane Katrina.

David must be good at using that "only two week" excuse. One might expect failures at other Carlyle healthcare affiliates to be pertinent in considering future buyouts, but not in ManorCare's case. Even a reporter from the Toledo Blade said the 24 LifeCare deaths were out of bounds. The feds went 0 for 9 in responding to my concerns.

David's other defense was no one ever talks about the good private equity does, especially in growing jobs. The Private Equity Council is working hard to justify PEU managers keeping their preferred tax status on carried interest. They published a study showing the positive economic impact of private equity underwriters. Be sure to read the comment at the bottom of the Reuter's article on that very topic. So Mrs. Clinton, where do you stand on taxing carried interest as income?

You're Responsible for Your Own Violent Words

Oddly enough, I can no longer post soapbox commentaries on Congress.org under President Bush. Despite being a loyal multi-year purchaser of space under his name, I've been cut off. I can still post commentaries under my Congressional representatives, but access to George W.'s space has been rescinded. Darn, I wanted to add another post about The Carlyle Group's purchase of ManorCare. I'll have to post on the New York Time's Dealbook and Forbes instead.

Scotty Suggest?

Ex White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan dropped something yesterday, a tidbit from his new book holding key figures in the Executive branch accountable for his admitted bald faced lie on the CIA name leak. Today his publisher scrambled to clarify Scotty's position between lining up book orders from retailers. Mr. McClellan does not believe President Bush lied to him.

That leaves the public to conduct its own torturous process of elimination to ascertain the "guilty party". What if each suspect says he doesn't think another one lied? What if they each assert their peer's credibility in round robin fashion such that all are covered? That leaves the public shaking their head. Something bad happened, but there's no one to blame in this circle of smart fools.

Yesterday's morsel and today's clarification are simply loose words that can be spun virtually anyway one wants. How about getting the six under testimony and sort this thing out? Mr. Bush, McClellan, Cheney, Rove, Card and Libby "please, raise your right hand and try to avoid your ample proboscis."

New FEC Rules Mean More Inflammatory Ads

The Federal Elections Commission just released new rules allowing corporations and unions to pay for television commercials during the upcoming presidential and congressional campaigns, so long as the ads avoid expressly advocating for or against a candidate. These "issue ads" are expected to lower the level of the already lilting deck of America's electoral "Swift Boat."

One law professor already placed hypothetical "calls for action" on his blog. Rick Hasen said the new FEC language will provide a safe haven for groups that want to use "sham issue ads" to promote their candidate. Rest assured the ads will be plentiful and ugly. In a country where the ends justify the means, we just lowered our standards yet again. Should the FEC change its name to the Flatulatory Electoral Carnival? With all those noxious fumes, don't anybody light a match!

I've already cancelled cable and the newspaper. My guess is the internet isn't far behind...