Budgetary Deceit and America's Decline

Jeffrey Sachs
Huffington Post
July 23, 2011

. . . Obama's campaign promise to "change Washington" looks like pure bait and switch. There has been no change, but rather more of the same: the Wall-Street-owned Democratic Party as we have come to know it. The idea that the Republicans are for the billionaires and the Democrats are for the common man is quaint but outdated. It's more accurate to say that the Republicans are for Big Oil while the Democrats are for Big Banks. That has been the case since the modern Democratic Party was re-created by Bill Clinton and Robert Rubin.

Thus, at every crucial opportunity, Obama has failed to stand up for the poor and middle class. He refused to tax the banks and hedge funds properly on their outlandish profits; he refused to limit in a serious way the bankers' mega-bonuses even when the bonuses were financed by taxpayer bailouts; and he even refused to stand up against extending the Bush tax cuts for the rich last December, though 60 percent of the electorate repeatedly and consistently demanded that the Bush tax cuts at the top should be ended. It's not hard to understand why. Obama and Democratic Party politicians rely on Wall Street and the super-rich for campaign contributions the same way that the Republicans rely on oil and coal. In America today, only the rich have political power.

Obama could have cut hundreds of billions of dollars in spending that has been wasted on America's disastrous wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Yemen, but here too it's been all bait and switch. Obama is either afraid to stand up to the Pentagon or is part of the same neoconservative outlook as his predecessor. The real cause hardly matters since the outcome is the same: America is more militarily engaged under Obama than even under Bush. Amazing but true. . . .

Who runs America today? The rich and the multinational corporations. Who runs the White House? David Plouffe, whose job it is to make sure that ever word, every action of the president is calculated for electoral gain rather than the country's needs. Who runs the Congress, on both sides of the aisle? The lobbyists, who win in every negotiation. And who loses? The American people, who have said repeatedly that they want a budget that sharply cuts the military, ends the wars, raises taxes on the rich, protects the poor and the middle class, and invests in America's future not just in Obama's speeches but in fact.

America needs a third-party movement to break the hammerlock of the financial elites. Until that happens, the political class and the media conglomerates will continue to spew lies, American militarism will continue to destabilize a growing swath of the world, and the country will continue its economic decline.  Read more ...

Put 15 Million Back to Work Fixing $2.2 Trillion in Infrastructure: the Works Progress Administration

[NOTE: The Oregon Progressive Party (OPP) has become the first party in the nation to endorse the resurrection of the WPA (Works Progress Administration) as a major solution to hiring millions of the 15 million unemployed to work on the $2.2 trillion needed repairs on America's infrastructure.

The author of this article is Barbara G. Ellis, an OPP member. It appeared in TruthOut, a major internet new/analysis website dealing with progressive issues. The first third of the article involves the current spate of nationally known columnists strongly urging a WPA-II: Paul Krugman, former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, Bob Herbert, Rich Lowry, Michael Moore, and others. The middle third gives a brief history of the WPA and its accomplishments during the Great Depression. And the last third includes a suggested plan for the program to be implemented under the co-direction of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Navy’s Seabees (the construction batallion).

The Corps of Engineers directed the program throughout the 1935-43 period of the Great Depression. Some 8 million of the 25 million unemployed were WPA-ers, and almost every county in the nation were touched by the many programs under its umbrella, especially Oregon with the Bonneville Dam and Timberline Lodge, and Government Camp.

The full article is presented, if you click on its title above.]

by: Barbara G. Ellis Ph.D.
Truthout July 23, 2011

Perhaps all is not lost for the republic's economic future, even as its leaders let this nation hurtle toward the abyss of the Great Depression II. An immensely successful, sensible and practical solution is being signaled by increasingly thunderous shout-outs from prominent people: pundits Paul Krugman, Bob Herbert, Rich Lowry, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, filmmaker Michael Moore and two new web sites - not to mention millions of voters with long memories and the friends and families of the nation's 15,000,000 unemployed.

Their solution? Resurrect the phenomenally successful Works Progress Administration (WPA) of 1935-1943. It put food on the table, kept a roof overhead and put spending money in the pockets of nearly nine million jobless. They built everything from roads, bridges, dams and utility systems to schools and hospitals. They staffed libraries and taught more than a million adults and 90,000 draftees how to read.     Read more at Truthout...

They discuss the alleged troop "withdrawal" from Afghanistan, the state of the economy, and the need to amend the U.S. Constitution to negate corporate personhood. http://www.veoh.com/watch/v21059286ezpWGkD5

Oregon Senate Bill 408: The rise and fall of rational law

Steve Duin, The Oregonian
June 26, 2011

Once upon a time, a group of thoughtful and motivated people gathered in the state capitol and conspired to do something good.

They were met with understandable skepticism. Their plan did not cater Oregon's utilities. It did not reward the biggest campaign contributors. It was not carefully scripted by the usual lobbyists.

The lone beneficiaries of this work group? Utility ratepayers.

Between 1998 and 2005, Portland General Electric customers were charged $750 million in state and federal taxes that were never paid to the taxing authorities.

Those millions ended up, instead, in the pocket of Enron, which owned PGE. The scam was incredibly lucrative, and one of the main reasons Texas Pacific employed Neil Goldschmidt and Tom Walsh in its failed attempt to buy the utility.

In 2005, the tax dodge was ended by a group that included Dan Meek, Ann Fisher, Bob Jenks, Melinda Davison and two Democratic state senators, Rick Metsger and Vicki Walker.

They were determined, indignant, inventive. Their solution -- Senate Bill 408 -- ordered utilities to turn over the amount billed as taxes to the government or return that money to the ratepayers.

The fix was so obvious it passed the Legislature on an 84-6 vote. It yielded immediate results.

PGE ratepayers received a $40 million refund. Northwest Natural customers paid $12 million more in taxes because the friendly neighborhood utility earned more than its authorized rate of return. PGE actually began paying state income taxes.

Then your 2011 Legislature came along and blew the plan to hell.    Read more ...

On Friday, June 17, the Oregon House of Representatives voted 54-5 to reject SB 270A, the bill to limit fines for failure to report campaign contributions and/or expenditures to $5,000 for all violations occurring in any month, regardless of the number of violations or the amount of money not disclosed.

This was a victory for the Oregon Progressive Party, the Independent Party of Oregon, and Fair Elections Oregon, which were the only 3 organizations opposing SB 270A (which had passed the Oregon Senate by a vote of 29-0 before we heard about it).

We thank former Senator Rick Metsger for making his views known to House members on the eve of the vote. We also thank the members who spoke against the bill on the floor, including Bill Kennemer, Greg Matthews, Mary Nolan, Chris Harker, Brian Clem, Jeff Barker, and Carolyn Tomei. Jefferson Smith and his staff also worked to defeat this bill.

    Read more ...

Oregon House will vote on capping fines for campaign finance violations
Jeff Mapes
June 14, 2011

SALEM -- Oregon legislators are nearing a final vote on a bill that could dramatically lower the potential penalties that lawmakers – and other political candidates -- face for violating campaign finance reporting laws.

Senate Bill 270, which is nearing the last legislative step of passage on the House floor, would cap potential fines at $5,000 a month for any and all reporting violations. Under current law, each violation can be subject to a fine of as much as 10 percent of the dollar amount of the transaction, which could result in vastly larger penalties.    Read more at The Oregonian ...

Click on the cartoon for a much bigger image.

In a message to leaders of the Oregon House of Representatives, the State Council of the Oregon Progressive Party reiterated its absolute opposition to SB 270A, which remains in the House Rules Committee.  The bill would allow any candidate or political committee to avoid reporting any of its campaign contributions received during an entire month, upon payment of a single fine of only $5,000. It would destroy Oregon's campaign finance reporting system, allowing big money contributors to avoid disclosing their identities . . . ever.     Read more ...

The Governor has signed SB 967, which repeals SB 408 (2005), thus restoring the system that allowed regulated electric and gas utilities in Oregon to charge ratepayers over $1 billion for for phony "income taxes" that the utilities actually did not pay. SB 967 repeals the prohibition on utilities' charging ratepayers for "income taxes" that the utilities in fact do not pay.

The Utility Reform Project, Independent Party of Oregon, Oregon Progressive Party, and many Oregon citizens asked the Governor to veto SB 967.

Governor Kitzhaber has until Wednesday (tomorrow) to sign or veto SB 967, which abolishes ratepayer protection against phony income tax charges.

David Cay Johnston, the Pulitzer Prize-winning former financial writer for the New York Times, called this specific bill:

SB 967 repeals a 2005 law (SB 408) that prohibits regulated utilities from charging ratepayers for federal, state, and local "income taxes" that in fact were not paid to any unit of government by the utility.  Senator Vicki Walker (D Eugene), the primary sponsor of the 2005 law, stated at its enactment:

For several years, the large electricity and gas utilities regulated by the Oregon Public Utility Commission have been charging to Oregon ratepayers hundreds of millions of dollars for "state income taxes" and "federal income taxes" that in fact have not been paid to any government. Currently, the best available estimate of these charges to Oregon ratepayers is $150 million per year."

Between 1998 and 2006, Portland General Electric (PGE) charged Oregon ratepayers over $750 million for such never-paid income taxes.

The OPUC Commissioners fully supported these phony charges, and SB 967 allows this outrageous practice to resume.

For additional information to include in your message, see the IPO Letter to Governor Kitzhaber and the Dan Meek Testimony to the Legislature.

Legislators scrap law on taxing ratepayers

A new bill readdresses the taxes that utilities actually pay versus the taxes they pass on to their customers

Note: This article is not available online at The Oregonian.

By TED SICKINGER
May 14, 2011

After a six-year fight over a law to prevent utilities from charging ratepayers for taxes that the utilities don't pay, the Legislature has punted the issue back to utility regulators.

Senate Bill 967, passed by the Legislature on Thursday, gets rid of a complicated annual tax true-up that resulted in a surcharge or refund to ratepayers based on whether regulators determined that the utility had overcollected or undercollected from ratepayers to cover its tax bill. Instead, taxes will go back to being part of standard rate cases. The bill directs the Oregon Public Utility Commission to analyze all tax benefits, liabilities and credits, as well as a utility's corporate structure and tax payment history when setting utility rates.

The bill also directs the PUC to consider the effect of any merger on utility taxes.

The bill, if signed by the governor, effectively kills Senate Bill 408, which was passed in 2005 to protect ratepayers from phantom taxation. OPUC commissioner Susan Ackerman said she believes the new rate case treatment of taxes will achieve the original intent in a cleaner fashion. "We learned so much about the complications of federal tax law that we almost have a different staff," she said. "They will bring that knowledge to bear" during rate cases.

It was the PUC's implementation of SB 408, as much as the law itself, that generated so much controversy in subsequent years. Dan Meek, a Portland area lawyer who was instrumental in pushing the original legislation, said Friday that the original idea was to reduce the PUC's discretion to allow utilities to charge ratepayers for phony taxes. The PUC opposed the bill, he said, then sabotaged the law by adopting a methodology to calculate utilities' tax liabilities that was neither transparent nor confirm-able.

"What this bill does is once again give the PUC discretion to allow utilities to charge ratepayers for phony income taxes," Meek said. "I don't see any reason to expect them to be any different than they were in 2005 and earlier. This is a victory for utilities and a defeat for ratepayers."    Read more ...

Jane Mayer on the Obama war on whistle-blowers - In a must-read article, the New Yorker documents Obama's war on whistle-blowers, and growing legacy [Glenn Greenwald]

The always-expanding bipartisan Surveillance State - Three events of the last 24 hours demonstrate how individual privacy is destroyed while government secrecy grows [Glenn Greenwald]