Deteriorating Infrastructure, Exclusionary Secrecy, And Tax Cuts For The Wealthy Undermining Us All

States Feel Left Out Of Disaster Planning

If it isn't bad enough that our total infrastructure is in a dismal state of deterioration, now comes Bush and his gang of fascist thugs to propose even more tax cuts that will benefit the top 10% income earners in our nation, all the while spending trillions elsewhere, and cutting basis services and badly needed infrastructure upgrades in our own "homeland."

Once again we see how evil the secret manner in which Bush and company operate undermines our own integrity, general welfare, and national security.

A decision by the Bush administration to rewrite in secret the nation's emergency response blueprint has angered state and local emergency officials, who worry that Washington is repeating a series of mistakes that contributed to its bungled response to Hurricane Katrina nearly two years ago.

State and local officials in charge of responding to disasters say that their input in shaping the National Response Plan was ignored in recent months by senior White House and Department of Homeland Security officials, despite calls by congressional investigators for a shared overhaul of disaster planning in the United States.

"In my 19 years in emergency management, I have never experienced a more polarized environment between state and federal government," said Albert Ashwood, Oklahoma's emergency management chief and president of a national association of state emergency managers.

The national plan is supposed to guide how federal, state and local governments, along with private and nonprofit groups, work together during emergencies. Critics contend that a unilateral approach by Washington produced an ill-advised response plan at the end of 2004 -- an unwieldy, 427-page document that emphasized stopping terrorism at the expense of safeguarding against natural disasters.

Bruce Baughman, Ashwood's predecessor as president of the National Emergency Management Association and a 32-year veteran of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said that a draft of the revised plan released to state officials last week marks a step backward because its authors did not set requirements or consult with field operators nationwide who will use it to request federal aid, adjust state and county plans, and train workers.

Bush May Try to Cut Corporate Tax Rates: President Cites Need To Compete Globally

A careful study of our corporate tax rate--after all the loopholes, shelters, scams and frauds are taken into account--will reveal that the average tax paid by big corporations is 5% or less. The corporate tax rate is supposed to be 35%. If all the big businesses paid their fair share of taxes--the full 35%--we would be able to fund all of our infrastructure needs, all of our education needs, and all of our welfare needs without ever having to raid Social Security, privatize anything, or screw with the taxes of the average taxpayer. But that is not what this president, or anyone in Congress, really wants for us. They have all abandoned the principles embedded in our Constitution, and completely ignored the stated purposes of our government as laid out in the Preamble of our Constitution.

President Bush said yesterday that he is considering a fresh plan to cut tax rates for U.S. corporations to make them more competitive around the world, an initiative that could further inflame a battle with the Democratic Congress over spending and taxes and help define the remainder of his tenure.

Advisers presented Bush with a series of ideas to restructure corporate taxes, possibly eliminating narrowly targeted breaks to pay for a broader, across-the-board rate cut. In an interview with a small group of journalists afterward, Bush said he was "inclined" to send a corporate tax package to Congress, although he expressed uncertainty about its political viability.

The president's comments came as he tried to calm volatile stock and mortgage markets and reassure the country that the economy is fundamentally strong. Despite mounting concern over the downturn in the housing market, he dismissed proposals advanced by prominent Democrats to grant government-chartered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac more freedom to buy mortgages and mortgage-backed securities. And he ruled out any taxpayer bailout of lenders threatened by the subprime home-loan crisis.

But what is not being mentioned is that the banking industry and mortgage companies have done this to themselves through excessive valuation of real estate, usury in lending practices, and de facto redlining of prime real estate.

A good example of this is a piece of property my wife's aunt and uncle bought as a retirement place on East Lake in Holly Grove, Arkansas. Three years ago the property was assessed at $88,000. Most recently, despite the fact that the real estate market is suffering a severe downturn and banks are having trouble managing the mortgage market, the assessment was adjusted for increased value and improvements at $175,000.

Now, anyone that has traveled through most of Arkansas can attest, the housing market and property values down here are severely depressed and there is a lot of property that is vacant, dilapidated, and left for the tax man to auction off (the last auction notice newspaper for my neck of Arkansas had over 400 pieces of property for sale by the state assessor). So how is it that my wife's relatives have suffered almost a 100% increase in property value over three short years? The tax man, the bankers, and those that run the real estate processes in this nation are deliberately trying to price these "good" properties out of the hands of those that dare to use their meager life savings toward assuring their last few years won't be spent in abject poverty. But these real estate manipulators want this property to go to wealthier folks so they can all get a bigger cut of the pie when these properties are sold, assessed, improved, mortgaged, or subject of equity loans.

But none of the money garnered by these folks will be spent on improving our services, our infrastructure, or our lot in life... never mind national security or safety.

Meanwhile, the Enron-like fraud that David Sirota speaks to in his "Hostile Takeover" book continues to rape us all:

Bankruptcy Trustee Sues Big Investor in Refco

And corporate big wigs are allowed to pocket all kinds of money while subjecting workers to unsafe conditions, bilking of their retirement funds based on phony claims of corporate hardship, and a general screwing over of the American working stiff:

Collapse Is Latest Fight For Coal's Best Friend

And there is more proof that we working stiffs are not getting a fair deal:

Masters of the Economy

And of course our entire farming subsidy approach is skewed toward the big money, screwing over some of the hardest working stiffs in our nation: the small farmer:

The Farmer’s Nightmare?

Of course, we shouldn't blame just Bush and his GOP puppets, because the Democrats are just as busy buying into exclusion, secrecy, abandonment of principle and a general screwing over of the average American and the average American family.

Warrantless Surrender: Congress is Stampeded into Another Compromise of Americans' Rights

And, as we are always being told, our money is being well-spent in places other than the US:

Weapons Given to Iraq Are Missing: GAO Estimates 30% of Arms Are Unaccounted For

A genuine example of how the "war over there" is making it safer for us over here.