Tag Archives: George W. Bush

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Getting the facts straight on regulation

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 a Bloomberg News analysis found that the Obama administration has passed fewer regulations than George W. Bush had at this point in his presidency — and on top of that, they’ve come at far lower costs to the economy than the annual high mark for regulatory costs set by the first President Bush, or regulatory costs in President Reagan‘s last year for that matter.

It’s funny, because a favorite theme from Republicans these days is that the President is passing an exorbitant number of regulations at crippling costs. John Boehner has said it’s “misguided” for the President to be “imposing so many new rules with such enormous costs.” Rep. Eric Cantor has said President Obama should “reevaluate his position on regulations.”

This news kind of makes all those claims about “job-crushing government regulations” seem like what they are: political talking points with no basis in the truth.

Let’s take a quick look at what this administration has actually done regulation-wise:

— President Obama has taken huge steps to reduce regulatory burdens and costs, and to make regulations more transparent. He signed a landmark executive order requiring agencies to develop tools to cut ineffective, burdensome regulations; issued a memorandum directing agencies to provide taxpayers with easy, comprehensive access to regulatory information; and has, for the first time ever, required those agencies to actually engage with the folks who would be affected by a potential regulation before they propose it.

— This administration has made it a priority to do away with the burdens of unnecessary regulations. So far during this administration’s tenure, tens of millions of hours of regulation-related paperwork have been eliminated, saving businesses hundreds of millions in related costs. And the President initiated a plan to roll back hundreds of burdensome, unnecessary regulations – all told, this overhaul will save businesses more than $10 billion in the next five years. An example of one of the regulations getting cut? An EPA regulation defining milk as an “oil.” This change is going to save the dairy industry $1.4 billion in the next decade.

— The regulations that the President has put in place have filled gaps, closed loopholes, and protected taxpayers. Wall Street reform closed the regulatory gaps that allowed banks to grow “too big to fail” in the first place. And it puts consumer protections in place to make sure financial institutions can’t continue the deceptive and abusive practices of the past — shifting interest rates, unfair late fees, and other hidden charges.

Here’s what it comes down to: This administration is in favor of smart regulations that protect middle-class families and consumers, and against burdensome ones that don’t do anything but waste time and taxpayers’ money.

And this campaign is committed to spreading the truth — not baseless attacks. So help us do just that: Get the word out about how wrong Republicans are on the President’s regulatory record.

Share this article on Twitter: http://my.barackobama.com/Bloomberg-Analysis-TW

Or, just forward this email.

Thanks,

Jen

Jen O’Malley Dillon
Deputy Campaign Manager
Obama for America

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TGIF &some News …and locked out of twitter


just another rant

Unless you have been living under a rock, you know that the Supreme Court will hear the HCR Affordable Health Care Law during the Presidential Election Campaign2012. The Supreme Court will have the responsibility of deciding if HCR merits or meets the constitutionality rules policies and procedures under what we all hope to be based on the favorable outcomes from the lower courts, compassion of what the new law will provide, healthy debate yet unbiased opinions with a strong use of the facts . Unfortunately, the big news is not that more people have an opportunity to be covered, people under 26 can be covered under parents insurance, or that the awful rule about pre-conditions will be no more least we forget HCR is also a JOBs bill. The fact that HCR enrollment will increase by 30million, which is a whole lot more people to serve and all those who do, will be cashing in as well as employing many more Americans. The fact is more Teapublicans, which includes Washington State’s AG McKenna; who happens to be running for Governor other current Governors some in the midst of recall efforts and Teapublican leaders of Congress are still challenging HCR. Though reports and or polls from MSM state most Americans do not want HCR they, if given the details of HCR like it.  The poeple in Massachuetts did not like their Universal Health Care at first but after awhile 80% did and do not want to repeals theirs.  The fact is …the law is so similar to the Massachusetts because then Governor Romney‘s staff helped formulate it. While Romney and his fellow Teapublicans keep stating they want to repeal health care reform even after three years of debate, stalling, and refusal to cooperate; the hcr Bill passed and is the new law of the land. It is not lost on most … well, now anyway, that Teapublicans will do and say just about anything to set themselves apart from the President of the US; even as offensive as it is they continue to push forward on the McConnell mission which is to make President Obama a one term President. I have to say as a voter the first Mission is to get America back on track though McConnell has tunnel vision gotta hope it all backfires with a sudden burst of Sanity Please just like in 2008 when we all faced the idea of a Palin/McCain in the White House. The current group of Teapublicans running for President of the US of A are far from being qualified almost amusing though scary considering what they say they have to offer. If you have been watching and or listening to the crap coming from Teapublican lawmakers in Congress it is obvious Party and Profit over People is a pledge they took and little room for compromise. The facts regarding HCR have been twisted turned and avoided by most Teapublicans and unfortunately, some of my fellow Americans believe the noise coming from the right, frankly, Teapublicans would rather fight moving into the 21st Century while attempting to bring the President down than help others and our economy by bringing down the cost of health care/insurance. The problem we have was not created by the current President yet these Corporatists are still trying to convince their supporters that big government equals the sitting President. It is with great sadness that there are so many of our fellow Americans drinking the kook-aid because the best example of big government was during the house of Bush and the lack of regulation which really means the people hired to do their jobs …did not. The economy slipped into a ditch created by the spending that Bush did and if anyone is willing to listen… the facts the truth is a close as your nose. Then President43 did not pay for the 2wars President Obama has to draw down or those bush tax bonus $$ and left an incredible deficit hole that has yet to be fixed; while it is true that the solution was to throw money at it and most economists believe it had to be done. There was not only a problem with how much money to throw but like all legislation on the Hill since President Obama took office and most if not all efforts were blocked, changed, scaled down or nasty amendments attached to great bills that no one could vote for in good consciousness. The idea that we keep the status quo is to say nothing needs to be changed but what better time is it than now to improve upon a system that has long been broken. If not now when and what better group than Democrats to fix the problems… because Republicans are proving on a daily basis that not only are they fiscally irresponsible they also practice overt class warfare, exclusion and some might say the current words are laced with hate and or racism …

Other News …

Lawmakers Look at Drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

NASA Leaders Testify on Future of Human Space Exploration

President Obama Addresses Australian Parliament

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi Weekly Legislative Briefing

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) Weekly Legislative Briefing

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The end of the Iraq war


President Obama announced that by the year’s
end, our servicemen and women currently in Iraq will all be home, and
the Iraq war will end. This is a historic moment that so many have been
working toward for years. Watch the video of the President’s message—and
then pass this news on.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Don’t Let Congress Cut the Lights on Energy Efficiency


Congress is threatening to roll back a key energy efficiency victory our movement won in 2007. The “BULB Act” (H.R. 2417) attacks standards that would require new light bulbs to acheive higher efficiency levels – and it may reach a VOTE as early as Monday.

The BULB Act will COST American households $100 to $200 every year in missed energy savings. The bill’s sponsors claim that the lighting efficiency standard is an outright ban on incandescent bulbs. On the contrary, advanced incandescents meet efficiency standards and they have created 2,000 new American jobs.

H.R. 2417 is simply a lose-lose-lose proposition for America. It will COST us money, kill green jobs, and pollute our air. Please, use your influence to stop the attacks on this fundamental energy efficiency mandate. Write your Senators and Representative, speak out against the BULB Act.

Tell Congress to Protect the Cost Saving Light Bulb Efficiency Standard – Strike Down the BULB Act

Passage of the BULB Act will result in 100 million tons of unnecessary global warming pollution per year – the equivalent of putting 17 million additional cars on the road. The missed energy savings will cost Americans $12 billion every single year.

In 2007, light bulb efficiency standards passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, and with backing from the lighting industry. Even George W. Bush supported these energy saving measures.

If Congress pulls away from this fundamental efficiency mandate, WE will foot the bill and our planet will suffer the consequences. Please send a letter Congress today, advocating a NO vote on the BULB Act.

Send a Message to Congress Opposing the Threat to Light Bulb Efficiency Standards

We expect a vote on Monday, please send your letter today. Let’s make some noise and protect our planet!

Kathleen Rogers
President, Earth Day Network

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Terrorism: The End of an Era of Fear


Nearly ten years ago, on September 11, 2001, the United States suffered the worst terror attack in our history, as terrorists hijacked commercial airliners and used them to attack several targets, including the World Trade Center in New York City. Since that day, the primary suspected mastermind of those attacks, al Qaeda‘s Osama Bin Laden, had been at large. Despite promises by former President George W. Bush to capture or kill this terrorist leader, Bin Laden successfully evaded the United States and its allies. Last night, during a well-executed covert operation, the United States killed Bin Laden in a mansion he was housed in located right outside the Pakistani capital of Islamabad. The death of the terrorist leader marks the end of a decade-long search for the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. Additionally, it should serve as a bookend to the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, both of which were launched at least partly with the stated goal of rooting out Bin Laden and his al Qaeda allies. With the proper leadership, Bin Laden’s death could mark the end of an era where the threat of terrorism was viewed anachronistically as the all-consuming threat used to justify unnecessary conflict and the degradation of civil liberties.

A LONG SEARCH: Although Bin Laden gained most of his notoriety from the 9/11 attacks, he actually had been sought even before those events for his role in the bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa, the attack on the U.S.S. Cole, and the first attack on the World Trade Center. Following the 9/11 attacks, President George W. Bush failed to capture him in Afghanistan — as even his administration conceded that they failed to capture Bin Laden at the battle of Tora Bora — and later started a war in Iraq that mis-directed U.S. resources to an unnecessary and disastrous war. Just six months after 9/11, Bush was already telling people that he “doesn’t spend that much time” on seeking Bin Laden. The Weekly’s Standard’s Fred Barnes reported in 2006 that the president told him “Bin Laden doesn’t fit with the administration’s strategy for combating terrorism.” Yet yesterday a number of major conservatives gave Bush praise anyway. Former Bush advisor Karl Rove said that “the tools that President Bush put into place — GITMO, rendition, enhanced interrogation, the vast effort to collect and collate this information — obviously served his successor quite well.” Heritage Foundation President Edwin Feulner wrote that “Bin Laden’s elimination vindicates U.S. strategy in the region, started under President George W. Bush.” On September 10, 2010, President Obama told a reporter at a news conference that “capturing or killing bin Laden and Zawahiri would be extremely important to our national security.”

HIDING IN A MANSION: While many expected the terrorist leader to be hiding out in a cave in Afghanistan or in the northwest provinces of Pakistan, U.S. forces and intelligence assets actually found Bin Laden to be residing in a mansion compound in Abbotabad, Pakistan, which is located approximately 75 miles from the capital city of Islamabad. The United States had been scoping out the location since 2010, and on April 29, it used a special operations team as a part of a “kill mission” that resulted in the death of the al Qaeda leader, his brother, one of his sons, and perhaps an unidentified woman. President Obama announced the news of Bin Laden’s killing at a press conference on Sunday night, saying, “The death of bin Laden marks the most significant achievement to date in our nation’s effort to defeat al Qaeda.” The fact that Bin Laden was hiding so close to the Pakistani capital and a short drive from Pakistani military headquarters has raised eyebrows among many, with some analysts wondering how the terrorist could’ve avoided the eyes of the Pakistani intelligence services. White House counterterror adviser John Brennan said during a news conference yesterday that we shouldn’t forget that “Pakistan has been responsible for capturing and killing more terrorists inside of Pakistan than any country and it’s by a wide margin and there have been many, many brave Pakistani soldiers, security officials, as well as citizens who have given their lives because of the terrorism scourge in that country.” Soon after the death of the terrorist leader’s killing was reported, a bomb exploded at a mosque in northwestern Pakistan, killing a woman and three kids, perhaps the first retaliation from terrorists. The news of Bin Laden’s death served to bring closure to many Americans, with a large group of people converging outside the White House to sing the National Anthem, massive cheering taking place at the Mets-Phillys game, and Arab and Muslim Americans celebrating in Dearborn, Michigan. The reaction among many 9/11 survivors was also recorded in the media. “If this means there is one less death in the future, then I’m glad for that,” said Harry Waizer, who suffered third-degree burns while escaping from one of the Twin Towers. “But I just can’t find it in me to be glad one more person is dead, even if it is Osama Bin Laden.”

TORTURED CONCLUSIONS: Shortly after the death of Bin Laden, many right-wing commentators began crediting torture for the intelligence that led to finding the terrorist leader. Bush torture program architect John Yoo said that Bin Laden’s death was “yet another sign of the success of the Bush administration’s war on terror policies” and that the Al Qaeda courier who gave the intelligence was subjected to “enhanced interrogation methods.” Former Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen also said that the intelligence came from the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation program.” The National Review’s Dan Foster wrote that “it’s clear that we couldn’t have had this outcome without Bush-era counter-terror policies…Obama was wrong about the usefulness of…the interrogation methods they pursued.” Yet yesterday, in an interview with Newsmax, Bush Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said that the courier was not subjected to waterboarding or other torture methods. Additionally, the Associated Press reports that Al Qaeda “number three” Khalid Sheik Mohammed “did not reveal” information that led to Bin Laden’s location “while being subjected to the simulated drowning technique known as waterboarding, former officials said.” He identified them many months later under standard interrogation.”

A BOOKEND TO THE WARS: Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, the United States invaded Afghanistan along with a larger international coalition, seeking to uproot Al Qaeda and capture or kill Bin Laden. With Bin Laden’s death, the U.S. has now achieved one of its major war aim, and the killing of the terrorist leader should serve as a symbolic bookend to the conflict, smoothing the way for the U.S. and international community to draw down their forces from both Afghanistan, where Al Qaeda did have a major presence, and Iraq, where they did not. In fact, the Al Qaeda presence in Afghanistan has slowly dwindled to where the group has almost no active fighters in the country. As Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME) said during a conference call with bloggers last year, “I think about how much we spend, a billion dollars per year per Al-Qaeda member to defeat them. It’s not making ourselves safer.” And the irony that Bin Laden was found in Pakistan, an ally with whom the United States cooperates with on military and intelligence operations, and not in Afghanistan, where it has well over a hundred thousand troops, was not lost on Afghan leadership. “Osama was not in Afghanistan: they found him in Pakistan,” said Afghan President Hamid Karzai. “The war on terror is not in Afghan villages…but in the safe havens of terrorism outside Afghanistan.” As Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) told ThinkProgress in an interview yesterday, “We went there to get Osama bin Laden. And we have now gotten Osama bin laden … So yes, I think this does strengthen the case [for withdrawal].” Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D-MT), Rep. Jarold Nadler (D-NY), Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL), and Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) echoed similar sentiments. Last night, 9/11 responder Kenny Specht told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that he hopes Bin Laden’s death could finally signal a coming peace after ten years of nonstop war: “I mean, we’re in a quagmire, for lack of a better term, in Afghanistan. I hope to God that tonight is one large step to maybe wrapping up operations in Afghanistan.”