Congressional Dish

A quick fact check followed by an introduction to ALEC, the association of lawmakers and corporations working together to write bills. Fact Checking CD011 Conversation Kim DotCom's Story Al Qaeda has been reported to be operating in the following countries Afghanistan Iraq Pakistan Sudan Bosnia Syria Somalia Egypt Saudi Arabia Yemen Algeria Mali Mauritania Morocco Niger Tunisia Turkey Kenya Tanzania United States What happened in Virginia: Last week, a bill was rammed through the Virginia State Senate that redraws the maps for their State Senate races in a way that gives more votes to Republicans. Henry Marsh is a civil rights lawyer and Democratic VA Senator who went to Washington D.C. for the inauguration. The VA State Senate is a 20-20 split, so while he was gone, the GOP surprised the DEM's by bringing the bill up for a vote knowing they would be able to pass it with a DEM Senator missing. The House and Governor of Virginia are Republicans. The bill's chances look good. There is SEPARATE bill that addresses the Electoral College that was just born in Subcommittee. The electoral college bill's path to law looked good but the bill was defeated in committee Tuesday on an 11-4 vote after the Governor came out against the bill. ALEC The American Legislative Exchange Council Click on the above link to go to their website. They only barely hide the fact they the provide a way for corporations to write laws. "Works to advance the fundamental principles of free-market enterprise, limited government, and federalism at the state level" "Legislators welcome their private sector counterparts to the table as equals, working in unison to solve the challenges facing the nation." "ALEC provides the private sector with an unparalleled opportunity to have their voices heard and their perspectives appreciated." ALEC's Legislative Agenda for 2013 For More Information...

Lobbyist Jo Ann Emerson quits Congress early, the House votes to temporarily suspend the debt ceiling and probably-not postpone their own paychecks, and the Brineys drunkenly ramble on a Friday night. Jo Ann Emerson Resigns from the House Said she was leaving Congress in February, left early (Tuesday, January 22) Used to represent the 8th district of Missouri; left to become President and CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, a trade association/lobbying group. It has about 900 member utilities that serve 42 million people in 47 states and own almost half of the US power grid. Replacing Glenn English (also a former Congressman) who made $9,294,207 in his 6 years = $1.5 million a year. Won her district in 2012 with over 65% of the votes. Missouri to pay about $1 million for a special election H.R. 307- PANDEMIC AND ALL-HAZARDS PREPAREDNESS REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2013 Passed the House Tuesday, January 22. It now moves into the Senate. Gives 6 months for the Secretary to create a plan for responding to chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats. Orders the disaster plan to specifically address the needs of at-risk individuals and children Cuts funding for training emergency response volunteers in half, from $22 million/year to $11million/year Government wants a "national biosurveillance system for human health, with international connectivity" that allows for "two-way information flow" between government and health care providers. Loosens the definition of "emergency" to include "threat justifying emergency authorized use". Allows the use of an unapproved medical devices or products if declared necessary by the government. Allows the government to extend the expiration date of medical products and "authorize the introduction or delivery for introduction into interstate commerce" if doing so protects the public health or military preparedness and effectiveness. Allows the government to waive "requirements regarding current good manufacturing practice otherwise applicable to the manufacture, processing, packing, or holding of products." Allows $1.4 billion of taxpayer money to be spent on private research and development costs. H.R. 325: NO BUDGET, NO PAY ACT OF 2013 The debt ceiling will be suspended from the day the President signs this bill until May 18, 2013. By April 15, 2013, the House and Senate need to each pass their own version of a budget for fiscal year 2014.* If one of the branches of Congress does not pass a budget, their salaries will be set aside in an account and they will be paid either when a budget is passed or on the last day of the 113th Congress. This means that the House could pass the Paul Ryan 'screw the poor' budget and the Senate could pass a budget giving private jets to homeless people and both parts of Congress would be paid. There is no need for a conference to merge the two budget bills to send a real budget to the President.

Before the House (finally) agreed to give recovery money to Hurricane Sandy victims, they made new rules for the 113th Congress, including more private jets for themselves and less rights for gays. Then, despite Republican efforts to short them, the House finally voted to give Hurricane Sandy victims the $60 billion they asked for... Well, sort of. THE RULES FOR THE 113TH CONGRESS: H.RES. 5 Changed the Nepotism rule to include grandchildren. Allows members to take private jets using official funds. Starts to open the door to using campaign funds (which Senate members can do) but a statute still prohibits that from members of the House. Eliminates a portion of ObamaCare that prevents the House from repealing authority for IPAB. Enacts the Ryan budget until a budget for 2014 is adopted. Prohibits lobbyists from trolling the Congressional gym. Authorizes the continuation of the "Fast and Furious" investigation. Authorizes the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (the five members are John Boehner as Speaker of the House, Eric Cantor as House Majority Leader, Nancy Pelosi as House Minority Leader, Kevin McCarthy as Majority Whip, and Steny Hoyer as Minority Whip) to direct the House Office of General Counsel to defend the Defense of Marriage Act -the gay marriage ban- to "protect the interests of the House." Karen Golinski has been fighting the House for four years to get her wife health insurance. HURRICANE SANDY RECOVERY October 29, 2012: Hurricane Sandy hits the Northeast, devastating the coastlines of New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut and causing widespread damage to the surrounding states. (Amazing before and after pictures from NOAA) December 2012: The Senate passed a $60 billion aid package and sent it to the House of Representatives. January 2, 2012: After voting on the fiscal cliff bill on the last day of the 112th Congress, Speaker Boehner had promised a vote on the Senate's Sandy bill. He lied. There was no vote. The bill died when the 112th Congress adjourned. January 4, 2012: The House passed HR 41, a piece of the dead Senate bill which authorized FEMA to borrow about $9.5 billion to make payments to victims insured through the National Flood Insurance Program. January 15th, 2012: The House passed HR 152, a bill which, after being heavily amended by a Republican congressman from New Jersey, finally authorized the remaining $50.5 billion requested by the states damaged by Hurricane Sandy. HR 152: "Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013" The original bill, written by Hal Rogers of Kentucky, gave the Northeast $17 billion, which was $33 billion short of what was requested. An amendment by Rodney Frelinghuysen of New Jersey gave the Northeast states the rest of the money. TITLE I DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE $6 million from Rogers (Kentucky) bill + $218 million from Frelinghuysen (New Jersey) amendment to be spent on: Food for victims of Hurricane Sandy Floodplain protection Forest Restoration Money to help farmers from drought TITLE II (Completely replaced by Frelinghuysen amendment) ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS $20 million $50 million for a study of flood risks to coastal populations affected by Hurricane Sandy (due 2 years after bill is signed). $9 million $3.461 billion for repairs to projects that were under construction and damaged by Hurricane Sandy. $7.42 million $8.21 million to dredge navigation channels damaged by Hurricane Sandy. $500 million $1 billion for emergency operations and repairs. TITLE III (Completely replaced by Frelinghuysen amendment) SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION $10 million $20 million for grants to organizations helping with disaster recovery, response, and long term recovery to small businesses damaged by Hurricane Sandy. $1 million $5 million to the Inspector General to perform oversight on the grants. $100 million $520 million for direct loans for disaster recovery. $50 million $260 million for "direct administration expenses" of loan making TITLE IV DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY - COAST GUARD $144 million $274 million for expenses caused by Hurricane Sandy FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY - DISASTER RELIEF FUND $5.4 billion $11.5 billion for national disaster relief (not limited to Hurricane Sandy). SCIENCE AND RESEARCH $585,000 $3.2 million available until September 30, 2013 2014 TITLE V DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR $50 million $78 million for construction expenses of the Fish and Wildlife Service $234 million $348 million for construction by the National Park Service TITLE VI DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES - PUBLIC HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES EMERGENCY FUND $100 million (Rogers of Kentucky bill) + $800 million (Frelinghuysen of New Jersey amendment) for the Head Start program and the costs of repairing and rebuilding health care facilities, child care centers, or other social services facilities. The money is only available to victims of Hurricane Sandy. TITLE VII DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE $24.2 million, available until September 30, 2017, for construction by the Army National Guard. "...such funds may be obligated to carry out military construction projects not otherwise authorized by law." "CONSTRUCTION, MAJOR PROJECTS" $207 million, available until September 30, 2017 for renovations and repairs as a consequence of Hurricane Sandy. "...such funds may be obligated and expended to carry out planning and design and major medical facility construction not otherwise authorized by law." (Added by the Frelinghuysen of New Jersey amendment) Money that must be spent on "operations and maintenance" expenses caused by Hurricane Sandy by September 30, 2013: $40 million for the Navy $8.5 million for the Air Force $5.8 million for the Air National Guard $5.3 million for the Army + $1.3 million to buy ammunition $3.1 million for the National Guard and $24.2 million for "Defense Working Capital Funds"... whatever that means. Department of Defense will be getting $348 million from the Sandy relief bill. TITLE VIII (Completely replaced by Frelinghuysen amendment) DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION - FACILITIES AND EQUIPMENT $14.6 million $30 million available until September 30, 2013 for expenses due to Hurricane Sandy FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION $2.022 billion for an emergency fund for the repair of highways, roads, and trails, in any part of the United States, including Indian reservations, that have suffered serious damage as a result of a natural disaster. No more than $100 million can be spent on any single disaster. The Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Mariana Islands can not be given more than $20 million. The Secretary of Transportation is allowed to spend up to $500 million on Hurricane Sandy repairs. AMTRAK $32 million $86 million for expenses related to Hurricane Sandy. PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION EMERGENCY RELIEF PROGRAM $5.4 billion $10.9 billion for repairs to the public transportation system most affected by Hurricane Sandy. DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT $3.85 billion $16 billion for disaster relief, long-term recovery, and repairs to infrastructure and housing damaged due to Hurricane Sandy and other disasters in 2011, 2012, and 2013. Funds will go directly to the state or local government. TITLE IV... Doesn't appear to exist. TITLE X NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION (NOAA) $140,000,000 available until September 30, 2014, which includes: $50 million for mapping and charting of debris from Hurricane Sandy $50 million for weather and ocean research programs $25 million to improve weather forecasting $7 million to repair/replace ocean monitoring equipment damaged by Sandy $5 million to fisheries damaged by Hurricane Sandy $3 million to states for their own damage assessments $186,000,000 available until September 30, 2015, which includes: $111 million to get the polar weather satellites $44.5 million to repair and upgrade hurricane reconnaissance airplanes $13 million to speed up NWS ground readiness (Rep. Broun of Georgia tried to remove this one) $9 million to repair NOAA facilities damaged by Hurricane Sandy $8.5 million to improve weather forecasting equipment and supercomputers TITLE XI (Added by Rep. Bishop of Utah) Prevents the Federal government from buying any land with Sandy relief money.

The back story on the "fiscal cliff" debacle, the House's sad excuse for a compromise, and the contents of the fiscal cliff bill that became law on 1/3/13. H.R. 8: THE OBAMA-SENATE FISCAL CLIFF BILL (SIGNED INTO LAW 1/3/13) ''American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012'' TITLE I—GENERAL TAXES SEC. 101. PERMANENT EXTENSION OF MOST 2001 BUSH TAX CUTS People making over $400,000 as individuals, or $450,000 as a couple, will be taxed at 39.6% instead of the current 35% Estate tax rate will be raised to 40% from 35%. No taxes on the first $5 million of inheritance. SEC. 102. INCREASE CAPITAL GAINS TAXES TO 20%, FROM 15% SEC. 103. EXTENSION OF 2009 STIMULUS BILL TAX CREDITS 5 year extension of college tax credits Total credit cannot exceed $2,500 Tax credit decreases for families with gross incomes of $80,000 or $160,000 for a married couple. 5 year extension of the Child Tax Credit Eligible families receive $1,000 tax credit per child under age 17. Tax credit decreases for families with gross incomes of $75,000, or $110,000 for married taxpayers filing a joint return. TITLE II—INDIVIDUAL TAXES SEC. 201. TAXPAYER DONATION TO SCHOOL TEACHERS' SUPPLIES. SEC. 203. BOSS-PAID PARKING AND TRANSIT FARE WILL NOT COUNT AS INCOME TITLE III—BUSINESS TAXES SEC. 301. TAX CREDIT FOR PRIVATE COMPANY RESEARCH SEC. 306. TAX CREDIT FOR PRIVATE RAILROAD MAINTENANCE. SEC. 307. TAX CREDIT FOR PRIVATE MINING COMPANIES' SAFETY EQUIPMENT AND TRAINING SEC. 312. TAX CREDIT TO PRIVATE ENTERTAINMENT RACETRACKS (NASCAR) SEC. 317. TAX CREDIT FOR HOLLYWOOD MOVIE STUDIOS. SEC. 318. TAX CREDIT FOR RUM PRODUCERS IN PUERTO RICO. SEC. 322. TAX LOOPHOLE FOR MULTINATIONAL BANKS AND MANUFACTURERS. Multinationals, including banks since 1997, don't have to pay taxes on money they earn through overseas subsidiaries. JP Morgan Chase, General Electric, Caterpiller paid for the legislation SEC. 323. MULTINATIONALS WILL NOT PAY TAXES ON INCOME EARNED FROM THEIR SMALLER BUSINESSES IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES SEC. 328. USE TAX-FREE 9/11 RECOVERY BONDS TO BUILD MANHATTAN OFFICES AND APARTMENT BUILDINGS Goldman Sachs used this to get $1.6 billion tax-free financing for its new headquarters. Lloyd Blankfein met with President Obama in December SEC. 330. TAX CREDIT FOR STARKIST AS THE LARGEST EMPLOYER IN AMERICAN SAMOA. SEC. 331. TAX CREDIT FOR BUSINESSES BUYING SMALLER BUSINESSES (Good Read: How did these business tax credits get into the fiscal cliff bill?) TITLE IV—ENERGY TAXES SEC. 401. TAX CREDIT FOR ENERGY-EFFICIENT EXISTING HOMES. SEC. 403. TAX CREDIT FOR 2- OR 3- WHEELED PLUG-IN ELECTRIC VEHICLES. 10% of the purchase price or $2,500. Must go at least 45mph SEC. 404. TAX CREDIT FOR BIOFUEL PRODUCERS. SEC. 405. TAX CREDIT FOR BIO-DIESEL AND RENEWABLE DIESEL. SEC. 406. TAX CREDIT FOR INDIAN COAL FACILITIES. SEC. 407. TAX CREDIT FOR WIND FACILITIES SEC. 408. TAX CREDIT FOR ENERGY-EFFICIENT NEW HOMES. SEC. 409. TAX CREDIT FOR ENERGY-EFFICIENT APPLIANCES. TITLE V—UNEMPLOYMENT SEC. 501. FEDERAL UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE PAYMENTS WILL CONTINUE TO BE PAID SEC. 503. TAX CREDIT FOR REEMPLOYMENT SERVICES TITLE VI—MEDICARE AND OTHER HEALTH EXTENSIONS SEC. 601. NO PAYMENT CUT TO MEDICARE DOCTORS SEC. 642. REPEAL OF "CLASS" LONG-TERM HEALTH CARE PROGRAM. SEC. 643. COMMISSION ON LONG-TERM CARE. TITLE VII—EXTENSION OF AGRICULTURAL PROGRAMS SEC. 701. EXTENSION OF FARM BILL UNTIL SEPTEMBER 2013 SEC. 802. NO PAY RAISE FOR CONGRESS TITLE IX—BUDGET PROVISIONS SEC. 901. TWO MONTH DELAY ON SEQUESTER CUTS TO GOVERNMENT Cuts must be ordered on March 1, 2013 and implemented on March 27, 2013. H.R. 6684: THE HOUSE FISCAL CLIFF BILL (DID NOT BECOME LAW) OFFICIAL TITLE: "Spending Reduction Act of 2012''. TITLE I—AGRICULTURE SEC. 101: REDUCE FOOD FUNDING TO PUERTO RICO AND AMERICAN SAMOA 8 MONTHS EARLY. TITLE II- COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE SEC. 201. DEFUND HEALTH INSURANCE EXCHANGES. 'Health Insurance Exchange' is a website designed so consumers can easily compare and buy their own health insurance. SEC. 202. REPEAL PREVENTION AND PUBLIC HEALTH FUND. TITLE III- FINANCIAL SERVICES SEC. 311. REPEAL THE PART OF WALL STREET REFORM THAT BREAKS UP CRIMINAL BANKS. SEC. 321-324. "HAMP Termination Act of 2012" HAMP is the program designed to help homeowners renegotiate their mortgage rates with the banks. SEC. 331. LET CONGRESS FUND THE BUREAU OF CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was created in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform bill to be the first government agency to protect consumers from getting screwed by their banks. The CFPB has guaranteed funding because it gets its money from the Federal Reserve. Congress would gain the ability to defund the CFPB if this bill were law. TITLE IV—COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY SEC. 402. 3 YEAR TIME LIMIT ON MEDICAL INJURY LAWSUITS. "In no event" can a health care lawsuit begin 3 years after the date the patient gets injured or 1 year after the patient discovers the injury, whichever occurs first, unless Lawsuits by a child under 6 years old must begin within 3 years of the injury or before the child's 8th birthday, whichever is a longer period. SEC. 403. $250,000 CAP ON NON-ECONOMIC DAMAGES IN HEALTH CARE LAWSUITS. "The jury shall not be informed about the maximum award for noneconomic damages." SEC. 405. $250,000 CAP ON PUNITIVE DAMAGES IN HEALTH CARE LAWSUITS. A patient who has been told that they may not seek punitive damages can only be heard in court if they first prove that they will win their case. MAXIMUM AWARD: $250,000 or as much as two times the amount of economic damages awarded, whichever is greater. Protects health care/drug manufacturers, distributors, and suppliers from paying punitive damages. "The jury shall not be informed of this limitation." SEC. 409. ALLOW STATES TO FURTHER PROTECT HEALTH CARE COMPANIES FROM LAWSUITS This bill can not over-ride "any State or Federal law that imposes greater procedural or substantive protections for health care providers and health care organizations from liability, loss, or damages." TITLE VI—COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS SEC. 621. PROVIDE LESS MONEY TO STATES FOR SOCIAL SERVICES. TITLE VII—SEQUESTER REPLACEMENT SEC. 706. DELETE ALL DEFENSE CUTS FROM THE BUDGET CONTROL ACT

Congress passes the National Defense Authorization Act for 2013; highlights include lots of money for other countries, a continuation of indefinite detention, Christmas gifts given to Northrup Grumman and other campaign contributors, and rules will finally apply to defense contracting. All that and more in this summary of 2013's NDAA… National Defense Authorization for Fiscal Year 2013 The Bad Money to Other Countries - (Section 222) $211 million to Israel for IRON SHEILD, their missile defense system - (Section 1211) $508 million for Iraq. - (Section 1219) $350 million for infrastructure in Afghanistan. - (Section 1222) $250 million for equipment ("excess defense articles") in Afghanistan, no caps in 2013 and 2014. - (Section 1227) Authorizes up to $1.2 billion in payments to Pakistan, but they get no money for time when they close supply routes into Afghanistan to the US military. Pakistan also needs to hunt al Qaeda and try to stop IEDs to get money. All limitations can be waived if the Defense Secretary says in writing that they need to be. - (Section 1203) Gives Defense Secretary authority to use $75 million for equipment, supplies, training, and minor military construction in Yemen to fight al Qaeda and al Qaeda affiliates and another $75 million for the same thing in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. - (Section 1010) Continuation of drug war in Columbia. No amount given. Drones - (Section 527) REPORT: due in 6 months, reasons drone operators have "persistently lower average education, training, and promotion rates" and how to improve those rates. Nuclear Weapons - (Section 211) Requirement that next-generation aircraft be able to transport and use nuclear weapons within 2 years of the aircraft's completion. Indefinite Detention Rep. Jerold Nadler of Colorado: As a Nation, no matter what adversity we have faced we have done so as Americans. We have united behind the values and freedoms that gave birth to this Nation and that have made it a moral force in the world. In the last decade, however, we have begun to let go of our freedoms bit by bit, with each new Executive order, each new court decision, and yes, each new act of Congress. We have begun giving away our right to privacy, our right to our day in court when the government harms us, and with this legislation we are continuing down the path of destroying the right to be free from imprisonment without due process of law. The conference report states that: Nothing in the Authorization for Use of Military Force or the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2012 shall be construed to deny the availability of the writ of habeas corpus or to deny any constitutional rights in a court ordained or established by or under Article III of the Constitution to any person inside the United States who would be entitled to the availability of such writ or to such rights in the absence of such laws. This language simply continues the flawed policies established in the 2011 defense authorization bill. First, it applies only to ''any person inside the United States.'' That is important, but most of the debate on indefinite detention without charge and on the lack of due process has to do with people held by our government outside our borders—including, potentially, U.S. citizens. The language in this bill, combined with the prohibitions against moving these detainees into the United States, guarantees that we will continue holding people indefinitely without charge—contrary to our traditions of due process and civil rights. Second, this text continues the claimed authority of the United States Government to hold even U.S. persons captured on United States soil indefinitely and without charge. Some people may take comfort in the provision that states that those of us entitled to certain rights prior to the passage of the AUMF and of last year's defense authorization bill continue to have the same rights afterwards. But this bill does not say who among us are fortunate enough to have those rights, nor does it tell us what those rights might be. It does not specify how the executive branch is to determine which of us are entitled to these constitutional protections and which of us are not. And it does not provide us with recourse if the President gets it wrong. The Exact Text "SEC. 1029. RIGHTS UNAFFECTED. Nothing in the Authorization for Use of Military Force (Public Law 107–40; 50 U.S.C. 1541 note) or the National Defense Authoriza-tion Act for Fiscal Year 2012 (Public Law 112–81) shall be construed to deny the avail-ability of the writ of habeas corpus or to deny any Constitutional rights in a court or-dained or established by or under Article III of the Constitution to any person inside the United States who would be entitled to the availability of such writ or to such rights in the absence of such laws." - (Section 1022) Prohibits updating U.S. facilities to house Guantanamo detainees, except at Guantanamo. - (Section 1027) Prohibits the transfer of prisoners out of Guantanamo Bay. - (Section 1025) Orders the Defense Secretary to tell Congress when it plans to transfer someone out of the Detention Facility at Parwan, Afghanistan (Bagram Theatre Internment Facility). Must tell Congress 10 days before the transfer. Parwan is a building built next door to Bagram; it's essentially the same place People were tortured there during the Bush administration at Bagram. Detainees have no access to courts at Bagram as they do at Guantanamo. Prisoners that have been held in both jails said that Bagram was worse. More people than Guantanamo (1,700 as of June 2011). This number has doubled during the Obama administration. In March, US started transferring hundreds of Afghani prisoners to Afghanistan authority but recently stopped. We are holding on to non-Afghani and a few Afghani prisoners because we're afraid that Afghanistan and/or the prisoner's home country will not detain them indefinitely like we will. - (Section 1024) Orders the Defense Secretary to tell Congress within 30 days when it detains a person on a ship. Future Wars Iran "SEC. 1233. SENSE OF CONGRESS WITH RESPECT TO IRAN. It is the sense of Congress that the United States should be prepared to take all nec-essary measures, including military action if required, to prevent Iran from threatening the United States, its allies, or Iran's neigh-bors with a nuclear weapon. SEC. 1234. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. Nothing in this Act shall be construed as authorizing the use of force against Iran." - (Section 1244) More sanctions against Iran's national oil companies because "Iran's energy, shipping, and ship-building sectors and Iran's ports are facili-tating the Government of Iran's nuclear pro-liferation activities by providing revenue to support proliferation activities." In 4 months, all transactions involving Iran's oil, shipping, or ship-building sectors will be prohibited. Specifically, goods used in connection with the National Iranian Oil Company, National Iranian Tanker Company, and the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines ( - Can be waived if these goods are going to help with reconstruction in Afghanistan. Doesn't apply to the sale, supply, or transfer to or from Iran of natural gas. Sanctions on materials such as graphite, aluminum, steel, coal, and industrial software. Sanctions on anyone who insures the sanctioned companies. North Korea - (Section 1046) REPORT: In 4 months, a report on "the feasibility and strategic value of deploying additional conventional and nuclear forces to the Western Pacific region to ensure the presence of a robust conventional and nuclear capability, including a forward-deployed nuclear capability, of the United States in response to the ballistic missile and nuclear weapons developments of North Korea and the other belligerent actions North Korea has made against allies of the United States" China - (Section 1045) REPORT: By August 15, 2013, DoD needs to give Congress a report on "the underground tunnel network used by the People's Republic of China with respect to the capability of the United States to use conventional and nuclear forces to neutralize such tunnels and what is stored within such tunnels" and an assessment of their nuclear capabilities. Total for National Defense: $648,676,712,000, which is more than was requested. Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts: "I would like to insert into the RECORD an article that appeared in to-day's Washington Post by Walter Pincus, entitled, ''Military funds to spare?,'' in which he quotes Secretary of Defense Panetta in a speech. He said that the committees here in the Con-gress ''had diverted about $74 billion of what we asked for in savings in our proposed budget to the Congress, and they diverted them to other areas that, frankly, we don't need.'' That is from the Secretary of Defense." $500 million given to continue the Global Hawk Block 30, which are long range drones manufactured by Northrup Grumman. The Pentagon had decided to risk terminating this version of Global Hawk (there are others in use and being built) and noted that it would save $800 million in fiscal 2013 and $2.5 billion over the next five years. It's a sole-source contract with Northrop and its team of subcontractors as the only contenders. The scale is worldwide. Northrup's website lists the Global Hawk's suppliers along with the names of their representatives in Congress. $136 million to upgrade the M1 Abrams tank Manufactured by General Dynamics "The Pentagon, facing smaller budgets and looking toward a new global strategy, wants to save as much as $3 billion by freezing refurbishing work on the M1 from 2014 to 2017, so it can redesign the vehicle from top to bottom. The flat bottom design makes these tanks especially vulnerable to improvised explosive devices. "Its proposal would idle a large factory in Lima, Ohio, as well as halt work at dozens of subcontractors in Pennsylvania, Michigan and other states." General Dynamics is the 4th largest contributor to the campaign of Lima, Ohio's Congressman, Jim Jordan Since the start of 2001, General Dynamics' political action committee and the company's employees have given at least $5.3 million to the current members of the four key defense committees General Dynamics spent at least $84 million over the past 11 years on lobbyists The Good Regulations For Contractors Oversight - (Section 843) Establishment of a chain of authority for contractors. Within one year, DoD needs to identify a chain of authority, a policy on what functions contractors are appropriate for, how the contractors will coordinate with DoD officials, and how contractors will be supervised. - (Section 832) Defense Contract Audit Agency will be able to look at contractor internal audits to determine to what extent they'll be allowed to police themselves. - (Section 851) Database on contractor performance. - (Section 844) REPORTS: DoD needs to collect information on the number of active contracts, the value of those contracts, if the contracts were competitively bid, the number of people working under each contract, how many contractors are performing security functions, and the total number of contractors killed. - (Section 941) Contractors must report to the DoD when their system has been hacked. - (Section 4805) Make contractor performance evaluations public Mission Appropriateness of Contractors - (Section 846) No later than 6 months after the planning begins for a combat operation, a risk assessment needs to be done on the operational and political risks of using contractors for critical functions. - The risk assessment can be skipped if the operation is "not expected to continue for more than one year" and the contracts are expected to be less than $250 million. Subcontracting Rules - (Section 802) 6 months, regulation that says if a contractor intends to subcontract more than 70% of the work, the contracting officer needs to consider just directly contracting with the subcontractor and explaining in writing the reason for his decision. Profit-Control - (Section 811) Cost-type contracts will be prohibited at DoD starting on October 1, 2014. - (Section 831) Training for acquisition managers on determining reasonableness of prices - (Section 804) REPORT: Change guidelines, within 6 months, on contractor profits to "ensure an appropriate link between contractor profit and contractor performance." - (Section 864) REPORT: Effect of prohibiting payment of contractor salaries that are more than we pay the President of the United States ($400,000) Funding - (Section 803) Contract funding (Defense Acquisition Workforce Development Fund) = $500 million in 2013, $800 million in 2014, $700 million in 2015, $600 million in 2016, $500 million in 2017 Misc. Good Things Firefighters - (Section 1803) Federal grants to firefighters between $1-$9 million each depending on the size of the population served. Active Troops - (Section 601) 1.7% pay raise for service members effective January 1 - (Section 622) Authorizes a space-available travel program for armed service members If Secretary decides to do it, he has one year to decide the rules. - (Section 523) Sex offenders no longer allowed to enlist in the military - (Section 954) Gives authority to Defense Secretary to create a National Language Service Corps of nongovernmental people who can be called up to help the DoD with foreign language services. Veteran Benefits - (Section 541) Authorizes a Troops to Teachers program: Eligible military retirees can become teachers in low income neighborhoods with teacher shortages Eligibility: must have completed at least 6 years of active duty and sign a reserve commitment for 3 years. Must have a bachelor's degree or higher. Bonus: Capped at $5,000 for regular school, $10,000 high need school, which they need to pay back if they don't finish their 3 years. $15 million cap on entire program - (Section 729) Directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to start a national outreach program to societies, community organizations, non-profit organizations, and other government agencies to give mental health care to veterans part time, for free.

Doing nothing, literally, is planned until 12/28 and a special guest helps filter fact from fiction in regards to solar power. *Correction from CD004: H.R. 6190 (The Give Me My Damn Inhalers Act) failed this week. 1 million Primatene Mist (manufactured by Armstrong Pharmaceuticals) inhalers in a CA warehouse Primatene Mist and all other inhalers with ozone-depleting chemicals have been off the market for 11 months Needed 2/3 aye votes to pass because it was brought up under "suspension" H. Res 827: Extra "work" days during the holidays will be filled with fluff (passed House) Gives the House GOP the authority to bring up suspension bills until December 28th Suspension bills = insignificant bills that generally pass with a voice vote = time wasters H.R. 5817: No More Annual Privacy Notices From Banks (passed House) Banks will only have to send a notice if they change their policy Saves banks money * Conferees chosen to work on the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) The House and Senate will be merging their bills into one to be sent to the President. Vote possible next week. Interview: Special guest Joe Briney, commercial solar power engineer, discusses the solar industry.

Rep. Jo Ann Emerson quits Congress to become a lobbying titan, the Coast Guard is funded, Louie Gohmert votes for 'lunatic', GOP confuses net neutrality, and a crisis is engineered during a short week in Congress. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson Quits to Make Millions in Private Sector - Represents southeast Missouri: - Leaving Congress in February to become President and CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, a trade association/lobbying group. - It has about 900 member utilities that serve 42 million people in 47 states and own almost half of the US power grid. - Replacing Glenn English (also a former Congressman) who made $9,294,207 in his 6 years = $1.5 million a year. - A key accomplishment: weakening climate bills on behalf of coal-dependent electric cooperatives. - We have to pay for a special election to replace her in Congress. - Good news: we got rid of a gay hater in Congress. H.R. 2838: Coast Guard Appropriations Bill - Already passed the Senate. - Gives Coast Guard about $10 billion total. - Orders a risk assessment (due 6 months after bill becomes law) for transporting Canadian tar sands by sea which will detail: How much barge, tanker, and supertanker traffic may increase. Whether transportation of tar sands through the Salish Sea will bring it through U.S. waters. A list of rules and regulations that restrict super-tanker traffic in U.S. waters and "an assessment of whether there are methods to bypass those rules." A list of rules and regulations that restrict the amount of oil transported in tankers and how to get around those rules too. Whether tar sands oil has different properties from other oils. A risk assessment of increasing tar sands traffic. "The potential costs and benefits to the U.S. public and the private sector of transporting Canadian tar sands by sea. - The bill also includes this: SEC. 701. LIMITATION ON AVAILABILITY OF FUNDS FOR PROCUREMENT OF ALTERNATIVE FUEL. None of the funds authorized to be appropriated by this Act or otherwise made available during fiscal year 2013 or 2014 for the Coast Guard may be obligated or expended for the production or purchase of any alternative fuel if the cost of producing or purchasing the alternative fuel exceeds the cost of producing or purchasing a traditional fossil fuel that would be used for the same purpose as the alternative fuel. - Creates a website detailing the crime rates of cruise lines. H.R. 6620: Gives lifetime secret service protection to George W. Bush and Barack Obama. - Lifetime protection is only for Presidents who served before 1997. - Would otherwise only be protected for 10 years. S. 2367: Eliminates 'lunatic' from English language. - Rep. Louie Gohmert (TX) was the only person to vote against it. S. Con. Res. 50: Statement about the internet. Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR)(Telecommunications Industry mole) - Commitment to unregulated internet. - Attacks FCC net neutrality rules. GOP Leadership Changes Schedule, Setting Up "Fiscal Cliff" Crisis Mode - ""Only a crisis- actual or perceived- produces real change." - Milton Friedman - House only worked 3 days this week. - House has cancelled work next Friday. They will only work Tuesday-Thursday at 3:00pm. - Eric Cantor warned members to plan to work the week of December 17th, even though they were supposed to be done by the 14th.

During another slow week in Congress, Jesse Jackson Jr. resigns, Nydia Velazquez (NY) ignores a subpoena, the Department of Homeland Security gets investigated, the Senate fights about filibusters, and the Trans-Pacific-Partnership is confirmed as real, secret, and scary. Bills Signed Into Law: - HR 2606: Fast tracks Rockaways gas pipeline for Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Company (Transco) - S 1956: Prohibits airlines from participating in EU cap & trade program. Jesse Jackson Resignation - Hasn't been seen since June and didn't campaign but still won his seat - Is under investigation for allegedly trying to buy Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat in 2008. Nydia Velazquez (NY) sent a letter to Congress saying she is going to ignore a subpoena - No information available on the court case she is involved in or why she is ignoring the subpoena. - Represents Brooklyn, Lower Manhattan, Queens. - Has been serving for 20 years - Top contributor is Goldman Sachs (she's on the financial services committee) - Got the vast majority of her 2012 money from large individual donors (rich people) and secret PACs (almost half a million) - Voted for bailouts and against auditing the Fed HR 5913: Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Accountability Act- passed the House 11/27 - Independent panel to do an assessment of DHS because its creation was and remains high risk. - DHS was a creation of the Bush administration in 2002 - 22 agencies were merged = dysfunctional government - FEMA - issued huge contracts with little to no oversight after Katrina. - TSA - hundreds of employees have been arrested for thefts. - Immigration & Border Patrol- employees arrested for accepting bribes. - Federal protective service - short staffed and not performing their duties sufficiently. - Senate also passed S. 1998: tells DHS to keep financial records for an audit next year HR 6429: STEM Jobs Act- passed the House 11/30 - Legislation backed by Apple, Oracle, Cisco, & Adobe - Makes it easier for foreign students graduating with degrees in science, technology, engineering, and math to get visas - Limits the number of visas for regular families - Eliminates the diversity visa program that gives visas to people from more random countries - Won't be become law; Obama administration is opposed Filibuster Change in Senate - Filibuster = Objection that postpones a bill from coming up for a vote. - One strategy is endless debate: Senate rules allow Senators to speak as long as they wish unless 60 Senators vote to shut them up (cloture). - Another strategy is an individual Senator placing a hold; if 60 votes aren't there to over-ride the hold, the bill is blocked from a vote. - Changes to Senate rules can be done by a simple majority but only on the first day of the session in January. - Most likely change: the next Congress might require the blocker to stay on the floor and defend their objection. - 1960's: No Congress had more than 7, 2000's: Avg over 100 in each of the last 3 Congresses Trans Pacific Partnership - A trade deal being crafted in secret with the cooperation of 600 corporations. - Will manage 40% of all global trade (according to Secretary of State Clinton). - Congressional representatives have been denied access to TPP negotiations and documents. - Next round scheduled for next week (Dec. 3-12) in Auckland, New Zealand

During a slow week in the House of Representatives, inhalers are given relief, airlines are forced to ignore a European carbon law, and trade with Russia is "normalized." *Mistake in CD003: Pete Sessions, not Jeff Sessions. * Hazardous Waste Manifest was bill signed into law during recess. H.R. 6190 - Asthma Inhalers Relief Act of 2012 (Sponsored by Rep. Michael Burgess / Energy and Commerce Committee) From FDA website: Epinephrine CFC Metered-dose Inhalers - Questions and Answers Epinephrine CFC metered-dose inhalers used to treat asthma (known as Primatene Mist or Epinephrine Mist) cannot be made or sold in the United States after December 31, 2011. 4. What other inhalers can I use for my asthma? There are inhalers that contain other medicines that can treat asthma, such as albuterol HFA inhalers. Hydrofluoroalkanes (HFAs) are different propellants (spray) than CFCs. You will need a doctor's prescription to buy these. 10. Why are over-the-counter epinephrine CFC inhalers being phased out? Manufacturers use chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, as propellants (spray) in these inhalers to move the medicine out of the inhaler so patients can breathe the medicine into their lungs. The United States signed an international agreement, called the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer4 along with many other countries. These countries promised to make it illegal to make or sell substances that decrease the ozone layer, including CFCs, after certain dates. 12. Is it safe for epinephrine users to "purchase sufficient" amounts of Primatene Mist to use following the phase out date of December 31, 2011? Epinephrine users can use the product after December 31 because the product phase-out only applies to the manufacture and sale of the product after December 31. If you haven't used up your Primatene Mist by Dec. 31, 2011, it's safe to continue using it as long as it hasn't expired. Summary of H.R. 6190: The Give Me My Damn Inhaler Act (a) In General- The Environmental Protection Agency -- (1) shall allow for the distribution, sale, and consumption in the United States of remaining inventories of CFC epinephrine over-the-counter inhalers. (2) shall not take any enforcement action or otherwise seek to restrict the distribution, sale, or consumption of such inhalers on the basis of any Federal law implementing the Montreal Protocol. (3) shall give any company who sells these over-the-counter inhalers a No Action Assurance Letter stating that the Environmental Protection Agency will not bust you prior to August 1, 2013. S. 1956 - European Union Emissions Trading Scheme Prohibition Act of 2011 (Sponsored by Sen. John Thune / Transportation and Infrastructure Committee) November 12, 2012: The European Union announced they are postponing the imposition of the Emissions Trading Scheme until 2014, making this bill unnecessary. The bill prohibits airlines from complying with European law, preventing them from paying taxes on carbon emissions the European Union MIGHT enact in 2014. Henry Waxman (CA) If we bar the airlines from complying, they will incur steep pen-alties estimated at over $20 billion by 2020. The Thune bill then says the gov-ernment is going to have to hold the airlines harmless from this cost. That means that taxpayers may be on the hook for over $20 billion, although the bill also limits the use of appropriated funds. Or the hold harmless provision would force the Secretary to use exist-ing authority to require European air-lines to pay the fees to compensate the U.S. airlines. Rather than doing something con-structive about global warming, we are going to ignite a trade war with the Europeans. Has now passed both Houses of Congress and is on its way to the President's desk. H.R. 6156 - Russia and Moldova Jackson-Vanik Repeal and Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012, Rules Committee Print (Subject to a Rule) (Sponsored by Rep. Dave Camp / Ways and Means Committee / Foreign Affairs Committee) A free trade bill with Russia, that does nothing for Russia; it opens the 142 million person market to multi-national corporations. The bill also prohibits certain Russian murderers from getting U.S. visas and freezes any bank accounts they may hold in the United States. Passed the House, now moves into the Senate.

This episode is a history of free market policies implemented around the world for the last fifty years. The Basics Corporatist system: Its main characteristics are huge transfers of public wealth to private hands, often accompanied by exploding debt, an ever-widening chasm between the dazzling rich and the disposable poor and an aggressive nationalism that justifies bottomless spending on security. Chicago School Theory -advanced by Milton Friedman: The starting premise is that the free market is a perfect scientific system, on in which individuals, acting on their own self-interested desires, create the maximum benefits for all. It follows ineluctably that if something is wrong within a free-market economy- high inflation or soaring unemployment- it has to because the market is not truly free. There must be some interference, some distortion in the system. The Chicago solution is always the same: a stricter and more complete application of the fundamentals. The economic agenda of the neoconservative movement: First, governments must remove all rules and regulations standing in the way of the accumulation of profits. Second, they should sell off any assets they own that corporations could be running at a profit. Third, they should dramatically cut back funding of social programs. Specifics to watch for: Taxes, when they exist, should be low, and rich and poor should be taxed at the same flat rate. Corporations should be free to sell their products anywhere in the world, and governments should make no effort to protect local industries or local ownership. All prices, including the price of labor, should be determined by the market. There should be no minimum wage. Historical Evidence Free Market in Chile Chile before Chicago School infiltration: Strong social safety net Protections for national industry Trade barriers Controls on prices Chicago School infiltration: 1953: The Ford Foundation fundeda plan to send Chilean students to study economics at the University of Chicago on Chicago School fundamentals. Students returned to the Catholic University in Chile to teach in their Economics Department These students-turned-professors were called the "Chicago Boys". 1970 Elections: All parties wanted to nationalize the copper mines then controlled by U.S. mining corporations (the U.S. corporations had invested $1 billion over fifty years in the Chilean mining industry but had collected $7.2 billion in profit). Salvador Allende won the election. A group of U.S. mining companies and the Internatioal Telephone and Telegraph Company (ITT) (which owned 70% of Chile's soon-to-be nationalized phone company) tried to collapse Chile's economy. ITT prepared an eighteen point strategy for the Nixon administration that contained a clear call for a military coup. Meanwhile, a the Chicago boys and the CIA created "The Brick", an economic program based on Milton Friedman's free market ideas. Allende's government was overthrown in a CIA backed coup who then installed Augusto Pinochet; Pinochet followed the Chicago Boy's economic plan. Augusto Pinochet: Privatized some banks. Opened the borders to foreign imports. Cut government spending by 10 percent, except the military which got an increase. He eliminated price controls. A small clique of financiers known as the "piranhas" made a killing on speculation. People were pissed. Pinochet took to murder and torture to keep the population under control. Friedman told Pinochet it was not enough. He told him to cut government spending by 25 percent within six months across the board while adopting pro-business policies moving toward "complete free trade". He knew that hundreds of thousands of people would be fired in the public sector. 1975: Pinochet cut public spending by 27 percent; by 1980, they had cut it in half. The results: Chile lost 177,000 jobs public sector jobs. Unemployment went from 3 to 20 percent. Public school was replaced by vouchers and charter schools. Heath care became pay-as–you-go Chile's social security system was privatized. 1982: Chile's economy crashed. Debt exploded, unemployment hit 30 percent. 1988: 45 percent of the population had fallen below the poverty line. The richest 10 percent of Chileans, however, had seen their incomes increase by 83 percent. After 17 years, before Pinochet's reign ended, the Chicago Boys Boys rigged the constitution and the courts so it was legally impossible to reverse their laws. Free Market in Indonesia 1965: Sukarno, the President of Indonesia, threw out the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, which he accused of being facades for the interests of Western multinationals October 1965; General Suharto, backed by CIA, began the process of seizing power and destroying the left. CIA made a list of targets, the Pentagon hooked up Suharto's guys with weapons and field radios, and names were crossed off until the left was physically gone. The Berkeley Mafia, a group of Indonisean economists educated at the University of California at Berkeley, had studied in the U.S. as part of a program that began in 1956 funded by the Ford Foundation. Suharto didn't know anything about finance, so the Berkeley Mafia drafted his economic policy. The free market policies: Allowed foreign companies to own 100 percent of Indonesian resources. Handed out "tax holidays" to companies Indonesia's natural wealth- copper, nickel, hardwood, rubber, and oil- was divided up among the largest mining and energy companies in the world. Suharto ruled for thirty years. During that time: Indonesia's unemployment rate went from 4 to 12 percent. Nissan bought one of Indonesia's largest car companies. Bechtel to built an oil refinery in Sulawesi, Indonesia. Indonesia's waters systems were split between Britain's Thames Water and France's Lyonnaise des Eaux. Canada's Westcoast Energy snapped up a huge Indonesian power plant project. Employment rates have still not reached pre-1997 levels in Indonesia. And it's not just that workers who lost their jobs during the crisis never got them back. The layoffs have continued, with new foreign owners demanding ever-higher profits for their investments. Free Market in Argentina The Chicago Boys trained Argentinians in the magic of the free market. 1976: The Argentinian military junta staged a coup, supported fully by U.S. President Gerald Ford, chief-of-staff Dick Cheney, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The top economic job went to Martinez de Hoz, a member of the cattle aristocracy and a board member of several multinational corporations, including ITT, who wanted to go back to the feudal economy of cheap labor. His new policies included laws which: Banned strikes and allowed employers to fire workers at will. Lifted restrictions on foreign ownership Sold off hundreds of state companies. Results for the people: Wages lost 40 percent of their value Meat prices were deregulated and cost went up 700 percent (companies brought in record profits). Factories closed Poverty skyrocketed 1982: Just before Argentina's dictatorship collapsed, they announced that the state would pay the debts of large multinational and domestic companies. These companies continued to own their assets and profits, but the public had to pay off between $15 and $20 billion of their debts. The companies included Ford Motor Argentina, Chase Manhattan, Citibank, IBM, and Mercedes-Benz. 1992: Free market happens again. Carlos Menem ran on nationalist policies but put the guy who gave the corporate bailouts in charge of the economy. The new government quickly made cuts to public spending and launched another new currency, the Argentine peso, pegged to the U.S. dollar. Within a year, inflation was down to 17.5 percent and was virtually eliminated a few years later. 1994: The new government sold 90 percent of all state enterprises to private companies. Before making the sales, they had fired roughly 700,000 of the state workers. Argentina's entire early-nineties economic program was written in secret by JP Morgan and Citibank, two of Argentina's largest private creditors. Local factories could not compete with the cheap imports flooding the country. Half the country would eventually be pushed below the poverty line. Carlos Menem downsized and sold the oil fields, the phone system, the airline, the trains, the airport, the highways, the water system, the banks, the Buenos Aires zoo and eventually, the post office and the national pension plan. As the country's wealth moved offshore, the lifestyles of Argentina's politicians grew increasingly lavish. December 19, 2001: President Fernando de la Rua and his finance minister, Domingo Cavallo, tried to impose further IMF-prescribed austerity measures. The population revolted. De la Rua was forced to flee in a helicopter, but not before 21 protesters were killed by police Free Market in Uruguay 1973: Military coup. 1974: Professors from the University of Chicago reformed their tax system and commercial policy. Real wages dropped by 28 percent. Scavengers appeared on the streets of Montevideo for the first time. Free Market in China 1980: Deng government invited Milton Friedman to come to China and teach top-level civil servants, professors and party economists in the fundamentals of free-market theory. The party wanted to open the market the while maintaining its own grip on power; their plan ensured that once the assets of the state were auctioned off, party officials and their relatives would snap up the best deals and be first in line for the biggest profits. The model Chinese government intended to emulate Chile under Pinochet: free markets combined with authoritarian political control, enforced by iron-fisted repression. "Reform" = code for party officials turning into business tycoons, as many illegally took possession of the assets they had previously managed as bureaucrats. The state would protect its economic "reform" program by crushing demonstrators. May 20, 1989: The government of the People's Republic of China declared martial law. June 3, 1989: The tanks of the people's Liberation Army rolled into the protests, shooting indiscriminately into the crowds. The government reserved its harshest repression for the factory workers, who represented the most direct threat to deregulated capitalism. In the three years following the blood bath, China was cracked open to foreign investment. Turned China into the sweatshop of the world because they implemented low taxes and tariffs, had corruptible officials and, most of all, had a plentiful low-wage workforce that, for many years, would be too afraid to protest. Free Market in Bolivia During the Reagan years, Chicago School precepts about the supremacy of the free market had rapidly become the unquestioned orthodoxy in Ivy League economics departments. A backroom negotiation took place on August 6, 1985 during which Paz –the new president who had run as a nationalist- appointed a man known as Goni to head up a top-secret economic team charged with restructuring the economy. Paz's party had no idea he had struck this backroom deal. Goni owned Comsur, the second-largest private mine in the country, soon to be the largest; as a young man, Goni had studied at the University of Chicago. Seventeen days later, they had created a textbook free market economic program. It included: Elimination of food subsidies. Canceling of almost all price controls. 300 percent hike in the price of oil. Froze government wages at already-low levels for a year. Called for deep cuts to government spending. Flung open Bolivia's borders to unrestricted imports. Called for a downsizing of state companies, the precursor to privatization. Paz's team insisted on bundling the entire revolution into a single executive decree; according to its authors, the entire program had to accepted or rejected; it couldn't be amended. Within two years: Inflation was down to 10 percent Unemployment increased from 20 percent to 25 or 30 percent. Real wages were down 40 percent; at one point they would drop 70 percent. "A small elite grew far wealthier while large portions of what had been the working class were discarded from the economy altogether and turned into surplus people." Bolivia had brought in a Pinochet-style economic program, without a Pinochet, and under a center-left government. It was labeled "Voodoo politics", but most people simply call it lying, and it was proven effective in implementing free market policies. The Crackdown: The country's main labor federation, called a general strike that brought industry to a halt. Paz declared a "state of siege": Army tanks rolled through the streets of the capital. The capital was placed under a strict curfew. To travel through their own country, Bolivian citizens now needed special passes. Riot police raided union halls, a university and a radio station, as well as several factories. Political assemblies and marches were forbidden. State permission was required to hold meetings. Oppositional politics was effectively banned- just as it had been under the dictatorship. Paz directed the police and military to round up the country's top two hundred union leaders, load them on planes and fly them to remote jails in the Amazon. Ransom demand: The prisoners would be released only if the unions called off their protests, which they eventually agreed to do. One year later, it all happened again. Goni, then as president of Bolivia in the mid-nineties, sold off their national oil company, the national airline, railway, electricity and phone companies. The winners of Bolivia's fire sale included Enron, Royal Dutch/Shell, Amoco Corp. and Citicorp. Goni's privatizations sparked a series of "wars" in Bolivia: The "water war" was against Bechtel's water contract that sent prices soaring 300 percent. The "tax war" was bagainst an IMF-prescribed plan to make up a budget shortfall by taxing the working poor. The "gas wars" were against his plans to export gas to the United States. In the end, Goni was forced to flee the presidential palace to live in the United States. Free Market in Poland 1988: The Communist government fell and Solidarity, the labor union party, won the election. Poland needed debt relief and some aid to get out of its financial crisis. The International Monetary Fund money was strictly conditional on Solidarity's submitting to free market economics. Poland enlisted Jeffrey Sachs, a Harvard economist trained in free market economics. September 12, 1989, the Polish prime minister announced: Privatization of state industry. The creation of a stock exchange and capital markets. A convertible currency. Budget cuts. The Result: 30 percent reduction in industrial production in two years Unemployment skyrocketed, reaching 25 percent in some areas. Marked increase in strikes. In 2003, 59 percent of Poles had fallen below the line. Free Market in Russia In Russia: Communism was over and Russia had enormous wealth including huge oil fields, 30 percent of the world's natural gas reserves, 20 percent of its nickel, weapons factories and a state media apparatus. 1991: G7 meeting told Mikhail Gorbachev must enact free market economic policies or he would be allowed to fail. He knew the policies would have to be enacted by force. Boris Yeltsin held the post of Russian president, and had a much lower profile than Gorbachev who headed all the Soviet Union. August 19, 1991: One month after the G7 summit, a group from the Communist old guard drove tanks up to the Russian parliament building and threatened to attack the country's first elected parliament.Yeltsin stood on one of the tanks and denounced the aggression as "a cynical, right-wing coup attempt." The tanks retreated and Boris Yeltsin emerged as democracy's hero. December 1991: Four months after the aborted coup, Yeltsin formed an alliance with two other Soviet republics, a move that abruptly dissolved the Soviet Union, thereby forcing Grobachev's resignation. Yeltsin enlisted Jeffrey Sachs, the same Harvard economist who had just "reformed" Bolivia and Poland. Sachs told Yeltsin he could raise something in the area of $15 billion. Late 1991: Yeltsin told parliament that if they gave him one year of special powers, under which he could issue laws by decree rather than bring them parliament for a vote, he would solve the economic crisis and give them back a thriving, healthy system. He was democracy's hero. The answer was yes. He immediately assembled a team of economists, devoted fans of Milton Friedman that the Russian press took to calling "the Chicago Boys". In just a month and a half, they wrote a comprehensive privatization plan. October 28, 1991, Yeltsin announced the plan: Lift price controls. Implement free-trade policies Privatize the country's approximately 225,000 state-owned companies. The Results: Millions of middle class Russians had lost their life savings when money lost its value. Abrupt cuts to subsidies meant millions of workers had not been paid in months. The average Russian consumed 40 percent less in 1992 than 1991. A third of the population fell below the poverty line. March 1993: The parliamentarians told Yeltsin he was done. They took back his dictatorial powers. Yeltsin went on television and declared a state of emergency, which restored his powers. Russia's independent Constitutional Court ruled 9-3 that Yeltsin's power grab violated the constitution on eight counts. The West supported Yeltsin. Then President Bill Clinton said he was "genuinely committed to freedom and democracy, genuinely committed to reform," Yeltsin issued a decree announcing that the constitution was abolished and parliament dissolved. Two days later, a special session of parliament voted 636-2 to impeach Yeltsin for this outrageous act. President Clinton continued to back Yeltsin and Congress voted to give him $2.5 billion in aid. Yeltsin abandoned negotiations and moved into war posture. Having just doubled military salaries, he had most of the army on his side. Yeltsin's next move was to dissolve all city and regional councils in the country. October 4, 1993: Yeltsin ordered a reluctant army to storm the Russian White House and set it on fire. The day after Yeltsin dissolved parliament, his team started writing economic decrees. Yeltsin and his team did not allow foreign multinationals to buy up Russia's assets directly; they kept the prizes for Russians. Then they opened up the newly privatized companies, owned by so-called oligarchs, to foreign shareholders. . "The oligarchs" moved enormous profits offshore at a rate of $2 billion a month Yetlsin won the next election thanks to $100 million in financing from the Russian oligarchs (33 times the legal amount). They then started selling off the commons: Forty percent of an oil company comparable in size to France's Total was sold for $88 million (Total's sales in 2006 were $193 billion). Norilsk Nickel was sold for $170 million- even though its profits alone soon reached $1.5 billion annually. The massive oil company Yukos was sold for $309 million; it now earns more than $3 billion in revenue a year. . A huge weapons factory sold for $3 million. The companies were essentially stolen, as the purchasers used public money to buy the companies. Yeltsin's ministers transferred large sums of public money, which should have gone into the national bank or treasury, into private banks that had been hastily incorporated by oligarchs. The state then contracted with the same banks to run the privatization auctions for the oil fields and mines. The banks bid in the auctions that they were running and made themselves the owners of the previously public assets. 1998: Russia's economy crashed. December 31, 1999: Several oligarchs engineered a quiet handover of power from Yeltsin to Vladimir Putin, no elections necessary. Putin's first act as president was signing a law protecting Yeltsin from any criminal prosecution. By 1998: More than 80 percent of Russian farms had gone bankrupt Roughly 77,000 state factories had closed, creating an epidemic of unemployment. In eight years, the number of people living below the poverty line went from 2 million to 74 million. The suicide rate doubled. Violent crime had increased almost fourfold. Before the free market policies, Russia had no millionaires; by 2003, the number of Russian billionaires had risen to seventeen. Free Market in South Korea South Korea had laws that protected national firms from foreign ownership, had resisted pressure to privatize their key state companies, and were keeping sectors like energy and transportation in public hands. They had also blocked many foreign imports from Japan, Europe and North America as they built up their own domestic markets. 1997: South Korea lifted barriers to their financial sectors, allowing a surge of paper investing and currency trading. The speed and volatility of globalized markets killed South Korea. A rumor that Thailand did not have enough dollars to back up its currency triggered a stampede by investors. Banks called in their loans and the real estate market, which had been growing so quickly that it had become a bubble, popped. Western and Japanese investment banks and multinational firms wanted the right to buy up Korea's impressive conglomerates like Daewoo, Hyundai, Samsung and LG. Financial establishment stepped forwards with a unified message: Don't help Asia. The IMF refused to do anything for months. When a loan offer was finally made to South Korea, it came conditional with the implementation of free market reforms. The plan included: Stripping the countries of all trade and investment protectionism. Budget cuts. Mass layoffs of public sector workers. When the plan was revealed, the market panicked. Traders thought the "reforms" meant Asia was worse than feared. They yanked out more money and further attacked the currency. South Korea sold off their assets: JP Morgan bought a stake in Kia Motors. Travelers Group and Salomon Smith Barney bought one of Korea's largest textile companies (chair was Donald Rumsfeld; Dick Cheney was also on the board). The Carlyle Group snapped up Daewoo's telecom division, one of Korea's largest high-tech firms, and it became a major shareholder in one of Korea's largest banks. Hundreds of local brands replaced by multinational giants. Motive: gobble up the entire business community, workforce, customer base and brand value built by Korean companies, often to break them apart, downsize them or shut them completely in order to eliminate competition for their imports. The Korean titan Samsung was broken up and sold for part Daewoo's car division, which the company had valued at $6 billion, was sold off to GM for just $400 million. Coca-Cola bought a Korean bottling company for half a billion dollars. Procter and Gamble bought a Korean packaging company. General Electric acquired a controlling stake in Korea's refrigerator manufacturer LG. Britain's Powergen nabbed LG Energy, a large Korean electricity and gas company. Morgan Stanley, which had been the loudest in calling for a deepening of the crisis, inserted itself into many of these deals, collection huge commissions. This crisis also forced governments to sell public services to raise badly needed capital. Motorola got full control over Korea's Appeal Telecom. British Telecom purchased a large stake in Korea's postal services. Bell Canada got a piece of Korea's telecom Hansol. The Results: 300,000 workers were fired every month. In 1996, 63.7 percent of South Koreans identified as middle class; by 1999 that number was down to 38.4 percent. Free Market in Iraq Saddam did not pose a threat to U.S. security, but he did pose a threat to U.S. energy companies. He had recently signed contracts with a Russian oil giant and was in negotiations with France's Total, leaving U.S. and British oil firms with nothing. Iraq's economy had been anchored by its national oil company and two hundred state-owned companies, which produced food and materials for its industry, everything from cement to paper and cooking oil. The Arab nations were the lone holdouts in the globalized quest to reform the world with free market policies. The Arab nations needed to be forced. Washington's game plan for Iraq: Shock and terrorize the entire country. Deliberately ruin its infrastructure, and contract out the rebuilding. Make it all okay with a brand new culture modeled on Chicago School economics. Between March 20 and May 2, the U.S. military bombed Iraq in a "shock and awe" program that destroyed the infrastructure. Free market policies were immediately imposed, including: Unrestricted imports. No tariffs. No duties. No inspections. No taxes. In the original Washington plan, Iraq was going to become a frontier just as Russia has been in the early nineties, but this time it would be U.S. firms- not local ones or European, Russian, or Chinese competitors- that would be first in line for the easy billions. Paul Bremer was the head of the the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), the U.S.-controlled government of Iraq. Bremer said, "Getting inefficient state enterprises into private hands is essential for Iraq's economic recovery." Bremer announced new economic laws: Two hundred firms were to be privatized immediately. Iraq's corporate tax rate was lowered from roughly 45 percent to a flat 15 percent. Foreign companies could own 100 percent of Iraqi assets. Investors could take 100 percent of the profits overseas; they would not be required to reinvest and they would not be taxed. Investors could sign leases for forty years and then be eligible for renewal, meaning future governments would be stuck with the contracts of their occupiers. Iraq's central bank would be prohibited from offering financing to state-owned enterprises. Bremer's government stole $20 billion from the national oil company but held off on the privatization until later. Bremer launched a brand-new currency. We paid the U.K. firm De La Rue to do the printing, and bills were delivered in fleets of planes and distributed in armored vehicles and trucks that ran at least a thousand missions throughout the country. Within a few months, corporate plans were made: McDonald's would open in downtown Baghdad. Funding was almost in place for a Starwood luxury hotel. General Motors was planning to build an auto plant. HSBC, the international bank head quartered in London, was awarded a contract to open branches all over Iraq, Citigroup announced plans to offer substantial loans guaranteed against future sales of Iraqi oil. Corporations were hired and paid by United States taxpayers to govern Iraq: BearingPoint designed and managed Iraq's economy. Britain's Adam Smith Institute was paid to privatize Iraq's companies. Private security firms and defense contractors trained Iraq's new army and police. Creative Associates, a management-and-education firm in Washington, D.C. was given $100 million to draft a new Iraqi curriculum and print new textbooks (which never wound up being used as the program was scrapped). The Green Zone was a Halliburton run city-state, with the company in charge of everything from road maintenance to pest control to movie and disco nights. The Colorado-based engineering and construction company and Parsons was paid $28.5 million oversee four other major contractors. Iraqis had virtually no role in this plan at all. Only 15,000 Iraqi's were hired to work on the reconstruction during Bremer's tenure and Iraqi factories were not given contracts for supplies. Free market policies would also protect the corporations working in Iraq from risk: Contractors were freed of all regulations while operating in Iraq. Protected from criminal prosecutions. "Cost-plus contracts" (guaranteed taxpayer dollars for all their costs plus a guaranteed profit) = when costs go up, so do profits. The Blowback: Bremer's first major act was to fire approximately 500,000 state workers and removing skilled people from their posts fed the resistance with angry people. Unrestricted imports and allowing foreign companies to own 100 percent of Iraqi assets infuriated Iraq's business community. Many responded by funding the resistance with the little they had left. The plan to privatize Iraq's two-hundred state owned companies was also regarded by many Iraqis as an act of war as two-thirds of them would have to lose their jobs in order to attract foreign investors. The Bush administration, trying to lock in their policies, decided to draft a new Constitution for Iraq, first with an interim version that locked in Bremer's laws and then with a permanent constitution that attempted (but failed) to do the same. June 2003: Bremer sent word that all local elections must stop immediately. The new plan was for Iraq's local leaders to be appointed by the occupation. November 2003: Paul Bremer cancelled the national elections and decided to handpick the members of an Iraqi Governing Council. An elected Iraqi government would have meant having to sacrifice the economic agenda behind the war. December 2006: The Iraq Study Group called for the U.S. to "assist Iraqi leaders to reorganize the national oil industry as a commercial enterprise" and to "encourage investment in Iraq's oil sector by the international community and by international energy companies." The Bush administration drafted a new oil law for Iraq: Companies could sign thirty-year contracts in which they could keep a large share of Iraq's oil profits. There were no limits on the amount of profits that foreign companies can take from the country. Foreign companies would not have to partner with Iraqi companies or hire Iraqis to work in the oil fields. Iraq's elected parliamentarians would be excluded from drafting the terms for future oil contracts. It created the Federal Oil and Gas Council which would be a panel of oil experts from inside and outside Iraq. It would have the ultimate decision-making power on all oil matters, with the full authority to decide which contracts Iraq did and did not sign. It was a promise of poverty in a country where 95 percent of government revenues come from oil. Free Market Elsewhere Other countries with similar free market experiences as explained in The Shock Doctrine: Equador Columbia Mexico South Africa Canada Malaysia Thailand Free Market in the United States Private companies such as Halliburton provide traditional military tasks (see Iraq). Private security guards protect our State Department diplomats and embassies. Private health care now mandated by law for citizens under 65 years old. Private charter schools with taxpayer vouchers are replacing public schools. Private banks control our financial system, protected from risk by U.S. taxpayer money. Private media stations filter news as dictated by the owners and shareholders. Private energy companies collect profits from the extraction of the United State's natural resources. U.S workers experiencing persistent high unemployment rates. U.S. workers wages have stagnated while the top .01% has seen tremendous wealth increases. U.S. workers in the public sector are losing jobs while private sector is gaining them. U.S. workers experiencing shortages in social services due to budget cuts. U.S. workers in the public sector have had wages frozen for two years. U.S. workers now use 401(k) investment plans for retirement instead of pensions. Is this what we want? Content for this episode was largely collected from The Shock Doctrine, an incredible collection of research by Naomi Klein. Buy it from Amazon by clicking the link below: