Arianna speaks out

The Enronization Of Public Policy

By Arianna Huffington

Has there ever been a clearer, more irrefutable example of our political

leaders' lack of a moral compass than the clandestine, eleventh-hour
elimination of a promised child tax credit for almost 12 million of
America's poorest children?

It's a move that is so cold-hearted and so profoundly dishonorable that
it
could only have been made by people who have lost all moral direction.

A magnetic compass should always point north; a moral compass should
always point out what is moral -- and immoral. Heaping billions on the
rich while ensuring that one out of six American kids doesn't get a
penny is dead wrong.

But that's exactly what Congressional Republicans did -- and what
President Bush signed off on.

This is not a right/left issue. It's a right/wrong issue. But the GOP's
self-appointed morality czars have been deafeningly silent on this bit
of
economic indecency. I guess Bill Bennett was too busy shaking the hands
of
every one-armed bandit in Vegas to notice.

Adding to the obscenity is the fact that while the Congressional hatchet

men were hacking up the $3.5 billion child tax credit in the name of
keeping the total tax cut under $350 billion, they let stand billions in

corporate tax dodges and accounting cons, including the use of offshore
tax havens.

The White House labeled this particular piece of supply-side porn the
Jobs
and Growth Act. I guess the Leave No Corporate Loophole Behind Act
didn't
focus group as well.

The last few years have shown us what happens when an entire subculture
loses its moral compass: Enron, Tyco, Adelphia, WorldCom, et al. And
it's
becoming increasingly clear that the current administration has embraced

the unethical ethos of the corporate oligarchy from which so many of its

members came -- and which all of them continue to serve. The same
inability to distinguish right from wrong that characterized the
corporate
scandals is now dominating public policy.

It's the Enronization of Washington.

Want more proof? How about the unprecedented aircraft-leasing deal
currently being put together by the Pentagon and Boeing -- a plan that
uses the same kind of accounting sleight-of-hand popularized by the gang

at Enron. Here's how it works: instead of the Pentagon buying the 100
new
jets it wants to use as aerial refueling tankers directly from Boeing,
at
an upfront cost of $138 million per plane, a special-purpose entity
created on Wall Street will purchase the planes and lease them to the
Air
Force.

That way the Pentagon gets to acquire the planes without having to dip
into the Air Force's limited procurement budget, and Boeing gets to reap

billions in new military contracts without having to show the debt
associated with the shady deal on its balance sheet. It's an
off-the-books
win-win deal for them both -- but a losing proposition for taxpayers,
who'll end up forking over an additional $8 billion to cover the
interest
payments on the leases.

The sleazy new deal is being put together by the good bankers at
Citigroup
-- the same outfit that helped Enron defraud shareholders out of, what
do
you know, also $8 billion. Who says irony is dead?

Then there is the news that, in an effort to ensure the passage of its
cherished tax-cut plan, the Bush administration buried a highly damaging

study -- commissioned by its own Treasury department -- that found that
it
would take either the permanent elimination of all future federal
discretionary spending or an immediate and permanent tax hike of 66
percent to cover the upcoming retirement and healthcare needs of aging
baby boomers. You think that bombshell might have put a little damper on

Bush's tax cut orgy?

This is exactly the kind of skullduggery corrupt corporations used to
conceal potentially disastrous news from investors -- like Adelphia
hiding
its $3.1 billion loans to the Rigas family in tiny footnotes in an
earnings filing.

Like many disgraced companies, the White House has proven adept at
playing
fast and loose with the numbers in order to mislead its "shareholders"
--
the American people. Take the administration's shifty use of "averages"
to
make it seem like the new tax cut benefits everyone -- claiming that "91

million taxpayers will receive, on average, a tax cut of $1,226," when,
in
fact, the majority of households will receive a tax cut of $100 or less.

Or the way it used sure-to-be-repealed "sunset clauses" to make it seem
as
if the president was reasonably settling for a $350 billion tax cut,
when
the actual price tag on the new bill will be close to $1 trillion.

It's the kind of economic book cooking that would do ol' Kenny Boy Lay
proud.

It's time to expand the Right's definition of immorality beyond sex,
drugs, and rock and roll to include lying, cheating, and callous
indifference to those in need.

CEOs lying to investors to pad their own pockets is bad enough.
Political
leaders lying to the American people to pad the pockets of their big
buck
contributors is immoral -- and intolerable.

-----

Arianna Huffington is the author of "Pigs at the Trough: How
Corporate Greed and Political Corruption are Undermining
America." For information on the book, visit
www.PigsAtTheTrough.com

If you have questions or comments, contact Arianna at
arianna@...
-- -Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island
http://www.anaphoria.com
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