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Don’t get caught flat-footed in front of the press! Below is a quick rundown of today’s “must reads.” – John T. Doolittle, House Republican Conference Secretary
The Morning Murmur - Thursday, March 02, 2006
1. Violence
on Border at Record High – Washington Times
Violence on the U.S.-Mexico border is at an all-time high because illegal
aliens are more willing to attack U.S. authorities, and an increasing number
also are convicted criminals, border sheriffs said yesterday.
2. Dems Harbor Conflicts Over Ports – Chicago Sun-Times
Former President Bill Clinton advised the United Arab Emirates on how to
reduce opposition to its takeover of U.S. port operations. Clinton promoted
his former White House press secretary for a high-priced job as spokesman
for the UAE firm, Dubai Ports World, aiming to take over the port.
3. Spending Keeps Economy Strong – Associated Press
The warmest January in more than 100 years lured consumers out to city
stores and shopping malls to spend money at the fastest clip in six months,
giving a strong boost to the economy as the new year began.
4. Non-Dynamic Duo – Wall Street Journal
Senator Charles Grassley has challenged the latest Congressional Budget
Office report of projected revenue, claiming it is another example of the
dreadful forecasting that has become the norm for CBO and the Congressional
Joint Tax Committee.
5. Kennedy Tries to Halt Windmills – Washington Times
Senator Edward Kennedy, a staunch environmentalist, opposed a plan to
develop alternative fuel that could replace oil-burning power plants for
communities along the Nantucket Sound – it could also obstruct the view from
his vacation home.
For previous issues of the Morning Murmur, go to
www.GOPsecretary.gov
FULL ARTICLES BELOW:
1. Violence on Border at Record High – Washington Times
Published March 2, 2006
Violence on the U.S.-Mexico border is at an all-time high because illegal
aliens are more willing to attack U.S. authorities, and an increasing number
also are convicted criminals, border sheriffs said yesterday.
Whereas 10 years ago they would flee back to Mexico if anyone challenged
them, now aliens make it clear they will fight, the sheriffs told a Senate
Judiciary Committee panel.
"They make it known to the deputies: 'We're going through, you're not going
to stop us,' " said Sheriff A. D'Wayne Jernigan of Val Verde County in
Texas.
And Sheriff Larry A. Dever of Cochise County in Arizona said when smugglers
are involved, law enforcement now expects the worst.
"We anticipate that we will be in a fight, a very violent confrontation, in
every interdiction effort, with running gunbattles down public roadways," he
said.
The sheriffs described a border in chaos and a federal government that
hasn't put the resources into its own efforts, nor been as receptive as
possible to local law-enforcement efforts to help out.
They said the trend toward violent confrontations has happened in the past
decade as the trade in drugs and people has become a big business for
smugglers and with the increase in OTMs, or "other than Mexican" aliens,
attempting to cross.
"It sounds like, if nothing else, there's at least an attitude of
entitlement," said Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican.
Border violence has become a hot topic in recent months, with drug cartels
brazenly killing police chiefs on the Mexican side, the discovery of a
tunnel under the border ending in a warehouse in San Diego, attacks on U.S.
authorities increasing, and a videotaped encounter with what Texas sheriffs
said was Mexican military on the U.S. side of the border.
Senators said one reason for the rise in violence on the U.S. side is that
many illegal aliens are convicted criminals or persons wanted for crimes.
More than 42,000 illegal aliens caught at the U.S. border in the past five
months fell into that category, according to U.S. Customs and Border
Protection.
"Because the goal of these criminals is to smuggle valuable drugs and humans
across the border, the violence today has led to gunfire exchanges with our
law-enforcement agents," said Sen. Jon Kyl, Arizona Republican. "These
criminals also have no prejudice in their violence, as they also assault the
very people they're smuggling illegally into our country."
Mr. Kyl said the Department of Homeland Security reported that 139,000 of
the 1.1 million people apprehended along the border in 2005 were criminal
aliens seeking to illegally re-enter the United States.
In addition to the sheriffs, federal immigration authorities also testified
yesterday.
Under questioning by Sen. Jeff Sessions, Marcy M. Forman, the director of
the Office of Investigations for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said
her office doesn't have the money or staff to respond to all calls from
local law enforcement to come pick up illegal aliens.
"Basically the rule in Alabama was it was 15 or more, we might come and pick
them up. Otherwise basically don't bother to call. Isn't that the real
fact?" said Mr. Sessions, Alabama Republican.
Miss Forman said not all calls about illegal aliens are a priority for ICE.
"With 5,500 special agents we have to prioritize. Our prioritization entails
national security and public safety," she said, which means dangerous felons
and those thought to be security risks.
She said "funding is an issue" for why they don't have the ability to
respond. President Bush called for modest increases in ICE agents in this
year's budget.
Sheriff Dever said that although his border county gets a good response from
ICE, that's not true for his colleagues in the interior.
Also yesterday, Mr. Kyl and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat,
joined by a bipartisan group of House members, announced a bill to close a
loophole in the law regarding tunnels that run under the border. Although it
is illegal to smuggle drugs or people through tunnels, it is not illegal to
build a tunnel or own the property that the tunnel exits onto.
Forty tunnels have been discovered, 39 or them on the southern border. The
border sheriffs are making the rounds of Capitol Hill in their search for
more aid.
A House bill passed last year would allow border sheriffs to aid in
enforcing immigration laws, and some states have signed agreements allowing
ICE to train local law enforcement on how to detain and process illegal
aliens.
Members of the Texas Border Sheriff's Coalition testified before a House
Homeland Security Committee panel last month and some of their members,
along with several Arizona sheriffs, will be before a House Judiciary
Committee panel today.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20060302-124525-9041r.htm
2. Dems Harbor Conflicts Over Ports – Chicago Sun-Times
March 2, 2006
BY ROBERT NOVAK SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
While Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was ripping President Bush's handling of
American ports management, Bill Clinton was pushing for one of his favorite
White House aides to be hired to defend the deal. The former president
proposed to the United Arab Emirates his onetime press secretary, Joe
Lockhart, as Washington spokesman for the UAE-owned company, Dubai Ports
World.
The Lockhart deal was never consummated. But the spectacle of the two
Clintons going in opposite directions on the port-management question
exposed a Democratic fault line. Widespread public reaction against
outsourcing control of the ports was seen by Sen. Clinton and other
prominent Democrats as a chance to outflank the Republicans on homeland
security in this year's elections. But behind the scenes Democrats aligned
with the Clinton family were lobbying for the UAE.
The lineup over DP World raises questions about how Bill Clinton's free and
easy political manner will impact his wife's prospective presidential
campaign for 2008. Highly disciplined Hillary Clinton plays politics by the
numbers, following a carefully plotted strategy. Her husband's freewheeling,
intuitive style was typified when he tried to secure a well-paid assignment
for Lockhart, who heads a Washington-based media firm.
According to well-placed UAE sources, the former president made the
suggestion at the very highest level of the oil-rich state. The relationship
between him and the UAE is far from casual. The sheikdom has contributed to
the Clinton Presidential Library, and brought Clinton to Dubai in 2002 and
2005 for speeches (reportedly at $300,000 apiece). He was there in 2003 to
announce a scholarship program for American students traveling to Dubai.
Certainly, the emirs would pay the closest attention to any request from the
former president. Lockhart did confer with DP World officials, but the UAE
sources said Lockhart's asking price was much too high.
Lockhart did not flatly deny that Clinton had made a pitch for him, but
instead said he did not know whether the former president was involved.
Lockhart said he was recommended by another Clintonite: Carol Browner, the
former Environmental Protection Agency chief and now a principal in the
Albright Group lobbying firm. Headed by former Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright, the company is representing DP World. Lockhart told me ''money was
not the problem'' as he turned down the offer.
UAE sources, contending that Lockhart priced himself out of the market,
asserted there was no question but that Clinton had intervened on his behalf
and added it was not possible that Lockhart had not known about the
intervention. When I sought comment from Clinton, his press spokesman, Jay
Carson, said: ''I don't know for sure, but I don't know him to generate
employment even for someone he likes and admires as much as Joe Lockhart.''
While Lockhart may have been a bridge too far for DP World, the UAE has
reached out to high-priced Washington lobbyists on both sides of the aisle
(including Republicans Bob Dole and Vin Weber). Leading the way in putting
together the port deal was Jonathan Winer, a Democrat who spent 10 years as
Sen. John Kerry's aide. Winer's associate at the Alston & Bird law firm
supporting DP World is Kathryn Marks, who was policy director for then Sen.
John Edwards.
In contrast to Democratic operatives working behind closed doors are
Democratic lawmakers attacking the ports deal. Speaking to the Jewish
Community Relations Council at Manhattan's 92nd Street YMCA on Sunday, Sen.
Clinton went beyond questions of homeland security. She called the Dubai
deal ''emblematic of a larger problem'' of ceding ''some of our fiscal
sovereignty.''
Does that put the Clintons on a collision course? Not exactly. Having failed
privately to hook up Lockhart with DP World, the former president publicly
turned on his old friends from the UAE last Friday in a speech at Auckland,
New Zealand. DP World, he said, ''is from UAE, where some of the money from
9/11 was laundered.'' If Democrats in general are divided publicly and
privately on this issue, so is Bill Clinton as an individual.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/novak/cst-edt-novak021.html#
3. Spending Keeps Economy Strong – Associated Press
Thursday, March 2nd, 2006
The warmest January in more than 100 years lured consumers out to city
stores and shopping malls to spend money at the fastest clip in six months,
giving a strong boost to the economy as the new year began.
The nation's factories were also enjoying good times with a closely watched
gauge of manufacturing activity posting a strong increase in February.
But despite the warm weather, construction spending grew far below
expectations in January as home building, the economy's stand-out performer
for many years, managed just a tiny increase.
Still, analysts said the various reports released yesterday pointed to an
economy that is shaking off the blows from the hurricanes and soaring energy
prices dealt in the final three months of last year to grow at a solid pace
in the first three months of this year.
The Commerce Department reported that personal spending surged 0.9% in
January, the biggest advance in six months, reflecting strong demand for
autos and other durable goods and for nondurable goods such as clothing.
"You can't keep a good consumer down and the American household is one great
customer," said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors.
On Wall Street, investors were cheered by the economic reports. The Dow rose
60.12 to 11,053.53. It had fallen 104.14 points Tuesday, partly in response
to downbeat comments from Google's chief financial officer.
Personal incomes rose a solid 0.7% in January. That reflected solid wage
growth during the month and a number of special factors, including a 4.1%
cost-of-living increase for Social Security recipients and the start of the
government's new prescription drug benefit.
The bigger rise in spending in January compared to incomes kept the personal
savings rate in negative territory at a minus 0.7%. That meant Americans
spent more than their after-tax incomes, which forced them to dip into prior
savings or increase their borrowing.
Economists said the strong gain in spending meant overall economic growth,
which slowed to a 1.6% rate in the October-December period, was rebounding
strongly to perhaps above 5% in the current quarter. Consumer spending
accounts for two-thirds of total economic growth.
Also helping boost the economy is a resurgent manufacturing sector, which
was the hardest-hit part of the economy during the 2001 recession.
The Institute for Supply Management reported that its closely watched
manufacturing gauge rose to a three-month high of 56.7 in February, up from
54.8 in January, as the index for new orders jumped to the highest level in
16 months.
However, a third report showed that construction spending managed only a
0.2% increase in January, the weakest gain in seven months and far below the
1% that analysts had been expecting.
A big reason for the slowdown was a tiny 0.1% increase in private home
building, the poorest monthly performance since an actual decline of 0.4%
last June.
http://www.nydailynews.com/business/story/395955p-335639c.html
4. Non-Dynamic Duo – Wall Street Journal
March 2, 2006; Page A14
A House-Senate conference committee is still mulling whether to extend the
15% capital gains and dividend rates through 2010, and it seems the only
roadblock is the Congressional budget estimate that this two-year extension
would "cost" the Treasury $20 billion. But here comes Senate Finance
Chairman Chuck Grassley to the rescue.
The Iowa Republican has sent a crisp letter to the Congressional Budget
Office questioning that revenue estimate given its dreadful forecasting
record. With the 15% tax rate, Mr. Grassley writes, "capital gains taxes are
now projected to exceed the amount originally projected under the higher
capital gains tax rate [of 20%] that prevailed before 2003." As the nearby
chart shows, tax receipts are now expected to be $87 billion more than CBO
originally predicted for the years 2003-2006.
CBO's letter of explanation for its blunder is a doozy. The agency threw up
its hands and acknowledged that its computer model fell "well short of
explaining the surge in [capital gains] realizations that occurred in 2004"
and that nearly half the increase in capital gains realizations between 2003
and 2004 "remains unexplained" by the model. Perhaps it's time for a new
model. Then CBO resorted to economic mumbo jumbo and claimed that "we cannot
conclude that the unexplained increase is attributable to the change in
capital gains tax rates." Maybe it's the tides.
Now, we concede that estimating stock sales and then capital gains tax
revenues is an imprecise science affected by many factors other than the tax
rate. And errors should be expected in such revenue projections. But for
nearly 30 years CBO's errors have been anything but random. Starting with
the famous Steiger capital gains tax cut of 1978, and again with the cuts in
1997 and 2003, actual capital gains revenues and realizations have exceeded
what the computer models predicted.
CBO and the Congressional Joint Tax Committee also advised Congress that
raising the capital gains tax rate to 28% from 20% as part of the 1986 tax
reform would bring in more revenue to the Treasury. Instead, capital gains
revenue fell. After the 1997 rate cut, this non-dynamic duo were also off by
a country mile, or $84 billion from 1997-1999.
The rationale behind the 2003 tax cut was not to raise tax revenues, of
course, but to spur investment and growth and to reverse the fall in the
stock market after the dot-com crash in 2000. That is precisely what
happened. This has been an investment-led economic expansion, with some $5.1
trillion in stock wealth restored, and the Bush tax cuts are one of the
reasons. That gift to the 100 million-plus members of the U.S. investor
class will be put in harm's way if the dividend and capital gains rates are
allowed to rise back to 35% and 20% after 2008.
So we're glad to see Mr. Grassley on the case. He should tell his fellow
conferees that the surest way to cost the Treasury money would be to let
those tax rates increase. And while he's at it, how about prodding the
static revenuers at CBO and Joint Tax to fix their models, or better, throw
them out and get new ones.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114126778450687213.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep
5. Kennedy Tries to Halt Windmills – Washington Times
By Audrey Hudson
Published March 2, 2006
A fight to block alternative fuel development that could replace oil-burning
power plants for communities along the Nantucket Sound has created an
unusual alliance on Capitol Hill, with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy backing the
fight against the green proposal.
Mr. Kennedy, a staunch environmentalist, opposes the Cape Wind project,
which will place windmills in the sound's shallows to create electricity for
customers in Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.
Critics say the Massachusetts Democrat doesn't want the Cape Wind project in
his own back yard along with 130 windmills that might clutter the water view
of the Kennedy clan's vacation home. Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts' junior
senator and another key green ally, called attempts to derail the project an
"insult."
Opponents of the project say it should not go forward until federal
guidelines are established and it has undergone a competitive bidding
process.
"Senator Kennedy has real environmental and economic concerns, and the
federal government continues to lack a national policy and process to guide
offshore alternative energy development," said Melissa Wagoner, Mr.
Kennedy's spokeswoman.
Mr. Kennedy, who has a 95 percent vote rating from the League of
Conservation Voters, has recruited the help of Rep. Don Young of Alaska -- a
conservative Republican and foe of environmentalists who received a zero
ranking from the league last year.
Mr. Young, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure
Committee, is lobbying members of a House-Senate conference on the Coast
Guard supplemental appropriations bill.
He wants them to add his proposal to require windmills to be set back 1.5
nautical miles from any shipping or ferry lanes. Such a buffer requirement
would make the Cape Wind project impossible in such a narrow sound.
"Given the potential dangers of siting one of these wind farms in a busy
shipping area, [Mr. Kennedy] thinks it is worth the conferees'
consideration," Miss Wagoner said.
However, developers of the Cape Wind project say the legislation is
specifically directed at them, would cripple the project economically and is
a classic case of the "not in my back yard" (NIMBY) attitude toward
developments that serve the common good.
"The NIMBY opponents have spent more than $1 million lobbying in D.C.," says
Mark Rodgers, Cape Wind project spokesman. "The Young amendment will kill
Cape Wind in one fell swoop, which appears to be the intention.
"It would also impose on the U.S. the most stringent laws in the world on
offshore wind energy development," said Mr. Rodgers, who noted that oil
drilling rigs are only required to be 500 feet from shipping lanes.
Mr. Young's spokesman declined to comment on the legislation.
However, in a letter to the conferees, Mr. Young specifically refers to the
Cape Wind project, which he says encompasses 24 square miles with windmills
reaching 417 feet, and is "located in water deep enough that ships can enter
into the area and do so regularly."
"I know others oppose the project entirely on a wide variety of economic,
environmental, and tourism standards," Mr. Young's letter stated.
"I am not necessarily opposed to the project, but I am convinced we need a
set of objective navigational safety standards that will assure that wind
energy projects are properly sited with regard to navigational safety and
national security," Mr. Young wrote.
Massachusetts declared Nantucket Sound an ocean sanctuary in the 1970s, thus
banning disturbance of nearly the entire seabed as well as the view.
Mark Forest, chief of staff for Rep. Bill Delahunt, Massachusetts Democrat
who represents the Nantucket area, called it "a very contentious battle."
"We have a need for energy, but there is a right way to do it and a wrong
way to do it -- this is the wrong way," Mr. Forest said.
Mr. Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, has issued a statement
opposing Mr. Young's legislative move.
"The Young amendment is an insult to Americans who care about good
government. I oppose this backdoor amendment to the Coast Guard
Authorization bill, which -- if passed -- will derail offshore wind projects
across the nation," he said.
Mr. Rodgers said the use of wind power would reduce air pollution from the
oil-fired Canal Power plant and ease the demand for electricity throughout
New England, which faces the threat of rolling blackouts during cold winter
days.
Asked about Mr. Kennedy's opposition to the plan, Mr. Rodgers said, "To say
you favor wind power, but not here, where you live in a very windy place,
calls into question your real commitment to wind power."
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20060302-124537-9804r.htm
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