BuzzFlash News Alert

March 28, 2006

New Chief of Staff, More of the Same

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT

From the DNC

Washington, DC - Facing increasing disarray in his own party and sagging poll numbers, President Bush announced a desperate move to salvage his presidency with the appointment of Office of Management and Budget Director Josh Bolten to replace Andy Card as White House Chief of Staff today. Bolten, however, is hardly the change that Americans are demanding from the President, representing more of the same failed policies that characterized the first five and a half years of the Bush Administration.

Bolten is the same Bush-Rove-Card insider that stonewalled questions about spending on Katrina, keeping his own Party's members of Congress in the dark as to how the money would be spent. [Roll Call, 9/14/05] Bolten was also in charge of driving the Bush Administration's disastrous Medicare Prescription Drug plan that has created chaos for seniors and forced 20 states to pick up the tab. And Bolten has played a key role in the Bush Administration's ballooning budgets and skyrocketing deficits that continue to undermine the economic security of the American people.

"As the saying goes, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig. Unfortunately for the American people all President Bush did today was make it clear that they should expect nothing more than the same failed policies they have come to know all too well." said DNC communications Director Karen Finney. "Josh Bolton is another Rove-Bush-Cheney insider who represents more of the same, not the fundamental change that the American people are demanding. At the bidding of the White House and with the blessing of Congressional Republicans, Bolten has presided over the irresponsible Bush budgets that have undermined America's economic security, and are increasingly putting America's security in the hands of foreign debtors."

Josh Bolten has long been one of President Bush's most trusted advisors. From stonewalling Congress about Katrina relief and the cost of the Medicare drug benefit to creating a "shadow budget" with costs that will explode in 2009 to concealing the true reasons for the ballooning deficits this Administration has created, Josh Bolten is responsible for this Administration's long series of policy failures. And we should not be surprised that Bolten operates like Bush's most inner circle, with stealth and secrecy.

Born:1955
Current Position: Director of Office of Management and Budget (OMB) [www.whitehouse.gov]
Previous Positions: From January 2001 through June of 2003, Mr. Bolten was Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy at the White House. From March 1999 through November 2000, he was Policy Director of the Bush-Cheney presidential campaign. Mr. Bolten also served as Policy Director of the Bush-Cheney transition. From 1994 to 1999, he was Executive Director, Legal & Government Affairs, for Goldman Sachs International in London. During the Administration of President George H.W. Bush, Mr. Bolten served for three years as General Counsel to the U.S. Trade Representative and one year in the White House as Deputy Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs. Previously, from 1985 to 1989, he was International Trade Counsel to the US Senate Finance Committee. Earlier, Mr. Bolten was in a private law practice with O'Melveny & Myers, and worked in the legal office of the U.S. State Department. He also served as Executive Assistant to the Director of the Kissinger Commission on Central America. [www.whitehouse.gov]

Education: Mr. Bolten received his B.A. with distinction from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs (1976) and his J.D. from Stanford Law School (1980), where he was an editor of the Stanford Law Review. Immediately after law school, he served as a law clerk at the U.S. District Court in San Francisco. During the fall semester of 1993, Mr. Bolten taught international trade at Yale Law.[www.whitehouse.gov]

Bolten is Another Stickler for Secrecy. "Bolten operates with two guiding principles: absolute loyalty to the boss and absolutely no attention to himself. Indeed, his penchant for secrecy befits the son of a career CIA officer. One White House colleague notes that Bolten for months had a sign on his desk declaring: 'Who else needs to know?'" [BusinessWeek, 12/3/01]

Bush Placed Bolten at Head of Quiet Ad Hoc Homeland Security Group. Immediately after the attacks of September 11, 2001, Bolten was handed the responsibility of an ad hoc organization called the Domestic Consequences Principals Group. "Bush placed Bolten in charge. Starting a couple days after September 11, Bolten began to convene a daily meeting of cabinet officers who looked at ways to enhance protection of Americans in this country, an enterprise now known as homeland security." [Stanford Lawyer #69, Summer 2004]

• Bush Administration Gets Failing Grades on Homeland Security From Former Members of the 9/11 Commission. Former members of the 9/11 Commission released a report stating that ". . . [t]he federal government has largely failed to implement anti-terrorism upgrades recommended by the 9/11 Commission" and "warned that the slow response has left the United States unprepared for another major attack." The panel graded the Bush Administration on their progress implementing 41 recommendations made by the 9/11 Commission, assigning Ds and Fs in 16 categories. The Commission also warned that the government was failing to move quickly to isolate terrorist groups and discourage weapons proliferation. [Brattleboro Reformer, 12/6/05; Financial Times 11/15/05]

Bush Called Bolten a Trusted and Close Advisor. When President Bush named Josh Bolten head of The Office of Management and Budget he called Bolten "one of my closest and most trusted advisors." [White House Release, 5/22/03]

• Bush Stated Confidence in Bolten's Understanding of Bush's Priorities. "From his experience in both the executive branch and on Capitol Hill, Josh Bolten understands the workings of the federal government as well as anybody in this city. And most important, from his tenure as my deputy chief of staff for policy, Josh knows the philosophy and priorities of my administration." [White House Release, 5/22/03]

Andrew Card Praised Bolten. "First of all, he's really smart, he's very humble, and he has a great sense of humor. . . He's like a sponge absorbing everything that everybody else says. He's not quick to respond but he generally responds with tremendous wisdom." [Stanford Lawyer #69, Summer 2004]

Karl Rove "Loves Bolten In An. . . Appropriate Way." "He's soft-spoken but very clear thinking. . .I love him in an entirely appropriate way." [Stanford Lawyer #69, Summer 2004]

KATRINA: Bolten Remained Secretive Towards Republican House Members' Questions on Katrina Spending. "As Congress and the Bush administration worked aggressively to tackle the recovery from Hurricane Katrina, House Republicans gave the White House mixed reviews on its communication effort with the Hill, on both the political and the policy fronts. Frustrations among Members came to a head at a Republican Conference meeting, as lawmakers peppered Office of Management and Budget Director Josh Bolten with questions. While most lawmakers gave Bolten credit just for showing up, some grew impatient with his inability to answer their specific queries about how all the money would be spent." [Roll Call, 9/14/05]

• Bolten Deflected Question On New Orleans Levees Funding With a "Quip". "At a Stanford alumni weekend forum on rebuilding the Gulf Coast, a civil engineer asked Josh Bolten if it would've been smarter to spend a fraction of the billions of dollars in relief to fix the levees before Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans. Bolten directed his response and a quip toward fellow panelist Leon Panetta, President Clinton's former chief of staff: 'That question would be better directed at Leon, because, as a civil engineer, you would know any project like that would have had to start a decade ago, and I refuse to make recriminations against Leon.'" [San Jose Mercury News, 10/23/05]

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS: Drug Benefit Policy Driven Out of OMB Director's Office. "Republicans said Mr. Bolten's appointment probably meant that domestic policy would be largely driven out of the budget director's office, particularly the administration's plans to overhaul Medicare, provide prescription drug coverage and push for a new round of tax cuts this fall." [New York Times, 5/23/03]

• Administration Officials Used Low Price Tag To Win Conservative Support; Threatened to Fire Top Medicare Actuary If He Revealed True Cost of the Drug Plan. "The Bush Administration relied upon the drug benefit's $400 billion price tag to win over skeptical conservatives. But in June of 2003, the chief Medicare actuary at HHS had concluded that the cost of the bill would be $551.5 billion over 10 years. Although Democrats had been asking for Mr. Foster's estimates for months, he refused to provide them, saying he could be fired. That is supported by an email to Mr. Foster from Mr. Scully's Chief of Staff Jeffrey Flick. In it, Mr. Flick stated that Mr. Foster should not share the new cost estimates until Mr. Scully authorized it, saying that 'the consequences for insubordination are extremely severe.' In a conversation with Democratic health staff, Thomas A. Scully, then the Medicare administrator, stated, 'If Rick Foster gives that to you, I'll fire him so fast his head will spin.'" [New York Times, 3/18/04; Wall Street Journal, 3/18/04]
  
  
• White House Likely Knew Of Higher Estimates Before January 2004. Within weeks of the bill's passage, the White House admitted they had underestimated the cost by $135 billion (35 percent). At the time, Bush claimed he had first learned of the estimate in early January 2004 based on calculations from the Medicare actuaries. But in an interview, Mr. Foster stated that it is likely that White House Senior Health Policy advisor Doug Badger was aware of the higher estimates. [Boston Globe, 1/30/04; LA Times, 1/31/04; New York Times, 3/14/04; Wall Street Journal, 3/15/04; Knight Ridder, 3/17/04]

• Bolten Defended Revised Medicare Prescription Drug Costs, Almost Double the Original Estimate. "A higher cost estimate for the Medicare prescription-drug program released in 2005 reignited an intense congressional debate over why Republicans pushed such an expensive program into law. . . In a hearing before the Senate Budget Committee, White House budget director Josh Bolten defended the new numbers as 'completely consistent' with earlier estimates." [USA Today, 2/10/05]

• Conservatives Are Outraged At New Spending Forced Through By Bush Administration. The Bush Administration relied upon the drug benefit's $400 billion price tag to win over skeptical conservatives. But now there is "outrage among conservatives over the new spending and the biggest expansion of Medicare since its creation in 1965." Congressional Republicans say the onus is on the Bush administration to make the program work. [New York Times, 3/18/04; 2/19/06; Newsweek, 11/28/05]

Bolten Admits Congressional Earmarks Aren't the "Major Portion" of Federal Spending. Josh Bolten conceded to Gannett News Service that earmarks "are not a major portion of the budget in most cases." [Journal News, 2/806]

Bolten Wrote Deficit Could Be Cut in Half Within 5 Years. Bolten wrote, "Indeed, with adoption of the president's policies, our projections show a solid path toward cutting the deficit in half, toward a size that is below 2% of GDP, within the next five years." [Bolten Op-Ed, Wall Street Journal, 12/10/03]

• Yet Realistic Projection of Deficit Estimated at $460 Billion Deficit in 2008. An analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in 2003 found that more realistic projections, with included costs for defense spending and tax cuts, would result in much larger deficits. CBPP said, "If the tax cuts are extended and other likely costs occur, deficits will total $5.1 trillion over the next ten years, will never fall below $400 billion in any year, and will reach $650 billion by 2013." Their analysis estimated a $460 billion deficit in 2008. OMB's projections show a large decline in the deficit by 2008 only because the OMB figures omit a series of very likely or inevitable costs in taxes, defense spending, and other areas. [CBPP Fact Sheet, 8/26/03, http://www.cbpp.org/8-26-03bud.htm]
  
  
• Yet White House Projection Leaves Out Expected Spending. The White House's deficit projection does not include the $87 billion in supplemental funding for Iraq; it does not include the cost of fixing middle-class expansion of the Alternative Minimum Tax, which Bush promised to do, and which is expected to cost $46 billion in 2008; it does not include the extension of the business depreciation tax cut enacted in 2002; it does not include the cost of the newly-passed Medicare prescription drug benefit; it does not include the cost of the energy bill the Administration is pushing; and it does not include the $1 trillion in transition costs that would be incurred under the Administration's Social Security partial privatization plan. [CBPP Fact Sheet, http://www.cbpp.org/9-11-03bud.htm]

Bolten Promised to Be Tight-Fisted. "I'll be a tireless advocate for your agenda and a tight-fisted custodian of the people's money." [White House Release, 5/22/03]

• Bolten Responsible for "Shadow Budget" That Balloons In 2009. The budget numbers released in early 2006 "add up to a budgetary landmine that could blow up" in 2009. "Bush's. . . plan to partially privatize Social Security, for instance, would cost a total of $79.5 billion in the last two budgets that [he] will propose as president and an additional $675 billion in the five years that follow. New Medicare figures likewise show the cost almost twice as high as originally estimated, largely because it mushrooms long after the Bush presidency. 'It's almost like you've got a budget, and you've got a shadow budget coming in behind that's a whole lot more expensive,' said Philip G. Joyce, professor of public policy at George Washington University." [Washington Post, 2/14/06]

Boltn Said Domestic Spending Was Shrinking. "In the last budget year of the previous administration (FY '01), domestic spending unrelated to defense or homeland security grew by an eye-popping 15%. With the adoption of President Bush's first budget (FY '02), that number was reduced to 6%; then 5% the following year; and now 3% for the current fiscal year." [Bolten Op-Ed, Wall Street Journal, 12/10/03]

• Yet Majority of Spending Increases Under Bush Were Not for Defense and Homeland Security. Despite Bush's claims that the recession and war are responsible for the budget deficit, only 45 percent of all new federal spending since 2001 has been related to defense and the 9/11 attacks. The remaining 55 percent was spent on programs unrelated to homeland security and the war on terrorism. These unrelated programs have grown by 11 percent, by $51 billion, since 2001- the fastest rates since before President Clinton came to office. [Backgrounder, Heritage Foundation, 11/13/03]

Bolten Touted the Bush Tax Cuts as Responsible for Federal Budget Deficit Decline. During Summer 2005, the Bush administration lowered its estimate of the federal budget deficit for fiscal year 2005 to $333 billion, $94 billion less than what was forecast in February 2005. A 14 percent spike in tax receipts caused the revision, the first improvement in the deficit since President Bush took office. Josh Bolten, director of the Office of Management and Budget, credited the administration's tax cuts for the better-than-expected numbers, saying they had boosted tax payments by stimulating the economy. [Houston Chronicle, 7/14/05]

• Yet Cost of Extending Tax Cuts Will Increase Deficit by $176 Billion in 2008. According to Citizens for Tax Justice, if the Bush tax cuts set to expire in 2008 are extended, as Bush has called for, the impact on the budget will be a $176 billion larger deficit. [CTJ Fact Sheet, http://www.ctj.org/pdf/binge03.pdf]

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT

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