Assholes of the Week
"President" Bush and White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card are the co-Assholes of the Week for deciding to give cash bonuses to Bush appointees while the Bush regime has cut the pay raises that rank-and-file federal workers were supposed to receive -- and for keeping the bonuses secret for eight months.
The Associated Press reported that "Card approved reinstatement of the [bonuses for appointees at federal agencies] eight months ago, but the administration did not reveal the move, which makes some 2,100 administration appointees eligible for bonuses."
The New York Times reported on Dec. 4 that "In March ... Card ordered agency heads to pay bonuses of up to $25,000 to political appointees, but the administration did not disclose the policy then, and it was not made public until today."
Bonuses of more than $25,000 would have to be personally approved by Bush. Bush appointees already typically earn $115,000 to $140,000 a year, according to the Times.
The Times reported that the 1.8 million rank-and-file federal workers were to receive a 4.1 percent pay increase, but that the Bush regime recently announced that it would reduce it to 3.1 percent because, it claimed, "the government could not afford the higher increase because of the cost of the war on terrorism and the 'national emergency' since the September 2001 terrorist attacks."
A writer for the World Socialist Web Site explained:
A 1990 law requires across-the-board raises of 3.1 percent for civil service employees as well as a “locality pay” adjustment to compensate for the disparity between federal workers’ pay and that of workers in the private sector. A clause in the law allows the president to declare a “national emergency” in order to withhold the full amount.
While both the House of Representatives and the Senate had proposed a 4.1 percent hike, approximately the same amount the military is to receive, Bush rejected the principal of civilian-military parity, limiting the raise for civilian workers to the 3.1 percent minimum. At the same time he barred any “locality pay” raise.
The AP reported that "Card was White House deputy chief of staff and also transportation secretary in the last days of the first President Bush's administration, which paid nearly $400,000 in bonuses to political appointees on the way out after Bush lost the 1992 election."
The AP noted that "at the time of the [first President Bush] bonuses, the nation was emerging from recession -- roughly where the economy is today."
"The disclosure [of the bonuses] also comes at a time when Bush has proposed privatizing as many as 850,000 federal jobs, and follows his successful campaign for broad powers to hire, fire and move workers in the new Department of Homeland Security," the AP also noted.
As I have written in the past, "President" Bush is like a frat boy let loose in the White House who is hellbent on doing all he can for his rich buddies -- at the working class' expense -- while he can.
He has used the 9-11/"national security" excuse to deny union protection to the employees of the newly created Department of Homeland Security; to force taxpayers instead of insurance companies to cover future terrorism-related insurance claims after certain amounts; to let pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly (a large contributor to the Republican Party) off the hook from lawsuits stemming from its vaccines; and now, to deny federal workers their full pay raise.
That's probably only a partial list, and I'm sure that he'll use the 9-11/"national security" excuse again and again to screw labor -- the majority of the American people -- and to make his rich buddies even richer.
While "President" Bush routinely extends his privileged middle finger to the American people and to the rest of the world, giving his rich cronies bonuses during an economic slump especially conveys the message, "Fuck you!"
Therefore, although in the past I have exempted him from Asshole of the Week -- because he's probably going to be the Asshole of the Decade and perhaps even the Asshole of the Millennium, it seemed pointless -- I name Bush and Card the co-Assholes of the Week.
9:14:39 PM 
|
