Cost of Government Day (COGD)
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Title: Washington Calling: Sunning in Iraq; 'Pork Alert!'; Pat's bud

Date: July 13, 2003

Source: naplesnews.com

Words: 1,195

WASHINGTON — Looks like America's "weekend warriors" will be sunning in beautiful downtown Baghdad a little longer.

Withdrawal from the unexpectedly dangerous stabilization mission has slowed to a crawl. Pentagon records indicate that throughout the military, 204,100 men and women from National Guard and reserve units remain on active duty. That is a decline of just 362 from last week — the slowest decline in mobilization since the Pentagon began withdrawing reservists in May.

President Bush and other military leaders have warned against the expectation of a quick pullout. But a sustained activation of 200,000 reserves — people who have civilian jobs and lives back home — could prove politically difficult in months ahead.

Forget that infamous $750 toilet seat the Pentagon once procured to the howls of good-government types. How about a $1.4 million dog kennel at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska, which just happens to be the home state of Senate Appropriations Chairman Ted Stevens, a Republican?

That's just one of the line items the Citizens Against Government Waste highlights in its first "Pork Alert" on dubious spending in House and Senate bills for military construction for fiscal year 2004.

There's also a $13.6 million fitness center for Randolph Air Force Base in Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's state of Texas. The Republican also happens to chair the Senate's military construction appropriations subcommittee. Then there's the $3 million earmarked for the main gate of Los Angeles Air Force Base. The facility is in Sen. Dianne Feinstein's home state. The Californian is the ranking Democrat on the same subcommittee.

New York was the first state to throw a sales-tax holiday, in 1996. But budget woes have forced it to forgo a similar fete this year, leaving it to Empire State cities to decide whether to suspend local sales taxes on back-to-school clothing and supplies.

Florida and Maryland, beset by fiscal crises, have scrapped sales-tax holidays for the second year running. Pennsylvania — which doesn't charge sales tax on clothes — suspended its tax holiday for computer gear this year.

Georgia, Iowa, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia are standing by their 2003 sales-tax holidays the first weekend in August, with Connecticut's fourth no-tax holiday Aug 17-23.

Remember, you read it here first

Aides to Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., are casting about for available political pros looking to spend the next six months or so in Iowa and New Hampshire on behalf of the loquacious one. That means we have a 10th Democratic presidential candidate to look forward to.

European Union scientists may soon start working on rules for safer management of hospital and municipal wastewater in a bid to curtail pharm runoff. Recent studies found that contamination from antibiotics and other drugs is increasingly showing up in rivers and streams — the result of both human and farm wastes reaching waterways and groundwater.

Likely solutions could include hospitals being forced to treat human waste to filter out meds before allowing it to enter wastewater systems; and municipal water suppliers taking extra steps to extract antibiotics from streams and reservoirs at early stages in the treatment cycle. Although some research finds similar concentrations in the United States, such restrictions are likely decades away.

Would-be summer travelers are growing timid about saying, "Charge it!"

Although American consumer debt stands at $1.76 trillion, the Cambridge Consumer Credit Index for July reports just 23 percent of U.S. vacationers will go the plastic route to finance their excursions.

"This is probably because of general fears about the weak economy and job insecurity coupled with fears of terrorism and a dramatically weakened U.S. dollar," says Cambridge spokesman Jordan Goodman.

The percentage of teens with summer jobs this year is lower than any other year since the end of World War II, according to new employment figures from the Department of Labor. From April through June, the teen employment rate fell to 36.7 percent, setting an all-time low since the federal government began regularly collecting the data in the late 1940s.

TV preacher Pat Robertson has been an avid supporter of President Bush, but relations soured recently over the administration's policies in Liberia. Robertson, a partner with Liberian President Charles Taylor in a gold-exploration company, has repeatedly criticized the administration on his TV show, "The 700 Club." The United States, Robertson said, is trying to overthrow the "duly elected Taylor," who is "a Christian, Baptist president."

It's costing American workers four more days of toil this year than last to pay for their federal, state and local governments, and 17 more days than in 2000, according to Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform. The group opposes what it deems to be excessive government spending. Cost of Government Day — when workers have earned enough to pay off his or her share of spending and regulation by state, local and federal governments this year — fell on July 11.

With double-digit price increases for natural gas likely this winter, Senate GOP leader Bill Frist of Tennessee is assuring the Senate Energy Committee that the upper chamber will resume debate on the energy bill July 28 and finish with it, even if it means delaying August recess. Senators considered 24 amendments to the legislation in nine days of debate in May and June, but 372 amendments remain. Frist is hoping that the prospect of staying in hot, sticky Washington will make senators more willing to compromise.

A Gallup Poll finds that 58 percent of Americans favor bilingual education for non-English-speaking students. But there's a difference of opinion between Hispanics and non-Hispanic whites. Seventy-two percent of Hispanics asked about bilingual ed favor it, compared to 53 percent of whites. Seventy-three percent of blacks surveyed said school districts should offer bilingual ed to non-English-speaking students. Age also makes a difference: 75 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds favor bilingual education compared to 61 percent of 30- to 49-year-olds; 49 percent of 50- to 64-year-olds; and 44 percent of people 65 and older.

It can't be worse than shooting a movie with Nicolette Sheridan and Stephen Baldwin. Actor Jerry Doyle of TV's "Babylon 5" is considering another career change, this time as a congressman from Florida. Doyle, who just wrapped an HBO film called "Lost Treasure" with the two B-list stars, said he will take the next couple of months to make a decision on the race. The corporate-jet-salesman-turned-Wall Street-investor-turned-actor isn't new to politics. In 2000, he was the Republican nominee who lost to incumbent Rep. Brad Sherman, a Democrat, in a congressional district outside Los Angeles.

They're out for blood.

With many blood donors on vacation or focused on vacation planning, blood banks are running low again. The American Red Cross reported recently only a two-day supply of most blood types.

The problem occurs at various times during the year, especially around holidays, because only 5 percent of eligible Americans donate blood. For more information about giving blood, call this toll-free number: 1-800-GIVE-LIFE.

The Bush administration can expect a long, hot summer as public school teachers plan their attacks on the president's No Child Left Behind law, which contains new mandates for high-stakes mandatory testing. The 2.7 million-member National Education Association said it will sue the federal government for implementing the new law.

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