9 minute read
News
from Nov. 25, 2015
TPP dissed
Local senior citizensleader Tom Bird last week took a shot at the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the pending trade agreement among 12 Pacific Rim countries.
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“TPP jeopardizes the government’s ability to list and price prescription drugs in public programs, like Medicare, which millions of seniors and disabled people rely on,” Bird said. More specifically, foreign corporations or subsidiaries will be able to challenge Medicare if drug pricing in these programs affects their profits. ... Finally, TPP could tie the hands of future Congresses to negotiate drug prices under Medicare or enact a Medicare drug rebate program, which would save Medicare $121 billion over 10 years. We know we need to save money on our health care, right? We cannot give that toption away.”
Bird is president of the Nevada Alliance for Retired Americans.
Reid charges are back
A Utah prosecutor, Republican Troy Rawlings of Davis County, has revived charges against U.S. Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada.
“We are looking into allegations related to Senator Reid” and others, Rawlings said.
“Payments allegedly were made to Reid, then the Senate’s majority leader, to win his support in legalizing online poker,” reported the Salt Lake Tribune.
Reid aide Kristen Orthman said Rawlings is using “Sen. Reid’s name to generate attention to himself and advance his political career, so every few months he seeks headlines by floating the same unsubstantiated allegations.”
On July 15, 2014, former Utah attorneys general John Swallow and Mark Shurtleff were arrested and charged with destruction of evidence and acceptance of bribes. Rawlings dropped the bribery charges against Shurtleff in June this year, though other charges stand.
Swallow was further accused of a circuitous arrangement—receiving $23,000 from Richard Rawle, who he introduced to federally indicted businessman Jeremy Johnson as someone who could assist in getting Reid to help with a Federal Trade Commission investigation into Johnson’s marketing company. “I talked with John Swallow, and he said you might have some connections to Reid that might be helpful to us,” Johnson wrote in an email to Rawle cited in the indictment. Rawle is now deceased.
At the time of that case, Rawlings was critical of federal prosecutors for not taking on Reid.
Court filings in that case described Reid as a passive figure—as a target of wrongdoing, not a wrongdoer (“Media target,” RN&R, July 24, 2014).
Well before the Utah case became known, Reid had long supported banning online gambling but allowing online poker, which Nevada allows in peer-to-peer form. Earlier this year, Reid was reported to have lost his interest in making even online poker legal in federal law.
After Orthman’s comment on Reid’s behalf, Rawlings demanded that Reid join the prosecution team: “What I do want … is (1) every scrap of evidence used by federal investigators and prosecutors in unsubstantiating, dismissing or not pursuing the allegations you refer to; (2) your full waiver of privacy rights under FOIA [the Freedom of Information Act] in connection with all documents that memorialize, refer or relate in any way to the allegations so we can obtain the information through that means; and (3) a chat about the unsubstantiated allegations that were not pursued by federal prosecutors,” Rawlings said. “You may end up being an important witness. I have a defendant in Utah, Mr. Mark L. Shurtleff, who, like you, is presumed innocent and is entitled to all of this material based on multiple critical investigative intersects. Please urge the Department of Justice to provide the exonerating evidence and information so we do not have to litigate the issues in Utah.”
Reid has been hit with such passive accusations before. When he was a gambling regulator, a federal wiretap picked up Joe Agosto, a member of the Kansas City mob bragging that he could deliver a “Mr. Clean” or “Mr. Cleanface.” When the information was made public, attention turned immediately to Reid because of the probity for which he was then known. Reid responded by calling for an investigation of himself, which exonerated him.
Veto
Nevada Senate candidates take opposite approaches
President Obama last week signed the new military spending bill after vetoing the by original version. Dennis Myers Military installations in Nevada include Fallon Naval Air Station, Hawthorne Army Ammunition Depot, Groom Lake (which is actually a detached section of Edwards Air Force Base in California), Tonopah AFS, Creech AFB Indian Springs Air Force Auxiliary Field, and Nellis Air Force Base.
U.S. Rep. Joe Heck Nevada Republican
Nevada also has a considerable number of military retirees. It is one of nine states with no income tax, with the result that military retirees’ pensions are not taxed.
Obama vetoed the first version of the bill on Oct. 22. Unable to come up with the votes for an override, the two sides split the differences and passed a second version.
The veto message read in part, “Our defense strategy depends on investing every dollar where it will have the greatest effect. My administration’s proposals will accomplish this through critical reforms that divest unneeded force structure, slow growth in compensation, and reduce wasteful overhead. The restrictions in the bill would require the Department of Defense to retain unnecessary force structure and weapons systems that we cannot afford in today’s fiscal environment, contributing to a military that will be less capable of responding effectively to future challenges.”
U.S. Rep. Joe Heck of Nevada, the likely Republican U.S. Senate candidate in 2016, said of the veto, “Now is not the time to put domestic politics ahead of our national defense. We have men and women in uniform serving in every corner of the globe helping us achieve our national defense missions. This bill provides their pay and benefits and gives them the tools they need to keep the United States safe.”
Likely Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Catherine Cortez Masto’s press office did not respond to two requests for comment on the veto.
Nevada’s U.S. Sen. Harry Reid said, “My Democrats, our Democrats have stated without question if it comes time that we sustain a presidential veto, that will be done.”
The measure funded a pay raise for most troops, weapons and other hardware, military aid to Ukraine, and a subtitle devoted to countering Russian actions.
Heck is an army reserve brigadier general and a member of the House Armed Services Committee. His statement further said, “The NDAA [National Defense Authorization Act] gives the President every defense dollar he asked for and yet he vetoed it to advance his domestic political agenda. That veto sends a signal that the Commander-in-Chief is not committed to the same mission in which our service members and allies are engaged. The world is too dangerous and our enemies too opportunistic to waver for one minute on approving the funding and authorities the NDAA provides. This veto is irresponsible and I will do my part to find the votes in the House to override it.”
The GOP was unable to muster the votes for an override, but Heck’s claim that the bill gave Obama “every defense dollar he asked for” glosses over the president’s reasons for vetoing. Obama’s concern was not how much was being appropriated, but the way it was being appropriated. He objected to the GOP’s use of an emergency war fund, the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) fund, that shields Pentagon spending from the same budget limits as other military spending. Money sequestered in that fund is not subject to the spending caps created by the Budget Control Act of 2011. It effectively allows the GOP to increase military spending without limits while domestic spending remains limited by the Control Act.
U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee has called the OCO fund “nothing more than a Pentagon slush fund that allows the Pentagon to live beyond its means while evading the same sequestration caps that are crippling critical federal programs that support American families.”
Reid said he would stop all budget bills unless Republicans came to the table and negotiated on sequestration.
President Obama greeted veterans and their guests at the conclusion of the Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery ion Nov. 11.
The level of military spending was not at issue—both Republicans and Democrats wanted it increased, raising the question of who in Congress speaks for those who want it reduced. Two Republican senators—Rand Paul and Ted Cruz—voted against the bill, joining 23 Democrats.
Newsweek observed, “This is one of those situations where you just have to hope that everyone loses. The good news is that Washington is so dysfunctional that even though the White House, Republicans and most Democrats all support repealing the limits on defense spending, it still might not happen.”
Obama did ask that the increase in spending in the bill be matched with equal spending increases in non-military programs. He objected to language in the original bill that restricted the executive’s ability to
transfer Guantanamo prisoners and shut down the prison facility there.
In the end, instead of an override vote, a second bill was passed that sharply reduced funds sequestered in the suspect OCO fund, but the Guantanamo language was kept in place. Obama signed this version. The original bill put a whopping $89.2 billion in the fund, 14 percent of the bill’s total $612 billion expenditure. The second bill hid “only” $8 billion there. The overall size of the bill dropped from $612 billion to $599 billion.
Republicans tried to portray the veto as out of the ordinary, but in fact the annual military spending bill has been vetoed four times over the years, including by Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. It was Obama’s fifth veto as president. They also tried to portray it as a case of Obama cutting off funding to U.S. troops, though that would not happen until next year, giving Congress plenty of time to either override or pass a new bill, the choice they took.
Cortez Masto’s silence on the issue plays into a portrait Republican operatives have been trying to paint of her as being unwilling to take positions. GOP news releases since she announced her candidacy have carried titles like this: “So ... Has Anyone Heard From Catherine Cortez Masto?” “Catherine Cortez Masto Speaks, Runs Away From Her Own Words.” “Catherine Cortez Masto Ducks, Dodges ...” “Rare Footage: Catherine Cortez Masto Speaks To Media.” “The Missing Candidate: Catherine Cortez Masto Officially In Hiding.” Military personnel serving in Nevada number Army 91, Navy and Marine Corps 1,003, Air Force 6,627.
Another breakdown for Nevada: Active duty military 7,721, Reserve and National Guard 6,514.
The Senate cleared legislation that authorizes $599 billion for the Pentagon and defense-related programs for fiscal 2016, $5 billion less than both the president’s overall request and the original conference agreement. It provides $33 billion of the original $38 billion in added funds for defense, including $8 billion through the Overseas Contingency Operations account. The measure authorizes $715 million for Iraqi forces fighting the Islamic State, $406 million to train and equip Syrian opposition forces and $300 million for lethal weapons for Ukraine. It modifies the military retirement system, blocks the Pentagon from retiring the A-10 Warthog aircraft and authorizes $11 billion for the F-35 Fighter. Ω
President Obama
Tree time
TAMBER BEY VINEYARDS WINE DINNER
Friday, December 4, 2015 6:00 p.m.
AMUSE BOUCHE Shrimp in passion jus shooter, porcini mushroom, truffle bruschetta fennel, leek and truffle soup with almond cream Tamber Bey Sauvignon Blanc, Tench Vineyard 2013
Reception music provided by Terry Scott, Jazz Guitar
