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ORIGINAL RESEARCHDavid Rubenstein Founder of Republican 'Think Tank' moves to slash transit in Twin CitiesBus fares, rail pass fares on the riseHere’s something to think about in the wake of the recent announcement that bus fares in the Twin Cities will be going up by a quarter on July 1st . If Minnesota Republicans do what they’ve said they want to do, the day will come when a lot of people in the metro area will be dropping their entire first hour’s wage into the fare box just to get back and forth to work. Peter Bell, Met Council chairman, has stated that budget problems left him no choice, he did, however, manage to put off until next month a tougher decision on unpopular, money-saving cuts in bus service proposed for September. But Bell also says he’s sympathetic to the plight of the “distressed customers” who will feel the pain. (His official statement in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune April 22.) You’ve heard the quip about the kid who murdered his parents and then asked the court for mercy because he was an orphan? You can’t capture the essence of Bell’s statement better than that. Bell now officially joins the chorus of Republicans, led by Tim Pawlenty, who ask us for sympathy as they make the “tough choices” that current budget restraints impose on them. The fact is they have purposely created the problem they now say ties their hands. And Bell has been in the thick of it. You have to go back a few years, to 1998. Bell and his then-employer, Twin City Federal Chief Executive Officer William Cooper, were both on the board of directors of the “Center of the American Experiment.” Cooper also chaired the Republican Party of Minnesota. The Center of the American Experiment is the de facto Republican think tank whose influence on the state over the past decade or so can hardly be overstated. It’s “de facto” because officially the CAE is nonpartisan. As long as the IRS buys that argument, the group keeps its non-profit status, and that’s crucial if it’s going to remain the heavy hitter that it is, because it means people can give it money and deduct the amount of the donation off their taxable income. In 1998, the CAE came out with its “Minnesota Policy Blueprint.” The Blueprint is essentially a government operating manual for Republicans. It was the brainchild of CAE stalwart Chris Georgacas, who had preceded Cooper as Republican Party chair. Georgacas ran the Blueprint project until he left the CAE in March of 1998, to work for-guess who?-Norm Coleman, at the time running for governor. The Blueprint has 19 chapters, each on a subject such as education, health or economic development. Each chapter is written by a separate task force with its own chairman. Bell himself chaired the task force on Welfare and Human Services. The Transportation Task Force was chaired by then-Republican state representative Tom Workman. The CAE is nothing if not “on-message.” Each chapter of the Blueprint begins with the same preface, including the same set of bullet points. They call for limited government, “low-tax, low-regulation policies,” and competition for the delivery of public services. This is policy talk for what meat-and-potatoes Republicans like to call the starve-the-beast strategy. The theory is that most politicians are incapable of acting to reduce funding for any public service. But they can support tax cuts, and eventually that will do the job. Could it be? Could starving the publicly-funded bus system be part of a larger Republican strategy, not unlike the strategy for starving the public schools in order to pave the way for privatization, vouchers and the crippling of the unions? Sounds conspiratorial, but you can’t really call it that. Conspiracies are secret, and this one is there for the viewing. “We advocate competitive contracting in the current transit system,” the Blueprint says, “allowing private and public interests to bid for the contract to operate the Metropolitan Council Transit Authority bus system, for example.” The Blueprint specifically calls for taking public subsidies away from transportation services. The problem of “the poor,” it adds, could be solved by direct subsidies to individuals. In other words, vouchers. The only thing it doesn’t explicitly mention is the key last step: getting the unions out of the way and driving down wages for transit workers. Under the proposed CAE scenario, and based on Peter Bell’s estimate that 30 percent of transit system costs are covered by the fare box, getting on a rush-hour bus today would cost five dollars and change. Who might get the voucher for the two-dollar trip? Might it be the same people who qualify for medical assistance? That would mean a single woman with one child and a $10.00-an-hour job would be too rich to qualify. Welcome to Republican utopia. This is not to say this will happen. The public sector beast, it turns out, is not a beast. It’s a domesticated animal, at times unruly, but when the question gets called, most people don’t want to kill it. On the contrary, they want it healthy. Republicans have started to get that message, with regard to schools and public safety, among other things. At the same time, they are approaching the limit of what they can do with fees, “accounting shifts” and ransacking the tobacco fund. So now the hard-wired, anti-tax politicians are left with a number of unsavory choices, ranging from tapping gambling addicts to stealing money from their own children by running up government debt. In the meantime, public officials who are charged with making government and its agencies actually work are left holding the bag. In the case of Peter Bell, it’s a bag he helped to fill. He has been through some tough times in his life, and maybe he does sympathize with the working stiff who has to ride the bus. But years ago he made a decision to hitch his wagon to the rising star of cut-throat laissez-faire Republican conservatism, and to the major political development of our time, certainly in this state: the across-the-board transfer of power, wealth and comfort up the economic ladder, as privation, pain and “belt-tightening” work their way down. Public transportation could be the next arena for this sorry spectacle to unfold. sign in, or register to email stories or comment on them.
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MORE ORIGINAL RESEARCHBill Berkowitz PERC receives Templeton Freedom Award for promoting 'enviropreneurs'Right Wing foundation-funded anti-environmental think tank grabbing a wider audience for 'free market environmentalism' On the 15th anniversary of Terry Anderson and Donald Leal's book "Free Market Environmentalism" -- the seminal book on the subject -- Anderson, the Executive Director of the Bozeman, Montana-based Property and Environment Research Center (PERC - formerly known as the Political Economy Research Center) spoke in late-January at an event sponsored by Squaw Valley Institute at the Resort at Squaw Creek in California. While it may have been just another opportunity to speak on "free market environmentalism" and not the kickoff of a "victory tour," nevertheless it comes at a time when PERC's ideas are taking root.
Bill Berkowitz Neil Bush of Saudi ArabiaDuring recent visit, President’s brother describes the country as a 'kind of tribal democracy' In late February, only a few days after Saudi Arabia beheaded four Sri Lankan robbers and then left their headless bodies on public display in the capital of Riyadh, Neil Bush, for the fourth time in the past six years, showed up for the country's Jeddah Economic Forum. The Guardian reported that Human Rights Watch "said the four men had no lawyers during their trial and sentencing, and were denied other basic legal rights." In an interview with Arab News, the Saudi English language paper, Bush described the country as "a kind of tribal democracy."
Bill Berkowitz Newt Gingrich's back door to the White HouseAmerican Enterprise Institute "Scholar" and former House Speaker blames media for poll showing 64 percent of the American people wouldn't vote for him under any circumstances Whatever it is that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has come to represent in American politics, the guy is nothing less than fascinating. One day he's espousing populist rhetoric about the need to cut the costs of college tuition and the next day he's talking World War III. One day he's claiming that the "war on terror" may force the abridgement of fundamental first amendment rights and the next he's advancing a twenty-first century version of his Contract with America. At the same time he's publicly proclaiming how "stupid" it is that the race for the presidency has already started you know that he's trying to figure out how to out finesse Rudy, McCain and Romney for the nomination. And last week, when Fox News' Chris Wallace cited a poll showing that 64 percent of the public would never vote for him, he was quick to blame those results on how unfairly he was treated by the mainstream media back in the day.
Bill Berkowitz American Enterprise Institute takes lead in agitating against IranDespite wrongheaded predictions about the war on Iraq, neocons are on the frontlines advocating military conflict with Iran After doing such a bang up job with their advice and predictions about the outcome of the war on Iraq, would it surprise you to learn that America's neoconservatives are still in business? While at this time we are not yet seeing the same intense neocon invasion of our living rooms -- via cable television's news networks -- that we saw during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, nevertheless, a host of policy analysts at conservative think tanks -- most notably the American Enterprise Institute -- are being heeded on Iran by those who count - folks inside the Bush Administration.
Bill Berkowitz After six years, opposition gaining on George W. Bush's Faith Based InitiativeUnmentioned in the president's State of the Union speech, the program nevertheless continues to recruit religious participants and hand out taxpayer money to religious groups With several domestic policy proposals unceremoniously folded into President Bush's recent State of the Union address, two pretty significant items failed to make the cut. Despite the president's egregiously tardy response to the event itself, it was nevertheless surprising that he didn't even mention Hurricane Katrina: He didn't offer up a progress report, words of hope to the victims, or come up with a proposal for moving the sluggish rebuilding effort forward. There were no "armies of compassion" ready to be unleashed, although it should be said that many in the religious community responded to the disaster much quicker than the Bush Administration. In the State of the Union address, however, there was no "compassionate conservatism" for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Bill Berkowitz Frank Luntz calls Republican leadership in Washington 'One giant whining windbag'On the outs with the GOP, legendary degrader of discourse is moving to California He doesn't make great art; nothing he does elevates the human spirit; he doesn't illuminate, he bamboozles. He has become expert in subterfuge, hidden meanings, word play and manipulation. Frank Luntz has been so good at what he does that those paying close attention gave it its own name: "Luntzspeak."
Bill Berkowitz Spooked by MoveOn.org, conservative movement seeks to emulate liberal powerhouseFueled with Silicon Valley money, TheVanguard.org will have Richard Poe, former editor of David Horowitz's FrontPage magazine as its editorial and creative director As Paul Weyrich, a founding father of the modern conservative movement and still a prominent actor in it, likes to say, he learned a great deal about movement building by closely observing what liberals were up to in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Bill Berkowitz Ward Connerly's anti-affirmative action jihadFounder and Chair of the American Civil Rights Institute scouting five to nine states for new anti-affirmative action initiatives Fresh from his most recent victory -- in Michigan this past November -- Ward Connerly, the Black California-based maven of anti-affirmative action initiatives, appears to be preparing to take his jihad on the road. According to a mid-December report in the San Francisco Chronicle, Connerly said that he was "exploring moves into nine other states."
Bill Berkowitz Tom Tancredo's missionThe Republican congressman from Colorado will try to woo GOP voters with anti-immigration rhetoric and a boatload of Christian right politics These days, probably the most recognizable name in anti-immigration politics is Colorado Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo. Over the past year, Tancredo has gone from a little known congressman to a highly visible anti-immigration spokesperson. "Tancredo has thoroughly enmeshed himself in the anti-immigration movement and with the help of CNN talk show host Lou Dobbs, he has been given a national megaphone," Devin Burghart, the program director of the Building Democracy Initiative at the Center for New Community, a Chicago-based civil rights group, told Media Transparency.
Bill Berkowitz Institute on Religion and Democracy slams 'Leftist' National Council of ChurchesNew report from conservative foundation-funded IRD charges the NCC with being a political surrogate for MoveOn.org, People for the American Way and other liberal organizations If you prefer your religious battles sprinkled with demagoguery, sanctimoniousness, and simplistic attacks, the Institute on Religion and Democracy's (IRD) latest broadside against the National Council of Churches (NCC) certainly fits the bill.
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