Polk County Enterprise (Livingston, Tex.), Vol. 128, No. 64, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 12, 2010 Page: 4 of 16
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OPINIONS
THE POLK COUNTY ENTERPRISE /
THURSDAY, AUGUST 12,2010
Austin congressman's effort MEPtcARE.
would limit education stimulus
dollars to spending on schools
AUSTIN - US. Rep.
Lloyd Doggett. D-Austin, on
Aug. 5 attached an amendment
to House Resolution 1586 in
hopes of preventing Texas’
$830 million share of a $10
billion pot of education stimu-
lus dollars from being used for
purposes other than education.
Doggett’s amendment, which
applies to Texas and no other
state, also would prevent the
Texas Legislature from lower-
ing the percentage,of the state
budget it uses to fund public
education through fiscal year
2013.
The prospect of strings-at-
tached federal money riled
Gov. Rick Perry and other top
Republican office holders. Lt.
Gov. David Dewhurst on Aug.
5 had this to say:
“I’m very disappointed
Congressional Democrats
would hold Texas school chil*.
dren and teachers hostage
an unconstitutional promise.
The only thing this flawed
legislation guarantees is Texas
public schools will miss out
on nearly $1 billion in federal
education funding.
“Not only is Texas consti-
tutionally prohibited from
meeting the severe restrictions
placed on our state in order to
receive these funds, but no oth-
er state in the nation is subject
to the punitive requirements of
the ‘Doggett language.
“Today I am calling on
all members of the Texas
Congressional delegation
to stop this Texas-bashing
amendment from passing and
punishing our public school
children.”
The bill is scheduled for a
vote on the House floor on
Aug. 10.
Progress evaluations
are released
The Texas Education Agency
on Aug. 5 announced 78 per-
cent of Texas school districts
and 85 percent of schools met
the Adequate Yearly Progress
standards required by the annu-
al federal evaluation sy stem.
This year. 962 districts met
the standards, compared to
1.000 districts or 81 percent
last year.
A substantial increase in the
standards caused the decline,
the Texas Education Agency
said. Districts may appeal their
progress rating through Sept.
3.
The standards are based on:
• Participation and passing
rates on state mathematics and
reading/English language arts
TEXAS PRESS ASSOCIATION
State . Capital
t
1 tj
HIGHLIGHTS
By Ed Sterling
__.„__wu.
’"’-^BANKRUPT
® 2029//
fees
is challenged
Texas Attorney General
Greg Abbott is among 20 state
attorneys general and gov-
ernors challenging the new
federal Patient Protection
and Affordable Care Act.
which was signed into law by
11'r—' President Barack Obama on
rot March 23.
The challengers’ legal brief,
filed last week in a Florida U S.
district court, complains that
the law unconstitutionally forc-
es states to expand entitlement
programs, such as Medicaid,
and forces Americans to buy
health insurance.
"By exerting such sweep-
ing authority over Americans'
individual decisions. Congress
is attempting to expand fed-
eral authority and seize powers
that are restricted by the Tenth
Amendment.”'Abbott and the
others say.
A hearing on a federal gov-
ernment motion to dismiss
the challenge is scheduled for
Sept. 14.
Bridge info sharing
to irffjjrovT
Texas Department of Public
Safety and Texas Department
of Transportation are work-
ing more closely to ensure that
bridges in Texas are safe, ac-
cording to an Aug 4 TxDOT
news release.
Now. once bridge load post-
ing signs have been installed
or removed, an electronic no-
tification is sent from TxDOT
to DPS notifying them of the
change.
The DPS enforces posted
bridge weight restrictions
through its commercial vehicle
enforcement operations.
TxDOT oversees more than
50,000 bridges statewide and
is responsible for maintaining
over 80,(XX) miles of road.
Power usage hits new high
The Electric Reliability
Council of Texas Inc., the op-
erator of most of the state’s
MYItoUSE Is
IN fopcwsuRE.
my mm
HAVE-ExP-
IMEEPA JOB
WiY7
ALARMCT
Lawmakers resist plain language rule
“M
y question to
you is sim-
ple." I said,
as I sat across from the gov-
ernment bureaucrat and his
interpreter. “Why doesn't the
government communicate in
plain English?”
“Your query poses prospec-
tive considerations,” said the
bureaucrat, “that rise above
and beyond the level of con-
siderations that the voter-tax-
payer may be prepared to rise
above and beyond."
, “Huh?" I said to his inter-
preter.
"He said it’s best the public
doesn't leam the real reason.”
said the interpreter.
“But we deserve to know."
I said. “Our politicians voted
on a 2,400-page health bill that
was so confusing, few legisla-
tors knew what was in it. Now
it is being converted into rules
and regulations that are con-
fusing the public even more."
“It is because,” continued
the ■ bureaucrat, “government
representatives and their leg-
islative aides are often per-
suaded. at the behest of rev-
enue-generating entities, to
apply Iawyerly terminology to
obfuscate clarity in a manner
that benefits their outcome.”
"He said that bills are writ-
ten in confusing language, in
part, to conceal the special
favors politicians slip in for
their buddies,” said the inter-
TOM PURCELL
prefer.
“That. sir. is why plain lan-
guage is so important!” I said.
“In a republic, the citizens
must know what their govern-
ment is up to. Rules, regula-
tions. forms, applications, bro-
chures, letters, requirements,
etc. must be understandable!”
“The public, however, not-
withstanding the active voter-
taxpayer base, may or may
not acquiesce,” said the bu-
reaucrat.
“He said ‘blah. blah, blah,’
said the interpreter.
“Look,” I continued, "some
wonderful government em-
ployees have been trying to
make government intelligible
for years. Annetta Cheek, who
held various executive posi-
tions within the government,
spent her career doing so. She
co-founded a volunteer plain
language initiative to improve
government (plainlanguage.
gov). Now retired, she is chair
of a private organization, the
Center for Plain Language
(centerforplainlanguage.org).
“We Concur there have
been unfortunate interludes
in which taxpayer-receiver
entities succumbed to internal
unlikelihoods.” said the bu-
reaucrat.
“He said. ’blah. blah, blah.”'
said the interpreter.
“Cheek and other govern-
ment volunteers worked tire-
lessly to improve government
communication,” I continued.
“The Clinton administration
embraced their ideas and is-
sued a memo encouraging the
use of plain language. A hand-
ful of agencies have volun-
tarily stepped up to make their
forms easier for the public to
understand. But what is really
needed is a plain-language
law!"
The bureaucrat rolled his
eyes.
“Such a law almost hap-
pened in both 2006 and 2008.
U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley,
D-Iowa, introduced a com-
monsense bill that required
federal agencies to translate
their documents into ‘plain
language.’ It passed the House
with overwhelming majorities
both times.
“Then Sen. Daniel Akaka.
D-Hawaii, introduced com-
panion bills in the Senate
Both were well on their way
to passing until Sen. Bob
Bennett. R-Utah. held* them
up. He offered some nonsense
about the unintended conse-
quences of making all agen-
cies translate complex laws
into clear language,
“That is ridiculous, sir!
Imagine the time and money
that would be saved if citizens
could understand government
forms. Imagine how carefully
new bills would be crafted if
legislators knew their intent
would be clearly articulated
once the bills became law!
"The public demands clar-
ity, sir! The public must con-
tact its Senators and demand
that the Plain Writing Act
(S.574) be passed into law!
Now what do you say to that,
sir?”
“Are you nuts, pal?” said
the bureaucrat. “If not for gov-
ernment gobBledygook. my
interpreter and I would never
be able to earn 185 grand a
year!”
©2010 Tom Purcell. Tom
Purcell, a freelance writer is
also a humor columnist for the
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review,
and is nationally syndicated
exclusively by Cagle Cartoons
newspaper syndicate.
tests for grades 3 through 8.
and 10;
• Graduation rates for high
schoOls-and districts; and
• Attendance rates for ele-
mentary and middle schtxils.
Health reform law
power grid, said a new [teak
demand record of 63.594
megawatts was set on Aug. 4,
between 4 and 5 p.m.
The previous record of
63.400 megawatts was record-
ed on July li 2009.
New outages keep gushing from BP
Letters to the Editor
Policy
The Polk County Enterprise encourages readers to
submit letters expressing their views and opinions. The
'letters will be published in the Enterprise’s “Letters to
the editor" column on Thursday or Sunday.
The letters may be written on any subject or issue of
general interest. Letters must be accompanied by a name
and mailing address and will be subject to editing for
grammar, punctuation, spelling and length. Letters must
include a telephone number for verification. We will
not publish the telephone number.
Readers should keep their letters brief and to the point.
Each letter should contain no more than 650 words. Let-
ters exceeding that length will be subject to editing or
withheld from publication. Letters will also be subject to
editing for libelous statements and commercialism.
This column is not meant as a forum for political can-
didates, although we welcome comments from the pub-
lic concerning campaign issues.
During election campaigns, we will not allow refer-
ence to specific local candidates.
Letters may be submitted in person; mailed to “Letters
to the editor," Polk County Enterprise. P.O. Box 1276,
Livingston, TX 77351; sent by fax to (936) 327-7156 or
sent via e-mail to polkncws#gmail.com.
POLK COUNTY
§/
ENTERPRISE
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XT' Tith BP’s well
\/V/ capped and CEO
▼ ▼ Tony Hayward
exiled to Russia, perhaps you
thought that surely there will
be no additional revelations
about BP to enrage you.
But now comes this; prison
labor
In its national PR blitz to
buff up its image, the oil giant
has loudly been boasting
that it has hired devastated,
out-of-work local people to
handle the clean-up. Many
have been hired, but the
people themselves say not
nearly enough.
The Nation magazine now
reports a big reason for the
shortfall — BP has been
using inmates to do much of
the shoveling and scooping
to remove oil from Louisiana
beaches.
In the early days of the
cleanup, crews suddenly
appeared wearing scarlet
pants and white T-shirts with
bold red letters spelling out.
“Inmate Labor."Invcstigative
reporter Abe Louise Young
writes that the sight of prison
laborers outraged the local
community, so they were
removed.
Not the inmates, the
uniforms. Now they wear BP
shirts, jeans and rubber boots
with no prison markings, and
they are moved to and from
the job in unmarked white
vans..
No officials with BP or
the feds could or would tell
JIM HIGHTOWER
Young how many inmates are
being used or what they’re
being paid. However, a local
sheriff’s official told Young.
"They’re not getting paid —
it’s part of their sentence.”
But guess who is getting
paid for this convict labor?
BP. It’s getting paid by
you and me. Under a little-
known tax provision passed
during the Bush regime,
corporations can get a “work
opportunity lax credit”
of $2,400 for every work
release inmate they hire.
And that's not all we're
subsidizing. For example.
BP. which rented the drilling
rig from Transocean Corp.,
used a special tax bfeak to
write off 70 percent of the
rent it paid. Seventh percent!
This added up to a savings of
$225,000 a day for BP.
Also, back in 1999,
Transocean deliberately
moved its corporate address
offshore in Order to dodge
its tax obligations to our
country.
It relocated from Houston
to the Cayman Islands, then
to Switzerland — slick
moves that have allowed the
giant corporation to avoid
paying $1.8 billion it owed
in U.S. taxes. - " . .
No industry gets the: absurd
array of subsidies that Big Oil
now enjoys subsidies at
every stage of its operations,
including the ones used by
BP and Transocean to search
for oil in our public waters.
As one political leader put
it in 2005. “With $55 oil,
we don’t need incentives to
the oil and gas companies to
explore.”
That was George W. Bush
talking! Five years later,
oil is $80 a barrel and the
industry is pocketing record
profits — yet the giveaways
continue.
Again and agaii), BP has
promised that it would pay
all cleanup costs for the mess
it made. Now. however, the
British-based oil giant has
quietly told investors that it
expects to get a $ 10-billion
subsidy from Uncle Sugar to
help cover the costs.
Say what? Not only did the
company’s top executives
assure us that this whoh
god-awful mess would be i
their dime, hut so did our top1
government officials.
As President Obama
flatly declared in May. “We
will demand they pay for
every dime they owe for the
damage they have done.”
Even Rep. Joe Barton
— the GOP gooberhead who
so obsequiously apologized
to BP’s CEO for America's
insistence that he set up a
corporate fund to compensate
victims — was forced to
backtrack and say that, of
course, he expects BP to pay
the tab.
So what is this $10 billion
hit on us taxpayers? It’s
another little corporate
gotcha that lobbyists quietly
got tucked into our tax code,
allowing huge firms to grab
a credit for up to 35-percent
of their losses.
The damages and cleanup
being paid by BP. says one
tax expert, are “just another
cost of doing business," so
they qualify for all applicable
corporate breaks. After all.
says another expert, while
BP said it would pay the
costs of the cleanup, it "never
promised that it would not
seek any deductions" to
recoup those costs from
American taxpayers.
Tricky, huh?
To find out more about Jim
Hightower, and read features
by other Creators Syndicate
writers and cartoonists, visit
the Creators Syndicate web
page at www.crealors.com.
COPYRIGHT 2010
CREATORS.COM
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Reddell, Valerie. Polk County Enterprise (Livingston, Tex.), Vol. 128, No. 64, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 12, 2010, newspaper, August 12, 2010; Livingston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth657308/m1/4/: accessed July 12, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Livingston Municipal Library.