Bush's Black Hole: Section Eight

If you liked the constitution-crushing powers of the coyly named “Patriot Act,” you’re gonna love “Section Eight,” the black hole of Bush’s proposed bailout plan. In a single sentence of thirty-two words, it sucks the light of reason into its vortex, with a consolidation of power and an abdication of oversight authority so brazen that only the Bush Administration could have authored it. Section Eight reads, in its entirety:

Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.

Say what?

Isn’t that exactly how Bush has been managing his trophy war in Iraq? Can you say, “No-Bid Contract?”

Section Eight sets the stage for a staggering panoply of bad deals and conflicts of interest. It will give Treasury Secretary Paulson not just the authority to bail out Wall Street… but to “enter into negotiations with financiers who are key to the political and financial base of the Republican Party.” Like that? Keep reading… “Not only will the Secretary be figuring out appropriate compensation for these people, he will also, to an unknown extent, be deputizing a number of them to carry out a wide range of functions for the government.” (Jason Linkins, Huffington Post)

Joshua Rosner, managing director of economic researcher Graham Fisher & Co. in New York, voices an even stronger opposition to the end-times irresponsibility of Section Eight, saying: “It could be used to mask previous illegal activity."

Oversight and regulations of public contracts are designed to prevent malfeasance, corruption, self-dealing and conflicts of interest in the distribution of federal monies. Here, from thinkprogress.org, is a brief overview of the Bush Administration's sorry legacy of squandering taxpayer money:

IRAQ RECONSTRUCTION
-$142 million wasted on reconstruction projects that were either terminated or canceled. [Special Inspector General for Iraq, 7/28/08]
-“Significant” amount of U.S. funds for Iraq funneled to Sunni and Shiite militias. [GAO Comptroller, 3/11/08]
-$180 million payed to construction company Bechtel for projects it never finished. [Federal audit, 7/25/07]
-$5.1 billion in expenses for Iraq reconstruction charged without documentation. [Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction report, 3/19/07]
-$10 billion in spending on Iraq reconstruction was wasteful or poorly tracked. [GAO, 2/15/07]
-Halliburton overcharged the government $100 million for one day’s work in 2004. [Project on Government Oversight, 10/8/04]

KATRINA
-Millions wasted on four no-bid contracts, including paying $20 million for an unusable camp for evacuees. [Homeland Security Department Inspector General, 9/10/08]
-$2.4 billion in contracts doled out by FEMA that guaranteed profits for big companies. [Center for Public Integrity investigation, 6/25/07]
-An estimated $2 billion in fraud and waste — nearly 11 percent of the $19 billion spent by FEMA on Hurricanes Katrina and Rita as of mid-June. [New York Times tally, 6/27/06]
-“Widespread” waste and mismanagement on millions for Katrina recovery, including at least $3 million for 4,000 beds that were never used. [GAO, 3/16/06]

DEFENSE CONTRACTS
-A $50 million Air Force contract awarded to a company with close ties to senior Air Force officers, in a process “fraught with improper influence, irregular procedures, glaring conflicts of interest.” [Project on Government Oversight, 4/18/08]
-$1.7 billion in excessive fees and waste paid by the Pentagon to the Interior Department to manage federal lands. [Defense Department and Interior Department Inspectors General audit, 12/25/06]
-$1 trillion unaccounted for by the Pentagon, including 56 airplanes, 32 tanks, and 36 Javelin missile command launch-units. [GAO, 5/18/03]down the Bush legacy.