Thursday, March 28, 2002

Energy Industry's Recommendations to Bush Became National Policy In one example cited by the natural resources council, the American Petroleum Institute, a trade group that represents the country's largest oil companies, submitted a proposed draft executive order on energy policy to the Energy Department on March 20, 2001. Two months later, Mr. Bush signed an executive order that the council's lawyers said was nearly identical in structure and language to the trade group's proposal. The executive order concerned government regulations that affect energy supply and distribution. "Big energy companies all but held the pencil for the White House task force as government officials wrote a plan calling for billions of dollars in corporate subsidies, and the wholesale elimination of key health and environmental safeguards," John H. Adams, the president of the council, said at a news conference today. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/28/politics/28ENER.html?todaysheadlines&pagewanted=all

Sunday, March 24, 2002

Lockbox or Not, Social Security's Ills Grow Democrats are casting this year's budget fight in Congress as a test of which party can do more to wean the government off of using excess Social Security revenue to pay for general programs. As one way of making their point, Democrats are preparing to assail the administration for having to request an increase in the legal limit on the national debt, a step they say proves that the tax cut last year was fiscally irresponsible. In the wake of the Enron (news/quote) collapse � and looking for an issue to carry into the Congressional elections this fall � Democrats are trying to focus attention again on the push by Mr. Bush and many conservatives to let workers invest a portion of their Social Security taxes in the stock market. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/24/business/yourmoney/24VIEW.html?todaysheadlines&pagewanted=all