THIS WEEK'S PROGRAM

This week we present Between The Lines' summary of under-reported news stories and:

Bush Executive Order Defunds Family Planning Counseling Services Overseas
Critics charge policy will result in lack of access to contraception information and an increase in unintended pregnancies and botched abortions
Interview by Denise Manzari.

First on his agenda two days after taking office and on the 28th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, President Bush sent a loud and clear message to the world's women.

He directed the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development to "reinstate in full all the requirements of the Mexico City Policy" which bars federal funding to family planning programs that offer abortion services and counseling overseas.

This is deja vu for those who first saw this policy imposed during the Reagan administration. Former President Clinton had restored the funding two days after he took office in 1993. Critics charge Bush's reinstatement of the order will not reduce the level of legal or illegal abortions, but will deny women access to contraceptives which will increase unintended pregnancies. Under the so-called Mexico City Policy, many clinics feared losing U.S. government funding if they treated women suffering from botched illegal abortions, even if it was technically permitted.

Instituting a global gag rule will force many clinics to make a choice whether to accept American government funding and the restrictions on providing safe and legal abortion services, and counseling women on the abortion option, or refuse the funds and curtail health services due to the decreased assistance.

Bush stated that part of his intention was to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not used to fund abortions overseas. However, using federal funds for abortion services internationally has been banned since 1973 under the Helms amendment.

Between The Lines' Denise Manzari spoke with Rickie Solinger, a historian of reproduction and welfare politics in the U.S. Solinger's book "Beggars and Choosers: How the Politics of Choice Shapes Abortion, Adoption and Welfare in the United States," will be published by Hill and Wang this summer.

Economist Asserts $1.6 Trillion Bush Tax Cut Will Unfairly Benefit Top 1% of Population Without Stimulating Lagging Economy
Interview by Scott Harris.

George W. Bush campaigned on the promise that if elected, he would work to pass a $1.6 trillion dollar tax cut. The tax cut, if enacted, would in fact be the largest since the Reagan administration's often criticized supply side economic policies of the 1980s. During the election campaign, former Vice President Gore warned that the Bush tax cut would disproportionately benefit the wealthiest sector of society and threaten economic stability, an argument that initially dampened public enthusiasm for the proposal.

But since the election dispute ended with the Supreme Court's controversial decision to stop counting votes -- handing the White House to Bush -- and a downturn in the U.S. economy, the Republican tax plan has gained new momentum. In recent testimony before the Senate Budget Committee, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan reversed his previous position opposing large-scale tax cuts. Some Democrats have now also signed onto the Bush plan, including Georgia Sen. Zell Miller, who says he'll co-sponsor the GOP's tax legislation. Meanwhile, business lobbyists and their allies in Congress are reported to be advocating billions of additional tax cuts for corporate America.

Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Max Sawicky, senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute, who assesses the Bush tax plan and progressive alternatives that he asserts could more fairly strengthen a lagging economy.

Contact the Institute by calling them at (202) 775-8810 or visit their Web site at: www.EPInet.org

Utility Greed, Not Power Shortage, Root Cause of California's Deregulation Disaster
Interview by Scott Harris.

For months now, the state of California has been reeling from the disastrous effects of electric utility deregulation. With blackouts, brownouts and the threat of bankruptcy for the state's largest electric companies, the crisis has taken on importance beyond California's borders, threatening -- some say -- the floundering national economy. The Bush administration is taking full advantage of the crisis to promote its policy of expanding energy exploration and the weakening of environmental standards.

But consumer advocates say the crisis in not the result of an energy shortage so much as the unbridled greed of the utilities themselves who pushed through deregulation legislation in 1996. They point out that a 1998 referendum sponsored by consumer and environmental groups that would have repealed deregulation and averted the crisis was defeated by a $40 million campaign waged by the utilities. In a scheme backed by California's Democrat Gov. Gray Davis, the state is expected to invest billions to save the utilities from bankruptcy in exchange for stock options, a solution that is criticized by many as a conflict of interest for state regulators who control electric rates.

Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with energy activist Harvey Wasserman, author of "The Last Energy War: The Battle Over Utility Deregulation" who takes a critical look at California's electric power disaster and the various remedies offered to repair the damage. "The Last Energy War" is published by Seven Stories Press.

Related article

• California's Deregulation Disaster, The Nation, by Harvey Wasserman, Feb. 12, 2001

This week's summary of under-reported news
Compiled by Bob Nixon

• Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting finds that major U.S. press outlets have blacked out the basic political motivation of the street battles between Palestinian youth and Israeli security forces. (Extra, January/February, 2001)
  
• Florida Gov. Jeb Bush oversaw a massive voter purge operation prior to last November's election that prevented thousands of African Americans from voting. (The Nation, Feb. 5, 2001)
  
• Chicago Police Department trying to resurrect its "Red Squad," formerly known as the Subversive Activities Unit, which kept files on 250,000 political activists and legal organizations during the 1960s and 70s. (In These Times, Jan. 8, 2001)
  

Credits:
Senior news editor: Bob Nixon
Program narration: Denise Manzari
News reader: Arch Currie
Distribution: Harry Minot, Anna Manzo, Jeff Yates
Web editor/producer: Anna Manzo
Producer: Denise Manzari
Executive producer: Scott Harris

... MORE ...

WPKN Special Update on GOP National Convention Defendants
Columbia Law School Graduate and ACT-Up Activist Speak Out About Their Upcoming Trials

Between The Lines/WPKN Counter-Inaugural Protest Archive (in MP3):

"'Stolen Election' Outrage Unites Progressive Coalitions with Mainstream America" Interview with John Cavanaugh, Institute for Policy Studies, at the counter-inaugural protest coalition press conference in Washington D.C., Jan. 19, 2001.

" Political Shocks of Electoral College Decision and U.S. Supreme Court Coup Spurs New Era of Activism" Interview with Ronnie Dugger, founder of Alliance For Democracy, Jan. 19, 2001. He spoke at the counter-inaugural protest coalition press conference in Washington D.C.

"Dems and GOP Two Branches of Washington, D.C.'s 'Company Town,'" Patricia Ireland, president of the National Organization for Women, interviewed at Washington, D.C. Dupont Circle inauguration protest.

Post Inauguration and Electoral Reform Resources

"Making Every Vote Count", The Nation Magazine, Special Section

"Hailing the Thief," The Nation Special Web Exclusive Report, by Ben Ehrenreich

Between The Lines/WPKN Report on Pacifica Network Radio-WBAI, N.Y. Crisis
Interviews with Utrice Leid, Leslie Cagan, and Bernard White

Between The Lines/WPKN 'Profiles Bush Cabinet Nominees' Archive:

"John Ashcroft Sought White Supremacist Political Support"

Interior Department Nominee Gale Norton at Odds with Public Support for Protecting the Environment

"Attorney General Nominee's Career Marked by Opposition to Reproductive Rights and Civil Rights Law"

"From Vietnam to Florida's Disenfranchisement of Black Voters: Unheroic Moments in Secretary of State Nominee Colin Powell's Career"