AXING OUR NATIONAL PARKS
America’s network of national parks is a natural resource so beloved by the public that even George W. has posed in parks for photo ops in his two presidential campaigns, promising to bolster funding for these treasures.
Once the campaigning is done, however, our park-lover-in-chief goes after them with a double-bladed budget axe. This hypocrisy is so blatant that, in the 2004 election year, Bush’s spin meisters instructed park guides not to use the phrase “budget cutbacks,” instead substituting the euphemism “service-level adjustments.”
Now, Bush is back with his axe, quietly directing each park superintendent to prepare a five-year budget that will slash appropriations by up to a third. This at a time when the backlog of park repairs now tops $6.8 billion, an increase of $1.9 billion in George’s five years.
And, once again, Bush political operatives have distributed “talking points,” telling park employees how to spin the cuts to park visitors, who will, of course, notice the reduced hours, discontinued services, deteriorating facilities, and increased fees. When visitors ask why they’re paying more for less, the memo tells employees to respond with this sentence: “The National Park Service, like most agencies, is tightening its belt as our nation rebuilds from Katrina, continues the war on terrorism, and strives to reduce the deficit.”
Holy Ansel Adams! The administration that totally botched up the response to Katrina, that has us mired in a bloody $300 billion war of lies, and that has been the worst deficit bloater in U.S. history now wants to use these debacles as its excuse for gutting our public parks!
To fight both the cutbacks and the rank dishonesty of the Bushites, call watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility: 202/265-7337.
CONNECTING THE DOTS TO CEO PAY
Why do corporate CEOs keep getting such astronomically high pay packages?
The official answer is that they’re merely paid the going market rate for managerial superstars. But wait – they get tens of millions of dollars a year even when their corporations do poorly. The real answer is that CEO pay is the product of a corrupt system of cronyism within corporate boards of directors. These boards, which are supposedly watchdogs over top executives, usually consist of a closed circle of fellow corporate officials and close friends of the CEO. In other words, it’s a brother-in-law deal.
Look at Home Depot, which has dumped $245 million in pay on CEO Bob Nardelli over the past five years – even though the company’s stock value has fallen by 12% on Bob’s watch. What’s the deal here? Let’s connect the dots.
Nardelli came to Home Depot from General Electric, recruited by the Home Depot’s lead board member, Kenneth Langone. Langone, himself a CEO of another company, happens to sit on the board of GE, where he became close to Nardelli. Langone also brought another friend, Bonnie Hill, to Home Depot to serve as a board member and to chair the committee that oversees Nardelli’s pay. Hill, who runs a corporate consulting firm, has been a member of GE’s board. She also is on the compensation committee of Albertsons supermarket chain, where she helps set the pay of its CEO, Larry Johnson.
Let’s check out Larry. Before joining Albertsons, he worked at GE with Nardelli. He, too, has been added to Home Depot’s board and also sits on the committee that sets Nardelli’s pay. And here’s a cute connection – CEO Johnson and CEO Nardelli both use the same lawyer to negotiate their pay packages. So, when Johnson negotiates to set Nardelli’s pay at Home Depot, he’s negotiating with his own lawyer!
And that’s why CEOs get astronomical pay.
This article appears in July 7 • 2006.