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Progress reportPASS: Congress and President Bush are helping America’s campaign against world terror by increasing the military spending for the new fiscal year to $355.5 billion, the biggest increase since the Reagan Administration. The defense spending package contains funding for new weapons and defense projects, including a 4.1-percent salary increase for military personnel, $7.4 billion for developing a ballistic missile defense system and $72 billion for new weapons. The increase in spending comes as the United States looks to expand its influence across the world, from aiding counter-terrorism operations in Indonesia to helping support the new government of Afghanistan. And the new increase will help provide the armed services with new weapons that could help the military with its invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq.
FAIL: The new prescription drug discount program MemberHealth, proposed by Gov. Bob Taft, is nothing but an opportunistic smokescreen designed to put Taft’s name in the same context as inexpensive prescription drugs before the election in November. The program would allow Ohioans 60 and older who hold the Golden Buckeye card to receive a 13- to 20-percent discount on prescription drugs. Taft’s proposal, which would be partnered with Ohio’s Golden Buckeye program, already existed for Golden Buckeye cardholders who paid $10 more. The governor’s proposal would simply arrange for the state to pay the extra fee. The cost of prescription drugs is a hot issue across the United States, with state legislatures and the U.S. Congress debating ways to help people pay for their medications. Taft’s program does little to help senior citizens but provides him with an easy way to make it seem as if he is taking major steps toward a solution. He should scrap his proposal and develop a program that would really help people.
FAIL: Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery’s campaign to support the re-election of Ohio Supreme Court Justice Evelyn Stratton is ethically suspect. Montgomery often argues cases before Stratton and the other justices. Montgomery and Stratton are both Republicans and Montgomery has issued letters to thousands of potential contributors across the state asking for contributions to Stratton’s re-election campaign. To have Ohio’s highest lawyer supporting one of Ohio’s highest judges is too big a conflict of interest. When she is hearing a case argued by Montgomery, Stratton will doubtless remember how Montgomery used her office to raise campaign funds. And the fact that Montgomery is not running for re-election herself does not matter — she is using the office she holds improperly, and whether she has years or days left in her term is immaterial.
PASS: The Ohio Supreme Court helped win a victory in the imperiled area of freedom of information last week when it ordered a suburban Columbus school board to pay the attorney fees of ••This Week,•• a suburban newspaper that sued to get the resumes of finalists for the district’s treasurer. In its ruling, the court made sure to note that the Worthington City Board of Education had not only improperly delayed the release of the records, but had dragged its feet on other records requests. In the paranoia after Sept. 11, 2001, government agencies across the country withdrew thousands of formerly public documents, meaning news organizations have had to fight costly legal battles to get information that is rightfully theirs under federal “sunshine” laws. The ruling will set a valuable precedent for newspapers across Ohio as they vie to get public records. |