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IN BRIEF
Bush Administration
focuses on Social Security
WASHINGTON — The Bush Ad
ministration is focusing on a Social Se
curity proposal that would allow
younger workers to invest nearly two
thirds of their payroll taxes in private
accounts, with contributions limited to
about $1,000 to $1,300 a year, an Ad
ministration official said Tliesday.
A final plan is expected to be un
veiled in late February. President Bush
has not made a final decision on the
plan’s details.
The official, who spoke on condi
tion of anonymity, said the size of the
private accounts could be similar to a
proposal by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R
S.C., and a plan from Bush’s 2001 So
cial Security Commission.
The federal 12.4 percent payroll tax
is split between workers and employ
ers. Workers could divert 4 percentage
points, while the remaining 2.2 per
centage points in taxes would contin
ue going into the system.
Graham’s plan calls for the annual
contributions to be capped at $1,300,
while the commission proposed a low
er limit of $1,000.
Americans donate more
than $200 million for relief
NEW YORK — From antibiotics to
clothes to cash — lots of it — U.S.
based relief groups report an over
whelming response from donors
moved by the devastation of the
r
Indian Ocean tsunami, with more
than $200 million raised as of Tues
day. One charity said online pledges
were coming in at the rate of
$100,000 an hour.
Donors contributing to what one
official called a “tidal wave of gen
erosity” ranged from actress Sandra
Bullock, who gave $1 million, to 3
year-old Antonio Cabrera, who
joined his brothers in dropping off
cash-filled sandwich bags at the
American Red Cross office in Denver.
Firm statistics for such relief
campaigns are elusive. But charity
officials said they expected dona
tions to continue streaming in for
weeks to come, putting the tsunami
in the company of the Ethiopian
famine of the mid-1980s and Cen
tral America’s Hurricane Mitch of
1998 as the foreign disasters
prompting the largest contributions
from U.S. citizens.
The private donations are in addi
tion to the $350 million pledged thus
far by the U.S. government. Two ex
presidents renowned for their fund
raising prowess — Bill Clinton and
George H.W. Bush — have been re
cruited to spur more private giving.
Indonesia, U.N. fear for
children in tsunami's wake
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Fearing
child-trafficking gangs will exploit the
chaos of the tsunami disaster, Indone
sia has placed restrictions on young
sters leaving the country, ordered po
lice commanders to be on the lookout
for trafficking and posted special
guards in refugee camps.
UNICEF and other child welfare
groups warn that the gangs — who
are well-established in Indonesia —
may well be whisking orphaned chil
dren into trafficking networks, sell
ing them into forced labor or even
sexual slavery in wealthier neigh
boring countries such as Malaysia
and Singapore.
Such trafficking, if confirmed,
would vastly deepen the suffering of
children already struck hard by the
Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami. In
donesia estimates that 35,000 chil
dren on Sumatra island’s Aceh
province lost one or both parents to
the disaster.
Fueling the suspicions, many In
donesians have received mobile
phone text messages this week invit
ing them to adopt orphans from
Aceh. The police are investigating the
messages.
Pomp, promises as new
Congress convenes
WASHINGTON — In a show of
strength at the dawn of a new Con
gress, majority Republicans passed
new ethics standards opposed by
House Democrats on Tbesday and
threatened to change Senate rules if
necessary to confirm President
Bush’s court appointees.
“In this Congress, big plans will
stir men’s blood,” pledged Rep.
Dennis Hastert of Illinois, re-elected
speaker. He vowed to spend the
next two years pursuing key ele
ments of Bush’s ambitious second
term agenda.
He mentioned Social Security,
including Bush’s call to allow indi
viduals to invest a portion of their
payroll taxes on their own. The
Illinois Republican also pledged ac
tion on energy and transportation
bills and a measure to crack down
on lawsuits.
“We must also start a national de
bate on completely overhauling our
tax code,” he added, leaving unclear
whether another key presidential ob
jective would become law over the
next two years.
Hastert will preside over a House
majority bigger by three as a result
of the Nov. 2 elections. Senate Ma
jority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee
leads a group of 55 Republicans —
four more than the GOP had in the
old Congress.
Gov. Kulongoski
discontented with
direction of war
He also stated his position on gambling addictions,
saying he would urge an increase in treatment funding
BY BRAD CAIN
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SALEM — Democratic Gov. Ted
Kulongoski, an early backer of Presi
dent Bush’s decision to invade Iraq,
expressed growing discontent Tues
day with the toll the war is having on
Oregon and its citizens.
“If you tell me the exit strategy is
five years, it’s probably four-and-a
half years too long,” the governor
said in an interview looking at the
year ahead.
On another issue, Kulongoski
said he would urge the Legislature
to spend more money on gam
bling addiction treatment to han
dle the expected increase in case
load when the state begins
offering video slot games.
Kulongoski, a former U.S. Marine,
has attended the funerals of more
than two dozen Oregon soldiers who
have been killed in Iraq. He said the
task is becoming more emotionally
draining with each new casualty.
“It’s a very tough issue to deal
with, and I have to tell you, it’s be
coming more and more difficult for
the public,” he said. “People want to
know what the end game is. And
what is the exit strategy.”
When Bush launched the Iraq
war, Kulongoski applauded the move
as a way to free the Iraqi people from
the tyranny of Saddam Hussein. He
later said he had doubts about the
way intelligence data was used to
justify the invasion.
“All of this stuff about whether we
should or shouldn’t have gotten in
there, the historians can fight that
out,” he said Tiiesday. “All I know is
that I now have over 1,300 Oregon
National Guard troops there plus all
the other kids from Oregon there. ”
Kulongoski, who took part in a
two-day White House-organized trip
to Iraq last February, said the upcom
ing Jan. 30 elections in Iraq could be
a good beginning point for an even
tual drawdown of U.S. forces.
“I think there is an opportunity for
us after the election to bring in the
United Nations and bring in more in
ternational help and downsize the
role of America” in the Iraqi conflict,
he said. Meanwhile, Kulongoski has
ordered the Oregon Lottery to begin
offering video slot machine games by
July 1, which are expected to boost
net revenues from state gambling by
$120 million.
Kulongoski says the money is
needed to fund state police patrols,
but officials with the state’s gam
bling addiction treatment program
predict the new games could create
an additional 8,000 problem gam
blers in Oregon.
However, they say they are barely
able to meet current demand because
the Legislature never came through
with its 1999 pledge to dedicate 1 per
cent of the lottery’s net proceeds for
gambling addiction treatment.
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