Institutional Memory (originally aired May 7, 2006)
CJ considers job offers, including an offer from technology billionaire Franklin Hollis (1) to head a foundation devoted to the world problem of her choice, which is highways in Africa (2). CJ also pushes for an increase in the federal gas tax (3) to help reduce the budget deficit and considers whether she should recommend a presidential pardon (4) for Toby, who has admitted violating federal law for leaking classified information (5), is about to head to a federal prison, and has spent his time finding a possible typo in the Constitution's Takings Clause (6). Will considers a future helping run congressional campaigns and tries to find a candidate to replace a long-time Republican congressman in Oregon's fourth congressional district (7) before realizing that he himself could be that candidate.
Possible typo?
- Randall Hollis. (back to top) This individual seems to be inspired by Microsoft head Bill Gates, who founded the world's largest charitable foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in 2000. This foundation (on-line here) focuses on global health, education, public libraries, and assistance for children and families in the Pacific Northwest. According to the foundation, it had an endowment of $29.1 billion as of February 2006 and had made $10.2 billion in grant commitments since inception. The real-life equivalents to what CJ would be doing are probably foundation co-chair William H. Gates Jr. and CEO Patty Stonesifer (foundation leadership information on-line here).
- Highways in Africa. (back to top) Many rural people, especially in Africa, do not have easy or regular access to a transport network and thus are isolated and face greater difficulties improving conditions. According to a March 2006 paper for the World Bank (on-line here, about 240 million people in 32 African countries (about 70 percent of the rural population) live more than 2 kilometers of an all-season road.
CJ is not the only person to be concerned about the lack of an adequate transport system in Africa. The World Bank has recognized that improving access is an important step towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals which seek to reduce extreme poverty by 2015, and the World Bank has some information on the subject on-line here and here.
- Gas Taxes. (back to top) CJ's proposal to reduce the deficit by raising federal gas taxes to 50 cents would more than double the current amount of federal gas taxes and raise current gas prices by about a tenth. Federal gas taxes currently are 18.3 cents per gallon; the federal government also imposes an additional 0.1 cent charge per gallon to fund a trust fund for leaking underground storage tanks, and state taxes add another 21 cents on average per gallon. (Gas taxes came into the news in early 2006 when, in response to rising gas prices, some Republican senators proposed a $100 gas tax rebate on April 27; the proposal was widely criticized and was dropped quickly.)
Still, even with such an increase, gas taxes in the United States would be far less than in other countries, which impose more taxes and thus have higher gas prices. According to March 2006 price data provided by the International Energy Agency (on-line here), gas taxes per gallon are many times as high in France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom than in the United States.
| Country
| Price per gallon in US Dollars
| Taxes per gallon in US Dollars
|
| Canada
| $3.06
| $1.03
|
| France
| $5.52
| $3.58
|
| Germany
| $5.68
| $3.76
|
| Italy
| $5.69
| $3.76
|
| Japan
| $4.44
| $1.95
|
| Spain
| $4.52
| $2.43
|
| United Kingdom
| $5.92
| $3.99
|
| United States
| $2.36
| $0.40
|
Federal and state gas taxes combined make up about 23 percent of the price of gasoline, according to the Energy Information Administration (on-line here). Gas taxes with all other excise taxes make up about 3 percent of federal receipts each year; individual income taxes comprise the greatest share of federal receipts at about 45 percent.
Sources: The General Accounting Office has information on gasoline prices, including the role of gas taxes, on-line here. The Environmental Protection Agency has information on the Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) Trust Fund on-line here.
- Presidential Pardons. (back to top) President Bartlet legally could pardon Toby for violating federal law by disclosing confidential information, though the act probably would be very controversial politically.
Presidents have the constitutional power under Article 2 of the U.S. Constitution to "grant reprieves and pardons for offences against the United States"; presidents can only pardon federal offenses and cannot pardon state offenses. Pardons are considered an official statement of forgiveness for the commission of a federal crime and restore basic civil rights, and do not officially connote innocence. Commutations of sentence are the reduction of a sentence.
Most Presidents give many pardons or commutations of sentences while in office. Ronald Reagan granted 393 pardons, George H.W. Bush granted 74 pardons, and Bill Clinton granted 396. Franklin Delano Roosevelt used his pardon and commutation pardons more often than any other president, granting 3,687 pardons and commutations while in office, according to a survey conducted by Professor P.S. Ruckman of the University of Pittsburgh.
Most pardon applications are filed with the Office of the Pardon Attorney (on-line here) in the Department of Justice. The Pardon Attorney begins its review by contacting the United States Probation Office for the petitioner's compliance with court supervision. The FBI provides factual information about the petitioner, and the Pardon Attorney contacts the United States Attorney for the district where the petitioner was convicted or the Department of Justice for more information. The Pardon Attorney's Office makes a report and recommendation, which is then reviewed by the Deputy Attorney General before going to the President for a final decision.
Bill Clinton sparked widespread controversy on his last day in office by pardoning two fugitives who were still wanted on charges of insider trading, Marc Rich and Pincus Green. These pardons were sent directly to Clinton and were not reviewed by the Pardon Attorney's Office until Clinton's second-to-last day in office. Shortly thereafter, George W. Bush criticized Clinton's decision but defended his prerogative.
"I was troubled by the decision the President made. I would not have the decision. … But nevertheless, he was the President, he had the right to do so, to make that decision, and he did. And I'm going to protect that privilege not only for me, but for future presidents as well," Bush said in a January 29, 2001 press conference (on-line here).
Many other pardons have been controversial. In 1974, Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon who had resigned from the Presidency due to the Watergate scandal. On Christmas Eve 1992, just weeks before leaving office, George Bush pardoned former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and six other former Reagan administration officials for their involvement with the Iran-contra scandal mere days before Weinberger was to stand trial on perjury charges.
In 1977, Jimmy Carter proclaimed amnesty for those who had evaded the draft during the Vietnam War, extending a more limited amnesty offered by Ford. In September 1979, Carter also commuted the sentences of Oscar Collazo, a Puerto Rican nationalist who had tried to kill Truman in 1950, and others who had fired on the House of Representatives in 1954, apparently to get Cuba to release U.S. nationals held prisoner at the time.
- Toby's Crime. (back to top) Toby has admitted to violating federal law by leaking information relating to national defense. Specifically, he seems to have violated 18 USC 793(f) (on-line here), which states:
| "Whoever having unauthorized possession of, access to, or control over any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, or note relating to the national defense, or information relating to the national defense which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation, willfully communicates, delivers, transmits or causes to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted, or attempts to communicate, deliver, transmit or cause to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted the same to any person not entitled to receive it, or willfully retains the same and fails to deliver it to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it; … shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both." (emphasis added) |
- Takings Clause. (back to top) Toby tells CJ that he has been using his free time to study the Constitution and has found a possible typo in the Fifth Amendment's Takings Clause, which governs how the government can condemn private property. It states that "nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." Toby apparently thinks that the comma, which is noted in the National Archives' transcript of the Bill of Rights (on-line here) actually may be a smudge and that the distinction may have legal consequences. The excerpt below is taken from the Archives' scan on-line here:
- Oregon's Fourth Congressional District. (back to top) In real life, Oregon's fourth congressional district, which covers the southwest portion of the state along the Pacific coastline, has been represented by a Democrat, Peter DeFazio, who was first elected in 1986. DeFazio is on-line here.
(back to top)
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