Bush's War on Privacy Goes Into High Gear

Over the last five years under the Bush administration, Americans have experienced a full-scale assault on on our rights to privacy. There have not only been over-the-top infringements under the guise of "national security," there have been corporate-backed efforts to eliminate financial privacy, and what seems to be anti-privacy moves based on partisan political motivations. Today, we get a good example of this last one from the Tacoma News Tribune, Bush hacks at the IRS "collected information on the political party affiliations of taxpayers in 20 states" under the guise of tax enforcement.

To understand how this is part of a pattern, let's look back at some of the most egregious moves by politicians of late to trample on citizens' privacy:

CONGRESS TRIES TO GET ACCESS TO CITIZENS' PERSONAL FINANCIAL INFO: The Assoicated Press reported in November of 2004 that Republicans inserted a last-minute provision into a giant spending bill "to give more members of Congress access to income tax records" of ordinary citizens. As Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) noted about the provision, "Any agent of the chairman of the Appropriations Committee - and they could designate anybody as an agent - could go into IRS facilities anywhere in the country and get your tax returns."

BUSH & CONGRESS GUT STATE PRIVACY LAWS: In November of 2003, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that "in addition to previous votes that gutted state provisions to prevent financial institutions from sharing customers' information with others" Congress passed a bill to "roll back some of the [states'] anti-identity-theft measures." The bill, pushed by the credit card and financial services industry, essentially preempts states' financial privacy laws and replaces them with far weaker federal standards. That bill left open loopholes, for instance, that leave private telephone records highly suceptible to theft. Congress has known about these loopholes for months - and possibly years - but has refused to close them.

BUSH INSERTS PROVISION IN EDUCATION BILL TO HAND OVER PRIVATE INFO ON STUDENTS: Fox News in 2005 reported that President Bush inserted "a little-known provision in the No Child Left Behind Act that compels public high schools to open their doors and pupil records to military recruiters."

BUSH CIRCUMVENTS WARRANT PROCESS TO INITIATE DOMESTIC SPYING: The President last month admitted to ordering domestic spying operations without obtaining warrants as required by law. Bush has claimed the illegal operation only "listens to a few [telephone] numbers" linked to Al Qaeda, even as the Boston Globe reported the Bush administration has "been using computers to monitor all other Americans' international communications." Bush still has yet to offer an explanation as to why he has refused to seek warrants. But the story broke just after a string of stories about how the administration is having the FBI and Pentagon spy on anti-war, anti-poverty and civil rights groups.

BUSH PERMITS LIBRARY SEARCHES; LIES ABOUT IT, GETS CAUGHT LYING: The Bush administration inserted a provision in the Patriot Act allowing federal agents to obtain citizens' library and bookstore records without a traditional warrant. The Associated Press reported in 2003 that in response to criticism of that provision, the Bush administration claimed the Patriot Act "has never been used to monitor what the public is reading and viewing." But right after that denial, the University of Illinois released a study showing scores of libraries had been contacted by the Bush administration since the passage of the Patriot Act.

This is just some of what's been going on. The bottom line is clear: the Bush administration is waging a war on Americans' privacy - a war that has nothing to do with national security, and everything to do with paying back the GOP's big donors and punishing the GOP's political opponents.

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