In a remarkable show of contempt, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has flatly refused a House Global Warming Committee subpoena. The subpoena for documents relating to the EPA’s refusal to obey the Supreme Court mandate to regulate greenhouse gases was issued by a unanimous, bipartisan vote on April 2, a year after the Supreme Court decision. On April 11, the EPA requested and received an extension to respond, but today the agency has decided not to turn over the documents:

Go to the Wonk Room to read the full letter and learn more.

On Bill Bennett’s radio show yesterday, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina — who is currently a leading economic adviser to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) — said that McCain is interested in “taking on finally the reform of Medicare and Social Security.” “He is absolutely convinced that this must be tackled in his term as president,” said Fiorina.

Asked by Bennett about “any particular suggestions” McCain is making to change the programs, Fiorina said that he “supports private accounts as one of the ways to reform the system”:

Well, I know that he has been very favorably inclined to the report that came out a little bit ago, the Republican party made a number of suggestions which he embraced. He has on other occasions said that he supports private accounts as one of the ways to reform the system. But I think he, and I think he will continue to be supportive of those.

Listen here:

It is unclear exactly which report Fiorina is refering to when she says McCain has “embraced” a “number of suggestions” by “the Republican Party,” but the “109th Congress Republican Agenda” says the party supports “voluntary personal retirement account[s].”

In his new “economic plan,” McCain says that he “supports supplementing the current Social Security system with personal accounts – but not as a substitute for addressing benefit promises that cannot be kept.” But this contradicts what McCain told the Wall Street Journal last month:

Asked about the apparent change in position in the interview, Sen. McCain said he hadn’t made one. “I’m totally in favor of personal savings accounts,” he says. When reminded that his Web site says something different, he says he will change the Web site. (As of Sunday night, he hadn’t.) “As part of Social Security reform, I believe that private savings accounts are a part of it — along the lines that President Bush proposed.”

Bush’s proposed plan wasn’t supplemental. Instead, he would have allowed workers to “divert a portion of Social Security payroll taxes to fund private accounts,” which would have resulted in “reduced Social Security payments from the government.” In March 2005, only 33 percent of Americans said they “supported private retirement accounts in exchange for a reduction of guaranteed retirement benefits.”

Earlier this week, Pope Benedict XVI called on the United States to do “everything possible to fight…all forms of violence so that immigrants may lead dignified lives.” Today, Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) blasted the pope’s pro-immigrant position:

I would like to know what part of our lax immigration policy is considered violent. I fail to see how accepting more refugees than any other nation — and providing free health care, education, housing and social service benefits to millions of illegal aliens is in any way “violent” or “degrading.”

Tancredo “was raised Catholic but left the church.” Yesterday, as the pope arrived in the United States to meet with President Bush, the Bush administration carried out massive immigration raids in five states.

Yesterday, President Bush gave a speech on the environment in which he called for a “national goal” to halt the growth of U.S. carbon emissions by 2025. In other words, Bush would allow unchecked and unlimited growth in carbon emissions for the next 17 years, and only at that point would he have the “goal” to halt the rate of growth of those emissions.

Today, however, White House spokesman Tony Fratto rewrote Bush’s policy. In the press gaggle this morning, Fratto insisted that the media was ignoring “the major news” Bush made yesterday: a “goal to halt carbon emissions”:

I think some people have overlooked the major news that the President made yesterday, which was committing a national economy- wide goal to halt carbon emissions. That was a very important piece of the puzzle to lay out there as we move forward in the international arena and domestically in addressing this issue.

Of course, Bush proposed nothing close to a goal to “halt carbon emissions.” He announced merely a goal to halt the growth of emissions, explaining that emissions should “peak within 10 to 15 years, and decline thereafter.” For this reason, Bush’s proposal was ridiculed by the international community — and recognized as a catastrophic approach by leading climate scientists:

To keep temperatures from rising above 3.5 degrees, the [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] said, industrialized countries would need to reduce emissions by 25 percent to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. The European Union has recommended doing that.

Bush’s goal would allow emissions to be 28 percent above 1990 levels in 2025, according to calculations made by the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, that are based on U.S. government projections data.

Considering that Bush’s proposal would do nothing to mitigate the disastrous effects of global warming, it’s no wonder Fratto instinctively sought to significantly strengthen the president’s goals.

At last night’s annual Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner in Washington, DC, President Bush made light of Vice President Cheney’s callous “So?” response when asked about American public opinion of the war, comparing it to whether Cheney would care if the audience found him funny. As part of the festivities, networks brought invited celebrities, politicians and public officials as guests. Among the “slew of ‘potential’ GOP veep candidates” hosted by Fox News: Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT).