Aggravation time in the new Congress
President Bush says he wants to play nice with the Democratic-controlled Congress, and offers a plan where he and they can work together.
Some plan. A key component is to make permanent more than $1 trillion in tax cuts for the richest Americans. Bush says we can do that and still have a balanced budget—four years after he leaves office. What goes unsaid is that if he had never taken office we would have surpluses as far as the eye can see and not be bogged down in a war that has taken more than 3000 American lives and hundreds of billions from our treasury that could be spent here at home on health care, education, roads and other essentials that are falling apart.
It really bothers me how the Democrats appear to be wimping out on the two issues that restored them to power in the Congress: ending the war and rolling back those obscene tax cuts.
One thing Bush said that I agree with is “we can’t play politics as usual.” We sure can’t.
Democrats eternally worry that voters see them as “soft on security”. So they tip-toe around troop withdrawals that should be a slam-dunk. Same with the old “tax and spend” canard that gives them palpitations even when it comes to dismantling Bush’s scandalous tax cuts. As former DC Mayor Marion Barry would say, “Get over it!”
Not only does our country demand and deserve better, but even the most risk-averse Democrat should know that devising a new strategy to end the Iraq war and decisively rolling back the tax cuts, so important and long overdue, is not only the right thing do so but also the smart thing to do.
In a recent op-ed in his favorite newspaper, The Wall Street Journal, Bush called for bipartisan cooperation to “accomplish important things for the American people.” In a conciliatory tone, he wrote “we share many of the same goals for the people we serve” and together “we can find practical ways to advance the American Dream.” Wow.
But after that positive windup, he delivered a thoroughly partisan pitch for failed policies and skewed views typical of what warms the hearts of readers of the WSJ’s op-ed page, with no indication he got the message voters sent in the November midterm election when they routed Republicans and put Democrats in charge of Congress with a mandate to steer a different course.
Despite incendiary findings of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group and public polls showing support for the war falling to single digits, the Bush op-ed blithely observes: “When America is willing to use her influence abroad, the American people are safer.”
In a further departure from reality, he wrote that “making the tax cuts permanent” enables industry to create new jobs and is “good for the American worker.”
It is Wall Street, not Main Street, that celebrates the Bush economy. Stagnant wages, lost pensions and disappearing health benefits for workers are in sharp contrast to billions in bonuses handed out by brokerage houses at Christmas time and the $200 million severance payout given the departing chairman of Home Depot.
Some plan. A key component is to make permanent more than $1 trillion in tax cuts for the richest Americans. Bush says we can do that and still have a balanced budget—four years after he leaves office. What goes unsaid is that if he had never taken office we would have surpluses as far as the eye can see and not be bogged down in a war that has taken more than 3000 American lives and hundreds of billions from our treasury that could be spent here at home on health care, education, roads and other essentials that are falling apart.
It really bothers me how the Democrats appear to be wimping out on the two issues that restored them to power in the Congress: ending the war and rolling back those obscene tax cuts.
One thing Bush said that I agree with is “we can’t play politics as usual.” We sure can’t.
Democrats eternally worry that voters see them as “soft on security”. So they tip-toe around troop withdrawals that should be a slam-dunk. Same with the old “tax and spend” canard that gives them palpitations even when it comes to dismantling Bush’s scandalous tax cuts. As former DC Mayor Marion Barry would say, “Get over it!”
Not only does our country demand and deserve better, but even the most risk-averse Democrat should know that devising a new strategy to end the Iraq war and decisively rolling back the tax cuts, so important and long overdue, is not only the right thing do so but also the smart thing to do.
In a recent op-ed in his favorite newspaper, The Wall Street Journal, Bush called for bipartisan cooperation to “accomplish important things for the American people.” In a conciliatory tone, he wrote “we share many of the same goals for the people we serve” and together “we can find practical ways to advance the American Dream.” Wow.
But after that positive windup, he delivered a thoroughly partisan pitch for failed policies and skewed views typical of what warms the hearts of readers of the WSJ’s op-ed page, with no indication he got the message voters sent in the November midterm election when they routed Republicans and put Democrats in charge of Congress with a mandate to steer a different course.
Despite incendiary findings of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group and public polls showing support for the war falling to single digits, the Bush op-ed blithely observes: “When America is willing to use her influence abroad, the American people are safer.”
In a further departure from reality, he wrote that “making the tax cuts permanent” enables industry to create new jobs and is “good for the American worker.”
It is Wall Street, not Main Street, that celebrates the Bush economy. Stagnant wages, lost pensions and disappearing health benefits for workers are in sharp contrast to billions in bonuses handed out by brokerage houses at Christmas time and the $200 million severance payout given the departing chairman of Home Depot.
posted by Victor Kamber | 2:50 PM
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