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Charles Jaco has written opinion and commentary pieces for dozens of magazines and newspapers. Each week, read and comment on a fresh on-line version. The discussion page enables you to share your view points world wide. If you would like to make a comment go to the " Join the discussion" link below. If you would like to view past editorials visit the Editorial Archive. Editorial 12/15/00 note: for links to information resources on the new Bush era, go to NewsBoom EAT MY YOUNG? NO THANKS, I'M A VEGETARIAN.
His daddy was president. He was elected even though the man from Tennessee
got more votes. Southern Democrats were part of his base. W cited Thomas Jefferson in his elegant acceptance speech. Instead
of TJ, W might consider Q. John Quincy Adams failed because he did almost
nothing except recognize a half-dozen newly-independent Latin American
republics. "Compassionate conservatism" is more than a "Hey guys, I don't eat my young like Dick Armey" slogan. It's inventor, an ex-journalist teaching in Texas, defines it as trying to farm about social and welfare services to non-profit groups, including church and synagogue organizations. People already doing the Lord's work with the poor say there's no way they can take over from H.H.S. And they shouldn't. But the fact remains that charities are the most effective delivery system of help for the needy. They should at least be allowed to help administer some federally-funded services. W pushed partial privatization of Social Security. It's not exactly the totally privatized system of Australia or Chile. It would merely allow younger workers to put one-sixth of their Social Security taxes into a private account, administered by Uncle Sam and offering the same menu of choices you get in a typical 401-(k). The problem is demographics. Younger workers would be withdrawing 16 and two-thirds per-cent of total taxes from the Social Security pot at the same time the baby boomers start sucking cash out of the system. It might work, but only if benefits are somehow cut. Means testing Social Security and reducing checks to affluent retirees is one solution. Condaleezza Rice, sort of a Richard Perle in drag, has a genuinely new idea about America's role post-Cold War. She's set to tell the Euros that American troops will no longer be used for peace-keeping or nation-building duties. Playing traffic cop and crossing guard in Bosnia, Haiti, Kosovo, and elsewhere has sapped resources and drained morale. It's also showed the difficulty of taking troops trained in war-fighting and turning them into Officer Friendlys. To avoid fracturing NATO over this one, either a specialized NATO peace-keeping force could be created, or the U.S. could re-task Military Police units. If an MP can handle a drunk Ranger, angry Kosovars should be a snap. Bush's tax cut plan snugly clicks into the ideology that says tax cuts stimulate growth and, therefore, tax revenues. But a one point six trillion dollar tax cut over the next decade could wreck the economy if the current downturn lasts and if Congress continues to spend the surplus on everything from parking lots in Albany to dam projects in Nevada. Incrementalism might be the key. Instead of lowering the top tax rate from 39 1/2 per-cent to 33, Bush could aim for, say, 36. Cutting the bottom tax rate from 15 per-cent to ten is a better idea, since it gives relief to those who need it most and it wouldn't cost the Treasury all that much money. They key to all this is not the conservative Southern Blue Dog Democrats. It's Bush's own right wing. Reconciliation? Incrementalism? The Conservative Conan, House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, is already cackling about having total control of Congress and the White House. Florida House Speaker Tom Feeney, a religious conservative who led the charge to certify George II whether he legitimately won Florida or not, hissed at a Tallahassee bar TV screen during the Gore concession speech, growing, "What an idiot. What an evil speech." The tub-thumpers who want to overturn Roe v Wade and keep the government out of your life except in the bedroom kept quiet during the campaign. Now it's payback time. They want their kilo of flesh. Putting one of their own in a top cabinet spot--defeated Sen. John Ashcroft as attorney general, for example--might mollify them. But it might not. Bush's big job will be a Chamber of Commerce republican, concentrating on the pocketbook and foreign affairs issues that the GOP sometimes handles well. That means slapping down his own right wing. It also means putting a gag on Dick Cheney when he diss's Alan Greenspan. The Kennebunkport Mafia has always blamed Greenspan for Bush the Elder's defeat by that snot-nosed Bill Clinton in 1992. Greenspan's escalated interest rates, they sniff, made the recession worse. If Bush can keep the straitjackets locked on his party's nutcase wing, he might be able to accomplish some of what he's proposed. Maybe he could let them all have their own radio talk shows. That way they could preach to the converted and let the adults get something done. |
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