Leftover stocking stuffers
abound
Mary Carradine
Things are finally returning to normal
in Washington, D.C. The Sept. 11 smokescreen is waning, and the Bush agenda
is starting to fade
through the once-clouded air.
Over the winter break, President Bush went
back to being President Bush by making irrational political decisions that
reek of special interest
and right-wing conservatism.
Bush used a recess appointment to catapult
an unqualified Scalia family member to a key Labor Department position.
Eugene Scalia, the lucky
new appointee, is the son of Supreme Court
Justice Antonin Scalia. Daddy Scalia must be proud of his son's new employment,
and will
undoubtedly repay the favor to the Bush
administration at some point, just as Bush did for him.
Oh, the "good ol' boy" system. You can
take the man out of the country, but you can't take the country out of
the man.
Bush-43 passed "sweeping" education reform
and somehow managed to garner the support of Democratic bastion Edward
Kennedy. Don't be
fooled, though. The plan basically consists
of money.
Why is this plan being referred to as "landmark"?
We have always sunk money into education; it's just never produced any
results. Basically,
Bush carefully wrapped his draconian plan
in billions of dollars and gave it to us like a secondhand Christmas present.
If a school is deemed
sub-par, students are allowed to transfer
to other schools.
But how will these students get to the
schools? Poor schools are located in poor neighborhoods and economically
disadvantaged people don't
have the time or money to transport their
children to non-local schools. The poor lose, which is a common theme throughout
this administration.
While Bush enjoyed soaring approval ratings
last semester, Americans were enjoying an economic recession. Only now
has Bush begun
talking up economic stimulus.
At this point, however, economists have
advised against a stimulus plan. The economy is starting to rebound on
its own, and stimulus at this
point will only lead to inflation. Stimulus
plans involve timing, which was proven in the 1964 economic stimulus plan
passed under the Kennedy
administration.
The economy needed to be spurred months
ago. For Bush, the timing is now conveniently falling within an election
year. Republicans will
applaud stimulus as a way to buy the vote,
as they consistently do. Democrats will push for a smaller plan, not because
they really want to, but
because they can't be labeled as "the
party who did not want to give you money."
The tax rollback of 2001 was an obvious
mistake, as we will certainly go into deficit spending with the new budget.
When Senate Majority
Leader Tom Daschle pointed this out in
a refreshing renewal of actual Washington politics, Bush began crying for
"bipartisanship" and
reassured his constituents that taxes
would only be raised "over his dead body."
How embarrassing it is for our nation's
leader to speak in such terms. It's as if he is acting alongside NRA champion
Charlton Heston in a
ridiculously horrible Western movie. His
cry for "bipartisanship" is the Bush way of keeping public opinion packed
together, as it has been since
Sept. 11.
But bipartisanship does not actually exist
in Washington, D.C. It's a phantom phenomenon politicians will boast about
in an effort to reassure
Americans they are not the evil party
loyalists we know they are.
It's time for another semester, another
set of new classes and another embarrassing cluster of decisions made by
our federal government. War
is not glue, and we don't have to pander
to this administration, as they would love us to do.
