Pendulum Swings.....The Houston Chronicle

[shrdlu]

Sept. 7, 2005, 8:26PM



Congress returns to Washington after its August recess to find its previous agenda not only irrelevant following Hurricane Katrina, but also undesirable. Some of the leadership's priorities are now unthinkable, as they should have been before Katrina.

Silent for the moment are the cries to reduce revenue to the federal government and starve its ability to provide security and social services. Gone is the urge to make big government smaller. The sluggish federal response to the destruction of New Orleans and stretches of the Gulf Coast elicits angry criticism of the federal government for not acting big enough.

Also blessedly absent from the national discourse are the terms "liberal" and "conservative." Democrats and Republicans alike are calling for maximum government aid for Katrina's victims. No one as yet has suggested that the government sit back and let the forces of the free market rescue the stranded, resettle the evacuees and make New Orleans habitable again.

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The hefty tax cuts that marked Bush's first term clearly have left the nation with insufficient means to handle national defense, disaster relief and routine operations. The government has no margin, no cushion, no reserve. Every penny of the war in Iraq and aid to hurricane victims must be borrowed, leaving future generations to make the interest payments.

Before Katrina, congressional leaders had said their first priority upon their return to Washington was permanent repeal of the estate tax, which opponents label the "death tax." In the current atmosphere, not even the most fanatical tax opponent would call for the federal government to forgo $290 billion in revenue over the next 10 years. If the estate tax is permanently repealed, other taxes must be levied.

When the United States invaded Iraq, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said the first priority of government in time of war was to cut taxes. After Katrina, to his credit, DeLay says the highest priority must be hurricane relief and recovery. Congress is scheduled to vote this fall on cuts in Medicaid, food stamps and temporary family assistance — programs that provide essentials to the neediest Americans. For Congress to approve such cuts now would demonstrate that its leaders and their partisans remain blind to Americans' need and the standards of a civilized nation.

Bush's spokesman said Katrina was a one-time event and the administration would pursue its agenda of tax cuts unchanged. Surely he was misinformed. No administration could be that divorced from reality, and no Congress could be destructive enough to oblige. Now is the time for shared sacrifice for the common good, and Americans stand ready to make it.


This article is: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/editorial/3344171

[opihimoimoi]

1. The Delusional QuarterBack sticks to a Losing Game Plan

Get the MF outta there and give him his Pom Poms....

[tom_paine]

2. The pendulum cannot swing back if the clock is broken

Is it even possible to "vote" these people out?