What’s so divine about budget surpluses?
townhall.com
43 vs. 41
townhall.com
Moreover, by any fair assessment of the first six months of his
presidency, W. has earned his vacation. Given the thinness of his
victory, the fragility of his mandate, and the loss of the Senate in
midstream, he's had a remarkable string of achievements.
The centerpiece of his economic program, the tax cut, has already been
enacted. His education reform is now in conference. And he broke
decades of taboos when the House passed his faith-based initiative.
And just before the August recess, two stunning political victories:
The House passed his version of the patients' bill of rights and an
energy plan that includes drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge. For icing, it passed an airtight anti-cloning bill too.
But the most significant achievement of the administration is its radical
reorientation of U.S. foreign policy. During the first post-Cold War
decade, the Clinton administration carried on as if nothing had
changed. Its entire nuclear and strategic posture was Russocentric.
Bush introduced a foreign policy based on the glaringly obvious reality
that Russia is no longer either a superpower or an enemy. Accordingly,
he announced a new strategic doctrine, unilaterally cutting American
offensive weapons while at the same time developing defensive
weapons. American forces would henceforth be reconfigured to meet
threats from new enemies, not from a nonexistent Soviet Union. Russia,
Europe and what passes for the American intelligentsia are now
scrambling to catch up with this return to strategic sanity.
Bush's other foreign policy achievement is freeing us from a decade of
frivolous, near-delusional multilateralism. A host of poison pill or
useless treaties left behind by Clinton have been unceremoniously and
deservedly junked:
--The International Criminal Court, an idea so bad that Clinton said he
opposed its major provisions even as he signed it.
--The Kyoto protocol, which would have done nothing to curtail
climate change but would have done serious damage to the U.S.
economy.
--A biological weapons convention that does nothing to prevent Iraq
and Iran and others from developing biological weapons, but gives
them inspection rights to our (BEG ITAL)anti -biological warfare
facilities.
--A land mine treaty that seriously damages America's ability to meet
its unique security needs, such as stopping an invasion by North
Korea's million-man army.
A tax cut, education reform, faith-based charities, a beginning on
energy and a patients' bill of rights, a ban on cloning and a new foreign
policy. In six months. By a guy who won the election by 537 votes. Not
bad. I'd give him two months off. |
