Another Useful Crisis
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Remember California's energy crisis? It illustrated, in particularly stark form, the political strategy of the Bush administration before Sept. 11. The basic principle of this strategy — which was also used to sell that $2 trillion tax cut — was that crises weren't problems to be solved. Instead, they were opportunities to advance an agenda that had nothing to do with the crisis at hand.
It is now clear that, at least as far as domestic policy is concerned, the administration views terrorism as another useful crisis.
.........................................................................................................
The rest of the proposal consists of tax cuts for corporations and high- income individuals, structured in such a way that they will do little to increase spending during the current recession. For example, tax incentives for investment are valid not for one year — as in the Democratic bill — but for three years; this is an open invitation to companies not to invest now, when the economy needs a boost, but instead to delay investments until the economy has already recovered.
Why does the administration's favored bill offer so little stimulus? Because that's not its purpose: it's really designed to lock in permanent tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, using the Sept. 11 attacks as an excuse.
Ten months into the Bush administration, we've all gotten used to this. But politics, while never completely clean, didn't used to be this cynical. We used to see bills like the Democratic stimulus package: mostly serving their ostensible purpose, with the special-interest add-ons a distinctly secondary feature. It's something new to see crises — especially a crisis as shocking as the terrorist attack — consistently addressed with legislation that does almost nothing to address the actual problem, and is almost entirely aimed at advancing a pre-existing agenda.
Oh, by the way: the administration is once again pushing for drilling in the Arctic. You see, it's essential to the fight against terrorism.
nytimes.com |
