HOGS FEEDING AT THE TROUGH
(Dear Zonki & TP, a friend sent his friend's newsletter to me. I include partial
excerpts. Please note that I am NOT the author. In fact, I don't even know
the author, but I thought you might find this man's opinions interesting ---Mephisto)
"Well, folks, it became crystal clear this week. The feared
concatenation from a Republican-controlled Presidency, House and
Senate is as bad as thought, sooner than expected.
It has the feel and smell of Ronald Reagan's first year when he
was going to cut taxes, increase defense spending and balance the budget
One among many reasons that did not happen was the high level of spending for Reagan
corporate interests who budget director David Stockman told William Greider in his famous
interview were like hogs feeding at the trough.
He also said that they pulled it off by running two separate lines, spending cuts on one
side, tax cuts on the other. So with Bush who wants his tax cuts
before he has to show his budget cuts.
The 2001 versions of Stockman hogs have attacked the trough
openly in the last two weeks. President Clinton will no longer veto their most egregious foraging.
Coal, energy and utility corporations, and four Republican
senators, put the pressure on and BUSH CAPITULATED ON REDUCING
CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS this week
In the process he humiliated EPA Secretary Kathleen Todd
Whitman who two weeks ago in Trieste told her European counterparts
that the Bush administration would act to combat global warming. Bush had
criticized Gore last September for not promising mandatory reductions on four pollutants.
The credit card companies who have promiscuously lured people into
credit card debt poured money into the BANKRUPTCY CHANGES, the same ones
Clinton vetoed. It hurts people with limited resources. The Chamber of
Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers led the way to kill the
"ERGONOMICS" bill Clinton put into effect at the end of his term. All of these things pay
off constituencies that make direct political contributions far beyond anything
Clinton's pardons are supposed to have done.
Republican congressional leaders are putting pressure on advocacy
groups to HIRE REPUBLICAN DIRECTORS if they expect to deal with this Congress..
AARPs hiring a new president. Republicans will send over names.
Our friend Roy Neel, most recently transition director for Gore on a leave
of absence, was asked to resign from the US Telecoms Association so it
could hire a Republican.
House Republicans have a whole slate of ABORTION
RESTRICTIONS they are pushing.
First is the "Unborn Victim of Violence Act" to put specific criminal charges on harming a fetus
, aimed at calling abortion murder. Rumors continue to float the Rehnquist and O'Connor will
resign from the Supreme Court this year.
Two more votes against Roe vs. Wade? Reversing it 5-4?
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Bush "dissed" KIM DAE JUNG, the closest political presence we have
to Mandela, last week. He poured cold water on the South Korean
presidental's wish that the U.S. follow-up on the promising negotiations the Clinton administration
had underway with North Korea and South Korea.
In so doing he embarrassed Sec.of State Colin Powell who, the day before Kim's visit, said
the U.S. would pursue the trail already underway.
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BUT THE PROPOSED TAX CUT , a key part rammed through the House last week with no
debate and no bi-partisanship, is the most important activity of Bush's presidential term.
You know the problems. This is the way Thomas Edsall phrased it last Sunday in the Post:
"President Bush's tax cut plan has split Washington's interest
group community down the middle, with each side convinced that the fate of
the bill will determine the direction of government over the next few years.
"The high-stakes fight has attracted religious, ideological,
defense, reformist and environmental groups rarely associated with tax issues.
That is because, they say, passage of the tax bill will open the way to a restoration
of conservative governance reminiscent of the early 1980s; if it fails, the liberal wing of the Democratic
Party will be revitalized.
"At the same time, the battle has become a proxy in the continuing
debate over the 2000 election. A tax victory would help give Bush political
legitimacy, while a defeat would be used by unions and civil rights and
women's rights organizations to claim popular support for a "center-left"
agenda."
Today I was told by an insider to the budget debate that in the end
she expects the Republican House to get what it wants, a larger tax cut
than Bush has proposed The hope of bringing any sense to this depends on
delaying the Senate vote.
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NOW WE HAVE THE USS RONALD REAGAN. Recently I mentioned that
people in the House, already having given us (over the protests of local
citizens) Ronald Reagan National Airport and the Reagan Federal Building, wanted a Reagan
memorial on the Mall and his face on Mt. Rushmore.
I didn't know then that an aircraft carrier under construction would be christened for him, as it was March 3.
Now I find out about the Ronald Reagan Legacy Project, headed by
consummate right-wing tax-cut hustler, Grover Norquist, and including
such worthies as Newt Gingrich, Jesse Helms, Phyllis Schlafly, Peggy Noonan, Karl Rove and
John Ascroft. It operates on the premise articulated by Gingrich many years ago. Reagan is
our franchise. We want to spread his name everywhere.
The project's goal is to get something big named for Reagan in all 50
states (38 to go), all 3,000 counties, in each formerly communist country, and
his face on the $10 bill, replacing Alexander Hamilton. So this week
thrice-married family moralist Bob Barr (R-GA) threatened to stop all
future funding for the Washington Metro if it did not change the name of the
stop at National airport to Reagan National on all signs, maps, etc
Estimated cost: $400,000. |
