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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: calgal who wrote (520052)	1/5/2004 11:53:05 PM
From: calgal	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769667

Truth or Consequences Can Howard Dean lie his way into the White House? BY BRENDAN MINITER Tuesday, January 6, 2004 12:01 a.m. EST Rhetorical overreach is normal in politics. But some lines are just too brazen and get even presidential front-runners laughed down. That's what happened to Howard Dean on Sunday. And the experience--which stopped him in midsentence--must have made the former Vermont governor feel about as small as his home state. "I am going to balance the budget, and I'm going to do it in the sixth or seventh year of my administration," he said at the Iowa Democratic debate. The laughter that erupted was so loud he couldn't finish his next sentence: "We're also going to have health care . . ." That came in answer to a question about how he'd cut taxes for the middle class, and pretty much his entire response--although long-winded--was laughable for its brazenness. "Ultimately, we will have a program for tax fairness," he promised. But the "big picture," he said, changing the subject, is that President Bush's tax cuts were really tax increases. Americans may have gotten their rebate checks, but for many that amounted to a $304 savings, he said. "And the question I have for Americans is, did your college tuition go up more than $304 because the president cut Pell Grants in order to finance his tax cuts for his millionaire friends? How about property taxes, did they go up . . .?" Perhaps someone needs to explain to the former governor the federalist system we have in America. President Bush isn't responsible for local taxes brought on by out-of-control state spending. Or more pointedly, perhaps Mr. Dean should place a call to Jon Corzine and find out what the party line is regarding Pell Grants. The New Jersey senator has already joined with other Democrats to declare victory over Pell Grant "cuts." What Mr. Dean was referring to was several stories that began appearing last summer in the New York Times, Washington Post and elsewhere that claimed the Bush administration was cutting Pell Grants. But the truth is that the Education Department is trying to update the tables it uses to determine financial need. A 1992 law--passed when Democrats controlled Congress--requires that these tables be kept up to date. But somehow they were never updated during the Clinton administration. So in May 2003, Education officials realized they were still using 1988 numbers, which overestimate many parents' state tax burden, and declared their intention to revise them. (Click here and here for a more in-depth look at what happened.) The updates notwithstanding, under President Bush more than 1.7 million students have been added to the Pell Grant rolls, while the cost of the program has grown to more than $12 billion from $8.7 billion three years ago. It's hard to fathom how a program is being cut when it grows year in and year out--let alone how mythical cuts have already driven up property taxes. Not that the truth really matters. Sen. Corzine used the lie about Pell Grant cuts to push legislation that would force Education officials to continue using the out-of-date tables. That legislation passed the Senate and, although it was rejected in the House, Democrats succeeded at winning a compromise in the omnibus '04 appropriations bill. Under that bill, which passed the House and is expected to pass the Senate later this month, the Education Department will use the old tables this year. The issue will likely pop up again in the spring when Education officials consider updating 2005-06 school year's tables, but as it stands now the Pell Grant tables remain unchanged. What Howard Dean's Pell Grant line amounts to then is a new lie based on an old lie. Even Democrats are figuring out that this isn't the way to go. Joe Lieberman pointed out that the average family of four in Iowa saves $1,800 a year thanks to the Bush tax cuts. "I don't know which is worse, that [Mr. Dean] wants to repeal the tax cuts, or that he won't admit that they ever existed," Mr. Lieberman said. John Kerry jumped in later on to ask Mr. Dean why he keeps saying things that are obviously not true or indefensible. Democrats once hoped to neutralize national security issues and win this election by making it a referendum on domestic policy. But with Howard Dean talking about not "prejudging" Osama bin Laden's guilt and offering vague promises about programs for "tax fairness" and second-term priorities mixed with provably false statements, how can he ever expect to beat a president who's captured Saddam Hussein and delivered tax refund and rebate checks to millions of Americans? Mr. Miniter is assistant editor of OpinionJournal.com. His column appears Tuesdays. opinionjournal.com