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Politics : Clinton's Scandals: Is this corruption the worst ever? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Zoltan! who wrote (4616)	9/10/1998 5:06:00 PM
From: Les H	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13994

AMERICA NEEDS A TAX CUT .. By DICK MORRIS Clinton hasn't done much this yearto deserve two more years in office.A tax cut - coupled with some money for child care and Medicare - would do a lot to show the public that he still knows the job and is capable of leadership. The Republicans in Congress have had a year of similar inactivity. They could put a strong finish on their lackluster congressional session witha September tax cut. WITH the recent harrowing dive of the stock market, nothing could be clearer than that the international economic situation is precarious. With a recession in Japan, currency instability in Asia and chaos in Russia, the United States economy needs a high and continued level of domestic demand to make it through the global turmoil and pull the rest of the world out of recession. Obviously, a cut in interest rates is called for. But the recent advent of a balanced federal budget makes it possible to bring the other part of the Keynesian two-step into play - fiscal policy. With a $63-billion surplus estimated for the fiscal year that ends this month, it makes sense to cut taxes and to cut them now. What makes economic sense for America also makes political sense for Clinton and the Republican Congress. Clinton hasn't done much this year to deserve two more years in office. A tax cut - coupled with some money for child care and Medicare - would do a lot to show the public that he still knows the job and is capable of leadership. The Republicans in Congress have had a year of similar inactivity. They could put a strong finish on their lackluster congressional session with a September tax cut. Congressional Democrats won't like a tax cut: They never met a tax they didn't like, and they are loath of concede any accomplishment to the GOP. So Clinton may worry about alienating his own party as he faces the possibility of impeachment in the House. It all boils down to whether it is better to be loved or feared. Machiavelli had it right. It is better to be feared. Clinton needs high poll ratings to protect him from impeachment a whole lot more than he needs love and affection from the Democrats. Remember that few congressional Democrats would weep if Clinton were to resign and let a squeaky-clean Al Gore take the party into the 2000 election as president. And remember that the Republicans need Clinton to serve out his term so they don't have to run against an incumbent in 2000. If Clinton leaves office before his time and gives Gore the advantage of a two-year incumbency, the Democratic Party will likely control the White House until 2008, the longest Democratic tenure since FDR and Truman controlled the Presidency from 1933-1952. The GOP needs something to take the country's mind off impeachment as the 1998 election nears. The last thing the Republicans need is to face the constant question: Do you want to impeach a president who two-thirds of the country thinks is doing a good job? If the Republicans could bring home to their constituency a real live tax cut, the importance of voting Republican for Congress will be readily apparent. So what is good for America is good for Clinton and is good for the Republicans. While Clinton is at it, he should put the GOP on the spot and send up a tobacco bill without any tax increase. Polls show that the public buys the cigarette-company line that a tax hike on cigarettes would hurt working people. Americans regard taxation as the least effective strategy in controlling tobacco use by teen-agers. If kids can afford designer Nike sneakers, they can afford a dollar a pack more for tobacco. But the public strongly favors Food and Drug Administration regulation of tobacco and all the marketing and advertising restrictions that Clinton wants. If the president takes out the tax provisions (which were inserted by knee-jerk liberals at Donna Shalala's Department of Health and Human Services), he will have a popular bill. He should send such a bill up to Congress and dare the Republicans to reject it. By framing the tobacco choice so starkly, he will likely get a tobacco bill that he can trumpet as another achievement. And he should take every sucess he can get. If he wants to avoid becoming the second president to be dishonored by being forced out of office, he needs a record to take into the next two years. And to resist the argument that scandal has made it impossible for him to serve effectively in the White House, he has to show that he can still get bills passed. Clinton isn't going to get much passed in 1999, as he seeks to wedge accomplishments in between impeachment hearings. Once the 1998 elections are over, the Republicans will not pass anything he wants. They will be gearing up for the 2000 elections and will resist giving Clinton anything to pass on to Gore as a legacy except for scandal and possible impeachment. They will treat his State of the Union speech in January 1999 as dead on arrival. So, functionally, this month is the last time he'll be able to get anything of consequence passed in his presidency. If Clinton is to lay in a record for the next two years, he'd better do it this month. And he can get both a tax cut and a tobacco bill - if he goes for it. Ask George Bush what America thinks of a president who faces an economic downturn and sits on his hands. A bold call for a tax cut and an effective display of presidential resolve in getting it passed will arm him with an accomplishment that can keep him going over the next two years.