The President of the United States must be very dizzy. He has done so many 180-degree turns in his first few months of office. Let us take a look at the disaster of a job he has performed to date.
First and foremost, he blabbed on and on of how he was going to usher in a spirit of bipartisanship in D.C. That promise was proven false with the nomination of Sen. Ashcroft as the Attorney General. That was a smack in the face to any spirit of cooperation President Bush was trying to foster.
President Bush has also pushed a tax cut down the throats of Congress members without first proposing a budget. Two hours of debate was allowed in the House for a $1.6 trillion tax cut. I am sorry, but when working with such a large cut, more time for debate, opinions of Americans and committee meetings is called for.
His tax plan is a plan for the rich. While the lowest income group might get the largest tax cut in terms of the percentage reduction they will be paying, that is, 30 percent instead of 35 percent, they are not getting the largest tax cut in real dollar terms. In terms of real dollars, the largest tax cut will be felt by the wealthiest 1 percent of the nation. According to President Bush, the average American family of four would get a savings of $1,400. I am quite sure that will really help families with children in private college with average tuition of $30,000 a year.
Furthermore, his tax cut is based on a 10-year projection of “expected” surpluses, not surpluses already in government coffers. If the projections do not pan out, then the budget will be back in the red.
President Bush has talked down our economy to justify his tax cut plan. For several months, as a way of justifying his mammoth $1.6 trillion tax cut, Bush has been talking down the economy. He couldn’t justify the tax cut when times were good. He had to keep insisting that times were not as good as they seemed. Now he’s finally succeeded. He claims our economy has slowed, and yet he wants to push a tax cut that’s too costly and wants to increase spending in education, defense, Medicare and Social Security.
Moreover, his tax cut plan won’t help our slowing economy. Only one-sixth of 1 percent of Bush’s entire tax cut would fall in 2001. Two-thirds of his proposed windfall would not be seen until 2008 or 2010–far, far too late to revive our ailing economy.
President Bush rescinded the new ergonomics rules signed into law by former President Clinton. It is a big “thank you” to his big business supporters for their campaign contributions.
In addition, retreating from a campaign pledge, President Bush told Congress that his administration would not impose mandatory emissions reductions for carbon dioxide on the nation’s power plants. The president said that carbon dioxide was not a pollutant.
President Bush also directed the Justice Department to suspend a Clinton administration rule that prohibits building roads in 60 million acres of Forest Service land and directed the Environmental Protection Agency to withdraw Clinton administration-approved rules to lower the limit for arsenic in drinking water.
On Wednesday, the president said he would veto the bipartisan patients’ bill of rights currently in Congress. According to The New York Times, “Mr. Bush is addressing an issue critical to some of his biggest financial supporters, including major employers groups, insurers, H.M.O.’s and the Business Roundtable, all of whom have been lobbying heavily to make sure that patients’ legislation is not too costly.”
In foreign affairs, he has shown that he is inept even more. Acting like it is the Cold War all over again, he has said China is a competitor, not a partner, and he will not continue former President Clinton’s efforts at engaging North Korea. China and North Korea need to be engaged in a positive way if we want to effect real change in those two countries by establishing democracy and decreasing the number of missiles. Provoking them with Cold War talk will not help but only allow Bush to justify his missile defense plan, arguing that China and North Korea stand ready to strike. Who would blame them with a world leader who continues to antagonize them?
All of Bush’s decisions so far have been payment to his campaign contributors. After the first 100 days, I have come to believe that Bush and his people may well be “masters” of shaping public opinion–they make it their business. It is clear that the American people did not vote for this hypocrite. It’s just a shame that he was able to get into the White House through the back door.
[ Malcom Butehorn is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. ]
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