All Things Reconsidered
January 22, 2003
by Alexander Washburn

The Gangs of DC

Must-see-TV hits the air again this week and I'm not talking about Joe Millionaire, Celebrity Mole, The Bachelorette or the UPN's horrible, Abby. I'm talking about that every two-year, early January ritual - the return of the long-on-speeches-and-gridlock, yet short on results. We're talking about return of the United States Senate my friends.

One of the key tasks for new staffers on the Senate is to do their best to talk their boss out of supporting President Bush's latest round of tax cuts. That's going to be a tough order especially since many incoming Senators, like Texas' John Cornyn, wrapped themselves up warmly in the Bush tax cut quilt on the campaign trail. The biggest challenge for Cornyn and Majority Leader Bill Frist (who we already know is the White House mole) will be to act as if they're rationally weighing the effectiveness of Bush tax cut (for we know Karl Rove has already told them who they're suppose to vote). This is certainly a shame especially when this country truly needs responsible dialogue on future tax cuts as Bush runs out of the gate calling his tax plan "fair" for all Americans. We can officially add "tax cuts" to Bush's laundry list of Presidential half-truths.

A White House press release announcing the Bush tax cut, dubbed the 'Growth Plan' says "92 Million Taxpayers Would Receive An Average 2003 Tax Cut of $1,083," was so misleading and false that independent and non-partisan think tanks denounced it in record time. Among the strongest rebuts came from a Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center, which concluded that upwards to 80% of tax filers would see a tax cut of less than $1,083 - with the average tax cut for filers in the middle of the income spectrum getting about $250 cash back. Another thing our fearless leader forgot to mention on his press tour, was that the top one percent of tax filers are receiving a $24,000 rebate - with folks earning a million or more looking at getting nearly $100,000 back from tax cuts. This little tidbit surely won't sit well with the 49 percent of all people filing taxes who are looking at tax cuts that will net them less than $100 - which for me barely covers dinner, a few rounds of pints and straight Woodford Reserve Small Batch Bourbon and the cab ride home from 11th Street.

Bush's tax plan can't be solely attacked on the class warfare front and The Dems must be weary of that. Lose the 'rich' versus 'poor' argument (where plenty of independent organizations are likely to seize on) and get right to displaying how the Bush tax cut will be a burden to the States, which stand to lose more than $4 billion a year if the new tax cuts are enacted. The Democrats needs to communicate to Governors of all political stripes some of the data that the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities is producing. The Center immediately commented on the "Growth Plan" writing: "The administration has said the plan is intended to promote economic growth and job creation. But when state's mist cut programs to balance their budgets, they lay off workers, reduce payments to contractors, cut reimbursements to providers, or lower benefit payments to individuals. This reduces the money people have to spend and thereby decreases demand for private sector goods and services."

Too many states in the union are already facing massive budget deficits leaving some governors like George Pataki, kidding themselves that they won't have to raise taxes in the coming months. Republican governors don't like reducing services anymore than they're going to have to. Don't expect them to waste any of their political capital supporting a President intent on giving millionaires hefty tax breaks.

Balancing budgets with declining receipts is not the only trick Governors might be pulling off this year. The job got a little more harder after departing Illinois Governor George Ryan commuted every death sentence in the state - 167 to be exact - putting sitting Governors on the defensive in support of this less-than-perfect law. Anyone who has ever watched Law & Order knows that confessions and jury convictions hardly mean guilt. Ryan took a bold step in being the first Governor to admit capital punishment in this country, like voting and the concept of free speech and assembly, is somewhat flawed and needs to be reexamined.

Even though it was a bold move, that's not to say it was the right one. I am no fan of the death penalty in any case. All one has to do is read about the case of Rodney Reed in Texas to know that the death penalty has to go. However, why Ryan vacated all 167 death penalty sentences instead of presenting factual and irrefutable evidence on selected cases is beyond me. Ryan, one of the most disastrous Governors in Illinois history, had little to lose. His term is up and the way the cards are lining up he will be indicted on felony charges and might very well be within shanking distance of some of the inmates he tried to help.

So is it coincidence that the death penalty dust up reared its ugly head the same week that President Bush stuck his ugly head into the Michigan affirmative action case. In denouncing the Michigan, Bush once again mislead the American people when he called the Michigan way a "quota" system. There is no other word that fires up the right wing and scares the folks in the center as well than the word "quota." However, the Michigan way uses race as a factor, just like your shot putting ability, and there is nothing "quota" about that. Mr. Excitement Joe Lieberman, who throw his yarmulke into the Presidential ring this week, came out strong against Bush on affirmative action (and everything else for that matter) but Lieberman doesn't quite have a stellar record on affirmative action, having supported California's Proposition 209 which ended affirmative action in state college and university admission. I don't see that position hurting Lieberman in the early primaries of Iowa and New Hampshire but I can see Al Sharpton and Dick Gephardt blasting Lieberman's support of Proposition 209 in the New York and California primaries. When that happens it's not going to matter what his last name is.

(Alexander Washburn is a volunteer staff writer for 2 Walls Webzine.)