The Wrong Direction

By Keith Boykin, in politics
Wednesday, June 4 2003, 11:53AM

Three years ago, the nation enjoyed peace and prosperity. The biggest issue we faced then was when and where Bill Clinton had sex. Today, we face war and debt as far as the eye can see. No matter how you look at it, the country is moving in the wrong direction. And George Bush is to blame.

From August 1992 until February 2001, the Republican Party led a concerted campaign to vilify and demonize Bill Clinton. First, they said he dodged the draft in Vietnam. They they accused him with corruption involving an old Arkansas land deal called Whitewater, where the Clintons actually lost money. Next they impeached him for hiding his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Then they accused him of bombing Iraq to divert attention from the other scandals.

Along the way, they appointed independent counsels and special prosecutors who spent tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to investigate the president.

Those were the good old days.

For eight years, the GOP called Bill Clinton a liar. They should know. After all, it takes one to know one. And no one is better at lying than the GOP. The Republican leadership and President Bush have raised lying to an art form.

No doubt, Bill Clinton lied to us about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. He admitted his mistake a few months afterwards. But Clinton was lying about an embarrassing personal relationship. Bush, on the other hand, lies everyday about important public policy.

It's now become clear that George Bush lied to the American people about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. He lied to us when he said that Saddam Hussein posed an imminent threat to American national security. He lied to us when he said that Iraq was connected to the September 11 attackers.

When conscientious Americans questioned the Administration before the war began, the White House suggested they were unpatriotic. Once the war started, critics were called un-American. With a straight face, the same liars who questioned Bill Clinton's decision to bomb Iraq during his Administration were suddenly unwilling to allow questions about George Bush's decision to wage full-scale war with Iraq.

If President Clinton had launched a dubious war with Iraq, every Republican from the Speaker of the House on down would have questioned his motives. But when Bush does it, we're all supposed to be quiet and "patriotic."

If Bill Clinton had landed on an aircraft carrier to deliver a victory speech, the Republicans would have been apoplectic in their accusations of exploitation. When Bush does it, they cheer. Never mind the fact that Bush dodged the Vietnam War by joining the National Guard.

That's not all. Bush has also lied to us about the economy and tax cuts. The White House has argued for months that the tax bill the president signed last week will give tax relief to every American. Unfortunately, that's just not true. This is a tax bill for the rich.

At the last minute, the Republicans removed a provision of the bill that would have given a tax break to 12 million poor children. And yesterday the Republican House Majority Leader Tom Delay refused to consider a Democratic proposal to give a tax break to 6.5 million low-income families who did not receive it in last week's bill.

What do you get for this gigantic new tax cut? A huge hole in the federal budget and about $100 in your pocket. You're going to need that $100 to pay the increase in state and local taxes the federal government has just created.

Cutting taxes doesn't reduce your tax burden; it simply moves it from one place to another. In this case, the Bush tax cuts move part of the burden to the states and cities. The rest of the burden is simply moved to the future, when we will all have to open up our wallets and pay for it big time.

In just three years, we've gone from the biggest federal surplus in history to the biggest federal debt in history. If Clinton had done that, the Republicans would have impeached him again. But Bush gets away with it. Why? Largely because of 9-11.

Unless we stop him, George Bush will exploit 9-11 for every crooked purpose on his political agenda. And with the memory of September 11 as his platform, Bush doesn't even need to lie well.

One thing about George Bush -- he's a man of principle. Bush takes a position and sticks to it. But he does so regardless of whether it makes sense with the introduction of new information.

Two years ago, when the economy was doing well, Bush said we needed a tax cut. Now that the economy is suffering, Bush says we need a tax cut. Tax cuts are always the answer no matter what the question.

The Republicans say Bush is a strong leader because he sticks to his guns. Unfortunately, that's not leadership. That's stupidity. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do."

At first, Bush's stupidity was simply an entertaining subject for late night comedians. Now it's become serious. Thanks to George Bush's leadership, the country is in serious danger.

Although we have found no weapons of mass destruction, no connection to al Qeada, and no threat to our national security in Iraq, the White House is now using those same exact arguments against Iran.

And for all the campaign rhetoric about restoring integrity in the White House, this Administration has done more to damage the credibility of the U.S. than any Administration since Nixon's.

In international relations, Bush's obsession with Iraq has lost us nearly all post 9-11 sympathy and support. The failure to produce weapons of mass destruction has the world rightly wondering about American credibility. And the president's decision to pull out of the Kyoto treaty on global warming and to build a missile shield that violates the ABM treaty has created new opposition throughout the world.

Even his much-touted $15 billion international AIDS proposal comes with strings attached that will prevent family planning organizations from providing much needed abortion services in other countries.

Where is the integrity in the president's decision to support Senator Rick Santorum after his homophobic comments earlier this year? And where is the integrity in hiring Vice President Cheney's old company, Halliburton, in a sweetheart deal to help rebuild Iraq? If President Clinton had done that, an independent counsel would already be leasing office space on K Street in Washington.

Bush promised to deliver compassionate conservatism, but so far we've gotten too much of the latter and not enough of the former. While we've been absorbed in the president's "big tent" rhetoric, he's been busy giving tax cuts to the wealthy, creating new corporate tax loopholes, and eliminating FCC restrictions that ensure diversity of perspectives on TV.

Before we anoint George Bush to another term as president, we should ask some serious questions that any good Republican would have asked of Bill Clinton.

Where are those weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? Where are Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden? Why was Iraq such a threat to the U.S. in the first place? Why did the military mislead the public about the rescue of Private Jessica Lynch? How did Halliburton get military contracts without competitive bidding? How long will the U.S. be in Iraq? How many troops will be there? How much will it cost?

And here's some questions for the domestic side. How do you plan to balance the budget while increasing spending and cutting revenue? Whatever happened to Enron? Why should billionaire Warren Buffett pay less of his income in taxes than his receptionist? How will you achieve diversity without affirmative action? How will you save Social Security and Medicare while draining the budget of needed revenue? What programs do you plan to cut to balance the budget? Do you plan to balance the budget at all?

Oh, and don't forget the big question. It's the question that Ronald Reagan used to win election in 1980 and 1984. It's a question we should all ask ourselves. Are you better off today than you were four years ago?

Comments (10) reveal