Thursday, Jan. 10, 2002 | 8:39 a.m.
I am proud to say I voted twice for the man who uttered those famous words. When former President Ronald Reagan used that phrase it was usually to belittle his opponents in the eyes of the electorate, as if to say: Look out, here comes that same old line again, so don't pay it no mind.
It is not my intention to belittle anyone, especially the subject of this column, because the man deserves our respect and support. I talk of our president, George W. Bush, a man for whom I did not vote but one who, by his decisiveness to date in the prosecution of our war on terrorism, has earned the gratitude of an entire nation. And while there is a long way to go in this war and many more arenas in which to fight, he has demonstrated his desire and his determination to rid the world of these lowlifes once and for all.
That having been said, I have been bothered the past few days by the words of the great Yogi Berra, who said it is deja vu all over again. Indeed, it was like listening to his famous father and our former president, George Herbert Walker Bush, who uttered the words that many Americans believe is one reason he lost his re-election bid to Bill Clinton. You remember them, "Read my lips -- no new taxes."
When President George W. Bush said what may become his most famous quote, "Not over my dead body will they raise your taxes," he stepped into the same mine field that haunted his father when he last ran for public office. Only time will tell whether he can negotiate the political perils that may await as a result.
I am not here today to debate the substance of the competing ideas of tax cuts for the wealthy or the not-so wealthy among us. Frankly, I'd like to see everyone get big breaks in the amounts of money that government, at all levels, takes from us to do our business. Wouldn't it be nice if we could get worldwide security, homeland security, Social Security, job security and security of mind and matter all for nothing? Of course it would, but none of us is naive enough to think that will ever happen. So that leaves us with the constant juggling of priorities -- political, social and defense -- so that Americans will continually believe that they get more for less than any other country on the planet.
There will be time enough to debate the rationale and the reasons behind any economic stimulus package that makes its way toward the president's desk when Congress comes back into session. Until then, there is no shortage of politicians who will do their level best to confuse us in an effort to convince us that their ideas are better than the other guy's.
What I am concerned about is the rhetoric that President Bush used to make his point the other day as he set about to gain the upper hand on domestic issues which, even though the war is the hot topic for today, will more than likely guide the outcome of the coming election cycle. He was specifically referring to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's very thoughtful speech outlining what he believed should be the guiding principles for any tax cutting and economic stimulus package. Rather than reiterate his own ideas for such a package of ideas to help pull us out of recession and into better economic times, President Bush blurted out his now famous quote.
Those are the kind of words that sound good to voters, especially when they are so absolute in their meaning. "Over my dead body" always conjures up an image of a person fighting to the death for a principle. Kind of like what we imagine when we think of the one-time actor turned gun lobbyist Charlton Heston when he speaks about his cold, dead fingers wrapped around either his rifle or the Second Amendment, I can't remember which. They are also the kind of words that voters tend never to forget, like "read my lips" and other such nonsense.
What they have in common, of course, is that they sound really good at the moment but when put to the tests of time, political reality and real-life circumstances, they often wind up choking the person who uttered them. That is my concern for President Bush. I am afraid he spoke a bit too soon and a bit too forcefully. For a president of the United States, that is.
I don't remember his exact words, but when President George W. Bush was pushing his tax-cut package, which ended up somewhere between $1 trillion and $3 trillion, depending upon who is counting, he made it clear that our country could more than sustain the loss of revenues unless one of two things happened. One was a recession and the other was a war.
Well, guess what? We hit the jackpot! We are in the middle -- at least I hope it is near the middle -- of the first recession in more than a decade, and this war on terrorism could take years and years and tens or, even, hundreds of billions of dollars. Neither of which was reasonably foreseeable when the politics of tax cuts was carrying the day in Washington, at least to those blinded by the rhetoric and the promise of untold riches, courtesy of Uncle Sam.
How many times must we learn the lesson of George the First? Especially now as we work our way through the incredible uncertainties of the 21st century. While we hope that we will never again experience another September 11 tragedy, we cannot rule out any horrific surprises the bad guys have planned for us. And who can even begin to quantify what another terrorist attack will cost us in terms of human capital, political capital and economic capital. Our president must be free enough and flexible enough to make whatever decisions are necessary at any given time, even if that means raising taxes or curtailing tax cuts already planned. Rather than tying his own hands with foolish rhetoric designed to win a political day, our president should be acting with the kind of restraint that preserves a political career and, more importantly, promotes appropriate deci sion making.
I hope our president realizes how close he may be coming to being his father's son. Not in the good way to which we all aspire, but in the way that need not happen. That's the way that political expedience sometimes takes us when we aren't really looking.
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