[107686] in Cypherpunks
Jan. 21 column - the State of the Union
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Robert Hettinga)
Thu Jan 21 09:27:29 1999
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1999 08:27:34 -0500
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
From: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
Reply-To: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
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From: Vin_Suprynowicz@lvrj.com (Vin Suprynowicz)
Subject: Jan. 21 column - the State of the Union
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FROM MOUNTAIN MEDIA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATED JAN. 21, 1999
EDITORS: OPTIONAL END MARKED AFTER 940 WORDS. LIST WHICH CONSTITUTES
2ND HALF OF COLUMN CAN BE SET IN SMALL TYPE TO FIT, OR CAN BE TRIMMED
ENTIRELY FOR LENGTH.
THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz
Behind the smooth demeanor, has the Collectivist-in-Chief gone bonkers?
President Clinton adopted a bold strategy in his State of the Union
speech Tuesday night. Rather than whining about being put on trial for high
crimes and misdemeanors, the president decided to speak over the heads of
his tormentors directly to the American public, presenting them with a
laundry list of the business he would rather be about, if only Congress
would behave in a properly "bipartisan" manner (which is to say, if only
the Republicans would vote like Democrats, while the Democrats ... well,
continue to act as Democrats, of course.)
And what a list it was. To leave aside the president's winning manner and
merely read the list of 50-odd new programs and promises he managed to cram
into 77 minutes -- almost every one injecting the federal government more
massively into some aspect of our lives -- is to wonder whether we have
here a straightforward parody of the notion that government can somehow
spin straw into gold (giving us back many times more than it seizes in
taxes) or whether the man who once promised us "The era of Big Government
is over" has either gone bonkers or is ... well, a liar.
Mind you, I'm not saying every proposal on the president's list is
necessarily bad. Some involve tax relief, which is good -- though
across-the-board cuts are always better than the targeted kind. Some --
like attempts to guarantee a higher level of teacher competence -- would be
good ideas if enacted locally, and only become onerous when they are
imposed by the high-handed federal government ... without constitutional
authorization, if anyone still cares.
Rather, it's the sheer breadth of this attempt to bribe every imaginable
squeaking constituency in this country -- to promise not merely a chicken
in every pot, but a new (start ital)billion(end ital)-dollar '"initiative"
for every problem known to man and several still merely imagined -- which
is so stunning in its ambition.
A "Livability Agenda" to preserve open space? And then a separate "Land
Legacy Agenda," too? I'm not sure what they are -- though I bet they mean
you'll no longer be able to sell off grandpa's farm to pay his debts. But
what the heck, they sound good: Let's start them off with a b-b-billion
each!
New domestic federal investment banks, we're told, will be modeled on the
Overseas Investment Corporation. Funny: I thought there were restrictions
on the federal government doing the same kind of meddling at home that they
regularly do overseas. Perhaps no longer, since Bill and Janet sent the
tanks and helicopters and Delta Force shooters to take down that church at
Waco, and got away with it. So what's next? Radio Free Idaho? CIA
assassinations of uncooperative Montana sheriffs?
We've got to "tear down" trade barriers, the president said, receiving
enthusiastic Democratic applause. Then, with his next breath, he said we're
going to stop Japan from dumping all that cheap steel on our shores ... and
the crowd applauded that, too!
I'm telling you, read the text of this address without picturing Mr.
Clinton's reassuring mug, and the sheer hubris leaps out at you. If a very
different sort of fellow had shown up to read this same speech -- the kind
who used to strut and throw his arms around a lot -- you could picture the
eyes widening at about this point, and a trickle of spittle appearing on
the chin.
We're going to ban child labor all around the world, ha ha ha! Yes! We're
going to hire 50,000 MORE cops, and institute drug testing of parolees!
That's the ticket! Parolees for starters -- traffic offenders before long!
Remember that compromise in the Brady Bill, in which we agreed the
five-day handgun waiting period would expire when we added national
registration of long guns in December of 1998? Well, we want to keep the
registration, all right, but six weeks was long enough to keep our word on
that one; now we're going to (start ital)restore(end ital) the waiting
period! Ha ha ha! That'll show 'em to try and compromise with us! And
require trigger locks, too! They said I was mad, but I'll show them. ...
The comparison to the notable European heads of state who kept their own
supporters spellbound for hours in the 1930s, strutting and shouting their
lists of demands for more centralized power, is not gratuitous.
Of Mr. Clinton's plan to inject the federal government into Wall Street
by using Social Security moneys to buy private stocks -- to literally make
Uncle Sam a major owner of U.S. corporations -- Congressman Chris Cox,
R-Calif., told the Orange County Register Tuesday: ''Not to use fascism as
a pejorative but merely as an apt historical description, the Clinton
proposal is fascism. The Mussolini economic policy consisted in publicly
directed investment in the private sector. ... The amount of money in the
beginning is not the issue. Like all government programs, it will expand.''
David Boaz, executive vice president of the Cato Institute, commented
Tuesday night: "Somewhere near the middle of his 80-minute speech, the
president told China that stability 'can no longer be bought at the expense
of liberty' -- even as he spent the rest of his speech promising to get us
all further hooked on government money and government programs, at only the
cost of our freedom."
"I'm distressed by the absence in the president's message last night of
any concern about the pressing need for help from our government with pet
care," joked Roger Pilon, director of the Center for Constitutional
Studies, naming about the only special interest on which President Clinton
did not promise to drop a spare billion or two.
(EDITORS: COLUMN CAN END HERE)
The president threw out 56 new programs in 77 minutes. In fine print
(necessitated by their very number), here they are:
The Clinton Gravy Train
1. A government board to direct private investment of some Social Security
funds.
2. A new pension plan subsidized by Washington to "supplement" Social
Security (which was originally intended to be only a supplement, itself.)
3. A $1,000 tax credit for long-term care.
4. A tripling of funding for federal summer school and after-school programs.
5. $200 million to "turn around" failing schools.
6. New federal resources to help teachers "reach higher standards."
7. A six-fold increase in college scholarships for students who commit to
teach in impoverished areas.
8. Federal funding to increase the number of charter schools.
9. Federal funding to help communities "build or modernize" 5,000 schools.
10. Another $1 minimum wage increase.
11. More money for bureaucracies that enforce equal pay laws.
12. Tax credits and subsidies for child care.
13. Tax credits for stay-at-home parents.
14. Expansion of the family leave laws to cover small companies. (The
original bill passed a few years back only after such mom-and-pop shops
were promised an exemption.)
15. Federal regulations prohibiting the refusal to promote workers with
children.
16. More regulations governing medical care.
17. Make it "easier" for small businesses to offer health care.
18. A reduction of the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 55.
19. Regulations to allow people with disabilities to keep their government
health insurance if they go to work.
20. A "down payment" to federally subsidize additional medical care for
the poor.
21. More federal money for mental illness.
22. Federal lawsuits against tobacco companies, the take going to Medicare.
23. More money to "enable workers to get a skills grant to choose the
training they need."
24. A "dramatic increase in federal support for adult literacy" -- only
necessary because of the progressive failure of the government schools,
into which more billions will also be poured (see items 4 through 9,
above.)
25. Money to move more people off welfare.
26. More federal support for "community development banks."
27. More federal support for "empowerment zones."
28. 100,000 more federal housing vouchers.
29. A federal program to "help businesses raise up to $15 billion to bring
jobs to the inner city.
30. More federal "crop insurance" for farmers.
31. More federal "farm income assistance."
32. A 28 percent increase in "long-term computing research."
33. More U.S. taxpayer support for "economic growth abroad."
34. Loan guarantees to "American manufacturers hit hard" by the Asian
economic crisis.
35. Money to beef up security at American embassies.
36. More money to "prepare local communities for biological and chemical
emergencies."
37. More money to "support research into vaccines and treatments" stemming
from biological or chemical terrorism.
38. More money to help restrain the spread of nuclear missiles.
39. More money for military readiness and modernization.
40. More money for military pay (but none shifted from costly weapons
purchased from big-time contractors, even those the Pentagon doesn't want.)
41. More money for the United Nations.
42. The creation of "Radio Democracy for Africa."
43. Taxpayer support for the "African Trade and Development Act."
44. Money for 50,000 more police officers.
45. Money to equip the police with "new tools, from crime-mapping
computers to digital mug shots."
46. More money for drug testing and treatment.
47. Additional regulations on gun ownership -- going back on previous
compromises only in effect six weeks, as detailed above.
48. More regulations on gun manufacturers, too.
49. More money for the "Safe and Drug-Free School Act."
50. A new federal "clean air fund."
51. Tax incentives and federal investment "to spur clean energy technologies."
52. A $1 billion "Liveability Agenda" to combat urban sprawl.
53. A $1 billion "Lands Legacy Initiative" to preserve places of natural
beauty.
54. More federal funding for AmeriCorps.
55. Money to fund a "Employment Nondiscrimination Act and the Hate Crimes
Prevention Act."
56. More money to "significantly expand" efforts to help immigrants learn
English and American history.
Vin Suprynowicz is the assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas
Review-Journal. Readers may contact him via e-mail at vin@lvrj.com. The web
sites for the Suprynowicz column are at
http://www.infomagic.com/liberty/vinyard.htm, and
http://www.nguworld.com/vindex. The column is syndicated in the United
States and Canada via Mountain Media Syndications, P.O. Box 4422, Las Vegas
Nev. 89127.
***
Vin Suprynowicz, vin@lvrj.com
The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it. -- John
Hay, 1872
The most difficult struggle of all is the one within ourselves. Let us not
get accustomed and adjusted to these conditions. The one who adjusts ceases
to discriminate between good and evil. He becomes a slave in body and
soul. Whatever may happen to you, remember always: Don't adjust! Revolt
against the reality! -- Mordechai Anielewicz, Warsaw, 1943
* * *
--- end forwarded text
-----------------
Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@philodox.com>
Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
