Idan Ivri Send Ivri your comments at
[email protected].
President Bush’s State of the Union address neatly wrapped
existing Republican proposals inside wartime rhetoric.
The beginning of the speech was a string of continuous applause,
wartime slogans and self-congratulations for the liberation of
Afghanistan.
The president applauded U.S. righteousness for freeing
Afghanistan and single-handedly promoting freedom for its own sake.
Members of Congress granted Bush a pep-rally atmosphere for these
portions of his speech, and he capitalized on it by asking the same
support be given to him on domestic issues.
After the excitement died down, Bush outlined his budgetary
priorities but remained vague. His first priority: the war on
terrorism.
“My budget includes the largest increase in defense
spending in two decades … because while the price of freedom and
security is high, it is never too high ““ whatever it costs to
defend our country, we will pay it.”
According to Bush, the military spends $1 billion per month in
the current war and should continue to upgrade its technology,
broaden its intelligence resources, and raise soldiers’
salaries.
Unfortunately, pouring billions of extra dollars into any
organization over a short time-span always creates opportunities
for inefficiency or corruption. Bush should also have promised
Americans close oversight of all this new military and intelligence
spending, especially in light of the economic slowdown.
Bush’s second priority is homeland security, and most of
those proposals have already been popularly discussed across the
country since September 11.
Wisely, Bush reminded Americans of the incidental benefits of
preparing for conventional, biological or chemical warfare: better
public health and policing. Unfortunately, Bush equated those
measures with a national missile defense, which is a severely
expensive system that anticipates an unlikely type of attack.
Bush’s domestic economic proposals are part of his third
and final priority, which outlined familiar themes Democrats and
Republicans have been debating since he was elected. He advocates
the top-down Republican tactic of investing in capital and industry
during this recession.
Bush wants to make his controversial tax cut permanent in order
to increase consumer spending: “Last year, some in this hall
thought my tax relief plan was too small, and some thought it was
too big. But when those checks arrived in the mail, most Americans
thought tax relief was just about right.”
A better idea is to increase the minimum wage and provide
low-income Americans with some spending money. Increased war
spending is inevitable, but this tax cut will only worsen the
deficit that replaced the surplus of 2000.
Bush also didn’t mention the word “˜Enron.’ He
did make a comment about holding corporate America accountable and
responsible, but Enron had too many ties to senior government
officials (some in his own administration) to take Bush seriously.
His most specific comment on the matter was a warning to limit the
use of company stock in employee pension plans.
“Through stricter accounting standards and tougher
disclosure requirements, corporate America must be made more
accountable to employees and shareholders and held to the highest
standards of conduct.” By making only these statements, Bush
implies Enron represents a mishandling of money rather than
criminal behavior. As more evidence of shredded documents and false
reports begins to appear, Bush might have to make some additional
commentary.
As a whole, this State of the Union revolved very closely around
phrases like “axis of evil,” “the justice of this
nation,” “culture of responsibility” and
“God is near.”
From his speech last night, two things are clear: first, Bush is
convinced it is wise to make the fight against terrorism into a
Good vs. Evil dichotomy. If he sees any oversimplification in this
comparison, he has yet to admit it. Second, and perhaps most
disheartening, Bush is committed to using this rhetoric as leverage
concerning all other issues for as long as Congress will let
him.