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Pres. Bush has
many monikers, my favorite new one is Disaster President. In the political
vernacular, he is not just a lame duck or a chicken fried duck, but now has become
The First Turkey (my apologies to Ben Franklin and turkey lovers everywhere). Policy issues
will become sharply focused with the US midterm elections in 2006 gaining new
ammunition for change, the Democrats hoping to alter the balance of power in
Congress, and the Republicans afraid if they don’t show more of compassion and
accountability in conservatism, the White House might be in danger in 2008. For
the moment, Bush’s defenders are focused on protecting the commander in chief
(from) himself, but the economic and social fallout ahead will make it impossible
to defend the status quo next year. kwc Balz: For
Bush, a deepening divide: No more “I’m a uniter, not a divider” "Bush is the
most partisan president in modern American history," said William Galston,
a professor at the University of Maryland and previously a top domestic adviser
to former Pres. Clinton. "As a result,
voters in both parties are focusing on him, rather than on the specifics of the
policies." GOP agenda may be in
jeopardy in Congress Marshall Wittmann, a former McCain
political strategist now with the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, said
the GOP agenda looks like "political suicide." Katrina may give DEMs
a budget win: The budget reconciliation process in
Congress was likely to hit the poor extremely hard, slashing millions of
dollars of funding for Medicaid, Medicare, student loans, and other forms of
assistance. Now a parliamentary ruling to extend debate on the reconciliation
will likely have the effect of delaying those cuts for good. Hurricane
Katrina, or at least its political wake, could give congressional Democrats an
opportunity to do something they had been powerless to do earlier this year —
scuttle the GOP’s plans to cut taxes and entitlement spending. An impending parliamentary ruling could
strip the final budget-reconciliation bill of its special limitations on
debate, effectively enabling Democrats to stall the measure when it reaches the
Senate floor and robbing the GOP of a major fiscal-policy victory. (American Progress 090705 and source, The
Hill http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/090805/delay.html) Phillips: Katrina’s Lessons – An Opportunity to
Redirect National Budget and Tax Policy Priorities [A]s a nation, we must debate our long-term
response to this tragedy, and reorient domestic federal spending and
tax policy to programs that build healthy and sustainable communities, an
energy policy that provides incentives for conservation and the development of
alternative sources, and other policies that support a sustainable social order where low-income families have access to
quality housing, health care, education, and a chance to fulfill their personal
and economic aspirations. We need to examine tax policy and question whether
the gap between the rich and working and poor families in this country -
greater than in any of the advanced nations - should continue to widen.
At the federal
level last Feb. 7, another mobilization took place nationally that few might
recall in this moment: Mayors and governors of all political persuasions, from
across this nation, acted on a bipartisan basis to push back the White House’s
draconian budget-cutting proposal called the Strengthening American Communities Act. That act, effectively, would have gutted
a diminishing commitment of funds for domestic social and community development
programs. Funding for
improvements in the critical levee structures that protect New Orleans was
probably not in that budget. Maybe those funds were part of the billions in
added costs to prosecute the war in Iraq, or to pay for its reconstruction. In
an ironic twist, troops fresh from Iraq are now patrolling the streets of New
Orleans. What democracy
will be rebuilt in the wake of Katrina? What will be its underlying economic
framework? How will local, state and federal tax policy change? What about the
40 percent of kids who were in distress even before the devastation of Katrina
washed away what little stability they knew? The months and
years to come will test many of our assumptions about American social and
economic policy.
Can the distribution of the benefits of our democracy be broadened? Or will the distress there was in New
Orleans and this southern, rural, region before Katrina continue, and the deep
gaps in wealth, economic opportunity and environmental stewardship persist? http://www.mainelincolncountynews.com/index.cfm?ID=13963 |
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