<http://www.weeklystandard.com/Utilities/printer_preview.asp?idArticle=5164&R=C3CB19DDA>
The Weekly Standard
Double or Nothing
From the January 31, 2005 issue: Bush's high-stakes second term.
by Fred Barnes
01/31/2005, Volume 010, Issue 19
PRESIDENT BUSH COULD HAVE OPTED for an easy route to modest success in the
White House. After overthrowing the Taliban and routing al Qaeda in
Afghanistan, he could have stopped there and not ordered an invasion of
Iraq. In his first inaugural address, he advocated "a balance of power that
favors freedom." Even after 9/11, he could have continued with such modest
rhetoric and ambitions. He did not have to embrace a worldwide crusade for
democracy in his second inaugural.
He won congressional approval of three tax cuts in his first term. He could
have rejected the idea of major tax reform as a second-term goal. Bush
promoted Social Security reform in his 2000 and 2004 campaigns. He could
have settled for small individual investment accounts, using payroll taxes,
and passed the task of restraining the growth of benefits to his
successors. Had he taken the easy route, he'd have won reelection in a
breeze and he'd be wildly popular today.
President Bush has chosen the hard route. The lessons he seems to have
learned from his first term are: set the bar very high, don't do things
halfway, forget opinion polls, use every bit of political capital and
personal influence you have to achieve your goals, never play small ball,
and be ready to take chances. So, instead of relaxing and savoring the
achievements of his first term, Bush has laid out a formidable agenda for
the next four years: the democratization of Iraq, the spread of freedom
around the world, the passage of sweeping tax reform, and making Social
Security solvent and sustainable for the rest of this century. For Bush,
this could lead to spectacular success. Or, if things don't work out, he
could end up relegated to the bitter ranks of failed presidents.
Why is Bush doing this? One explanation is he hates to fool around with
small measures. They bore him. Another explanation, offered half-seriously
by a White House aide, is that he's a Texan. For Texans, the aide says, the
bigger the project, the better. In addition, the president regards himself
as a problem-solver. "If there is a problem . . . I have responsibility to
lay out potential solutions," he told the Wall Street Journal. When you
combine an inclination to take on problems with a penchant for grand
proposals, "you get George W. Bush," the aide says.
Oddly, the president's conservatism is not a brake on his desire to change
institutions and countries. While he is philosophically conservative, he is
anything but temperamentally conservative. Peter Wehner, a deputy to Bush
political adviser Karl Rove, noted in a recent speech that "a conservative
temperament can be counterproductive." At times, "the role of conservatism
has been to be reactive," Wehner said. "At other times, the role of
conservatism is to be proactive, bold, energetic, and optimistic--to shape
history rather than impede it. We live in a history-shaping moment." Bush
wants to do the shaping.
It's amazing how much the president has expanded his agenda from his
initial days in office. His 2001 inaugural address took 14 minutes. His
speech last week was 21 minutes long. In 2001, Bush said, "America remains
engaged in the world by history and by choice, shaping a balance of power
that favors freedom." In 2005, he upped the ante dramatically. "America, in
this young century, proclaims liberty throughout all the world, and to all
the inhabitants thereof," he declared at the end of his second inaugural
speech. "Renewed in our strength--tested, but not weary--we are ready for
the greatest achievements in the history of freedom."
On taxes, Bush's take in 2001 reflected a faith in conventional
conservatism. "We will reduce taxes," he said, "to recover the momentum of
our economy and reward the effort and enterprise of working Americans." But
in his speech last September at the Republican convention, he outlined a
new and bigger tax agenda. The tax code, he said, was "created for the
world of yesterday, not tomorrow." It's a "complicated mess, filled with
special interest loopholes, saddling our people with more than six billion
hours of paperwork and headache every year," Bush said. "The American
people deserve--and our economic future demands--a simpler, fairer,
pro-growth system. In a new term, I will lead a bipartisan effort to reform
and simplify the federal tax code."
Again in 2001, the president said he would "reform Social Security and
Medicare, sparing our children from struggles we have the power to
prevent." That was the extent of his comments on Social Security. At the
2004 convention, he brought up two specific issues on Social Security, one
expected, the other new. Bush's support for individual accounts ("a nest
egg you can call your own") was expected. His mention of the sustainability
of Social Security wasn't. "Many of our children and grandchildren
understandably worry whether Social Security will be there when they need
it," he said. Now Bush has decided personal accounts aren't enough. The
solvency of Social Security must be guaranteed for decades to come. That is
a far bigger task.
In Bush's case, major policy issues can be divided into ones he's obliged
to deal with and those that are optional. Given his campaign promises in
2000, he was required to work for education reform, which resulted in No
Child Left Behind. And he was obliged to cut taxes and produce a Medicare
prescription drug benefit for seniors. Since he talked up the faith-based
approach to social problems, he needed to pursue that idea as well, and he
has with partial success. After the 9/11 attacks, the war in Afghanistan
became a necessity in the war on terrorism.
But it's the optional issues--Iraq, democracy, tax reform, Social Security
solvency--that will define the Bush presidency. Bush could have ignored
these issues with political impunity. He chose not to. They are not issues
on which events dictate the solution. They are ones where Bush wants to
shape the solution. Rather than a caretaker president like his father, he's
become a risk-taker, a conservative with the disposition of a radical. And
a rather unusual president.
--
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.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'
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~-->
Take a look at donorschoose.org, an excellent charitable web site for
anyone who cares about public education!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/_OLuKD/8WnJAA/cUmLAA/TySplB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->
--------------------------
Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL
PROTECTED]
--------------------------
Brooks Isoldi, editor
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.intellnet.org
Post message: [email protected]
Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
*** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has
not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of
The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT
YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the
included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of
intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods,
techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other
intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes
only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material
as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use
this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,'
you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
For more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
