• Spending political capital Spending political capital From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch – November 5, 2004 A garrulous President George W. Bush reiterated on Thursday his support for bipartisanship but left no doubt that he will spend all the political
• Spending political capital
Spending political capital
From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch – November 5, 2004
A garrulous President George W. Bush reiterated on Thursday his support for bipartisanship but left no doubt that he will spend all the political capital he earned in the election. Bipartisanship will be tough given the items on his wish list.
In outlining his mandate, Mr. Bush stressed winning the war in Iraq, spreading democracy in the Middle East, privatizing Social Security, revising the tax code, restricting liability lawsuits and appointing judges who share his views on limited judicial authority. In each case, Mr. Bush is up against disagreeable facts and hardened Democratic opposition.
Mr. Bush gave a glowing report about progress training an Iraqi army. His view conflicts with one from a big supporter of the war, Rep. Todd Akin, R-Town and Country. And the president continued to engage in Wilsonian wishful thinking about a dawn of democracy breaking over the Middle East. Voters certainly expect Mr. Bush to act forcefully in Iraq, but many didn’t share the president’s rosy view about progress toward a democracy.
Judging from the president’s press conference on Thursday, privatizing Social Security is near the top of his shopping list. But even voters who supported Mr. Bush probably didn’t think they were voting for privatization.
There’s an argument to be made for letting young people set up personal retirement savings accounts. But it is misleading for Mr. Bush to suggest that these accounts will help make the system solvent in time to cover the benefits earned by and owed to retiring baby boomers. Mr. Bush continued to dodge questions about how he would pay for his overly ambitious plan.
Mr. Bush’s proposals to simplify the tax code and make his tax cuts permanent suffer from the same lack of careful accounting. Everyone would like a simpler tax system, and Congress needs to fix the throw-grandma-down-the-stairs provision that ends the inheritance tax in 2010 and reinstates it in 2011. But simplicity should make the system fairer, not less fair. And making tax cuts permanent shouldn’t plunge the nation deeper into red ink.
The president’s tort reform proposal would cap damages for pain and suffering in medical malpractice cases. That limits what juries may order irresponsible corporations and doctors to pay victims who are terribly injured. It also could infringe on states’ rights by putting federal caps on state jury awards. And it would have only limited effect on malpractice insurance rates. Insurance reform would do more.
One of the surest tests of bipartisanship will be Mr. Bush’s nominations for federal judgeships. The president said he should be judged by the people he nominated during his first term. That’s the rub. Ideological purity trumped competence in many instances.
Mr. Bush already has seen fissures develop within his own party on the judgeships. Sen. Arlen Specter, the moderate Pennsylvania Republican likely to take over as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, warned the White House not to nominate judges who want to overturn Roe v. Wade. Focus on the Family founder James C. Dobson called Mr. Specter a bully and said he was ignoring the “passionate effort by Christians” to elect Bush.
Mr. Bush certainly is entitled to claim a mandate. But the political capital he earned on Tuesday might not pay for a spending spree.
