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Monday, February 9, 2009
An investigation into everything Bush? Not a good idea
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“WASHINGTON (AP) — The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee is proposing a “truth commission” to investigate abuses of detainees, politically inspired moves at the Justice Department, and whole range of decisions made during the Bush administration.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said the primary goal of the commission would be to learn the truth rather than prosecute former officials, but said the inquiry should reach far beyond misdeeds at the Justice Department under Bush to include matters of Iraq prewar intelligence and the Defense Department.
Among the matters Leahy wants investigated by such a commission are: the firings of U.S. attorneys, treatment and torture of terror suspect detainees, and the authorization of warrantless wiretapping.
“Rather than vengeance, we need a fair-minded pursuit of what actually happened” during the Bush administration, Leahy said.”
That’s a bad idea. Leahy is giving the commission a mission that is far too broad and frankly far too partisan.
We don’t need an investigation into everything Leahy thinks went wrong under President Bush. Questions about the US attorney case, for example, are being answered by criminal and internal DOJ investigations. The warrantless wiretapping stuff is probably too sensitive to ongoing anti-terror work to be hashed out in public. And issues involving intel and the runup to the war can safely be left to historians at this point.
Only the torture/detainee issues lend themselves to this kind of investigation. What did we do, who authorized it, how extensive was it and also how productive was it? Let’s put it on the record — did torture work or didn’t it? Were there other/better ways to get that info?
I think it’s essential that prosecution be put off limits, so we get an honest accounting. But I also think it’s essential that we learn what was done in our name.
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American people choosing sides…
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
… and they’re not choosing congressional Republicans.
In a related finding, a Gallup poll from last week says that 55 percent of Americans report increased confidence in Obama’s handling of the economy since he took office; 17 percent report having less confidence.
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GOP spendthrifts put us in this budget mess
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Republicans in Congress and on the TV and radio talk shows claim to oppose the economic stimulus out of concern about the national debt and a moral conviction that we should not saddle future generations of Americans with such a burden.
But who do they think they’re fooling? Apparently they believe the world began anew at noon on Jan. 20, and that everything that occurred prior to that date had somehow been wiped clean from the national memory banks.
Well, it hasn’t.
We do face a long-term problem. Our gross federal debt is at $10.6 trillion, with a good portion owed to lenders in China, Japan and the Middle East. But how did that number get so huge?
Well, of that $10.6 trillion debt —- a figure that accumulated over more than 225 years —- a shocking $8.35 trillion was racked up during the presidencies of Ronald Reagan, George Bush and George W. Bush. And much as their apologists pretend otherwise, those numbers can’t be blamed mostly on Congress. During the Reagan era, for example, final budgets approved year after year totaled almost exactly what Reagan had requested.
Now, raw numbers can admittedly be misleading. A more accurate way to gauge how much a president has contributed to the problem is to measure debt against the size of the national economy. If the economy grew a lot, debt could grow as well without creating a problem.
Under Jimmy Carter, debt declined as a percentage of gross domestic product, falling to 32.6 percent, its lowest in 50 years. Then came Reagan. By the time “the Gipper” left office, the debt had almost tripled in raw numbers; as a percentage of GDP, it soared to 53.1 percent, and it rose still further, to 66.2 percent, under the first President Bush.
Under Bill Clinton, it fell again, to 57.4 percent, but that reprieve would prove to be temporary. The second President Bush started two expensive wars, one a necessity and one a war of choice. He also became the only president in history to cut taxes in time of war, rejecting the quaint notion that a nation at war ought to sacrifice a bit to pay for it. Bush also created an expensive new entitlement program, the Medicare prescription drug benefit for seniors.
The result? The debt almost doubled under Bush, from $5.7 trillion to $10.6 trillion. As a percentage of GDP, it grew from 57.4 percent to 68 percent, the highest since the aftermath of World War II.
And of course, the same congressional Republicans now preaching the dangers of deficit spending were right at Bush’s side, writing and passing the budgets that drove us deeply into the red.
