Home > Thinking Right > Archives > 2008 > January > 31
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Streetcars, pools and tax ‘rebates’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thinking Right’s weekend free-for-all. Pick a topic:
• A state history museum, yes. State money to keep halls of fame in business, no. Taxpayers pumped $60 million over the past 15 years into halls of fame that can’t sustain themselves. Some clarity is needed. What public policy interests do taxpayers have in maintaining facilities only marginally related to Georgia — as in “they were born here”?
• The Legislature overrode one of Gov. Sonny Perdue’s vetoes, the first in 34 years. That’s as it should be. One-party government requires the legislative and executive branches to check each other. When the “team” goes behind closed doors, does the deal and whisks it through the legislature, public cynicism grows. We could do with more separation-of-powers disagreements and fewer stemming from personalities.
• State officials should run at top speed from the Grady Hospital debacle — just as they should from any similar dispute in Podunk. The local alcoholics are not yet ready to give up booze — and nobody can make ‘em.
• What? The proposed special tax district that would bring 10 miles of streetcar lines to Peachtree and vicinity would raise property taxes on condos but not on single-family homes. And why should I be discriminated against for buying a condo? I thought density equaled “smart growth.”
• Politicians — whether they come from the left or the right — should avoid burdening public retirement fund managers with foreign policy requirements. That’s true whether those are companies that sell weapons to Sudan, as proposed by state Sen. David Shafer (R-Duluth), or companies that do business in countries with policies that offend some labor, environmental or “economic justice” constituency. The boards and fund managers are perfectly capable of exercising good judgment. Play statement investing on your own dime.
• It is absurd, simply absurd, to close pools and destroy sectors of the local economy in the name of water conservation. Metro Atlanta’s water use accounts for 1 percent of the flow in the Apalachicola, Chattahoochee, Flint basin at the state line in normal times, 2 percent during droughts, according to experts. A bill authored by state Sen. Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock) would keep pools open. “There is absolutely no evidence that closing swimming pools will noticeably impact our drought situation,” he said.
• The judge in the Brian Nichols murder case, Hilton Fuller of DeKalb County, made the right call. Now get a judge with a reputation for fairness — and for moving trials along. And yes, Fulton District Attorney Paul Howard should continue to press for the death penalty. Never let death penalty opponents kill capital punishment on pocketbook arguments or tactics.
• The $146 billion stimulus package is certain to get the factories fired up. In China, anyway. As U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey of Marietta notes, $30 billion in tax “rebates” will go “to people who didn’t even pay taxes last year.” Said Lynn Westmoreland of Grantville: “It’s not a tax rebate when we’re borrowing money from China to write checks to ourselves … sending out checks isn’t going to expand the economy, it’s just going to expand the deficit.” All seven House Republicans from Georgia were among the 35 who voted no; 385 voted yes.
• Give us a state transportation plan first — and then we’ll know what congestion relief we’re buying and whether the benefits exceed the cost. A transportation “plan” that gives every interest group what it wants in return for agreeing to sign on to higher taxes is not the answer. Fix congestion. Show us the plan.
• Counting votes in Department of Transportation board elections is a fool’s errand. People lie. But personalities aside, it’s hard to see why any good conservative would wish to throw former state Rep. Mike Evans off the DOT board he chairs. Members of the House and Senate from the 9th Congressional District, 24 in all, will decide today. Advance word is that Evans has 13 and House Speaker Glenn Richardson, who is determined to oust him, has 13. The counters are products of Georgia’s public schools.
Permalink | Comments (161) | Post your comment | Categories: Column
McCain-Romney: 10-9-8…
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As expected, Rudy Giuliani pulled the plug and endorsed John McCain — something that should help McCain a tad in at least four of next week’s Super Tuesday primaries: New York,New Jersey, Connecticut and Deleware, where 201 delegates are up for grabs.
Rumors are swirling, too, that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is set to endorse McCain, though he indicated any endorsement will come after Super Tuesday, when California votes. “I’ve always said that I would stay out of the whole thing of endorsing anybody until our, you know, primaries are over, so I think that’s exactly what I’m going to do,” Schwarzenegger said on CNN. California offers 173 delegates, but they’re divided by congressional districts. Schwarzenegger was re-elected in a landslide 2006 and remains popular, so an endorsement before Tuesday could matter.
The two-man race the hunt for delegates has become was evident Wednesday night at the Ronald Reagan Library debate — though Mike Huckabee continues to hang in there, at Romney’s expense.
Romney argued last night that McCain is out of the conservative mainstream. McCain-Feingold. Twice opposing President Bush’s tax cuts on the basis then that they favored the rich, though he subsequently argued that his opposition was because he wanted offsetting spending cuts.
“Those view are outside the view of mainstream Republican thought,” Romney said. “I’m proud of my conservative record,” McCain replied, accusing Romney of leaving Massachusetts with high taxes and heavy debt.
In a preview of clashes to come, Romney accused McCain of dirty tricks in Florida for his last-minute accusation that the governor had supported a date for withdrawal. In the days before Tuesday’s primary, McCain said “If we surrender and wave a white flag, like Senator Clinton wants to do, and withdraw, as Governor Romney wanted to do, there there will be chaos, genocide, and the cost of American blood and treasure would be dramatically higher.”
Romney accused McCain then, and again Wednesday night, of being dishonest.
McCain’s basis was Good Morning America interview last April. The interviewer, Robin Roberts, said “you have also been very vocal in supporting the president and the troop surge. Yet, the American public has lost faith in this war.” Then she asked: “Do you believe that there should be a timetable in withdrawing the troops?”
His reply:
“Well, there’s no question but that the president and Prime Minister al-Maliki have to have a series of timetables and milestones that they speak about. But those shouldn’t be for public pronouncement. You don’t want the enemy to understand how long they have to wait in the weeds until you’re going to be gone. You want to have a series of things you want to accomplish in terms of the strength of the Iraqi military and the Iraqi police and the leadership of the Iraqi government.”
“So, private,” said Robins. “You wouldn’t do it publicly? Because the president has said flat out that he will veto anything the Congress passes about a timetable for troop withdrawals. As president, would you do the same?”
Reply: “Well, of course. Can you imagine a setting where during the Second World War we said to the Germans, gee, if we haven’t reached the Rhine by this date, why, we’ll go home, or if we haven’t gotten this accomplished we’ll pull up and leave? You don’t publish that to your enemy, or they just simply lie in wait until that time. So, of course, you have to work together to create timetables and milestones, but you don’t do that with the opposition.”
McCain can wear a little thin on Iraq — and on his assertion that he was the lone warrior spelling out the troop surge strategy. He was constantly second-guessing the administration on troop numbers, but that is not quite the same as being the leading light of the troop surge strategy. (Check out the Mike Lucovich cartoon today on McCain.)
He’s a loveable fuzz-ball now with an inspiring life story but by October, if he’s the nominee, McCain will be a kooky old war-monger vilified by the left in the same way that LBJ Daisy-ed Barry Goldwater with the famous September, 1964 commercial of the little girl counting off to nuclear war. Goldwater’s slogan was: “In your heart, you know he’s right.” Bill Moyers, LBJ’s press secretary and later a PBS journalist, responded with: “In your guts, you know he’s nuts.” McCain’s habit of smirking dismissively, as he did Wednesday night to Romney’s explanation of his views on Iraq, can come across as bizarre.
Services »
