Saturday, May 13, 2006
Two Notions that Bother Me
There are two notions floating around in the news these days that I take issue with. One is that tax cuts always stimulate the economy and that our present prosperity is due to the tax cuts that Mr. Bush implemented during his first year in office. The other is that our government should be and is in fact doing everything possible to save us from another terrorist attack.
There is both a public and a private argument in favor of the Republican tax cuts. The public argument is that tax cuts leave more money in the hands of the public, so that the public will spend and invest more money and thereby stimulate the economy. This argument completely ignores the effect of government spending as a stimulant. After all, what does government do with the money it collects in taxes? It spends it. It spends all of it. The private argument is that the tax cuts are a reward for the wealthy supporters of the Republican Party. The supporters bankrolled the campaigns of the successful Republican candidates, and the candidates, now elected officials, obliged by cutting taxes.
The notion that the government can in fact absolutely prevent another terrorist attack makes about as much sense as the police chief claiming that, given enough resources, the police department could absolutely guarantee that not another bank would be robbed. The only way to protect all banks from robbers is to change our society from one in which we are relatively free as individuals to express ourselves and do what we want to do into a society of the one imagined by George Orwell in “1984,” in which everyone is watched and spied upon at all times. Only with such spying can potential bank robbers – or terrorists, for that matter – be detected and prevented from carrying out their crimes.
We are not, in fact, in great danger from terrorists any more than we are in great danger from bank robbers. There will always be criminals who will attempt to commit crimes. In our “free” society, we do not arrest persons merely because someone suspects that they may be contemplating a crime. Our police are obliged to wait until a crime is committed before they can arrest anyone. We rely on the efficiency of the police to make sure that any criminal will eventually be caught, tried, convicted, and punished. We rely on other institutions, such as public and private schools, churches, clubs, and the like to teach young people to be good citizens and not turn to crime as a way of life.
One of my most serious criticisms of President Bush is that he seems to take himself too seriously. He acts and talks as though he seriously believes that our government has the means, if not constrained by law or constitution, to detect and prevent terrorist attacks in the future on United States soil. He is helped in this delusion by the report of the “9-11 Commission” that government agencies involved in gathering and analyzing intelligence failed to “connect the dots.” The report implies that the government should have been able to ascertain the plan to drive airplanes into tall buildings and thereby to have thwarted the Al Qaeda plot of 9/11/2001.
Only an ultra-loyal Bush supporter would deny that the administration ignored warnings of possible terrorist attacks, some from the previous administration. Perhaps the air force or the air national guard should have been on the alert for hijacked planes going off course and heading for tall buildings. More should have been done with the information already available at the beginning of September, 2001. Note, however, that the information was available without the Patriot Act and without the warrantless listening in on phone conversations that the present administration has introduced.
There will always be the possibility of terrorist attacks, just as there will always be bank robberies. Our police forces deal with bank robbers. Most of the crooks eventually land in jail. We do not “declare war” on bank robbers or bank robbery. Most of us go about our lives and rejoice that it wasn’t the bank in our neighborhood that was robbed last week. We should deal with terrorists in the same way. They are criminals and there are national and international police organizations to deal with them. Our CIA and the spy organizations of friendly countries should infiltrate the Al Qaeda organization. We should disabuse ourselves of the notion that our “war” is ever going to eliminate terror. Our President should not take himself so seriously.
There is both a public and a private argument in favor of the Republican tax cuts. The public argument is that tax cuts leave more money in the hands of the public, so that the public will spend and invest more money and thereby stimulate the economy. This argument completely ignores the effect of government spending as a stimulant. After all, what does government do with the money it collects in taxes? It spends it. It spends all of it. The private argument is that the tax cuts are a reward for the wealthy supporters of the Republican Party. The supporters bankrolled the campaigns of the successful Republican candidates, and the candidates, now elected officials, obliged by cutting taxes.
The notion that the government can in fact absolutely prevent another terrorist attack makes about as much sense as the police chief claiming that, given enough resources, the police department could absolutely guarantee that not another bank would be robbed. The only way to protect all banks from robbers is to change our society from one in which we are relatively free as individuals to express ourselves and do what we want to do into a society of the one imagined by George Orwell in “1984,” in which everyone is watched and spied upon at all times. Only with such spying can potential bank robbers – or terrorists, for that matter – be detected and prevented from carrying out their crimes.
We are not, in fact, in great danger from terrorists any more than we are in great danger from bank robbers. There will always be criminals who will attempt to commit crimes. In our “free” society, we do not arrest persons merely because someone suspects that they may be contemplating a crime. Our police are obliged to wait until a crime is committed before they can arrest anyone. We rely on the efficiency of the police to make sure that any criminal will eventually be caught, tried, convicted, and punished. We rely on other institutions, such as public and private schools, churches, clubs, and the like to teach young people to be good citizens and not turn to crime as a way of life.
One of my most serious criticisms of President Bush is that he seems to take himself too seriously. He acts and talks as though he seriously believes that our government has the means, if not constrained by law or constitution, to detect and prevent terrorist attacks in the future on United States soil. He is helped in this delusion by the report of the “9-11 Commission” that government agencies involved in gathering and analyzing intelligence failed to “connect the dots.” The report implies that the government should have been able to ascertain the plan to drive airplanes into tall buildings and thereby to have thwarted the Al Qaeda plot of 9/11/2001.
Only an ultra-loyal Bush supporter would deny that the administration ignored warnings of possible terrorist attacks, some from the previous administration. Perhaps the air force or the air national guard should have been on the alert for hijacked planes going off course and heading for tall buildings. More should have been done with the information already available at the beginning of September, 2001. Note, however, that the information was available without the Patriot Act and without the warrantless listening in on phone conversations that the present administration has introduced.
There will always be the possibility of terrorist attacks, just as there will always be bank robberies. Our police forces deal with bank robbers. Most of the crooks eventually land in jail. We do not “declare war” on bank robbers or bank robbery. Most of us go about our lives and rejoice that it wasn’t the bank in our neighborhood that was robbed last week. We should deal with terrorists in the same way. They are criminals and there are national and international police organizations to deal with them. Our CIA and the spy organizations of friendly countries should infiltrate the Al Qaeda organization. We should disabuse ourselves of the notion that our “war” is ever going to eliminate terror. Our President should not take himself so seriously.
