POLITICAL DISCOURSE….Jeff Cooper has some good posts up right now. For starters, he has some thoughts about the current level of political discourse: if Glenn Reynolds and Andrew Sullivan of all people can get ripped by their readers for being insufficiently obsequious toward George Bush’s jet-assisted speech on the Abraham Lincoln yesterday, what does that say? “We’re all in serious trouble,” that’s what.
Next he wonders how the Republican party managed to switch from support for a balanced budget amendment in the Contract With America in 1994 to support for deficits as far as the eye can see today. Bad news, Jeff: it’s even worse than that. Here’s the Republican party platform from 2000:
Over a five year period, as surpluses continue to grow, we will return half a trillion dollars to the taxpayers who really own it, without touching the Social Security surplus. That?s what we mean by our Lock-Box: The Social Security surplus is off-limits, off budget, and will not be touched. We will not stop there, for we are also determined to protect Medicare and to pay down the national debt. Reducing that debt is both a sound policy goal and a moral imperative. Our families and most states are required to balance their budgets; it is reasonable to assume the federal government should do the same. Therefore, we reaffirm our support for a constitutional amendment to require a balanced budget.
Hell, they ought to have whiplash making a U-turn that fast.
Finally, Jeff wants to sell his Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh. I didn’t even know such a thing existed, but apparently it’s one of the all time marketing turkeys of the computer age. Let him know if you’d like to be its proud new owner.
