Wednesday, May 9, 2001
|
Wednesday, May 9, 2001 |
|
Will zig zag Zell take a turn to the right? By DAVE HAMRICK What to say about Zell Miller ...? Right off the bat, I guess I'd have to say I'm here to praise him, not to bury him like some in the Democratic Party have suggested of late. All the buzz is about whether he'll change parties. Longtime Republican operative Matt Towery in effect outed Miller last week in his political newsletter. The former party official (now commentator) wrote that Miller will resign next year and run for his seat in a special election, as a Republican. Miller says no, "not at this time," with all the conviction of a reformed alcoholic saying, "Well, maybe one, just to be social." He seems to be testing the waters, waiting to see the polls. Or is he simply using the situation to get more publicity aimed at making him appear conservative in this increasingly conservative state? But, as I said, I'm here to praise him. After all, the junior senator from Georgia has turned out to be my kind of Democrat, supporting the president's tax cut proposal and all. Last week, he announced that he and the senior senator, fellow Democrat Max Cleland, are now on the same page. The spin he put on the announcement is that Cleland has come into the fold and is now supporting a bipartisan deal on the budget and tax cut, like Miller. If you follow that spin all the way around to the conclusion, just the opposite is true. You have to pay attention to the numbers. First number: Bush proposed $1.6 trillion in tax cuts over the next ten years, and that plan passed the House with hardly a peep of resistance. Then in the Senate, two Republicans joined the entire Democratic Party except Miller in passing a greatly reduced version of the tax cut, $1.2 trillion. Amazingly, Democrats are able to maintain completely straight poker faces as they refer to a plan supported by only two Republicans and opposed by only one Democrat as "bipartisan." If you focus on what's being said in the electronic media, you'll notice that the Democratic proposal is always labeled "bipartisan," whereas the ideas proposed by Republicans are labeled just that, "Republican." So when you hear bipartisan, translate it to Democratic. Anyway, the bipartisan agreement that has Cleland and Miller reconciled calls for $1.25 trillion in tax cuts. That sounds like a compromise, but it's much closer to the original bipartisan proposal than to the original Bush proposal. And it should be noted that we get only $100 billion in tax relief over the next two years, guaranteeing that the cuts will have minimal effect on the slippage we're seeing in the economy. The economy won't get the help it needs, and of course if it continues to slip, Bush's chances for reelection don't look so good. But far be it from me to suggest that Miller and Cleland and the rest of the Democratic Party are actually hoping for that result, or even conspiring to bring it about. So is Miller really a conservative at heart who has angered his party and might switch, or is he a shill for a shell game designed to trash the economy while making him appear conservative so his party will regain power? Time will tell. Meanwhile, I continue to praise him.
|
||