Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Republicans put their twist on Christmas

By PHILIP GAILEY
Published December 11, 2005

'Tis the season . . .

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in Europe last week engaging in torture diplomacy, an awkwardly timed mission coming, as it did, in the middle of the Christmas season. While Rice was reassuring European leaders that the United States "does not authorize or condone torture," back in Washington President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were making a mockery of the secretary's words. The administration wants to continue doing what it insists it is not doing, which is subjecting foreign detainees to the kind of abusive treatment that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., wants to ban.

Unlike Bush and Cheney, McCain has some moral authority on the issue. He is a former Vietnam prisoner of war who experienced torture firsthand. The McCain amendment, attached to the annual defense spending bill, would prohibit U.S. personnel from engaging in "cruel, inhuman and degrading" treatment of detainees anywhere in the world.

First, the president threatened to veto the spending bill unless the McCain amendment was dropped. The Senate ignored the threat and passed the amendment by a vote of 90 to 9. Bush and Cheney now are trying to negotiate a compromise with McCain to carve out an exemption to protect U.S. intelligence operatives from prosecution. The Arizona senator rejected the proposal and instead has offered to allow intelligence agents charged with violating the ban to argue as a defense that a "reasonable" person would conclude that they were following lawful orders.

McCain is making life miserable for Bush and Cheney, and not just on the torture issue. Dealing with him is a form of torture they would gladly ban if they could. Contrary to what the White House may think, the McCain amendment would not be a stocking stuffer for terrorists.

Congress, meanwhile, is in the Christmas spirit in a big way. The House last week passed the final part of a Republican tax-cut package totaling $95-billion. The biggest provision - $20-billion - would extend the president's 2001 tax cut for stock dividends and capital gains for two years.

"Regardless of your politics," wrote columnist Mark Shields, "you have to admire the GOP's unflinching commitment toward closing the dangerously widening gap between the Rich and the Super Rich."

The Republicans didn't forget the poor in this season of giving. They asked the least fortunate to give to the most fortunate among us, a new twist on the meaning of Christmas. To help pay for the tax cuts, the bulk of which would go to the top 5 percent of income earners, the House passed a budget bill just before Thanksgiving that would cut $51-billion over five years from programs like Medicaid, food stamps and higher education. Republicans say the needy will barely feel the knife and will benefit from the economic growth generated by lower taxes on dividends and capital gains. What a relief that must be to families struggling to pay their winter heating bills and prescription drug costs.

It's hard to think of a single sacrifice the Republicans have asked of the nation's wealthiest citizens. I'm not talking about making tax-deductable donations to charity or contributions to Scooter Libby's defense fund, or Tom DeLay's. It hardly seems fair to deprive the rich of the satisfaction that comes from making a sacrifice for the greater good.

In lieu of another tax cut, for example, the wealthiest Americans could ask the White House and the Congress to use the money to bring down the budget deficit. Or maybe spend some of it providing armor for our troops in Iraq and assistance to their families here at home, many of whom are hardship cases. And what about the victims of Hurricane Katrina? Many are still homeless.

We haven't seen much "compassionate conservatism" from this administration, and not much Christmas spirit either. Maybe the spirits that changed Ebenezer Scrooge for the better will call on the president and congressional leaders during the holidays.

Philip Gailey's e-mail address is gailey@sptimes.com

[Last modified December 9, 2005, 22:02:02]