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- Path: sparky!uunet!stanford.edu!rutgers!spcvxb!hsh!paul
- From: paul@hsh.com
- Newsgroups: alt.rush-limbaugh
- Subject: Not Even Inaugurated, Breaking Promises Already
- Message-ID: <1992Nov20.142330.280@hsh.com>
- Date: 20 Nov 92 18:23:30 GMT
- References: <1992Nov19.115307.272@hsh.com>
- Followup-To: alt.rush-limbaugh,alt.politics.clinton
- Lines: 76
- X-From: paul@hsh.com
- X-Newsgroups: alt.politics.clinton
- X-Date: 19 Nov 92 11:53:07 EDT
- X-Organization: HSH Associates
-
- From The Wall Street Journal, 11/19, page one (reprinted w/out permission)
-
- "Reality Sets In: Clinton Advisors Find Promises are
- Easier to Make Than Keep"
- ----
- "They are Drawing Up Lists of Tax Increases and Cuts in
- Entitlement Programs / One Target: Big Corporations"
- ----------
-
- "WASHINGTON -- Bill Clinton's advisors are already realizing that campaign
- promises are easier to make than to keep. During the campaign, Mr. Clinton
- promised not only to shield the middle class from tax increases but to cut
- their taxes. He promised to halve the deficit in four years. He said his
- rivals -- not he -- were the ones who would slash government benefits that go
- to the middle class.
-
- "...But now, a sobering reality is sinking in... the president-elect's new
- economic transition team, headed by Harvard Prof. Robert Reich, is drafting
- lists of spending cuts and tax increases -- euphemistically described as
- 'loophole closers' -- that go well beyond those in the economic plan set forth
- during the Clinton campaign. One juicy target for new taxes: U.S.
- corporations. A potential source of big spending cuts: the costly,
- fast-growing 'entitlement' programs, many of which shower benefits on the
- middle-class people Mr. Clinton promised to protect.
-
- "...Simply put, Mr. Clinton has to decide -- much as President Bush did four
- years ago -- whether to break his campaign promises early on, when he has the
- most political capital, or later, when he might hope the public has forgotten
- them.
-
- "...many budget experts in both parties -- and some of them under consideration
- for senior posts in the Clinton administration -- say it is almost impossible
- to exempt the middle class from pain and reduce the deficit substantially."
- [Quoted is Alice Rivlin, former head of CBO, said to be under consideration for
- a 'top economic post.']
-
- "...Rep. Leon Panetta, a California Democrat and House Budget Committee
- chairman, says, 'If you're putting together a significant deficit-reduction
- package, the middle class is going to carry part of that burden. There's no
- way to avoid that."
-
- "In another warning suggesting that he is thinking more seriously about the
- deficit, [Clinton] recently said that 'all have to sacrifice and contribute
- over the long run.' When pressed about his promised tax cut for middle-class
- families [as published by the Clinton campaign; it's on paper], he didn't
- exactly offer any guarantees..."
-
-
- So the issue before us is this: Clinton's team has only NOW stumbled upon the
- numbers that his opponents (and some media) were pointing to, all during the
- campaign? The same facts, figures, and statistics that his team is now using
- as a basis to break their promises are not new; they were available to ANY
- citizen at ANY time during the campaign, in any dime-store almanac -- and
- obviously ignored by the Clinton team.
-
- In fact, the article includes a table -- again, available to any citizen who
- cared to know the truth -- showing that families with incomes below $80,000
- (the class Clinton promised to protect) accounted for 75% of the personal
- income reported to the IRS in 1990. How can Clinton et al pretend that these
- numbers didn't exist during the campaign?
-
- One can only conclude that Clinton and his were completely ignorant of reality
- -- and/or that they lied outright. And before I get flamed, yes, of course,
- Bush lied; bringing that up only beggars the question before us. Using it as a
- defense is worse, since it brings into question the stance of moral superiority
- shown by certain Clinton supporters.
-
- (EMail to me on this thread will NOT be answered. If anyone has anything to
- say, have the courage of your convictions: say it HERE, or not at all.)
-
- ------
-
- Paul Havemann ||| paul@hsh.com
- ("Boss! Boss! Disclaim! Disclaim!" cried the little man. "Very well,
- Tattoo," his mentor replied, "any opinions expressed are not necessarily those
- of any company.")
-