:: blame the extended gestation.... ::

:: Sunday, November 02, 2003 ::

I love Bill...[even though I don't always agree with him] I love Bill... I always will

TAP: Vol 14, Iss. 10. The Clinton Formula. Michael Tomasky.: "Essentially, Karl Rove's politics are a combination of efforts by the increasingly conservative Republican Party to recover from the '64 election and assume a dominant position in America -- through the advocacy of ideas and policies that were designed to have more appeal to the middle class, through the use of socially conservative issues that were designed to get people to vote for them for reasons other than economic ones, and through the extraordinary ability to increase their dominance in the mainstream press [and to] have a competing right-wing press and label Democrats ... almost turn them into cartoons in a way that got them votes from people who otherwise never would have voted for them. And that's basically been their strategy."

"I mean, people say, 'Gosh, how did Bush raise $200 million, $300 million?' I say it's peanuts compared to the tax cuts he gave. It's not even a tithe, you know? Not even 1 percent! "


"The public is operationally progressive and rhetorically conservative. The more they believe that you're careful with tax money and responsible in the way you run the programs and require responsibility from citizens, the more the public in general is willing to be liberal in the expenditure of tax money. The more the public believes the Democrats can be trusted with the national security of America, to protect and defend the country against terror and weapons of mass destruction, the more free they are emotionally to think about the other issues. "

"Now what we should say is that they, not we, have brought class warfare back to America. You know, every time I complain about these tax cuts some conservative says I'm practicing class warfare. I am not. I pay these taxes. And I live in New York state and Westchester County, so I think I probably pay as high [of] rates as anybody in America. And I should. Nobody makes me live in this country. America has been good to me. And I think for somebody to give me a tax cut and then turn around and say, 'We've gotta have $87 billion spent in Iraq, but we're gonna kick 300,000 kids out of after-school programs, 84,000 kids out of student loans ... 25,000 uniformed police off the street? We're gonna kick a coupla thousand police off the street in New York City who put their lives on the line on September the 11th, and they're gonna give me a tax cut?' That's class warfare! And I think we ought to say that! "

MT: How vulnerable is this administration? What are the main targets of opportunity?
BC: Well, I think the economy is a target of opportunity. I think the fact that most of the world doesn't trust us anymore is a target of opportunity. I think the assault on the environment is a target of opportunity. I think giving me a tax cut and then [trying to take] overtime away from 8 million workers is a target of opportunity. ... We're gonna spend $87 billion in Iraq. We're gonna give the 400 wealthiest Americans an average tax cut of $8-and-a-half million. $8-and-a-half million! And that's just a start. And they tried to get rid of the children's health-insurance program. That's 5 million kids' health insurance.
Man, if we can't sell that, we ought to get in another line of work! Either that or I don't live in the country I think I live in.

MT: Is part of the problem that when Bush says, "It's your money, you deserve it back," that that's so emotionally compelling --
BC: It is.

MT: What is a good emotional counterargument to that? I believe that Democrats should be willing to make a more direct case for government than they make.
BC: Oh, I do, too. I think we should say, "It is your money. And the government should only take your money to do those things which you need done collectively, which we have to do as a community -- "

MT: Which neither the private sector nor the states --
BC: Yes, which the private sector won't do in the economy, and which charity can't do. And those things are plainly national security, basic infrastructure, law enforcement, environmental protection, education and health care for the elderly, for poor children, the disabled and others for whom it is inaccessible. Just to start there. And we have a government, and we raise taxes because we think that we rise or fall together, and we want to live in a country where everybody has a chance to live their dreams.
And so, to say that it's your money does not answer any question. That's a demagogic statement that every Democrat could say as well as every Republican. Of course it's their money! It's all their money. But the question is, who's doing what with the money? They made a decision to give me a tax cut with the money and kick 300,000 kids out of after-school programs. I haven't met a single person in my income group, Republican or Democrat, who believes that we should get the check and the kids should get the boot. Not one! And I ask a bunch of them. So I think we ought to say, "It's your money, and it's your country. What kind of country do you want?"

:: Jim Nichols 11/02/2003 10:18:00 AM [+] ::
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