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The Rice Thresher
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Michael Nalepa Thresher opinion editor Bill Clinton sure has been doing some interesting things the past few weeks. Since inauguration day, it seems like the ex-president's actions have received non-stop coverage in the nation's newspapers, news broadcasts and talk shows. From his questionable last-minute pardons to his poor selection of office space to the unavoidable fact that he has some really stupid relatives who like to take bribes, Clinton has been in the media spotlight so much that it hardly feels like he's left office. But he has. And it's time for the media to quit chasing Bill, and see what George is up to. Our new president, George W. Bush, is probably pretty happy with all of the attention that Clinton has been getting. The New York Times recently ran an article that went so far as to credit Clinton's blunders with Bush's apparently successful first weeks in office. In the days since Jan. 21, Bush has done several major things that have almost been footnotes in the nightly news and on the front pages. The first red flag was the Ashcroft nomination. Now, Bush is president, and it's his prerogative to nominate whoever he wants to his cabinet. His nominees were overwhelmingly safe - and smart - bets, and most of them waltzed through confirmation hearings. Ashcroft was different. The senate was split almost in half, straight down party lines, over the decision. Every Republican and a handful of Democrats voted for him, and a group of 42 Democrats voted against him. This is not exactly a glittering example of Bush reaching across party lines. Bush's next questionable action was even more severe. He created an office for faith-based organizations, and also said that these groups would be allowed to compete with other non-profit groups for federal funds. This should have set off lots of warning bells. First off, religious organizations can already receive federal funds. All they have to do is become a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. If religious organizations can't go through the trouble of obtaining 501(c)(3) status - ensuring that the money they apply for will benefit people beyond their membership and that they will behave like the organizations that they are competing with for federal funding - then they do not deserve government money. Plus, there is always a chance that any support these organizations receive from the government could go directly toward funding the religious organization instead of a program. And this kind of federal support for religion erases any remaining separation between church and state. Another scary Bush idea is his tax cut, which seems to be trickle-down economics with a new name. Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-South Dakota) told CNN that 43 percent of the benefits of the tax cuts would go to the wealthiest one percent of Americans. Solving economic problems by dumping tax cuts on the rich didn't work in the '80s, and it probably isn't going to work now. Why not try something different? Why not try to stimulate the economy by giving incentives to working-class Americans who comprise the majority of our population and are responsible for the bulk of America's productivity? It's a crazy idea, I know, but no crazier than the current plan. Maybe a tax cut isn't the way to go anyway. Besides, we do still have the national debt to worry about, not to mention social security. Bush said that he will tackle these problems in addition to giving us a big tax cut. And he's also going to give more money to the military. And he's going to channel more funds into education. But somehow, this doesn't all quite add up. Maybe I'm being a little hard on Bush. But we probably won't really know how our new president is performing until our old president is completely off the stage and Bush is in the media spotlight all by himself. Michael Nalepa is a Thresher opinion editor
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