President Bush continues to fight for his disastrous tax plan, which calls for more tax cuts for the wealthy, 220,000 of them, to be precise, which will increase the already record levels of deficit spending and will enlarge the federal debt far past his own presidency. This tax cut would instantly require a record $984 billion increase in the national debt to a whopping $7.384 trillion, with annual deficits running at over $400 billion.

Assuming jobs will be created, Republicans have still failed to answer several compelling questions about these alleged new jobs. In what sector will these jobs appear? How much will they pay?

Also, every report coming from Washington declares that homeland security has not significantly improved in the wake of Sept. 11. The CIA released a 27-page report last fall stating that no U.S. agency was adequately addressing terrorism threats. Both the Bush administration and Congress have admitted their financial commitment to homeland security has thus far been seriously lacking.

In New York City, Mayor Bloomberg is reluctantly threatening to eliminate 10,000 city jobs to deal with his looming budget crisis. Fire houses are being closed, state and city police are being laid off, schools and parks are being closed, college scholarships are being erased, and, as Timothy Egan wrote in the New York Times, states are being forced to withdraw health care for the poor and mentally ill.

Why isn’t a modernized version of FDR’s Works Progress Administration being implemented to address these pressing needs, some of which involve apparent Bush focal points such as national security? Wouldn’t this also create jobs that a baffling tax cut plan won’t?

If the economy is in such dire shape that such spending reductions of basic needs are so necessary, why did the United States just spend $78 billion for the military action in Iraq, which ostensibly was undertaken to help ensure U.S. national security? How does short-changing the Homeland Security Department and ignoring the issue of port security at home while spending $78 billion to depose Saddam help ensure our safety?

Of course, proposing a modern-day Works Progress Administration flies in the face of Bush’s doctrine, which demands shrinkage of government, the military industrial complex excepted.

Instead, offer a huge tax cut that will benefit a wealthy few.

And convert Medicare to a private program that should be run by the medical and pharmaceutical industries. Though members of the program will be able to choose their insurance company, this new program will do absolutely nothing to cut costs or curb the sky-high prices of prescription drugs.

But while we’re at it, privatize Social Security. Never mind that this will remove the protection of government-managed benefits and give control to stockbrokers, which in the midst of this bleak market and in the wake of Enron, Tyco etc., should send a shiver down our collective spine.

When does Bush begin to take responsibility, not only for domestic security, but for the economic disaster he is proposing? More importantly, when do we hold him accountable?

Tim Davis

Alumnus