November 8, 2001

"Leaning Left "

Partisanship Rears Its Ugly Head

by James Hall

That "new tone in Washington" that President Bush promised to bring about is starting to sound like the same old discordant song, despite an urgent need for unity these days. Aviation security and an economic stimulus package, two important elements of a post-September 11 recovery, have been held up by partisan wrangling, principally by the ideologically minded Republican House leadership. And President Bush, who promised a new era of bipartisanship, appears unwilling to take on the ideologues in his party's House leadership, which threatens to destroy our nation's unity, replacing it with Politics-As-Usual.

Aviation security was the first victim of narrow partisanship. In response to the poor performance of private security companies like Argenbright (who continued this week to fail miserably in properly screening out weapons on domestic flights), the Senate passed a bipartisan (100-0) bill putting airport security under the Justice Department and state and local law enforcement agencies instead of private security companies, most of them foreign-owned corporations like Argenbright. The House leadership responded--urged by security corporation lobbyists--by declaring the important issue to be the creation of unionized federal employees, not the safety of the American flying public.

Now aviation security languishes in a House/Senate conference committee, and Americans remain at risk in the not-so-friendly skies. President Bush, who could have easily weighed in on the side of the bipartisan Senate bill, chose to support the House leadership and spend political capital persuading moderate Republicans to stay with their leadership. The end result was a close 218-216 vote against the Senate version and a House of Representatives split apart with heightened partisan tensions.

A disagreement over an economic stimulus package is the another source of increased partisanship. The House Republican leadership threw down the gauntlet early by blocking Democratic suggestions and passing a $100 billion package of business tax cuts and accelerating tax cuts for the top income tax bracket, giving 84% of the tax breaks to businesses and the wealthiest Americans.

In the Senate a struggle is beginning between Democrats who want to stimulate the economy with more public works, include tax cuts for businesses, and provide benefits for laid off employees. Senate Republicans are calling this package "partisan" - which is true, but no less true than Republican efforts in the House. And Democrats have at least shown a willingness to go along with the President's request for business tax cuts, while Republicans have shown no interest in a reasonable compromise on employment issues important to Democrats.

The Bush administration says that it's trying to steer a middle course in this fight, but it's fooling no one. The president's economic spokesmen have roundly criticized Senator Byrd's plan to spend $20 billion in infrastructure upgrades to combat terrorism around the country, while saying nothing about the extra $35 billion in tax cuts for business that House Republicans put in their bill over and above what the President asked for. It appears that spending more than the president asked for is okay only if it is in the form of additional tax cuts.

If the President wants to wear the mantle of bipartisanship, he will have to act bipartisan and not just talk bipartisan. That will mean negotiating and accepting compromise solutions to important national goals like aviation security and an economic stimulus package. At some point, the President will have to muzzle the Republicans' ideological leadership in the House or let it lead him back to the good old days of Politics As Usual. And that will do him and the country very little good. ***

© 2001 James Hall