A List of Things to Fix After Bush's Fall

[Guest guest]

" Zepp " <zepp

Thu, 20 Oct 2005 08:21:15 -0700

[Zepps_News] #Molly: a list of things to fix after Putsch's fall

 

 

 

 

 

A List of Things to Fix After Bush's Fall

 

Molly Ivins, Creators Syndicate, October 18, 2005

 

http://www.creators.com/opinion_show.cfm?columnsName=miv

 

 

 

 

AUSTIN, Texas -- You can only sit around wringing your hands and moaning

about what a mess the Bushies have made of America for so long. Sooner

or later, even the gloomiest doom-meisters are bound to get beaned by an

acorn on the noggin, leading to the startling and productive thought,

" So, what could we do that would make things better ? " Quel concept, eh?

 

For those mired in loathing the Bush administration, the program would

start with a long, long list of things that need to be undone: repeal

the bankruptcy bill, repeal the tax breaks for the rich, and fix the

farm bill, the transportation bill, the energy bill, etc. Or you could

start with a list of gentle suggestions, such as:

 

-- Making a rude jerk with a bad temper ambassador to the United

Nations, probably not a good idea

 

-- Putting a veterinarian in charge of women's health policy, maybe not.

 

-- Making someone with a background in Arabian horses the

disaster-relief czar, possibly needs reconsideration.

 

-- Invading a Middle Eastern country with no provocation, a country that

posed no threat and had no connection to 9-11 ... hmmm, perhaps not a

shrewdie.

 

You can even do a sort of Golden Oldies list, such as:

 

-- How's about we start enforcing worker safety laws again?

 

-- What say we have a go at stopping big corporations from poisoning the

air and water just so they can make higher profits?

 

-- Say, how about helping people whose lives have been ripped to shreds

by natural disaster?

 

But that's still not stepping up to the plate to take a swing at the

always-relevant question, " What the hell do we do now? " Yes, we should

follow the First Rule of Holes and stop digging. True, we need to go

back to doing a lot of things we used to before George W. Bush " won "

that remarkable " election " in 2000. And we need to go back to NOT doing

a lot of things we didn't do before the 5-4 vote. But that still won't

get us out of the fix we're in now.

 

We need to step up and come up with solutions to the problems this man

has created.

 

-- We need a plan to get out of Iraq. I think Bob Herbert had a good

idea when he suggested: 1) A serious proposal for withdrawal of American

forces over a reasonable (reasonably short) period of time and 2) couple

that with a broader national security plan that focuses on Al-Qaida-type

terrorism and domestic security.

 

One of the many problems created by the invasion of Iraq is that it took

our eyes off fighting terrorism and dragged us into this endless

struggle between the Shiities, Sunnis and Kurds. We're supposed to be

fighting terrorism, and the single most useful tool for that purpose is

international cooperation. Which means there is a lot of rebuilding to

be done.

 

The go-it-alone, f***-everybody-else Bush foreign policy will require

long, hard, serious repair work. We need a beefed-up State Department

and a new emphasis on human rights, complete with an acknowledgement of

our errors in this regard. We also need beefed-up intelligence --

tracking terrorists and their money, and their plans, and their people

requires a combination of good intelligence work and good detective work.

 

That, in turn, requires a whole lot of smart Americans who are fluent in

Arabic -- needed at State, the CIA and the FBI, just for starters. Isn't

it lucky we have them, right here at hand? Of course, we will also need

some repair work done with the Arab-American community, since it has not

exactly been treated with the full rights to which every American

citizen is entitled. Perhaps we should start a Bureau of Damage Control.

 

Next, the economy is in need of repair. We're obviously spending

ourselves into deep doo-doo as fast as we can, and if ever there was a

time for the classic Democratic solution, this is it: Tax the Rich!

Democrats should swipe Poppy Bush's old slogan, " No New Taxes, " adding,

" Only old taxes back again. " Since Republicans decided they needed to

make Democrats look like cheapskates in the pork-barrel spending

department, there's lots of thrifty, prudent stuff Democrats can do to

fix that -- and think how surprised everyone will be to see them do it.

 

While we're at it, the last time the minimum wage was increased was

1997, and $5.15 an hour ain't what it used to be. Another big chunk of

what's wrong with the economy can be solved by fixing another major

problem at the same time: health care. In case you haven't noticed,

major employers and high-wage industries are increasingly choosing to

locate in Canada instead of the United States. And what have they got

that we haven't -- besides more snow and never getting excited? National

health insurance.

 

Yep, that ol' debbil " socialized medicine " against which the right wing

has so long and so relentlessly inveighed is now the darling pet of huge

corporations. Not only is it good for General Motors, folks, the rest of

us need it desperately, too. In case you haven't noticed, our health

care system is falling apart.

 

--This dandy list of Good Ideas on How to Fix Things will be continued.

 

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