24 Apr 98: The Senate passed a bill that will allow parents to set aside $2000.00 tax free per year to be spent on education of children. These savings could be spent on everything from home computers to private schools. The bill would also eliminate twenty federal education programs and send the savings in block grants to the states. President Clinton says that he will veto the bill. Senator Slade Gorton (R. - WA), author of the bill, said, "Perhaps the most difficult conclusion for any of us here is that maybe we don't know as much as do people at home about the immediate problems and challenges they face in a wide range of areas - in this case, education." Senator Gorton is, indeed, correct. People at home know much better where the problems are and where application of funds will do most good. It is presumptuous and arrogant for the President to believe that he and the administrative bureaucrats in Washington know better than the teachers, educators and principals on scene how to educate our children. 35 years of encroachment by the federal government has degraded public schools to a scandalous level. The only answer is to return control of education to the local level. Congress should have gone further and eliminated the department of education altogether.
23 Apr 98: A constitutional amendment to limit taxes except in time of declared war has failed in the House of Representatives for the third year in a row. The house voted 238-186 for the bill. Unfortunately, a two-thirds majority is necessary to pass the amendment along to the states. Most of the opposition to the amendment came from Democrats who claimed that it would limit the governments ability to close corporate tax loopholes and reduce the federal spending deficit. Representative Joe Barton, R- Texas, the bill's main sponsor, disagreed. He said that the proposal would be an important control on Congress' ability to raise taxes. Unlike the Democrats he understands that the easier it is for the government to tax the more they will tax - and the more money they have, the more money they will spend and the more they will want to tax. It is a vicious cycle that drains money away from the productive sectors of society. It drains money from individuals, who would spend money in a positive discretionary manner. Taxes drain money from businesses who use the money to create productive jobs. The wealth of a nation has nothing to do with the amount of money passing through the federal treasury, but everything to do with the products and services created by the private sector in response to the needs of individuals.
22 Apr 98: Happy Earth Day! - In Issaquah, Washington, Earth First! - the extremist environmental group - is protesting sales of two stands of timber on Tiger Mountain. The group plans to have as many as 15 protesters at the Natural Resources regional office in Enumclaw to demonstrate against the sale. Earth First! Objects to any sale of trees on public land. The group contends that there is more than enough timber on private lands to meet the demand for wood. Earth first is also whining because the sale is taking place on Earth Day. However, as exhibited by the small expected turnout of protesters, there is not much support for the Earth First! position. Ken Konigsmark, vice president of the Issaquah Alps Trail Club, who works for the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust, injected some common sense into the issue, "It's incumbent on Earth First! and the rest of the public to understand that the only reason there is a public forest up there (on Tiger Mountain) is because it produces revenue." Indeed, the states Department of Natural Resources manages 2.1 million acres of forest. Money from the sale of timber goes to public schools, state colleges and universities, charitable institutions and prisons. Mr. Konigsmark, who considers himself an environmentalist, points out that the state has acted responsibly in shepherding its timber resources. Less than one percent of the state owned timber on Tiger Mountain is harvested annually. The method of logging also leaves large trees in the area. Harvests allow more light to reach the undergrowth, turning it into a prime feeding territory for wildlife such as elk and deer. The state has not allowed clear cutting on state property for nearly two decades. It would seem that the State and the Timber companies are taking good care of the forests and the land, making the best possible use of a vital natural resource and spending the proceeds on good causes - Schools and Jobs. The Earth First! claims and aims are extremist and would destroy jobs in the area - reduce funding for our children in schools - and deny the responsible use of timber resources that would not exist if not for the revenue they produce for the state.
21 Apr 98: Donna Shalala, Clinton's Secretary of Health and Human Services, announced that although needle exchange programs will "decrease the transmission of HIV and save lives without losing ground in the battle against illegal drugs" the Federal Government will not fund needle exchange programs. The administration will leave those programs to the states or localities. The administration is no doubt merely bowing to public pressure on this issue, yet it is making the right decision. Needle exchange programs very likely do reduce the chances of addicts contracting AIDS. However, needle exchange programs also support drug users in their habits and make drug use socially acceptable, which does not encourage drug users to clean up their act. A better program for AIDS prevention would be a vigorous law enforcement campaign that would vastly reduce drug deals, drug use and the dangers consequent to those activities.
20 Apr 98: Democrats and Republicans are climbing on board the private investment bandwagon idea to save Social Security. Senators Moynihan (D- N.Y.) and Kerry (D - Neb.) both support a plan that would allow two percent of payroll taxes to be invested. Phil Gramm (R - Tex) wants that amount to be three percent. Although the percent of investment is not significant, what is significant is that both liberals and conservatives seem to agree on a viable free-market solution to an ugly problem that has resulted from a failed experiment with socialism.
The Khmer Rouge, the Cambodian group responsible for the deaths of 2 to 3 million Cambodians during the the 70's and 80's, is looking to reform their image and wants to be allowed to participate in Cambodian politics. It seems incongruous that a criminal organization that perpetrated the destruction of an entire society should even be allowed to exist. To this day, the Nazi party is outlawed in Germany. The infamous Khmer Rouge should be banned and its criminal leaders brought to trial by Cambodian authorities for crimes against humanity. The death of Pol Pot, the ex-leader of the Khmer Rouge and the rise of an equally brutal leader Ta Mok - known as the butcher - should be used as an opportunity to eradicate this cancerous scourge once and for all.
