From: athos@apple.com (Rick Eames)
Newsgroups: ba.politics
Subject: Re: Run conservatives, run away! (Was: Re: Homophobics can't...)
Date: 26 Aug 92 16:43:25 GMT
Followup-To: ba.politics
Distribution: ba
Organization: Apple Computer, Inc.

In article <17ek7qINN239@agate.berkeley.edu>, jbuck@forney.berkeley.edu
(Joe Buck) wrote:

> >Well, you're assuming that the government SHOULD do something about
> >recessions.  Maybe we should just let the seasons of the economy take their
> >natural shape without gov't sticking its hand into it.  I am one who thinks
> >along these lines.
> 
> This is basically the line of thinking that the Republican party used up
> into the 50s.  But Ronald Reagan's most effective line during his campaign
> was "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?".  That is, his
> whole campaign was based on the idea that it was the responsibility of the
> President to have the economy work.  Bush can't run away from this one now.

Sure he can.  Remember, he's the one who called it "Voodoo Economics."
 
> >> Nope, great leaders manage to get people to do what they want them
> >> to do.  I repeat, Ronald Reagan also had to deal with a hostile 
> >> Congress and yet he was able to get most of his economic package
> >> through the Congress.  Bush hasn't been able to ...
> 
> >* Reagan had a Republican Senate for a while there.
> 
> This makes no difference.  One house is every bit as good at blocking
> legislation as two are; no bill can become law without the House passing
> it.

It does if the congress wants to pass legislation that THEY want too.
  
> >Well, when you have to have a balanced budget, when you believe that tax
> >increases are "bad" in a state that has high taxes already, when you
> >believe that deferring debt is just a tax on the future and when you
> >believe that education is not an untouchable thing, you HAVE to do what
> >Wilson has done.
> 
> Wilson's proposals do plenty of "taxes on the future" -- for example, now
> a child is eligible for kindergarten if he or she turns 5 years old by Dec
> 1 of the year.  Wilson's going to save money by changing the date to Sep
> 1, which will mean a huge kindergarten class the year after the change
> (the 110,000 kids who wait would all go in next year).  Many of his other
> proposals are similar.  You've read too much Republican propaganda.

I'll agree with you on the kindergarten stuff.
 
> >  He cut a deal last time, and it hurt the state.  If the
> >Democrats wanted a budget they'd have voted on it already.
> 
> The Democrats (much as I dislike Willie Brown) aren't the villians in this
> battle.  They've repeatedly come up with budget proposals and passed them.
> They don't have enough votes to override the veto.  Wilson has no moral
> right to blackmail the state to get exactly his proposal, without a single
> adjustment.  He's not a dictator; the legislature is a co-equal branch of
> government. 

Ha!  This from YOU?  It's HIS ass on the line, not theirs! People are so
IGNORANT that they will put most, if not all, of the blame for economic
downturns on the executive branch.  Maybe Wilson will treat them as an
equal branch of government when the people do.  The people do NOT hold the
congress responsible for "bad."  You know that, and I know that.  Hell, I
could walk through the building here at Apple, and I'd be lucky to find 20%
of the people here who could name their state representative/senator.
 
--
Rick Eames
athos@apple.com
My opinions are my own, thank you very much!