altara

Tuesday, October 07, 2003

CONTRADICTIONS

The Bush Administration is famous for saying one thing while doing another. Examples are fighting the estate tax on the very wealthy by calling it the "death tax", the Patriot Act, which curbs the rights of citizens, the "leave no child behind" effort, which fails to provide sufficient funds for education, and the outdoorsy photos that camaflage the attacks on the environment.

Recently, the administration has been advocating the privatization of air traffic controllers. Not so long ago, it forced the jobs of airport baggage checkers to be performed by federal employees. Thus, at roughly three times the cost of private operations, baggage checkers look at suitcases going through scanning machines. Under the new plan, we will have non-federal air controllers, probably at lower salaries, directing air traffic and preventing fatal airplane collisions.

In the Middle East, the Bush Administration strongly opposes a theocracy government for Iraq. But here in the United States, it strives to bring religion into our government. President Bush creates faith-based initiatives and supports government intrusion into medicine as Representative Tom DeLay praises the ban on "partial birth abortion" as evidence that the American people have embraced the "inclusive politics of life". Does anyone doubt that the Bush agenda would, if it could, have prayers in all schools, erect a 10 Commandments statue in the Supreme Court, and eliminate all procreation choices for women?

It may not be an example of contradiction, but such actions could well be expected from a group that claims that its tax cuts benefit the middle class and the economy, and bases a war on an "imminent threat" that it knew did not exist.