[Dialogue] Could Lunacy Explain Bush's Policies?

[Harry Wainwright]

Published on Tuesday, May 16, 2006 by TruthDig <http://www.truthdig.com>  

Could Lunacy Explain Bush's Policies? 

by Molly Ivins 

I hate to raise such an ugly possibility, but have you considered lunacy as
an explanation? Craziness would make a certain amount of sense. I mean, you
announce you are going to militarize the Mexican border, but you assure the
president of Mexico you are not militarizing the border. You announce you
are sending the National Guard, but then you assure everyone it's not very
many soldiers and just for a little while. 

Militarizing the border is a totally terrible idea. Do we have a State
Department? Are they sentient? How much do you want to infuriate Mexico when
it's sitting on quite a bit of oil? Bush knows what the most likely outcome
of this move will be. He was governor during the political firestorm that
ensued when a Marine taking part in anti-drug patrols on the border shot and
killed Esequiel Hernandez, an innocent goat herder from Redford, Texas.
That's the definition of crazy-repeatedly doing the same thing and expecting
a different result. 

I suppose politics could explain it, too. It's quite possible that lunacy
and politics are closely related. It's still damned hard cheese for the
Guard, though. The Guard is heavily deployed in Iraq, currently 20% of those
serving, down from 40% last year. Some soldiers are sent back for multiple
tours. Lt. Gen. James Helmly, head of the Army Reserve, said the Reserve is
rapidly degenerating into "a broken force" and is "in grave danger of being
unable to meet other operational requirements." Happy hurricane season to
you, too. The Guard is also short on equipment and falling short on
recruiting goals. 

But right-wingers are very unhappy with Bush right now, and this is a
strong, red-meat gesture that will make them happy, even if it does nothing
to shut down the border. You want to shut down illegal immigration? You want
to use the military as police? Make it illegal to hire undocumented workers
and put the National Guard into enforcing that. Then rewrite NAFTA and
invest in Mexico. 

Meanwhile, further proof that the entire party is cuckoo comes to us with
the passage of another big ($70-billion) tax cut for the rich. The Center on
Budget and Policy Priorities says the average middle-income household will
get a $20 tax cut, while those making more than $1 million a year will get
nearly $42,000. 

The Washington Post editorialized, "Budgetary dishonesty, distributional
unfairness, fiscal irresponsibility-by now the words are so familiar, it can
be hard to appreciate how damaging this fiscal course will be." 

Both President Bush and Veep Cheney are still going around claiming if you
cut taxes, your tax revenues increase. No, they don't. Now we're just in
whackoville. It's not true. Their own economists tell them it's not true,
but they go about claiming it is with the same desperate tenacity with which
they clung to false tales of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. How
pathetic. 

Speaking of lunacy, the saddest report from Iraq is that American soldiers
showing signs of psychological distress and depression are being kept on
active duty, increasing the risk of suicide. The Hartford Courant reports
that even soldiers who have already been diagnosed with post-traumatic
stress syndrome are kept on duty. This has led to an increase in the suicide
rate-22 soldiers in 2005. And as I have reported before, the military is
unprepared to deal with the flood of head cases coming back from Iraq. How
many ways can we mistreat our own soldiers, while the right makes an
elaborate show of devotion to "the troops"? 

The consistent pattern that runs through all these problems is the failure
to distinguish fantasy from reality. Mexican immigrants keep crossing the
border because they can get jobs here-and most of those jobs are provided by
companies whose CEOs support George W. Bush. That's where he can have an
impact on the problem, should he choose to do so. 

The $70-billion tax cut is part of a continuing right-wing fantasy going
back to the Laffer curve. Of course, clinging to demonstrably false economic
precepts is understandable when you benefit from them, but at some point
reality does intervene. 

As for the Iraq fantasy and those who pushed it on a reluctant country
through lies, disinformation and bending intelligence-isn't there a law
against that? 

To find out more about Molly Ivins and see works by other Creators Syndicate
writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at
www.creators.com. 

C 2006 TruthDig.com, LLC 

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