Perspective Give debate -- not money -- back to the
people
By PAMELA SCHAEFFER
Here in Missouri, August is the time
for state and county fairs. But whatever those nightly stages might offer, the
best grandstanding around has been miles away in Washington. It was too hot to
go to the fair anyway. Especially when the most dramatic acts were as close as
the television screen.
A projected $5.9 trillion surplus in the federal coffers over the
next 15 years is creating an election-time bonanza, setting politicians and
their eager staffs to spinning, along with our poor heads. Can anyone, except
maybe Bill Gates, bend a mind around a figure so big? What fodder for
spectacles and sideshows with so many votes in the balance next year.
As NCR went to press, conservative Republicans forged a
House-Senate compromise calling for $792 billion in tax cuts over the next
decade. A confrontation with the White House is expected to come after Labor
Day. Lets hope Clinton delivers on his promise of a veto.
So far, the impoverished debate has consisted largely of demands
from ideology-driven Republicans that the money go back to taxpayers, and
proposals from Democrats that it be used to reduce the national debt. Clinton,
his ear ever to the ground, wants to shore up Social Security and Medicare and
boost the welfare-to-work program with training, transportation and child care.
Worthwhile causes, to be sure -- but too narrow to do justice to the
possibilities we face.
The show in Congress has been hard to ignore, playing as it does
on our greed, our forgotten generosity and our sense of responsibility -- if we
could only figure out to what conclusion that might lead. Imagine if the
attention and energy we as a press and a nation focused on Clintons sex
scandals, or on the deaths of Princess Diana and John F. Kennedy Jr., were now
devoted to exploring ways to promote the common good.
With staggering federal deficits behind us (deficits largely
caused by President Reagans combination of tax cuts and massive defense
spending), a projected surplus affords opportunity and leisure to reflect on
our values as a society. What should be given back to the people is not the
money, but the debate. Good leaders would lead the discussion less with fiscal
ideology and political string-pulling and more with vision and an appeal to the
long-term good of the country. That has less to do with what is in our pockets
and more to do with what is in our hearts and minds.
In late July, political columnist E.J. Dionne offered a hopeful
report. The national mood, he said, is shifting away from materialism. Polls
are showing, he said, that Americans want public goods (education, child
care and health care especially) at least as much as they want the private
goods.
With that in mind, here are some proposed issues we might explore
together:
Education. School enrollment is expected to surge to 54.3
million in 2008, greatly exacerbating teacher shortages. Can we reinvent our
schools to improve quality and safety, and assure, through better pay and other
measures, that qualified teachers will enter the field and stay? Can we narrow
the gap in student achievement that parallels (and sustains) the economic gap
between rich and poor?
Societys have-nots. The economy may be booming, but
its benefits, like cream (and a disproportionate amount of proposed tax cuts)
rise to the top. Whatever the statistical successes of welfare-to-work
programs, we hear far less of late about the still-with-us extreme poor.
Although welfare rolls had dropped by 48 percent by last March, the average
annual earnings of welfare-to-work families were less than $14,000, roughly the
poverty line for a family of three.
Further, the number of families who would have to double their
incomes just to get even with the poverty line grew after welfare reform, from
13.9 million in 1995 to 14.5 million in 1997. Beyond that, children of
low-income working mothers need caring, well-trained adults to assure that they
get a good start in life. Are we as interested in assessing and alleviating
unmet needs as we are in patting ourselves on the back about declining welfare
rolls?
Health care. The debate over HMOs and patients rights
often omits a relevant piece of data: that some 44 million Americans lack the
capacity to become a patient at all. Are we satisfied with spending 14 percent
of our national income on health care while other developed countries manage to
insure everyone on an average of 8 percent of their national incomes?
Nursing home costs. The price tag for one person exceeds
$30,000 a year. The cost presents no barrier for the rich nor for those
eligible for Medicaid, but for many in the middle, President Clintons
$1,000 tax credit is almost a joke.
Public transportation and urban development. The
possibilities are limitless.
As for tax cuts for business, if any survive the legislative
impasse, what about limiting them to those companies that maintain reasonable
proportions in earnings between top management and other employees, including
the lowest paid.
With the presidents veto, or without it, may our
soul-searching begin.
Pamela Schaeffer is NCR special projects editor.
National Catholic Reporter, August 13,
1999
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