On the offensive

After nearly four months of providing steady, inspiring leadership to a nation in need, President Bush’s “over my dead body” remark last weekend regarding Democratic plans for tax increases was regrettable for at least three reasons. It was, though certainly unintentionally, a shockingly insensitive cliche to use in time of terrorist attacks, war and real dead bodies. It echoes the politically fatal “read my lips” pledge of his father. Democrats have no plans to raise taxes.

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle likewise began the new year with a blunder. Not content merely to assert that the president’s tax cuts of last summer were largely responsible for recession and the return of deficit spending, Sen. Daschle proclaimed that Mr. Bush and the Republicans caused the “most dramatic fiscal deterioration in our nation’s history.” No mention of the role of anti-terrorism and wartime spending on the federal budget. Or of that other noteworthy fiscal deterioration, the Great Depression. Or of the culpability of the 12 Senate Democrats who voted for the tax cuts.

It is hardly surprising that the bipartisan unity created on Sept. 11 would begin to fray. Partisanship is not necessarily a bad thing and the terrorist attacks did not eliminate the genuine differences of opinion on such matters as health care, the environment and other domestic issues. It was inevitable that the truce would end at the beginning of an election year, but both leaders do the nation a disservice by going on the offensive in such needlessly offensive ways.

They would do well to remember that this recession began, according to the well-established guidelines used by economists, a good six months before the terrorist attacks and that the attacks aggravated and accelerated the downturn by adding fear, shock and grief to the usual financial and psychological factors of recession. These remain extraordinary times and the need for extraordinary leaders is as great as ever.

This squabble began as a legitimate difference of opinion on the best way to stimulate the economy, essentially on what would be the best mix of tax cuts. Although Congress’ pre-Christmas impasse killed any chance of an immediate boost that would at least slow the galloping layoffs and aid the newly unemployed, a boost as soon as possible should remain the goal. Reaching it requires the two parties to agree – or reaffirm their post-Sept. 11 agreement – to concentrate on the short term.

Lost in the fog produced by the president and the Senate leader was a report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office rating the Republican and Democratic proposals on the immediate benefits. The best proposal to jolt the economy now, says the CBO, comes from a Republican, though not the president – the payroll tax holiday suggested by New Mexico Sen. Pete Domenici. Next in effectiveness short-term are two proposals in the president’s plan and already backed by Democrats – tax rebates for people who did not qualify for last year’s rebates and faster write-offs of business investments. The presidential proposals running into the strongest opposition – accelerating planned cuts in income tax rates and repealing the corporate minimum tax – were considered by the CBO to offer no immediate bang for the buck.

In other words, this stalemate could be broken if the president and the senator would simply refocus on short-term economic stimuli. The resulting three-point plan would be entirely of Republican origins, with the White House and Senate Democrats getting to claim credit for two. Nothing offensive about that.