Pinkerton/NEWSDAY on Kerry--"will continue to buzz with honey-suckers"

[Gloria]

http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vppin3646420jan29,0,6009723.column

Will Kerry Spread the Wealth - Elsewhere?

January 29, 2004


(snip)

The point here isn't that Kerry is bad because he's rich - and that he married richer. Nor is it that he's a hypocrite, posing as a populist, when he is, in fact, a plutocrat.

No, the real point is that Kerry's rhetoric conceals more than it reveals. He says, for instance, that he wants to end Bush's "economy of privilege." Now just what does that mean? Kerry's answer is that he wants to repeal Bush's tax cuts for those making over $200,000 a year. The firemen I was with loved that line, too.

Kerry might actually get elected on the basis of such verbiage. But one might recall that Bill Clinton was elected on exactly the same sort of promises in 1992, and yet the '90s were a continuation of the '80s - a time when the rich got richer, when no DC special interest missed an expense-account meal.

Indeed, the biggest special interest in the United States today is the federal government itself. Uncle Sam will spend some $2.27 trillion this year. With that much money in play, just about every interest group in America finds it worthwhile to hire a Washington lobbyist. Will Kerry shrink that federal honey supply? Of course he won't. And so the Beltway will continue to buzz with honey-suckers.

The truest statement about Kerry's view of "privilege" is that he wants less of it for people he doesn't like, and more of it for those he does like. That is, oil companies will pay more taxes - maybe - while public employee unions might get a bigger appropriation here and there. In other words, in a Kerry administration, certain interests will get the boot, but others will get the welcome mat.

Of course, on Tuesday night, amidst all his audience-basking and populist applause-milking, Kerry didn't get into any of those details. But if he wins the White House, and not much changes, those psyched-up firefighters are going to be in for a for a letdown.

James P. Pinkerton's e-mail address is [e-mail].

Email: [e-mail]

Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc.

[lancdem]

1. The '90s were not a continuation of the '80s

The rich got richer in the '90s, but the middle class did pretty well, too. And the deficits in the '80s became surpluses in the '90s.

[blm]

2. Gee, less money and taxbreaks for oil industry and more money for

firefighters and service employees and healthcare for those who need it and environmental projects and alternative energy research.

Gee...what a choice,

[KC21304]

3. My feeling is we may be able to get a little bitty idea

from his Senate record. If he is considered more liberal than Ted Kennedy, he may have cast more than a few votes we on the left should be pleased about. Then maybe not.

[bushwakker]

4. Do you often look to former Bush speechwriters

for guidance? They are scared of Kerry - and they should be.