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The Need for New Solutions
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19834 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
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5 / 1991 |
2,979 Words |
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Thomas P. O'Brien and Steven M. Friedman
Thomas P. O'Brien and Steven M. Friedman work with Horizon
Institute for Policy Solutions, a Charlottesville, Virginia,
research foundation dealing with contemporary economic,
environmental, and social problems. |
President Bush's domestic policy agenda provides no dramatic new shifts in policy and does not provide comprehensive solutions to our biggest problems. The president's budget settles for small changes at the margin, many of which may be good, but we need sweeping changes to fix the things wrong with Washington policy. (Bush is, however, advocating much-needed reform of interstate banking and federal deposit insurance.)
It is the president's duty to take final responsibility for the government. While the president has tried to blame Congress, every recent budget bears his signature. Bush should demand change in Washington rather than let Congress go home; he should present a clean budget and refuse to sign until pork-barrel wastes are totally removed. His domestic agenda this year does not provide the clean sweep necessary to take government away from special interests.
Solutions do not necessarily require new money or new taxes. Many solutions, though, require the administration to get tough on special interest groups, to provide the leadership that everyone, right and left, agrees has been dramatically lacking in Washington recently. Many of the required solutions involve stopping federal government giveaways to these special interests that (if they were paying their fair share of the tax burden) would actually allow lowering taxes on individuals.
This article proposes changes in some of the major areas of domestic policy, including
·tax reform ·health care ·helping the poor ·crime ·education ·the environment ·farm supports
Tax Reform
Income taxes and property taxes are way too high; gas and energy taxes are way too low. Our per capita energy use is between two and three times as Japan's. This causes huge amounts of extra pollution, funds OPEC's whims, swells our trade deficit, and funnels dollars out of the United States. Raising taxes on fossil fuels (mainly coal, oil, and gasoline) and lowering income or other taxes would end energy waste. Unsustainable fossil fuels would be replaced by clean fuels and greater conservation. Solar and wind power, for example, are pollution free and limitless resources. We can save more through conservation and greater efficiency than through Bush's proposal for new nuclear plants and drilling in fragile natural
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