President George W. Bush
1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Washington, DC
Dear Mr. President:
With your permission, I’d like to test out a hypothesis. My theory is that, back in the days of your wild youth, back before Jesus became your favorite philosopher, you must have been a huge Led Zeppelin fan. The lyrics of their classic heavy metal music must have spoken to your soul on such a deep level that they would continue to affect you for years to come.
Let’s face it, no one outside of your ever-shrinking circle of supporters can look at your actions of the last eight years and not think Dazed and Confused. Hurricane Katrina? It must take you back to When the Levee Breaks. Kashmir might have planted a seed that led to your interest in the Middle East. And your policies concerning the death penalty, elective war, torture and relaxed workplace safety standards surely mean you’ve done more than anyone currently alive to send people on the Stairway to Heaven.
But, more than any other Led Zep song, the one that must have affected you the most was The Song Remains The Same. Here you are talking about the economy in 2004:
"Sure there will be costs, but the cost of doing nothing will be greater. It's a difficult issue, otherwise it would have been done."
Turning from the general issue of economic reform to the more specific issue of
Social Security reform, you also said this in 2004:
"We'll start on Social Security now. We'll start bringing together those in Congress who agree with my assessment that we need to work together. ... [T]here are going to be costs. But the cost of doing nothing is ... much greater than the cost of reforming the system today."
A good turn of phrase must be one of the few areas where the theory of trickle-down actually works. The ever-unpleasant Michelle Malkin emerged from the right-wing echo chamber in February of this year to offer this view of entitlement reform:
"The cost of doing nothing about exploding federal entitlements? A Republican-sponsored $3.1 trillion with a "T" budget and bogus claims of balance by 2012. Earmark reform and pork-barrel spending cuts are all well and good. But they’re a drop in the bucket."
A month later, administration apologist Tony Fratto invoked the phrase again in a strident denunciation of The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict, Joseph Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilmes' critique of the U.S. war in Iraq.
"People like Joe Stiglitz lack the courage to consider the cost of doing nothing and the cost of failure. One can't even begin to put a price tag on the cost to this nation of the attacks of 9/11. It is also an investment in the future safety and security of Americans and our vital national interests. $3 trillion? What price does Joe Stiglitz put on attacks on the homeland that have already been prevented? Or doesn't his slide rule work that way?"
The phrase we came full circle Saturday, Mr. President, when you began discussing the cost of the $700 billion financial institution bailout.
"This is a big package, because it was a big problem. I will tell our citizens and continue to remind them that the risk of doing nothing far outweighs the risk of the package, and that, over time, we’re going to get a lot of the money back,"
There are two disturbing points about this bailout. One is a new national debt ceiling in excess of $11 trillion. Another is the lack of restrictions on administration efforts to deal with the crisis. As Sunday’s New York Times reported, all that is required is semiannual reports to Congress.
Because your administration would never do anything to betray that kind of trust in them.
Mr. President, the American people will be choosing your successor in less than a month and a half. On the one hand, we have a septuagenarian Sunbelt senator and his sidekick, a lipstick-wearing pit bull of a hockey mom who couldn’t give a flying puck about her lack of preparation for the vice presidency.
On the other hand, we have an intellectually curious with time spent in the streets, in academia and in the legislature at the state and federal level.
When the American people cast their ballots, they need to take their cue from a British rock band that resonates with me, one that’s different from the one you evidently like so such. So we don’t get a new boss who’s the same as the old boss.
And we don’t get fooled again.