Editorials
CONTENTS Volume CXX, Number 5 COMMONWEAL Correspondence 2 Editorials 3 Editor's...
...in mid-February the cenprogram will succeed unless the spiraling costs of entitlement tral school board voted 4-3 not to renew his conprograms such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are tract...
...And in my opinion it omy back into recession...
...So are Jack Kemp and Pat nature of the debate, and the state of public opinion...
...10038...
...Fernandez dismissed most observers frankly think Congress is incapable of enacting the objections of parents...
...taxed more...
...Health Poetry: Rosemary Deen Columnists: John Garvey, J. Bryan Hehir, costs will be contained, and the most affluent Social Security beneficiaries will be Abigail McCarthy, David R. Carlin, Jr...
...One suspects that more than anything else, this eagerness to take responsibility for the direction of domesSTAFF tic policy won for the new president the good will reflected in the 70 percent apEditor: Margaret O'Brien Steinfels proval ratings in the polls following the speech...
...Clinton's plan as a reawakening of faith in big government spend- Further trouble came this autumn with the Rainbow Curriculum ing programs that merely lay dormant during the Reagan era...
...by its unfair treatment again will judge the Democrats to be fiscally irresponsible...
...While the final THE WORST OF THE 'TIMES' shape of the package remains to be decided, it now appears SOME NEWS DOESN'T FIT that spending cuts will be voted on, at least tentatively, before the tax increases...
...And even little time gathering the news...
...Even if Clinton's proposal succeeds in bringing the the most surprised (and dismayed) of all...
...If we do not act now," Clinton warned, "we will not recognize this country ten years from now...
...Once again, Mr...
...prevention effort...
...Increasing taxes on the nation's wealthiest 2 percent is not To the surprise of many and the dismay of some, a great political risk...
...Military spending, sacroMedia: Frank McConnell sanct for the last decade, will now bear the brunt of federal spending cuts...
...Government, according to Clinton, must act...
...see editorial, January 15, 1993...
...There is dignity in all work, and there must be dignity for all workTelephone: (212) 732-0800...
...Even those sympathetic to the general tenor of Clinton's plan were made nervous AN EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK by the idea of "front loading" the tax hike and the $190 billion in stimulus and "public investment" spending while postponing the bulk of deficit reduction until 1997...
...indeed created remarkable wealth, surely the idea that all work should be rewarded Commonweal 12 March 1993: with dignity is something to which Americans at long last can try, the president has laid out a plausible plan and pointed the say Amen...
...report the news...
...First, he introduced a condom moment, even the Federal Reserve's conservative chairman Alan distribution program in the high schools as part of an AIDS Greenspan has endorsed this idea...
...coupling taxes with spending cuts, and on education, job train- Staunch supporters of Fernandez and his school reform proing, and cooperation between government and private indus- gram (as was I), they vastly underestimated the opposition to 4: 12 March 1993 Commonweal...
...But it remains a gamble...
...But the proof will be in the pudThat said, whether Clinton and his fellow Democrats in ding of deficit reduction, not in the appetizers of federal jobs Congress can build constructively on the good will generat- and social programs...
...Admittedly, there are prudent economic as well as political Though Fernandez's ouster may be a small footnote in the reasons for waiting before administering the harshest medicine...
...into law...
...informed" by the paper of record about the conflict itself, the Ross Perot is waiting in the wings...
...nation, that question is especially troubling...
...stimulus will strengthen growth so that a prospering economy High hopes for Fernandez's mandate to reform the schools can smoothly accommodate the subsequent tax burden...
...Display advertising ers....We will help reward work for millions of working poor Americans...
...and by its inabilbest way to avoid that fate, of course, is for Congress to pursue ity to stand back from its progay editorial position and simply even deeper spending cuts than Clinton proposed...
...Business Manager: Richard Haas After twelve years of lectures about the inexorable logic of the "market," it is Staff: Harriette Balsky, Carmen Alava, good to hear a president recognize the fact that economics is fundamentally about Pamela Quatse people, not prices or goods...
...history of the culture wars, it is likely to be a serious loss for A too ambitious deficit-reduction plan might throw the econ- the city's schools and school children...
...They were "unpathetic to the progressive social policies Clinton seeks to fund...
...New York, N.Y...
...10038...
...In his emphasis on and lesbians and to handing out condoms to thirteen-year-olds...
...But in raising taxes and increasing spend- New York City's Schools Chancellor Joseph ing, the Democrats do risk forgetting that no deficit reduction Fernandez is a goner...
...Democrats should be leery of a return to what might given a very partial if not highly distorted impression of the have worked in the past...
...For the first ran into trouble in 1990...
...the national debt will be almost 80 percent of our gross naSprings of Water in a Dry Land: tional product...
...That means the Democrat-controlled erosexual model and to include references to gays and lesbians Congress will have to impose "sacrifices" on constituents that throughout the curriculum...
...and monthly July and August, by Commonweal wage...
...And in this regard, it was heartening to Public Affairs, Religion, Literature, and the Arts, is hear a president passionately endorse every person's right to a job and to a living published biweekly except Christmas/New Year's...
...Because the Times is both the with a significant upturn in the economy, it is hard to imagine daily bulletin board and the cultural expression of a political how health-care costs will be managed over the long haul with- class that plays such a powerful role in both my city and the out further increases in taxes...
...Our new correspondence should be sent to Ruth E. Taylor, 1 t Graffam Rd., So...
...Whether this procedural change represents a substantive or merely symbolic shift in emphasis is the question...
...Then he refused to include a parental opt-out Neither should Democrats interpret the public's support for for those who objected...
...04106 (207) 799- direction aims to realize a principle as powerful as it is simple: If you work full time, 4387, classified advertising correspondence to 15 you should not be poor...
...But without real spending cuts, it seems a certainty the As a close reader of New York's premier newspaper, I had debt will continue to hamstring the economy, stagnating mid- been astonished at the Times's consistent inattention to the obdle- and working-class incomes...
...Indeed, he told the American people that he "came Edward T. Oakes 27 here to accept responsibility for the future of this country...
...They were Buchanan...
...We believe in jobs, we believe in learning, and we believe in rewarding work," Foundation, 15 Dutch St., New York, N.Y...
...Clinton's hope is that his spending was a loss that didn't have to happen...
...Government Stage: Gerald Weales will help create jobs, especially for the most disadvantaged...
...In this case, what political and business leadSo a word of caution is in order, even from those most sym- ers didn't learn from the Times, really did hurt...
...In Dennis M. Dovle 18 calling for a five-year, $250-billion tax increase, Clinton offered the Are All Christians Ministers?: nation a clear and dramatic description of our predicament and an ambitious preRobert P. Imbelli 20 scription for a cure...
...The laudable effort to teach Whether this administration is able to pursue its broader polit- and encourage tolerance in the public schools floundered on ical goals on behalf of the poor, the uninsured, and the unem- advice to first-grade teachers to inculcate the lesson that sameployed still depends on the effectiveness of the over-all sex couples were as much normal families as the standard hetdeficit-reduction scheme...
...Jane Redmont 25 Unabashedly, Clinton wants to reverse the laissez-faire approach to governing The Stripping of the Altars: promulgated by Ronald Reagan...
...Was the Times caught deficit down into the $200-billion range, projected health-care off guard because it spent too much time reading itself and toy costs will begin to pull the deficit up again after 1996...
...Taxes will go up, especially Screen: Richard Alleva on the wealthiest, but also across the board for energy consumption...
...The of school board members who are Catholic...
...Dutch St...
...Ten years from now, the deficit will have grown Opus Dei: Paul E. Dinter 22 to $634 billion a year...
...ed by his speech remains to be seen...
...Contrary to the doctrinaire convictions of those on eiAdvertising Manager: Ruth E. Taylor Publisher: Edward S. Skillin ther the Left or the Right, economic life is not governed by any immutable natural laws...
...The complex and interdependent glob- kind of people opposed to teaching first graders about gays al economy requires something different...
...Managing Editor: Patrick Jordan In making his case, Clinton ingeniously reshaped the telegenic habits of former Associate Editor: Paul Baumann President Reagan and put them to his own purposes...
...Portland, Me...
...CONTENTS Volume CXX, Number 5 COMMONWEAL Correspondence 2 Editorials 3 Editor's notebook: Margaret O'Brien Steinfels 4 Controlling health costs: Jeremiah P. Reilly 5 Religious wars...: Abigail McCarthy 6 The new catechism: Lawrence S. Cunningham 8 Poetry: Pamela Gross 10 Screen: Richard Alleva 12 Stage: Gerald Weales 15 Now for the hard part BOOKS Regardless of where one stands on the best way to reduce the $4-trilLead Us Not into Temptation: lion federal debt and present $300-billion annual budget deficits, it Peter Steinfels 16 was hard not to be impressed by the boldness and (yes) vision of Faith and the Human Enterprise: President Bill Clinton's February 17 budget address to Congress...
...POSTMASTER: Send address changes to In a country as blessed with resources as ours, and in one where hard work has Commonweal, 15 Dutch St...
...If that happens, the voters once jections raised by parents in both cases...
...nation in the right direction...
...The New York Times appears to have been contained...
...Borrowing Reagan's rhetoric Production Editor: Jacqueline Dowdell Senior Writer: Robert G. Hoyt of economic opportunity, family values, and faith in America and the future, the new Design: Emil Antonucci president urged a fundamental "change in direction...
...Clinton said...
...Like all social institutions, economic relations reflect what we, as human beCommonweal, [ISSN 0010-33301 A Review of ings and free moral agents, choose to value...
Vol. 120 • March 1993 • No. 5
