Is the President a Plagiarist?
Georges, Christopher
Is the President a Plagiarist? Campaign kleptomania by Christopher George o f the following quotes to a national political figure. (Hint: George Bush is part of every answer.) 1. A. “We’ll ....
...A Declaration of Political War on the Democrats,” trumpeted a January 29 Washington Post front-page headline over an analysis of Bush’s policy agenda...
...This idea of unleashing a . . . conventional army of IRS agents into everyone’s kitchen . . . I’m against that,” he said...
...October 19911 B. “We’re setting up a very important comprehensive growth initiative and getting it up to Congress...
...1. A. “We’ll . . . make the label ‘Made in ity all over the world...
...At least he was until 1991, when he quietly unveiled a similar $200 million program to hire more than 1,000 additional auditors...
...Bush seemingly never gave this idea-long a favorite of dark-horse presidential threat A1 Gore-a thought until just over a month ago, when he proposed it with great fanfare...
...His position on a semiautomatic weapons ban: “I’m not about to do that...
...Rather, Bush’s habit of ripping off lines used by his Democratic opponents (or at least appearing to do so) points us toward something slightly more insidious: His “new” domestic agenda-from his plan to tamper with IRAs all the way to his notion of a “comprehensive growth agenda”-is, more than anything else, a hodgepodge of ideas pushed by top-tier Democrats like A1 Gore, Mario Cuomo, and Bill Clinton...
...Plank robber Preposterous...
...For instance, Bush won points in 1988 for ridiculing Dukakis’ plan-ill-conceived as it may have been-to hire more tax auditors to reap billions in uncollected revenue...
...A plan to make all Americans eligible for the fully deductible $2,000 IRA...
...As far back as the 1988 campaign, he unflinchingly trumpeted a “silver bullet” agenda instead: a cut in the capital gains tax combined with a few minor reforms such as incentives for savings and encouragement of enterprise zones...
...It was a speech that reiterated the errors of the past,” said candidate Clinton just minutes after Bush unveiled his plan in the State of Union...
...and a plan to allow penalty-free withdrawals from IRAs for first-time homebuyers that was originally proposed four years ago, and called Home Start, by candidate Dukakis...
...Bush has pushed many themes during his tenure as president, but never has the notion of responsibility been elevated to, say, the level of a State of the Union address-that is, until this year...
...It is our generation’s responsibility to form a New Covenant-more responsibility from everyone...
...Planned larceny Still, the most discouraging thing about Bush’s campaign kleptomania is that no one on the other side seems to notice that the family treasures are gone...
...But Bush has abandoned more than that...
...That is until, as president, he supported a ban on the import of five types of semiautomatic assault weapons and 24 other types of guns...
...Petty thievery of minor ideas does not a vision make, and that is one issue the Democrats would do well to take advantage of, for two reasons...
...Near the conclusion of his speech, Bush called on the American people, and especially those receiving government assistance, to show a greater sense of-you guessed it...
...January 19901 2. A. “The best America . . . where there are good jobs and good wages for all our peoPie...
...But let’s look at the record...
...January 19901 3. A. “I call upon the leaders in Washington to launch a comprehensive growth initiative...
...This is perhaps what one much-mentioned Democrat may have meant by ‘holistic.’ ” Shtick shift By the end of December, however, Cuomo had removed himself from the race and the comprehensive growth shtick no longer seemed so pressing...
...The aegis of Bush’s hastily assembled strategy is a holistic growth plan that includes disparate reforms in areas from investment tax credits to education...
...One, because it’s true...
...On gun ‘control, Bush in 1988 effectively portrayed the Democrats’ plan, which featured restraints on the import of semiautomatic weapons, as a program to ban all firearms...
...the sudden emergence of an increased child-care exemption as a major presidential issue (even though Bush’s plan unfairly favors the wealthy at the expense of the poor), but only after Democratic leaders made it clear that a middle-class tax cut would be a major issue...
...But in Bush’s case, one can’t help thinking that his policy is driven less by a sense of nonpartisan commitment to the national interest than by a desperate urge to hamstring his competition...
...Even though they had yet to develop the details of the plan, they were calling for it just the same...
...he’s jettisoned any sort of disciplined approach to a domestic policy...
...This one’s been a pet project of oft-mentioned presidential contender Lloyd Bentsen...
...But again, Bush never gave it so much as a nod until people started talking about drafting B entsen . Unemployment relief legislation...
...The stakes are high this year,” he said, “for the differences between candidates are as wide as they have ever been in our long history...
...Christopher Georges is an editor of The Washington Monthly...
...The revision thing Stealing from the enemy is nothing new for Bush...
...September 19881 B. “A better America where ‘Made in the symbol of quality and progress...
...Other stones in his ideological wall, from his support for offshore oil drilling to his fierce opposition to racial quotas, have tumbled just as easily...
...Sure, Bush has been knocked ad nauseam for a lack of vision, but an item by item examination of his recent plan suggests Bush isn’t blind-or dumb...
...Just to be certain that the theme wouldn’t get lost in the mix, he repeated the word five times in a single paragraph...
...Coincidence...
...December 199 11 Answer key: The A quotes were by: 1. Michael Dukakis 2. Dukakis 3. Mario Cuomo...
...And more recently, as the threat from the right (a.k.a...
...As late as November 17, 1991, Dan Quayle, appearing on ABC News’ “This Week With David Brinkley,” said: “There is a silver bullet out there that could help this economy and it’s . . . the capital gains tax cut...
...The B quotes were by George Bush...
...As for the remainder of the President’s domestic cures, most are either retreads of ideas he has pushed for years like America 2000, the HOPE homeownership plan, and his crime bill, or temporary adjustments, such as the 90-day moratorium on new regulations...
...September 19881 B. “A better America, where there’s a job for everyone who wants one...
...If you want to predict what the president will say next week, just listen to the guy who’s moving up in the polls this week...
...Ironically, the only one calling the president on his policy pilfering is Buchanan, who says he’s challenging Bush because the president “has abandoned the principles of his party...
...Bush had long been loath to consider any such plan...
...This was no silver bullet...
...And there are other borrowed issues, like plans to fully fund Head Start and make student loans more affordable (the ancient domain of the Democrats...
...Pat Buchanan) has come unleashed, he’s suddenly taken its themes to heart: Witness his tax apology, his new look at housing policy (a reaction to the latent threat from Jack Kemp), and the ouster of National Endowment for the Arts Chairman John Frohnmayer...
...Between December 4 and 6, Bush, Richard Darman, Nicholas Brady, and Michael Boskin used the phrase in public appearances no less than 14 times...
...This needs little explanation in an election year...
...More importantly, Bill Clinton was steadily ascending in the polls...
...Clinton’s signal theme, from his announcement speech to his town hall meet-and-greets, was a call for “responsibility” on the part of both government and citizenry...
...Even if Bush doesn’t mean what he utters, his political prevent defensea themeless mix of proposals-succeeds in taking many of the defining issues, such as extended unemployment benefits, out of the realm of partisan politics, and in the process defuses the challenge from the left...
...Let’s ask Darman...
...For three years, Bush ignored the idea while Cuomo (most notably) and other Democratic leaders (George Mitchell and most recently Paul Tsongas) lobbied to bring it back...
...Ever since, Clinton has been heard on the campaign trail speaking the message of welfare reform, insisting that “those on welfare move into the workplace...
...And besides, good politicians should have enough modesty to embrace good ideas, no matter what their party pedigree...
...On the environment, the Democrats proposed elevating the EPA to cabinet level, and again Bush opposed it only until he became president...
...Not exactly...
...A plan that would require all businesses to halt production of ozone-damaging chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) by December 31, 1995...
...A quick look at the rest of Bush’s new agenda shows the same suspicious pattern: ,An increased investment tax allowance plan that would reduce the tax burden on companies that invest in new machinery and equipment...
...Could it be that they were ignorant of the new Democratic push in this area...
...I] ask every American to assume personal responsibility for the future,” Clinton intoned in his October 3 announcement speech...
...George Bush a plagiarist...
...To be sure, Bush in 1992 is far from a closet Democrat: We need only remember his paltry attempt at health insurance reform and his undying allegiance to the capital gains tax cut...
...And two, because it’s one plank George Bush won’t want to steal...
...A large chunk of his “new” agenda was shaped simply by scouting his political competitors and then absorbing in some form what they had to say-a co-option that makes a lot of political (if not ideological) sense...
...Perhaps it was coincidence, but 10 days later, Bush and his top deputies suddenly, eerily, unveiled a new approach to our domestic ills-a “comprehensive growth agenda...
...He wasn’t subtle about it either...
...In congressional testimony on December 5 (just 18 days after Quayle told Brinkley that all we need is the “silver bullet” capital gains tax cut), Darman said: “There is much talk about the need for . . . the proverbial ‘silver bullet.’ . . . [But] what is needed is a comprehensive approach to growth...
...He first proposed the idea in December 1990, but starting with an October 25, 1991 press release, and followed by a series of public statements and a November 24 speech (about the time the Cuomofor-president clamor was at its shrillest), Cuomo put his agenda for a net investment tax credit combined with reforms in areas such as education and taxes at the center of his economic message...
...Only when Cuomo’s name began once again to creep up in the polls did Bush finally awaken to its merits...
...And that was the entire plan...
...That’s my position, and I’m not going to change it...
...It was, as Cuomo labeled it, a “comprehensive growth agenda...
...He said, “Able-bodied people have . . . a responsibility to the taxpayer . . . a responsibility to hold families together . . . a responsibility to obey the law...
...And the dismal news is that the strategy works...
...Democrats, Republicans, and pundits alike are still tripping over each other to declare that Bush has drawn deep battle lines between himself and the left...
...Since becoming president, Bush has adopted, almost verbatim, several planks from the 1988 Democratic platform-and not just any planks, but those that he roundly mocked as a candldate...
...Let’s take a closer look at the genesis of the new agenda, as articulated in January’s State of the Union address...
...But over on the Democratic side, a comprehensive (or holistic) growth agenda had become thenformidablelooking challenger Mario Cuomo’s most resonant theme...
...Four years ago, candidate Bush declared a “war of ideology” at the Republican National Convention...
Vol. 24 • April 1992 • No. 4
