My impressions as he goes along:
Tax cuts? Hey, bring 'em on. Although I still think the whole dividend tax cut is pretty much of a stretch. "Double taxation," he says. Um, no. That like saying when government taxes my income, and then taxes the income of the plumber I pay to fix my toilet, that his income is subject double taxation. It's just rhetoric, not reality. Furthermore, even though roughly half of all Americans own stock - or did before the panic sales of the last two years - few Americans derive a significant amount of income from stock dividends. Only those with very large investment portfolios would even notice such a tax cut. Make the death tax repeal permanent; cut the marriage penalty; hell, scrap the code and give us a national sales tax instead. But don't pretend that taxing dividend income is a serious drag on the economy.
"No one has ever been healed by a frivolous lawsuit." Well, actually, No one has ever been healed by any lawsuit that I can think of, certainly not an after-the-fact medical malpractice suit. Lawyers just sue... doctors heal.
"Protect infants at the hour of their birth..." I've seen the face of my unborn child, just 20 weeks old. I've seen and felt it kick in response to touch and sound. Once a pregnancy has advanced to the eighth month, can anyone but a real zealot deny that there's a real, living, human baby in there?
Emergency plan for AIDS relief: hey, isn't that compassionate and conservative?
"Arrested or otherwise dealt with...Al Qaeda leaders... [and they are] no longer a threat to America or its allies." That would be code for "rained death upon their heads from above."
"One by one the terrorists are learning the meaning of American justice." Great line, unless you're talking about Suleyman Al-Lindh's plea bargain or John Ashcroft's eavesdropping on the conversations of detainees with their lawyers.
"The ideology of power and domination has appeared again, and seeks to gain the ultimate weapons of terror..." Microsoft has nukes? When did this happen? Send the inspectors into Redmond!
We're not looking to "follow a process," we're looking to "acheive a result." I think that just about sums up the rebuttal to France and Germany, wouldn't you agree? "The course of this nation does not depend on the decisions of others." Oh, and if France and Germany don't like it, we'll pause briefly to consider why we should care... and we'll decide that we don't care a bit.
"North Korea... throughout the 90's the United States relied on a negotiated framework to keep North Korea from developing nuclear weapons..." That's about as close as it comes to blaming Clinton for the foreign policy dangers we face today.
"No evidence that he has destroyed... [weapons of mass destruction.]" Interesting, and probably correct argument, shifting the burden on proof to Saddam Hussein to prove that he has disarmed, not on us to prove that he hasn't. No "Easter Egg hunt." I think he's doing a good job of listing the weapons we knew he once had and saying that we do not know where those weapons are now, making Iraq a plausibly greater danger than North Korea.
"Why" does Saddam Hussein pursue weapons of mass destruction? For intimidation, domination, or attack. He cannot be contained... we must remove him from power. "Trusting in the sanity and restraint of Saddam Hussein is not a strategy and it is not an option."
"If this is not evil, then evil has no meaning." ....so all of you who derided the Axis of Evil comment last year, take that.
The U.S. will ask Security Council to convene on February 5th, and Sec. Powell will present our evidence at that time. in other words, we have a case to make, and we will make it. And then we will act, with or without the United Nations.
All told, a short, but effective message to the people of America and the world.
Wow, Nancy Pelosi is really bad in her interview on NBC. If she really thinks that "Pandora's box" is an effective rebuttal to the President's case for regime change in Iraq, expect Democratic numbers in the House to shrink even further in 2004.
UPDATE: Proofreading props once again to Scully.
Posted by wasylik at January 28, 2003 09:35 PM | TrackBack