Cato Daily Dispatch for September 27, 2001
Attacks Widen Federal TroughU.S. Continues To Bomb Iraq
Momentum Grows For Fast Track
Attacks Widen Federal Trough
The $15-billion airline bailout approved overwhelmingly by Congress has lobbyists for other industries lining up to make the case that their clients, too, need federal aid, according to The New York Times.
The insurance industry wants the government to help cover future terrorism-related losses. Travel agents want $4 billion. Pilots, restaurant workers, and other groups want extra government money to provide shelter from the economic impact of the terror attacks. Big corporations are calling for huge tax cuts.
For corporate America, the spigots in Washington appear tantalizingly open: $40 billion in emergency money, the airline rescue package and a variety of other economic stimulus measures that Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve chairman, has suggested could amount to another $40 billion to $60 billion. With numbers this large, and with the economy already in a slump, business is casting a keen eye on what Washington can deliver.
In "Against Politics As Usual," John Samples, director of Cato's Center for Representative Government writes, "The last thing we need is special interest politics as usual. Yet that's where we are headed."
He bemoans the fact that as the aftershocks of September 11 spread through the economy -- which may have been headed for a recession prior to the attacks -- we should expect that other claimants to public largesse will show up on Capitol Hill.
U.S. Continues To Bomb Iraq
Western warplanes struck at air defense targets in Iraq's southern no-fly zone today, making it the second time in a week, according to Reuters.
"The strikes were in response to recent hostile threats by the Iraqis," a U.S. military spokesman in the Gulf said. He gave no details of the alleged threats.
The strikes were carried out by coalition aircraft, a phrase normally used by the Pentagon to describe British and U.S. warplanes, using precision-guided munitions against anti-aircraft artillery and command and control sites at Shahban and Nassiryah, he said.
The attack was the latest in a spate of raids by American and British warplanes since late August, with three last week alone, amid attempts by Iraq to shoot down aircraft patrolling no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq.
Earlier this year, the Cato Institute hosted the policy forum "Ten Years after the Gulf War: The Lessons and Future of Washington's Iraq Policy," featuring former U.S. ambassador to Iraq Edward Peck and Middle East expert Laurie Mylroie. The future of sanctions and U.S. policy towards Iraq was debated.
Momentum Grows For Fast Track
Seeking to end seven years of congressional deadlock, a bipartisan group of lawmakers has forged a compromise on legislation that would give President Bush power to negotiate broad trade pacts, according to Reuters.
"We have a solid and sensible bipartisan TPA (trade promotion authority) compromise," Adam Kovacevich, a spokesman for California Democratic Rep. Cal Dooley, said. "We are on the road to introducing a bipartisan bill soon."
Under fast track, Congress gives up its right to amend agreements negotiated by the executive branch and agrees instead to vote yes or no on the overall pact within a specified period of time.
In "The Fast Track to Freer Trade," Daniel T. Griswold writes that "the case for passing fast-track trade legislation is simple: The most promising approach for advancing free trade in today's global economy is through negotiated trade agreements, and those agreements will be difficult if not impossible to reach if the president of the United States is denied fast-track authority."