Cato Daily Dispatch for November 18, 2004
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Senate Approves New Debt LimitAirports Consider Return to Private Screeners
Clinton Library Opens in Little Rock
Senate Approves New Debt Limit
"A divided Senate approved an $800 billion increase in the federal debt limit Wednesday, a major boost in borrowing that Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and other Democrats blamed on the fiscal policies of President Bush," the Associated Press reports.
"The mostly party line, 52-44 vote was expected to be followed by House passage Thursday. Enactment would raise the government's borrowing limit to $8.18 trillion -- $2.23 trillion higher than when Bush became president in 2001, and more than eight times the debt President Reagan faced when he took office in 1981."
In "The Republican Spending Explosion," Cato adjunct scholar Veronique de Rugy writes: "Republicans often claim to be the party of smaller government. ... Unfortunately, after Republicans are elected to political office they tend to fall into the Washington trap of assuming that higher federal spending will solve the nation's problems."
De Rugy says: "Republicans need to rediscover the reforming spirit that they brought to Washington after the landmark 1994 congressional elections. ... In command of the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives, Republicans are primarily responsible for the current budget mess, and it is Republicans who have the power to pare back spending to get the federal budget under control once again."
Airports Consider Return to Private Screeners
"Officials at Dulles International and Baltimore-Washington International airports said they are considering the replacement of federal airport screeners at security checkpoints with workers employed by private contractors," the Washington Post reports.
"The Transportation Security Administration this week invited airports to apply to leave the federal security screener system and return to private screeners. The government took over airport screening after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and is planning a transition for approved airports by spring or summer 2005."
According to the Cato Handbook for Congress, "The federal takeover of airport passenger screening was a big mistake and has run into serious troubles."
The Handbook cites the success that Europe and Israel have had with private screeners held to standards set by the government. "Europe's experience suggests that airport security works best under a unified approach controlled by the airport director," according to the Handbook. "After 2004, TSA should focus only on standard setting and regulatory oversight, and airports should adopt privatized security."
Clinton Library Opens in Little Rock
"The last thing we want to do is dampen the festivities in Little Rock, where the Clinton Presidential Center is opening today, but does anybody remember Marc Rich?" asks an editorial in today's Washington Post.
"He's the fugitive financier who was pardoned by President Bill Clinton on his way out of office -- after Mr. Rich's ex-wife, songwriter Denise Rich, gave $450,000 to the foundation raising money for this very same library."
In the Cato book The Rule of Law in the Wake of Clinton, edited by Roger Pilon, Cato vice president for legal affairs, 15 essays by scholars, lawyers, lawmakers and cultural critics chronicle Clinton's utter disregard for "a nation of laws, not of men."
Pilon looks at Clinton's disdain for constitutionally limited government. Repeatedly, he writes, Clinton acted "as if the Constitution were an empty vessel to be filled with his policies and programs." Timothy Lynch, director of the Cato Project for Criminal Justice, notes that "Clinton has exhibited contempt for the very Constitution he took an oath to uphold," as evidenced by his support for warrantless searches of public housing units, warrantless drug testing in public schools, a weakening of the right to trial by jury, and expanded property forfeiture. And Cato senior fellow Robert A. Levy focuses on Clinton's illegitimate war on tobacco.
Wyatt DuBois, editor, wdubois@cato.org