Cato Daily Dispatch for December 1, 2003
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U.S. Denounces Kyoto ProtocolBush to Repeal Imported Steel Tariffs
Congress, Bush Spending Like 'a Drunken Sailor'
U.S. Denounces Kyoto Protocol
"The United States denounced on Monday the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol as an unrealistic 'straitjacket' for curbing global warming as officials from 180 nations met in Italy to work out details of the landmark pact," Reuters reports.
"Washington, which pulled out of Kyoto in 2001, said its own policy of promoting 'breakthrough technologies' for energy was the 'only acceptable cost-effective option' to limit gases blamed for heating the planet and to raise living standards."
Global Warming is likely to be debated far into the future. To enhance the quality of that debate, on Dec. 12 the Cato Institute will host a conference, "Global Warming: The State of the Debate," where issues including the Kyoto Protocol, greenhouse gas emissions and the science behind global warming will be discussed.
Bush to Repeal Imported Steel Tariffs
"The Bush administration has decided to repeal most of its 20-month-old tariffs on imported steel to head off a trade war that would have included foreign retaliation against products exported from politically crucial states, administration and industry sources said yesterday," The Washington Post reports.
"The officials would not say when President Bush will announce the decision but said it is likely to be this week. The officials said they had to allow for the possibility that he would make some change in the plan, but a source close to the White House said it was 'all but set in stone.'"
In a Cato Institute Trade Policy Analysis, "Import Curbs Would Delay Reforms, Hurting Consumers and Steel Users," trade policy analyst Daniel Ikenson writes:
"The U.S. integrated steel industry is ailing. But massive import curbs are bad medicine, which would only prolong necessary structural reforms within the industry and adversely impact steel users, consumers and exporters.
"The steel industry's woes will persist unless and until significant domestic capacity reduction is realized."
Congress, Bush Spending Like 'a Drunken Sailor'
"Congress is throwing away astonishing amounts, 'spending money like a drunken sailor,' and President Bush shares the blame because he is not using his veto power, Republican Sen. John McCain said Sunday," The Associated Press reports.
"McCain, an avid critic of spending for lawmakers' pet projects in their districts and states, said the president's reluctance to veto legislation makes it harder for congressional negotiators to kill such spending."
In "The Bush Betrayal," an op-ed published in Sunday's Washington Post, Cato Executive Vice President David Boaz writes: "In Bush's first three years, nondefense discretionary spending -- which fell by 13.5 percent under Ronald Reagan -- has soared by 20.8 percent. His more libertarian-minded voters are taken aback to discover that 'compassionate conservatism' turned out to mean social conservatism -- a stepped-up drug war, restrictions on medical research, antigay policies, federal subsidies for marriage and religion -- and big-spending liberalism justified as 'compassion.'
"Bush and his aides should be worrying about the possibility that libertarians, economic conservatives and fed-up taxpayers won't be in his corner in 2004 in the same numbers as 2000."
Jonathan Block, editor, jblock@cato.org
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