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FEB 13, 2004 WWW.GUILFORDIAN.COM Bush's budget ideology a big bluff Seth Van Horn Oem van norn Staff Writer I'm not good at math. I'm a terrible guesser. I can barely balance my check- book, and am not sure why I should. As far as I can tell, I'm practically a certified economist. As an almost cer tified econ omist, I "Bush wants to make his tax cuts permanent: tax cuts that are mostly for the rich." ~ Seth Van Horn don't like Bush's proposed $2.4 trillion budget. Specifically, I'm not thrilled when I read on CNN.com that the federal deficit in the cur rent year is going to hit $521 billion. I want there to be a job for me when I graduate where I don't have to offer people paper and plastic. I want to put money toward my kids' college when I'm forty, not federal loans. I want there to be money for my health care when I'm seventy. There is a flip side. I don't mind some of the budget increases. I'm not livid over the 7 per cent increase in military spending above and beyond To the Editor The campaign against insti tutional racism at Guilford makes me nervous. First of all, an institutional problem can only be solved through institutional changes. This would require expertise in areas unrelated to the identifi cation of racism, and if poorly developed, such changes could produce unintended consequences. Secondly, the $87.5 billion dollar wartime spending. I know a lot of kids who joined the mili tary because they had nowhere else to go, and army Hey, the space program gave us Velcro and Tang, and that was just to get to the moon. I can't argue with the increase for job training pro grams, like the one that links community colleges with employers, or the $lB million increase for the National Endowment for the Arts. This increase in spending could even theoretically boost the economy. At the start of the Depression, Herbert Hoover would cut the budget every time the economy dipped. This decreased con fidence in the economy, so people would buy less, so the economy would dip again. Nasty cycle. Roosevelt came in and spent more than any Letter to the Editor this movement has already produced conflicts with other established values at our school. By encouraging Jeff Vanke not to speak on this issue, many at Guilford have departed from their commit ment to respect and encour age diverse viewpoints. Perhaps instead of being racist itself, as many have suggested, Guilford College has simply failed to shield us from observable effects of the FORUM one ever knew could be spent, like on the WP A . Combine that with WWII, and no more Depression. Score. So on one hand I like at least some of the budget increases, and on the other hand, I know any thing we spend now we not only are going to have to pay off later, but training was the only way out. I don't mind th e money for the Mars mis sion. pay off three-fold. What tips me into dislike, though, is that Bush wants to make his tax cuts permanent: tax cuts that are mostly for the rich. Tax cuts that are sup posed to cost an additional $1.2 trillion over the original $1.7 trillion dollars. Bush has an ideology. Give the people their money, and the economy will boom. The only problem being that Regan tried that, and it didn't work. The deficit boomed, not racially stratified society in which we live. The idea that Guilford might not be institu tionally racist is treated as blasphemous by many among us, as if the committee desig nated to investigate this issue has already released its find ings. Regardless of the out come of that investigation, it shouldi)e acknowledged that Guilford provides a climate which is primarily and often profoundly hostile towards HP, SHi WBBSBSBR IIP ■n inm^ l|j rrrr - -■■.'■• M ——~_J(L JH p 5 9B| m 5. y ■ jw't- 1 1 v jfl I J 43000 • X^ -•3&00 ' - . ----- W- JM ■ -AML JLm jgk KEVIN BRYAN/PHOTO ILLUSTRATION/GUILFORDIAN the economy. Clinton institut ed a pay-as-you-go policy of never paying for anything for which we didn't have the tax revenue, and we had a budg et surplus. It disappeared into the tax cuts of George W. Bush, while he simultaneous ly increased spending. Never mind that the evidence says his ideas aren't working - Bush has an ideology. While increasing spending could theoretically boost the economy, cutting taxes while prejudicial ideologies. As such, the opportunity costs associated with fighting racism outside Kent Chabotar's office instead of outside Jesse Helms' office, might be worth considering. Also worth considering is the fact that Jeff Vanke's views on racial issues are completely normal, if not progressive, for an educated white guy. If we can't listen to his concerns without going ballistic, we PAGE 9 GREENSBORO, NC spending more can't. So I don't like Bush's $2.4 trillion dollar budget. Not because 1 ' I'm a liberal hippie who can't stand the military.Not because I'm a conservative who hates how big govern ment spending has gotten under Bush. But* because those tax cuts, and that budg et, has nothing to do with what works, or what little com prehension of finance a prac tically certified economist can muster, but with Bush's ideol ogy. erect an insurmountable ideo logical barrier between selves and those whose views we hope to influence. True racists are powerful and evil people who would never work or study at Guilford College. Unlike Jeff, they don't come to our meetings and let us yell at them. Scott Morgan, 'O3
The Guilfordian (Greensboro, N.C.)
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