Tax lesson, war's author, Catholic-bashing, NEA money

Pennywise pols: Washingtonians, economists and even a smattering of Wall Streeters have taken leave of their senses when it comes to financing the Iraq war and that country's rehabilitation. The war itself may cost more than $100 billion, they wail. Postwar bills may add another $100 billion to $200 billion to that. "Under these circumstances tax cuts would be irresponsible!" they cry.

Pass the smelling salts to these fiscal hypochondriacs. Then give them some remedial education. The immediate war costs will come to about 1 percent of GDP. That's less than 1/100 of the proportionate costs of World War II, which we smoothly financed with 2.5 percent bonds. It's 1/15 of the war in Korea, and 1/12 of the war in Vietnam. Our national debt today is a little more than one-third of GDP, which proportionately is significantly less than that of any other major nation.

Cutting tax rates? Here the Chicken Littles turn into Daffy Ducks. Tax-rate reductions always lead to a stronger economy. To oppose them because the economy is weak is like telling a pneumonia patient to avoid antibiotics until he recovers. These worriers share one of the least attractive traits of certain CEOs today: a myopic focus on the short term. Short term, we have deficits and war costs to deal with. Tax cuts will, in the long term, mean a more robust economy, better jobs, an improving quality of life and more government revenue. Tax-cut opponents thus flunk three courses: history, logic and math. -- Steve Forbes

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Then and now: The real author of the Iraq war is not our president, but Winston Churchill. Sir Winston, as colonial secretary in 1921, convened the Cairo Conference that carved out the boundaries for the three separate peoples: Kurds, Shiite and Sunni Muslims. He argued for a separate Kurdistan where the Kurds would be safe "from some future bully in Iraq" but was overruled by his own Foreign Office. If only we had listened to him then, but more importantly, for 10 years in the wilderness of the 1930s while he was without a cabinet post, Sir Winston railed at his own citizens and those of a complacent Europe and America who just wanted to get on with enjoying life and were deaf to the cries of the victims within and then without a newly resurgent expansionist and Nazi Germany. Then. If we only had listened then.

-- Robert E. Freer Jr., president, Free Enterprise Foundation, Post and Courier (Charleston, S.C.)n

Schumer: Catholics need not apply: We've taken note recently of instances that reveal an anti-Christian religious bigotry among some politicians. Victims of such prejudice include federal appeals court nominee Judge Charles Pickering, Education Secretary Rod Paige and Franklin Graham. The latest target of bigotry is J. Leon Holmes, nominated by President Bush to the U.S. District Court for Eastern Arkansas. Holmes is a devout, orthodox Catholic, and by all accounts he is widely admired as a lawyer and for his charitable work. Both of Holmes' home state Democratic senators support his nomination. None of this, however, stopped Democrats Chuck Schumer, Dianne Feinstein and Dick Durbin from savagely attacking Holmes in a Senate Judiciary hearing last week. The three senators lifted passages out of context from Holmes' writings for Catholic theological publications on the sanctity of life and the sacrament of marriage and pronounced him unfit for the federal bench.

"I am just amazed that this man is being nominated for district court judge," Schumer fumed, "This man is an embarrassment to be nominated. ... He is going to make a laughingstock. ... This guy is so far off the deep end. ... Have we lost all sense of reality? I do not know why this man was nominated. What he thinks is so bad."

Feinstein and Durbin expressed similarly bigoted comments about the nominee's personal beliefs. Holmes' views reflect mainstream Roman Catholic teaching as espoused by Pope John Paul II. The real problem Schumer and others have with Holmes is the fact that he is pro-life, believes Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided and is the past-president of Arkansas Right to Life. Schumer and the other members of the Judiciary Committee lynch mob are in effect saying that no orthodox Roman Catholic is qualified to serve as a federal judge. Such views are not only bigoted, but unconstitutional. The Constitution expressly forbids any religious test for public office. Schumer and his fellow bigots, who bleat endlessly about the alleged constitutional right to abortion, might take some time to actually read the Constitution they claim to hold in such reverence.

-- Washington Updaten

NEA political contributions: The nation's largest teacher's union has become a regular cash cow for the Democratic Party. The Washington Times reported recently that nearly a third of the union's $271 million annual income in members' dues goes to political activities. The Landmark Legal Foundation has asked the IRS to review the tax-exempt NEA's political operation. The union's Washington headquarters, for example, spends $47 million annually to field 1,800 political activists nationwide, providing Democrats an army of precinct workers through the union's 13,000 local chapters. These union campaign activities are virtually unregulated and unrestricted, even under the McCain-Feingold campaign finance-reform law. But political activities do not qualify for tax-exempt status. Are the members happy with this use of their money?

-- Washington Update

Gary Rust is chairman of Rust Communications.