Christopher Hitchens: Firehouse Rot; John Kerry's cheapest shot

Slate ^ | 7/30

[ambrose]

Firehouse Rot John Kerry's cheapest shot.

By Christopher Hitchens

Posted Friday, July 30, 2004, at 10:15 AM PT

Allowance made for choreography, stagecraft, and all the rest of it, there need be no doubt that the Democrats in Boston sincerely wish to "project" the idea of compassion for the underdog, inclusiveness in general, and perhaps above all a degree of care and measure in foreign policy. The AIDS victim in South Africa, or the Bangladeshi woman hoping for a new well: These are sufferers and strugglers who would get genuine applause whether it was Barack Obama mentioning them or not. Of course we understand that our future is bound up with theirs.

But in the last few weeks I have been registering one of the sourest and nastiest and cheapest notes to have been struck for some time. In a recent article about anti-Bush volunteers going door-to-door in Pennsylvania, often made up of campaigners from the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU—one of the country's largest labor unions—the New York Times cited a leaflet they were distributing, which said that the president was spending money in Iraq that could be better used at home. The mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, recently made the same point, proclaiming repeatedly that the Bay Area was being starved of funds that were being showered on Iraqis. (He obviously doesn't remember the line of his city's most famous columnist, the late Herb Caen, who referred to San Francisco as "Baghdad by the Bay.") These are only two public instances of what's become quite a general whispering campaign. And then on Thursday night, Sen. Kerry quite needlessly proposed a contradiction between "opening firehouses in Baghdad and shutting them in the United States of America." Talk about a false alternative. To borrow the current sappy language of "making us safer": Who would feel more secure if they knew that we weren't spending any tax dollars on Iraqi firehouses?

There is something absolutely charmless and self-regarding about this pitch, and I wish I could hear a senior Democrat disowning it. It is no better, in point of its domestic tone and appeal, than the rumor of the welfare mother stopping her Cadillac to get vodka on food stamps. In point of its international implications, it also suggests the most vulgar form of isolationism, not to say insularity.

[liberallarry]

Accounting and Accountability

His cited sources are inadequate to support all his assertions and, even if they were, his interpretations must always be questioned, given his bias. But he's first class and can't be dismissed out of hand, or nit-picked away ala Luskin.

So there's a fair chance he's right; the Administration hasn't been spending tax money on Iraq and Krugman will have to explain that to the Hitchens and the Democrats.

Wouldn't that be a laugh?

Of course, the Republicans wouldn't be happy either. They'd have to explain why they weren't spending tax money on rebuilding either at home or abroad but rather giving it back to their rich supporters.

[browardchad]

I'll rephrase the question: Since when does the Federal Government build or subsidize local firehouses in the U.S.?

We're building a new one in our small city, paid for by property taxes, approved by a voter referendum. No federal money involved.

[tort_feasor]

Hitch kicks the RATS in the teeth.

[liberallarry]

I'll rephrase the question: Since when does the Federal Government build or subsidize local firehouses in the U.S.?

The Federal government subsidizes, and has subsidized all sorts of public works projects; Hoover Dam, Tennessee Valley Authority, etc.,etc.,etc. I don't know whether they got down to the level of firehouses but they did build an awful lot of trails and roads - most obviously the national freeway system.

[gitmo]

Apparently Krugman is saying the US used UN Oil-for-food money to supply Iraqis with food and other goods. With UN approval, even. I'm shocked!

[liberallarry]

In the late '40s an awful lot of rural hospitals were built with Federal aid - under Hilburton-something.

[liberallarry]

I didn't read it that way.

[ShandaLear]

WHAT A RELIEF! I started a thread on this very topic about a week ago. Glad to see someone in the media fianlly saying something about it.

[Ditter]

I certainly hope President Bush is using Iraqi oil money to rebuild the country. That is great news, thanks. As far as the accounting, I am certain that he is not lining his pockets.

[Alas Babylon!]

Well, I would vote against my federal tax dollars going to build firestations in the USA. That is what I pay state and local taxes for. Now, perhaps I'd see it otherwise, if the state and local taxes were cut because the Feds are giving cash, but lets be real, that isn't going to happen.

It's ironic to me that the same Democrats who are tearing into the President for the federal budget deficit are also tearing him up for not spending federal funds to build local firehouses. Building new firehouses would be a totally new mandate for federal spending, as it isn't being done to this date. Yet that would either require new taxes to fund it, or an increase of the federal deficit. So I guess the Democrats haven't thought it through yet. Do they want a budget surplus/lower deficit, or new taxes? Will they tell us, or hope we won't wonder how it will be paid for?

Me, I'm thinking they're hoping we won't wonder. After all, didn't they just tell us hope is on the way?

[litehaus]

Com'on man,,,when's the last time Krugman told the WHOLE truth? The truth, sure, but like my local lib rag, the St.Pete Times, "merely the truth"(their motto)

[liberallarry]

I certainly hope President Bush is using Iraqi oil money to rebuild the country. That is great news, thanks.

Yes it is.

But Krugman's point is that it's insufficient to met the needs. Our biggest failing in Iraq was to allow destruction of the infrastructure immediately following the conclusion of the war. We've been slow in restoring such basic services as electricity and sewage, and that has created deep animosities. Where the blame lies is disputed.

As far as the accounting, I am certain that he is not lining his pockets

Here, also, you miss Krugman's point. He's saying that Bush is lining his pockets indirectly by allowing firms such as Halliburton to profit hugely.

[browardchad]

In the late '40s an awful lot of rural hospitals were built with Federal aid - under Hilburton-something.

Snide non-sequitur.

As Hitchens says, this is not a zero-sum game.

Now if Kerry really wanted to get a rousing cheer from his dimented audience last night, he should have said that money spent in Iraqi schools should be spent instead on U.S. teachers' salaries. That really would have had his NEA audience howling at the moon.

[gitmo]

Last month we learned that the United States, while it has spent vast sums on the war in Iraq, has so far provided almost no aid. Of $18.4 billion in reconstruction funds approved by Congress, only $400 million has been disbursed.

Almost all of the money spent by the Coalition Provisional Authority, which ran Iraq until late June, came from Iraqi sources, mainly oil revenues.

SNIP

After Saddam's fall, the U.N. gave the U.S. the right to disburse Iraqi oil-for-food revenues, but only on the condition that this be accompanied by international auditing and oversight.

A digression: yes, oil-for-food is the U.N.-administered program from which Saddam undoubtedly siphoned off billions. But we expect America to be held to a higher standard.

Krugman is complaining about inadequate accounting. But the article indicates the money spent was UN Oil-For-Food money, authorized by the UN.

[ColoCdn]

"He's saying that Bush is lining his pockets indirectly by allowing firms such as Halliburton to profit hugely."

I knew we'd get to the unified field theory of leftist conspiratorial thought. Have they sent the black, unmarked helicopters over to Baghdad, yet. You know, the ones with your personal information, piloted by Haliburton employees, accessing your coffee maker automatic-on programming info.

Good to know you guys are still out there.

[thoughtomator]

Way to parrot left-wing propaganda. Most of the money is unspent because it is paid out at the end of contracts, when the work is done, rather than during it. And if Iraqi oil was a big issue, I think the Iraqis would be the first ones making noises about it... not the Democrats.

[Intolerant in NJ]

Bump for a good read later....

[liberallarry]

Snide non-sequitur

What do you mean? The poster asked if Federal money was used to build fire-stations in this country. The answer is yes, and thus was an example.

[liberallarry]

Most of the money is unspent because it is paid out at the end of contracts, when the work is done, rather than during it

Possibly true.

Since Krugman didn't cite a source for his claim that most of the tax money allocated for reconstruction in Iraq was unspent, and since he claims Halliburton refused to release any records, I don't know the details of the contracts.

You say you do. Post them.

[liberallarry]

I knew we'd get to the unified field theory of leftist conspiratorial thought

You're saying that well-connected, war profiteers are a fiction of deranged, leftist thought? That they aren't real? That you only find expensive toilets in Beverly Hills?

Just because fools cry wolf far too often doesn't mean wolves don't exist.

Good to know you guys are still out there

You guys? Who are they? Are you referring to me?