Caring More About Money Than Security
Sounds like Dick "American soldiers=Nazis, Communists and Khmer Rouge" Durbin and other left-wing Democrats want to start a debate on privacy, with the aim of convincing voters that the Republicans don't care about civil liberties.
Cooler heads like Democrat Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institute are dubious about the strategy; Republicans can only hope that Democrats will continue to fundamentally misread the mood of the country when it comes to protecting the homeland. And note that the smarter, more calculating Democrats (e.g. Hillary, Barack Obama) are nowhere to be found when leftist wackadoos like Durbin and Pelosi start signing on to the argument that loss of civil liberties pose as great a threat as terrorism.
In any case, it seems to me that Republicans have an argument to make, too -- think of all the information we're routinely required to give to the government on tax forms and such, and the potential for IRS abuse, as Republican congressional hearings documented back during the Clinton Administration. Sure, reforms have been put in place, but if the Dems are serious about privacy, why won't they sign on to the sort of system that, say, Canada has -- where taxpayers fill out nothing more than a postcard in order to pay their taxes? Now that would be a meaningful step forward for privacy.
And isn't it fair for Republicans to ask why the Democrats worry about the "privacy" of potential terrorists, rather than that of the ordinary American taxpayer? Could it be that Democrats care more about collecting Americans' money than about protecting them?
Cooler heads like Democrat Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institute are dubious about the strategy; Republicans can only hope that Democrats will continue to fundamentally misread the mood of the country when it comes to protecting the homeland. And note that the smarter, more calculating Democrats (e.g. Hillary, Barack Obama) are nowhere to be found when leftist wackadoos like Durbin and Pelosi start signing on to the argument that loss of civil liberties pose as great a threat as terrorism.
In any case, it seems to me that Republicans have an argument to make, too -- think of all the information we're routinely required to give to the government on tax forms and such, and the potential for IRS abuse, as Republican congressional hearings documented back during the Clinton Administration. Sure, reforms have been put in place, but if the Dems are serious about privacy, why won't they sign on to the sort of system that, say, Canada has -- where taxpayers fill out nothing more than a postcard in order to pay their taxes? Now that would be a meaningful step forward for privacy.
And isn't it fair for Republicans to ask why the Democrats worry about the "privacy" of potential terrorists, rather than that of the ordinary American taxpayer? Could it be that Democrats care more about collecting Americans' money than about protecting them?
posted by LadybugUSA at 10:05 AM
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