Rose Hineman – 12/14/04

This page was last updated on December 21, 2004.

Let’s talk about morality; Rose Hineman; Beaver County Times; December 14, 2004.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“Is it moral to side with large pharmaceutical companies and deprive the average American of affordable drugs?”

[RWC] All of my family and friends are “average Americans” and can afford prescription drugs.

“Is it moral to invade and destroy a country and force its people to live the way ‘this’ president thinks they should live?”

[RWC] No one is forcing anyone to live a certain way. Afghanistan and Iraq posed threats to the United States and the world. Afghans just elected their leader and Iraqis will vote during January 2005 for representatives to write the Iraqi constitution.

“Is it moral to send billions of dollars to a foreign country while people are starving in our own country?”

[RWC] Who is starving in the United States? If anyone is starving in this country, it is not for a lack of government and private programs.

“Is it moral that, because of ‘this’ president, more Iraqis are dying now than when Hussein was in power?”

[RWC] So far we’ve uncovered mass graves of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. The vast majority of current Iraq deaths are the result of foreign terrorists and Saddam Hussein supporters who want to return Iraq to a dictatorship. Where does Ms. Hineman get her information?

“Is it moral for ‘this’ vice president to curse someone on the floor of Congress?”

[RWC] Let’s put this in context. Fed up with 4+ years of non-stop bashing by Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT), VP Cheney finally got fed up and hurled an obscenity at Leahy during a Senate photo shoot. I’m not a big user or defender of profanity, but everyone has their limit. Sometimes there’s no other way to show you’ve had enough.

“Is it moral for ‘this’ president to give the ‘finger’ to the camera as I saw on TV during the campaign (which I suppose must be hereditary, as I saw one of his daughters do the same thing on TV)?”

[RWC] Another context issue. I saw the videotape and it was apparently shortly after George W. Bush won the Texas governorship for the first time in 1994. It was during a sound and video check preparing for an interview when Mr. Bush was fooling around. I’m not going to defend the action and Mr. Bush showed a lack of judgment, but it was 10 years ago and he was fooling around with a handful of people.

Regarding the claim about one of President Bush’s daughters flipping the finger, I did a web search and found no references to the alleged incident. The only incident I could find was Jenna Bush sticking out her tongue at the press.

“Is it moral, being the richest nation on Earth, to not have health-care coverage for our children?”

[RWC] Which children in the United States don’t receive healthcare when they need it? If any child in this country doesn’t receive healthcare, it is not for a lack of government and private programs.

“Is it moral to give tax relief to the wealthiest Americans rather than the middle class, which needs it the most?”

[RWC] Earth to Ms. Hineman. EVERYONE who filed a federal income tax return received a tax break.

As a result of the Bush tax cuts, the number of income tax filers who paid/will pay no income tax increased from 29,000,000 in 2000 to an estimated 44,000,000 million in 2004, a 50% increase. When 15,000,000 people at the bottom of the income scale have their income tax cut to zero, and some actually get so-called ‘refunds,’ how can you say this was a tax cut only for the wealthy?

In 2001, the top 5% of income earners paid over 53% of federal income tax revenue. The bottom 50% paid only 3.9%. That means the high-income earners pay over 10 times their fair share and half of us pay less than 8% of our fair share. Does that sound like a break for the wealthy? How can any reasonable person claim that the people who pay over 50% of income tax revenue don’t deserve a piece of tax cuts?

It gets even worse for those “evil” high-income earners. The non-partisan – according to John Kerry – Congressional Budget Office recently reported that the “wealthy” pay a greater portion of income taxes now than they did before the Bush tax cuts.

“Is it moral to stand before the entire world and not be able to admit to one mistake?”

[RWC] You have to admire the anti-Bush crowd’s dogged effort to get an “I was wrong” sound bite from President Bush. It’s a no win situation for President Bush. If he admitted mistakes, liberals would bash him. When he refuses to provide the sound bite, liberals bash President Bush for not recognizing he made mistakes. It’s a variation of the classic question, “When did you stop beating your wife?”

“If ‘this’ president keeps us so ‘safe,’ Sept. 11, 2001, never would have happened in the first place.”

[RWC] If we want to accept this premise, perhaps it’s because President Bush chose to keep the vast majority of President Clinton’s anti-terrorism team. Let’s remember that President Bush kept the CIA director, the NSC anti-terrorism chief and team, the FBI director, and so on.

In truth, everyone needs to accept some responsibility, even the Bush administration even though they were in office for only eight months before the attack and all attackers were already in the country before this time.

“Is it moral that Americans are working harder, earning less and paying more for health care, college and taxes?”

[RWC] Contrary to Ms. Hineman’s allegation, the real disposable income of American workers has increased every month since at least January 2003 with the exception of September 2003. Regarding “health care, college and taxes,” what do all of these have in common? They all have heavy government influence and it’s that market-distorting interference that is causing the high prices. Regarding taxes, we pay less federal taxes now than we did four years ago. Does Ms. Hineman blame President Bush for spendthrift local and state politicians?

“Was is [sic] moral for ‘this’ president to stand at a podium during a dinner and joke about not being able to find weapons of mass destruction while so many of our service people were in Iraq being killed and maimed while looking for those very ‘nonexistent’ weapons?”

[RWC] Another context issue. The occasion was an annual press dinner during which the president is expected to poke fun at himself. Given all the coverage given to not finding WMD in Iraq, President Bush used this topic. I agree it was a knucklehead – not immoral or moral – thing to do, but what was not covered was that President Bush ended his speech with a tribute to the men and women serving in Iraq.

“I don’t believe that ‘this’ president begins to understand the real definition of morality and certainly has no right to preach to our people about it while hundreds of innocent people are dying every day in Iraq.”

[RWC] Perhaps Ms. Hineman can give us an example of President Bush “preaching” to us about morality.

Regarding Ms. Hineman’s alleged “concern” for the “hundreds of innocent people … dying every day in Iraq,” far more innocents were dying before we invaded Iraq but none of the bad guys doing the killing were dying themselves. Today, a lot more bad guys than good are dying.