Governing via Manufactured "Crises"

El Presidente, who got his current reputation dealing with the 9/11 crisis, has been convinced that "crisis management" is the way to go in getting what he wants in his second term. What he wants in his second term is (a) the dismantling of Social Security, at least a start on that worthy demolition; (b) a thoroughly right-wing judiciary; and (c) a cessation of citizens' rights to sue for damages. Read this.

a. "Warning of the need for urgent action on his Social Security plan, Bush says the 'crisis is now' for a system even the most pessimistic observers say will take in more in taxes than it pays out in benefits well into the next decade." Republicans have hated Social Security since FDR got it enacted in the 1930s. (Jesse Helms used to have well publicized wet dreams about phasing it out.) El Presidente's handlers think they've found a wedge for finally destroying it: generate envy among 20-year-olds. "Look at what you're being made to pay for that you'll never live long enough to enjoy!" they taunt. Maybe that'll work. Maybe that'll work because there are "Republican lite" Democratic senators willing to throw away Social Security out of fear for their own sorry hides.

b. President Bush accuses Senate Democrats of creating a "vacancy crisis" in the federal judiciary by blocking 10 of his 229 judicial nominees, "although confirmation of Bush nominees exceeds, in most cases, the first-term records of presidents going back to Ronald Reagan."

c. Currently, El Presidente is on a campaign-style round of speeches calling for "tort reform," a.k.a., limiting a patient's right to sue for large damages. Bush used the word "crisis" four times on Thursday in a speech in Collinsville, Ill., "where he blamed lawsuits for depriving Americans, especially those in rural areas, of quality physicians to deliver babies and save lives." It would never occur to this little man to blame the big insurance companies for driving up the costs of malpractice insurance for their own bottom-lines. Here's a fact: "In 2002, the last year for which complete figures are available, malpractice costs amounted to less than 2 percent of health care costs, according to the Congressional Budget Office."

When you hear this president talk crisis, better reach for your wallet. And keep the Constitution close.