FACES AND PLACES: Read his pen, not his lips (10/13/96)

FACES AND PLACES

by Myron B. Kuropas

Read his pen, not his lips

During their first debate Sen. Bob Dole was too much of a gentleman to attack President Bill Clinton for all of his broken promises. I intend to remedy that situation, because Mr. Clinton deserves worse.

In 1992, candidate Bill Clinton promised a tax cut "especially to middle-class people with families with incomes under $60,000." President Clinton signed into law the largest tax increase in history. He did it with the stroke of his pen.

During the 1992 debates candidate Clinton questioned George Bush's honesty when the president suggested Mr. Clinton would raise taxes by $150 billion. President Bush was wrong, of course. President Clinton's actual tax increase was $250 billion.

Candidate Clinton promised to "end welfare as we know it." President Clinton vetoed two welfare reform bills passed by the Republican Congress. He did it with a stroke of his pen. A welfare reform bill was finally passed, but Mr. Clinton promises to revisit it after the election. All it will take is the stroke of a pen.

Candidate Clinton promised to help America's elderly. President Clinton raised taxes on Social Security benefits and vetoed a bill that would have increased Medicare funding from $5,200 to $7,000 per senior citizen and guaranteed solvency. That, too, was done with his pen.

Candidate Clinton promised to work for a balanced budget. President Clinton shut the government down rather than sign a bill that would have accomplished what he promised. His veto pen was at it again.

Candidate Clinton promised health-care reform. Even with the strong-arm tactics of his wife and a Congress dominated by Democrats, President Clinton couldn't deliver on his promise.

Candidate Clinton's party platform promised to "curb demand [for drugs] from the street corner to the penthouse suite." The statement should have read "from the street corner to the White House." Reports from reliable sources cited by the media confirm widespread use of cannabis among Clinton White House staffers.

Candidate Clinton criticized President Bush's aggressive drug interdiction efforts, promoting, instead, the rehabilitation of drug addicts. Although recent reports indicate that the Bush effort actually reduced illicit drug flow into the country, President Clinton cut the Office of National Drug Control Policy staff by more than 80 percent. His interdiction budget was substantially reduced. All this was done with the presidential pen. Meanwhile, drug prices have decreased. Recently released records show that over-all drug use among 12-to 17-year-olds increased by 33 percent between 1994 and 1996.

Candidate Clinton promised an administration that would be pristine. President Clinton has given us an administration in which abuse of power is legendary. Some examples: "Travelgate" (the political firing of competent White House travel office officials on unsubstantiated charges); "Filegate" (examining FBI files of former Bush officials in a manner that FBI Director Louis Freeh criticized as "egregious violations of privacy"); and, of course, the Whitewater cover-up, which has led to indictments and convictions of many friends of Bill and Hillary. Not to worry. President Clinton's lips said "no comment" when the question of a pardon for his friends was mentioned during the debate. And he'll do it with a stroke of his pen.

Candidate Clinton promised an abortion policy that would make abortion "rare." President Clinton's first executive act after his inauguration was to rescind the Reagan administration order restricting federal funding of abortion. Recently, he vetoed the ban on partial-birth abortion passed overwhelmingly by the House (which later overrode his veto) and the Senate.

And then there's Mr. Clinton's foreign policy. Remember the Somalia disaster? Remember President Clinton telling us that our troops would be in Haiti and Bosnia for only a short time. They're still there. And Sadaam Hussein is on the run. Right?

Regardless of what his lips tell us, President Clinton is a member of the party of the welfare state that, in the words of columnist David Horowitz, "bribes impoverished teenagers to have children out of wedlock and creates penalties for disadvantaged fathers who want to stay with their children." It is a party that "opposes opportunity scholarships for inner-city children; promotes bilingualism that keep the children of immigrant families functionally illiterate; supports racial and gender preferences which create a spoils system that is tearing the country apart; and has overspent the federal budget for 40 consecutive years".

In his book "Values Matter Most," Bea Wattenberg identifies Bill Clinton as "a tactical moderate and ideological liberal." Mr. Clinton had his liberal ticket punched by working for Sen. Fullbright, the leading opponent of the Vietnam war; at "the antiwar hothouse that was Oxford University"; as a "full blown anti-war organizer"; "as an artful draft avoider, or evader, or dodger considered conscientious objection"; at the liberal Yale University Law School and as an early campaigner for George McGovern. Despite all this, during the debate President Clinton's lips tried to convince us that he was not a liberal. Please.

Candidate Clinton promised an administration that "would look like America." It may look like America, but it doesn't think like America. Under the tutelage of Hillary Rodham Clinton, an affirmative action program was instituted which announced, in effect, that moderate and conservative Democrats need not apply. Race, gender, ethnicity, sexual preference and youth were the prime criteria for selection. President Clinton has produced an administration that is ardently committed to the ideals of the radical left, believes passionately that only more and bigger government can solve America's problems, and is ready and able to remake America into its own counter-culture image at our expense. All at the stroke of President Clinton's pen.

Remember Dr. Jocelyn Elders? As President Clinton's surgeon general she advocated legalization of drugs, condom distribution beginning in the third grade, and teaching children how to masturbate as part of the public school curriculum. I have lost count of the number of Clinton administration officials forced to resign because of questionable activities.

On November 5 Ukrainian Americans will have a clear choice when they walk into the voting booth. They can vote for lips or they can vote for trust. They can help turn America around or they can continue on Mr. Clinton's toll bridge to Gomorrah.