Word: stockman
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...ADDITION to his considerable talents as a budget-cutter, David Stockman seems to have a gift for metaphor as well. By calling Ronald Reagan's supply-side economics program a "Trojan Horse" for the age-old trickle-down theory, he neatly captured its essential dishonesty and unworkability. But since Stockman also happened to be one of the chief purveyors of that program, the metaphor, however elegant, was bound to land him in a heap of trouble. Trouble came last week, in the form of a firm scolding by the president: the 34-year-old director of OMB barely escaped with...
...article, the misleads readers with his interpretation and quotes. He says the Atlantic Monthly article "describes in chilling terms just whom the [Reagan economic] plan benefits--the 'hogs' of American big business were 'really feeding' on a diet of special tax breaks." In fact the article referred to Stockman's disillusionment with special interests, not the ominous "big business" the Crimson writer imagines. To quote directly from the article's next sentence, "Stockman saw the 'new political climate' dissolve rather rapidly and be replaced by the reflexes of old politics. Every tax lobby in town, from tax credits for wood...
Somehow, though. Stockman's disenchantment with legislative politics induces the Crimson writer to declare, two sentences later, that "this is an administration engaged in a far-reaching war against the great mass of the American people in an effort to aid the wealthy." Unfortunately, for the Crimson writer, Stockman's shedding naivete, which is probably due in great part to his youth and the change in perspective which accompanies a switch from the legislative to the executive branches of government, can hardly be considered an indictment of supply-side economics...
...Stockman article also stimulates the Crimson writer to announce that Stockman's candor "provides the perfect opportunity for unraveling the deceit and sophistry which have characterized the administration's program." This seems to be pure rhetorical nonsense designed to fit his perceptions of the Reagan Administration as inherently evil. To say that the Administration lied by promising a better economy and then not delivering in the first 11 months of its existence, indeed, in the first two months since the tax bill went into effect, clearly shows more liberal frustration and impatience than any deceit on the part...
Admittedly, David Stockman was not in total agreement with all of the Administration's decisions, nor with the final bills passed by Congress. He voiced his dissent, was overruled, and resented the fact that politics interfered with the implementation of an ideology. Anyone who impartially reads the article, however skewed it may be and regardless of the principles of privacy it violates, will see that for themselves. I find it disturbing that such a realization was so inaccurately editorialized and hope that the Crimson employs more journalistic integrity in the future than it did in this piece, ironically entitled...