The parable of an irresponsible homemaker explains what President Bush is doing with the trove of American assets under his control.
Picture the homemaker who has foolishly spent the family's savings on gambling and good times, and now, to replenish the bank account, is selling off the family furniture.
President Bush is doing precisely the same: After taking office, he went through several hundred billion dollars of surplus bequeathed by the Clinton administration by enacting unaffordable tax cuts, then launched an expensive (and some would say, unnecessary) war in Iraq, refused to rein in the national gluttony for oil through conservation, and now can't afford relief and restoration on the storm-crippled Gulf Coast.
Now, in a panic to fulfill long-neglected obligations at home, the president proposes to sell off upwards of 300,000 acres of public land to raise $1 billion dollars.
This would make sense if—and we double underscore the word "if"—President Bush had demonstrated fiscal prudence and had pinched the U.S. dollar until George Washington groaned.
The president has done no such thing.
The president still wants permanent tax cuts that cost yet more billions from the Treasury's empty cupboard. The indefinite "long war" in Iraq will cost more billions. If secret Pentagon plans include actions against a nuclear Iran, more billions will be needed.
Rather than ending unaffordable tax cuts or reining in spending in Iraq, the president would foolishly sell off public lands that are treasures beyond value and utterly irreplaceable once exploited by land developers and extraction industries.
This administration has a peculiar, chronic affinity for dispensing with public assets. It sacrifices clean air and water to polluting industries as part of political campaign deals. It wants to open roadless areas in forests to development.
Within hours of the land sale announcement, the Interior Department disclosed it would allow companies to pump $65 billion worth of oil and gas over five years from federal lands without paying a penny of the $7 billion in royalties normally due.
Idaho's U.S. Sen. Larry Craig, customarily acquiescent to Bush proposals, reacted with concern about selling off public lands. "Public lands are an asset that need to be managed and conserved," he said. Ditto for Republican Rep. Butch Otter: "I do not believe the president's proposal will be well received in Congress. ... "
Indeed. Spending lavishly while also irrationally cutting taxes, then selling off irreplaceable public assets is not apt to be well received in any quarter that values the nation's treasures.
