Congress' Last Good Deed
by Stephen Cox | Posted December 18, 2010
Inspired by a zeal for liberty, and by some very large political contributions, Congress has finally voted to stop the military’s harassment of gays. It would be churlish not to congratulate our legislators for doing this. Therefore, congratulations, legislators.
While burning this incense, I would like to recall some other good thing that the 111th Congress has done. I don’t mean a good thing with a lot of bad things attached, such as temporarily maintaining lower tax rates for people who are actually paying taxes, while increasing the amount of tax money diverted to people who aren’t. And I don’t mean failing, from sheer incompetence, to do a bad thing, such as passing out billions of dollars in gifts to congressmen’s friends, hidden in an “omnibus spending bill.”
I just mean something good.
Something that lets people live their own lives.
Something that lets people plan their own futures.
Something that lets people spend at least one day of their existence not worrying about what the government may do to them.
I’d like to think of something good like that, something that this Congress has done.
Well. I’m trying.
Still trying.
Can you think of anything?
Stephen Cox is editor of Liberty, and a professor of literature at the University of California San Diego. His recent books include "The Big House: Image and Reality of the American Prison" and "The New Testament and Literature."
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Comments
Tony
I would never go so far as to say that allowing diversity of sexual orientation into the military, with foreign policy being what it is, is a good thing. Superficially, sure, if one accepts the state's premises.
The way i see it, however, is that allowing gay people (openly) in the military is no different from allowing gay people (openly) in a criminal organization.
Rather than focusing on the sexual orientation of violent enforcers and demanding that bat-wielding aggressors be allowed to be sexually diverse and being subject to the left's rules of political correctness (which is all it is so long as the actual MURDER in illegal wars is not up for debate among Obama's worshippers), it may for any liberty-minded person have a higher priority to put an end to the crime, rather than the "intolerable" lack of tolerance among the criminals themselves.
Mon, 2010-12-27 13:41
Jon Harrison
Well, the Senate appears to be on the verge of ratifying the new START treaty. Does this meet the criteria set forth by Cox at the close of his brief essay? Perhaps not. Ratification will, however, stregthen relations with Russia (which is in our interest), and perhaps make the world a tiny bit safer. And that's good.
Mon, 2010-12-20 16:30
prolefeed
Re this phrasing: "I don’t mean a good thing with a lot of bad things attached, such as temporarily maintaining lower tax rates for people who are actually paying taxes, while increasing the amount of tax money diverted to people who aren’t."
I believe a more accurate phrasing of what transpired would be "temporarily not raising marginal federal income tax rates for people who are actually paying taxes ...".
Your phrasing might lead readers to believe that Congress might actually lower those marginal tax rates from the status quo.
Sun, 2010-12-19 12:50