Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 24, 1993)
Sam ki im ii ld Clinton’s vocabulary deceiving Call me unpatriotic. I don’t want to “sacrifice." I refuse to “contribute.” I am wary of “change.” That, in the prevailing political lexicon, makes me an evil minion of “business as usual.” But, given the tactics being used by the Clinton ad ministration, I could just as easily be a “double-plus-ungood thought crimi nal.” George Orwell correctly observed SO years ago that control of language was the most powerful tool available to those who would lead us. By defin ing the vocabulary, you define the debate. You also get to define your en emies. Clinton has mastered this form of class warfare. His State of the Union speech, assailing the rich, was nothing more than a southern-fried two minute’s hate. Ah, were he only capable of such brevity. The White House has embarked upon a program of national brain washing taken straight out of “1984.” It began during the campaign and continued apace through the transi tion. The truly amazing thing is that people seem to be buying into it Remember in the primaries when Clinton attacked Paul Tsongas and later Ross Perot for a gasoline tax? Remember when Clinton made a middle-class tax cut the centerpiece of his campaign, and vilified the Bush campaign for suggesting that tax in creases mightextend down to $36,000 per-year incomes? Remember when he attacked Tsongas again for alleg edly wanting to means-test Social Security? How short is the memory of the American people. Clinton is now back ing an energy tax. Clinton ’sown press secretary admitted that people mak ing $30,000 would probably see their taxes go up, not down. And Clinton wants to raise the percentage of Social Security income subject to taxation from 50 percent to 85 percent, and he has the gall to call it a “spending cut” This is only the beginning of a litany of lies and broken promises, and is one facet of a massive rewrite of history that would make Orwell and Joe Stalin beam with pride. rather than what it is, a tax increase. This is drily the beginning of a litany of lies and broken promises, and is one facet of a massive rewrite of history that would make Orwell and Joe Stalin beam with pride. The revision and the language al terations are so pervasive that one needs a dictionary to keep pace. Here are a few of the more blatant, over used terms. •Contribution: This means “taxes” in ordinary English. “Broad-based contribution” means high taxes. • Sacrifice: This is a reformula tion of the old “misery index.” Liber als and statists want to sell their pro gram on pain and guilt, as a penance for “the 1980s” (see below). • Change: We were told that the country was on the wrong track, that we had to have “the courage to change,” but we were never told what that “change” was. Now we know. If you loved the late ’70s, change is for you. •Investment: Government spend ing for socialist welfare state pro grams. This is good. • Consumption: Private spending by individuals on things they want with money they earn. This is bad. • The rich: Clinton originally said everyone making over $200,000 per year was rich, and that millionaires would pay a 10 percent surtax. Now, everyone making over $180,000 per year is “rich,” and the surtax will be on those making $250,000 pa- year. • “The 1980s” (also known as “12 years of Reagan-Bush”): A dark and dismal period in our nation’s history when we had 93 months of sustained growth, lower interest rates, lower inflation, more taxes being paid by the rich, and 20 million jobs created; the root of all evil today. If one still wants to blame the “ 12 years of Reagan-Bush,” look at the Constitution, Article 1, sections 7 and 8, which gives the Democrat-con trolled Congress the power to tax and spend. Deficits soared when Congress voted tax increases in 1982 and 1990 and then welshed on promised spend ing cuts. The problem is not “the decade of greed,” and the solution is not “sacri fice” and “contribution.” The prob lem is that in this country, govern ment has consistently failed to distin guish between what is essential — defense, and what is merely a good idea — the National Endowment for ' the Arts. The problem is too much govern ment. The solution is not sacrifice, but that the government sacrifices. It will be a difficult task to remem ber this for the four-year onslaught of Clinton’s newspeak. I offer my list as a public service, subject to addition and revision at any moment — or eradication by Big Bubba. Remem ber it in 1996, when we escape from “1984.” Kepfldd is a graduate student in history, an alumnus of the UNLCoUefe of Law and a Daily Nebraskan columnist. 1)1 15 Me \D \MS UNL wasteful spending abounds Going to college is like living in a shell. Every day there are I deadlines. Sneeze and you get behind. Survival makes 20,000 of us into little centers of the universe. Some days the tantamount challenge for a student is getting out of bed. We lose sight of the challenges faced by the other 99 percent of Nebraska’s popu lation, the people who pay for this university. Some of them have been scroung ing up the payment for a combine that’s stuck up to the axle in a muddy fieldof $2. lOcom. Elsewhere, people look at an expanse of shredded crops waiting for a hail insurance check. These people have really benefited from the classics department of their local land grant university. Their ob jections to UNL budget cuts are forth coming. Locally owned businesses, the life blood of small towns, are folding in the shadow of Wal-Martdom. The types of job opportunities created by giant discount chains pay about 60 cents an hour after child-care and ordinary employment overhead. These people will gladly shoulder a greater tax burden for a college that they can’t afford to attend, especially when the president is going to take them by their collective pant legs and shake the change out of their pockets. The country, the state, UNL and a lot of individuals are suffering a hang over from the compulsive spending of the ’80s. We all got something that should never have been invented: lines of credit. We all counted on some thing that never materialized: grow ing income. It was the age of financial planning at its finest. . Poor financial planning, in my household means more bike ndes and Poor financial insight on the part of UNL means that Richards Hall will cave in while UNL swallows up real estate like The Blob. cheaper toilet paper. Poor financial insight on the part of UNL means that Richards Hall will cave in while UNL swallows up real estate like The Blob. It means time and money sinking into an aggressive capital improvement plan when en rollment is growing by a whole stu dent per year. It means one university employee to every four students in a bureaucracy that would make old Kremlin hard-liners blush. Government jobs are among the best in the state. They offer health care, cost-of-living raises and the best retirement plans available. Plenty of Nebraska taxpayers can’t afford health insurance and they look forward to a diet of Friskies in their retirement. Even now, they are probably rallying for a tax increase to support bureau crats who systemize logistical policy options and integrate transitional ca pability projections. Taxpayers will be eager to foot the bill for the new monolith that is re placing the old Malone neighborhood. Will our good friends at Dow bankroll all of those geneticists for the Beadle Center? Will Pioneer Seed hire the Merry Maids to clean it? Has a kindly benefactor set up a trust fund to cover the services of Recycle with Michael, or maybe Gino’s Genetic Refuse Ser vice? The utility costs alone for the Beadle Center wil 1 probably be enough to finance the classics department in perpetuity. The biggest ticket item on all new construction is “cost over runs." Taxpayers never see the actual figures, but the “cost overruns” on a project the size of the Beadle Center may be enough to rebuild Richards Hall and Love Library. It behooves our student leaders to be photographed telling those evil legislators that UNL cannot survive more budget cuts. It certainly appears to be more dignified than shrieking about prayer at commencement, and it allows the administration to relax while their student body bulldog chews on the mailman’s leg. Twenty thousand centers of the universe can object to budget cuts until they’re blue in the face. The reality remains. Those cuts are immi nent. Students would be better served by inundating their chancellor with lists of the wasteful spending that they see. Since we already have the cheap est toilet paper on earth, I’ll start by suggesting a chartered bicycle the next timeone of the regent’s progeny needs a tutor. McAdams is a sophomore news-editorial major and a Daily Nebraskan columnist P.S. Write Back The Daily Nebraskan wants to hear from you. If you want to voice your opinion about an article that appears in the newspaper, let us know. Just write a brief letter to the editor and sign it (don't forget your student ID number) and mail it to the Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 'R' Street, Lincoln, NE 68588-0488, or stop by the office in the basement of the Nebraska Union and visit with us. We’re all ears. Summer Editor In Chief The Daily Nebraskan is accepting applications for the 1993 summer editor in chief. Applicants must have one year of newspaper experience, preferably at the Daily Nebraskan, ana be a student at the University of Ne braska-Lincoln this spring, summer or fall. The editor in chief formulates editorial policy/ determines guidelines for tne daily opera tion of the newsroom/ hires the senior editorial staff/ helps de termine the content of the edito rial page, prepares the editorial salary budget and reports to the Publications Board. The Daily Nebraskan is pub lished weekly during the two five-week sessions plus a New Student Enrollment issue. Applications are available in the Daily Nebraskan office, basement of the Nebraska Union, and must be returned with writing samples by 3 p,m., Feb. 26. Nebraskan UNL does not discriminate in its academic, admissions or employment programs and abides by all federal regulations pertaining to same. It's a Campus-Wide Date Dash! Win Dinner For Two at Bring a date (or a friend) to the UNL Women's Basketball game Sunday, Feb. 28, at 2:00 p.m. and sign up to win dinner for two at Bum Steer Steaks. You must be present to win, so come to the game and support the Huskers in their quest for a Big Eight title as they battle the Cyclones of Iowa State! MAKE HIGH MARKS With lifts that take you well above the treeline, Loveland lets you leave your mark on 60 fun and exciting runs that get an average of 375 indies of snow every year * * lift ticket ($24 with advance pur chase and even less with our money-saving Student Loan Pass). Loveland. The educated's choice in skiing. For information on ' lessons, group skiing, and the Student Loan Pass, call 571-5580.
