It will be interesting to see

during the next election whether the American people have been paying

attention.

If they have, then they'll

understand that Senate Democrats, spurred on by Majority Leader Tom Daschle,

have deliberately prevented them from getting any tax relief. In fact,

they have blocked the entire economic stimulus package, even though the

president and the House have made numerous concessions to their points

of view.

In fact, after all the concessions,

their only remaining flimsy excuse is their objection to the retroactive

repeal of the alternative minimum tax for corporations.

Would somebody please tell

Mr. Daschle the simple fact that corporations do not pay taxes they merely

collect them from customers and stockholders, all of whom are individual

humans.

And while you're at it, please

inform him that pouring more billions into unemployment programs will

not get people their jobs back. How do you get them their jobs back? Pay

close attention, Mr. Daschle. I'll speak slowly.

YOU HELP CORPORATIONS SURVIVE

AND PROSPER!

One other complaint Democrats

have is also a well worn one tax cuts for the super rich. If you're super

rich, apparently meaning a household income of more than $46,700, Republicans

want to give you a measly 2 percent reduction, from 27 to 25 percent taxation.

Daschle's willing to compromise

and drop it to 26 percent. Be still my beating heart!

Watching Daschle block economic

stimulus is kind of like watching a football team, behind with seconds

on the clock, call one running play after another and make no attempt

to get out of bounds.

One would almost get the impression

that Daschle, Gephardt et al WANT the economy to crumble.

Do they honestly think that

people will then believe them when they blame the whole thing on Bush

and the Republicans?

I'll answer my own question.

Of course they do. It's number one in their play book. The old Statue

of Liberty reverse.

Whether it will work as well

this time, with the spin master no longer in the White House, remains

to be seen. You can bet that CNN and the rest of the Clinton lap dogs

will be fighting like pit bulls to get air time with Hillary during the

election months, so we'll see whether she's as good an actor as her hubby.

Meanwhile, on the other side

of the coin, many Republicans are wondering why Bush hasn't made more

use of the Bully Pulpit to help them ram the stimulus package through

the log jam.

Well, it's not like he hasn't

addressed the nation. You say you haven't seen any of these addresses?

I can't imagine why not, other than the fact that none of the major networks

carry them. If you watch the evening news, you might catch a 10-second

snippet. Or look for the three-graph summary on page 19A of the AJC.

It's possible that by the time

you read this, a compromise will have been reached and the stimulus package

will have been passed.

It doesn't change anything.

It's still been held up for far too long while the economy slowly languished.

Merry Christmas.