One
day last week, Albany and Washington tag-teamed for a pair of events. And it
sounds like little will be done to heal America’s injuries.

            That’s the message that came wrapped
in George Pataki’s 2004 state budget address and George W. Bush’s annual State
of the Union speech.

            If you listened to both speeches,
you saw how Pataki and Bush are unlike each other. (They have some real
philosophical differences on the environment and certain social policies, as
well.) But it’s equally clear their economic views and programs are cribbed
from the same answer sheet.

            To see how that’s so, look at some
of the lowlights in Governor P’s and President B’s remarks:

•
Employment Plan P. The governor says
his goal is creating one million new private-sector jobs by 2010, and he claims
his policies, including tax cuts, have created a half-million new jobs. As
you’d expect, the state workforce grows or shrinks with population change, the
ups and downs of the economy, and so forth. But one unmistakable and relentless
trend under Pataki is the loss of higher-paying manufacturing jobs, which are
then replaced by lower-paying service jobs. (The Albany-based Economic Policy
Institute says this trend is “more pronounced” in New York State than
in the US as a whole.) And Pataki seems to think the only good public-sector job is a dead one. In his
budget address, he brags that the “state workforce is leaner and more
productive than ever,” with “23,000 fewer employees” than in
1995. And by the way, the governor opposes raising the state minimum wage from
its current depressed level, $5.15 an hour. His position is that the state
minimum should be tied to the federal minimum. (Let them eat consistency?)

            • Employment Plan B. Like Pataki, Bush’s “agenda for jobs and
growth” hypes tax cuts as the road to paradise. Specifically, he says he
wants Congress to make the already-enacted cuts permanent, including what he
calls the “death tax” — the inheritance tax on sizable estates,
probably the most progressive tax we’ve got. Bush’s attempt to kill this tax is
pure trickle-down economics, and a gift to high-roller heirs at the expense of
working people. Anyway, Bush’s real agenda is obvious in his support for
labor-law changes that deny overtime pay to many workers who now qualify for
it. Bush says Americans are the “hardest working” people in the
world. One thing’s for sure: If he prevails, millions of Americans will be
working that much harder and longer to make ends meet.

•
Health Care Plan P. The governor
repeats what he said in his State of the State earlier this month: New York has
“the best health care system in the nation.” And it’s only getting
better, to hear him tell it, because of Child Health Plus and Healthy New York
and other add-on programs that cover the uncovered. But Pataki chucks Medicaid,
the health-care program for the poor and disabled and many seniors in nursing
homes, in another hopper, the one marked “major surgery.” His
“multi-year” state takeover of Medicaid would lift the financial
burden from the counties, but he also wants to slash hundreds of millions of
dollars worth of Medicaid services. His plan, says the statewide Medicaid
Matters coalition, would eliminate some dental and vision benefits, increase
co-payments for prescription drugs, and force many families to spend down their
assets — impoverish themselves, actually —- to qualify for Medicaid
long-term care.

            • Health Care Plan B. On this subject, Bush’s State of the Union
leads with a cheap pun: “A government-run health care system is the wrong
prescription.” Instead, Bush offers stuff like “association health
plans,” which would let small businesses and groups join together to buy
health insurance. AHPs might opt for “self-insurance,” putting more
financial burden on other insurance pools; and they might also be exempt from
state regs, which is why the National Governors Association opposes them. Also,
Bush is still talking about “health savings accounts,” which give tax
advantages to people who save for unforeseen medical expenses. (If you can’t
afford this option, do what other poor folks do to save on medical: Don’t get
sick.) Basically, Bush says the health care system you see is what you’ll get.
Like Pataki, he wants health care in employers’ hands. (Many Rochester Kodakers
will soon find out this means “going naked.” Meanwhile, workers at
Kodak plants in Canada and France, countries with national health plans, will
still be covered if they’re laid off.)

•
Education Plan P. The governor
accentuates the positive: His budget, he says, will boost state school aid by
$150 million, up to a total of $14.6 billion. New York City alone, he says,
will get $5.4 billion, and $100 million of this will go to “schools with
the greatest need.” (He doesn’t mention the fact that the state is under a
court order to do this, or that he fought in court against a citizens’ campaign
to make the school-aid formula fairer.) He also rolls the dice, with a proposal
to expand gambling to fund schools. A lottery terminal in every garage? That’s
weird policy — and a hidden tax.

            • Education Plan B. Bush claims federal school funding has climbed 36
percent since 2001. But it’s hardly keeping up with increases in school
enrollment and new federal mandates. Washington still does schooling on the
cheap: Annual fed spending on education is around a tenth of the typical Bush
Pentagon budget. Still, Bush really works at keeping his pet rock, the No Child
Left Behind Act, in the public eye. He claims this law “is opening the
door of opportunity to all of America’s children.” Mostly the law is
holding the door open to the testing room. On that subject: It’s instructive to
compare the rhetoric to recent news from the Houston public school system, over
which former Texas Governor George W. Bush had some influence. In recent years,
the Houston schools have been put up as evidence that a “well-tested”
approach works wonders. Now it’s been revealed that Houston officials were
cooking data, and not in Home Ec. They made things look great by fudging the
number of drop-outs and writing creative essays about outcomes.

This article appears in Jan 28 – Feb 3, 2004.