Class Warfare

On the same day that the White House announced the menu for 10,000 of George and Laura's closest friends at this year's Christmas parties (e.g., "Display of Specialty Cheeses and Winter Fruits Served with a Bountiful Display of Lavish Specialty Crackers and Spiced Pecans"), the War on American Families continued with a seemingly innocuous notice posted on the White House website. Flagged only as a letter from the President to the House and Senate, George Bush announced his intention to slash by nearly 100 percent the planned pay raises for many Federal Government employees. These are employees who were due for locality pay adjustments in the New Year, but will not now get these adjustments. And what is the excuse for taking expected money away from hardworking Federal Families?

Such cost increases would threaten our efforts against terrorism or force deep cuts in discretionary spending or Federal employment to stay within budget. Neither outcome is acceptable. Therefore, I have determined that a locality pay increase of 0.5 percent would be appropriate for GS and certain other employees in January 2007. Our national situation precludes granting larger locality pay increases at this time.

It's really quite an achievement for the man who is borrowing $300 billion a year on the taxpayer tab to argue that an expense of a few billion dollars would break the budget, not to mention the ludicrous claim that we might not be able to catch Osama if hardworking Federal employees in Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Truckee, for example, got their scheduled payraise. So while the elite dig in to their "Colossal Shrimp Cocktail and Jonah Crab Claws," the Federal workers in the trenches have to plan on more coupon-clipping in 2007. Perhaps the white House expects that they'll be encouraged knowing their boss is such a regular guy that he serves "Chicken Fried Beef Tenderloin with White Onion Gravy." But in fact they'll see that the real War on Christmas is being fought on their paychecks.

--Dr. Frank Galton, D.Phil, Resident Scholar

Bush: Attacking the Family, Again

Anti-family forces have long been in control at the Bush Department of Health and Human Services. But the irony of Bush's latest appointment to lead the Office of Population Affairs could have been lost on no one except those who felt that John Bolton was an inspired choice to be U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. As Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs, Dr. Eric Keroack will be in charge of the Title X program, which has provided confidential and unbiased contraceptive services to women in need, without regard to age or income, for more than three decades. (That Title X was originally signed into law by President Richard M. Nixon and was called an urgent "public health matter" by George H.W. Bush in 1969 shows how far the anti-family Republican Party of today has strayed from its roots.) Dr. Keroack is an obstetrician-gynecologist who serves as the medical director of A Woman’s Concern, a so-called "crisis pregnancy center" which counsels women not to have abortions. AWC calls the distribution of birth control, for which Dr. Keroack will now be responsible in his new role at HHS, "demeaning to women, degrading of human sexuality and adverse to human health and happiness." To the patriot-haters in control of the Executive Branch of our government, it seems, forced unplanned child-bearing honors women and celebrates human sexuality.

--Dr. Carole Fisher-Ford, MD, MPH, Margaret Sanger Fellow