Broom of the System
The Clean Air Option
Under the current version of the act, which has been amended significantly since passage, the EPA is required to control “any air pollutant” emanating from a motor vehicle that contributes to “air pollution which may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare.” Enforcing this is not optional; indeed, the Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that the Clean Air Act requires the EPA to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions, given their contribution to climate change. To comply, the EPA has adopted regulations controlling car emissions that will require car companies’ fleets to average 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016. Additional regulations controlling emissions from power plants are expected shortly.
In Defense of the Cornhusker Kickback
Just as critically, this bill will finally establish the provision of basic health services as the responsibility of the federal government. Before this bill, America was a country where the government could disclaim responsibility when its citizens suffered and died early due to diseases beyond their control. Now, such cruel neglect is not an option.
Negative Approach
The problem is that this has been tried before. In 1986, Senator Bill Bradley (D-N.J.) and Congressman Dick Gephardt (D-Mont.) wrote and President Reagan signed a similar proposal, which paid for a sharp cut in the top income tax bracket by radically reducing the number of deductions and tax incentives. While by no means perfect, it was a worthwhile measure that ended numerous special interest carve-outs in the tax code. Or rather, delayed them. Within a few years of passage, many of the same incentives returned due to aggressive corporate pressure, and eventually we arrived at our current code, which is complicated enough to spur simplification efforts like Wyden and Gregg’s. Do today’s reformers really expect a more permanent fate for their effort?
Old Ideas from Another Place
While most of the content is free of editorial comment, the program’s treatment of one event stands out. As the year 2007 begins, the narrator of the video intones, “The U.S. undertakes a surge of more troops in Iraq. Opponents say it won’t work. It does.”
