Not a right, not a privilege

In nasty and bumbling comments made at the White House yesterday, President Bush declared that “”people just need to hear the truth”” about the firing of eight United States attorneys. …The Bush administration is trying to hide behind the doctrine of “”executive privilege.”” That term does not appear in the Constitution; the best Mr. Bush could do yesterday was a stammering reference to the separate branches of government. When presidents have tried to invoke this privilege, the courts have been skeptical. President Richard Nixon tried to withhold the Watergate tapes, but a unanimous Supreme Court ruled against him. It is no great surprise that top officials of this administration believe they do not need to testify before Congress. This is an administration that has shown over and over that it does not believe that the laws apply to it, and that it does not respect its co-equal branches of government. Congress should subpoena Mr. Rove and the others, and question them under oath, in public. If Congress has more questions, they should be recalled.

– The New York Times

A blueprint for red states?

Taxpayers have a right to have a federal government that does not grow beyond their ability to pay for it. First and foremost, we must restore fiscal discipline and find innovative new ways to do more with less. The federal budget cannot grow faster than American families’ ability to pay for it. Some look at our $8.8 trillion debt and say now is the time to raise taxes on hard-working Americans. They are wrong. We do not have an $8.8 trillion debt because Washington taxes too little; we have an $8.8 trillion debt because Washington spends too much. If families in America can tighten their belts, so too can bureaucrats in Washington. No more hidden earmarks. No more runaway entitlement spending. No more mortgaging our children’s future. No more bridges to nowhere.

– Jeb Hensarling in The Wall Street Journal

Dollars for diplomas

The ad’s message seems too good to be true, because it usually is. For-profit schools such as ITT Tech and the University of Phoenix Online make millions every year by exploiting people’s hopes and dreams of a better life, offering substandard education and degrees worth little more than the paper on which they are printed. While for-profit education has risen to meet a legitimate need in our society – that is, the need for vocational instruction and accelerated education to fit the schedules of working folks – the concept is inherently flawed. By definition, for-profit schools are driven by the bottom line. This leads to hiring unqualified instructors, 95 percent of whom are part-time and who teach slimmed-down, accelerated courses. For-profit schools’ main interest is in recruiting, because more students mean more federal aid dollars, and it makes little difference whether or not their students graduate.

– The University of Texas’ Daily Texan