A Pair of Great Editorials in the Northwestern...

Editorial: Bush must do his part to heal a mother’s heart

Cindy Sheehan is a mother on a mission. Her 24-year-old son died in Iraq last year. Sheehan left her hometown of Vacaville, Calif., a week ago Saturday to camp out on the road to the president’s ranch near Crawford, Texas.

She wants to talk to the president about the Iraq War.

And the president is avoiding her.

How is this possible in the land of Southern hospitality? Texans are known for inviting strangers up to the iron patio furniture on the red brick veranda, offering some lemonade in a genteel fashion and listening with sincere interest. Bill Clinton’s Arkansans were the same way. So, too, were Jimmy Carter’s Georgians.

Here’s a word to the president’s advisers: you’re making a Texan look hard-hearted. Sheehan is becoming the poster child for opposition to the war. Put more trust in your man being able to handle his meeting a stranger without five aides and a teleprompter nearby. Tell Karl Rove to start squeezing some lemons.

President Bush should meet with Sheehan. It’ll surprise his aides who think the man can’t move without a script. The nation also will appreciate that our president can offer sincere consolation that is due to a mother who has suffered too much.

http://www.wisinfo.com/northwestern/news/opinion/stories/opinion_22174499.shtml


Editorial: Social Security can survive but agency change is inevitable

Seventy years ago today, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law an act that created Social Security. Now it’s time for Congress and President Bush to make 2005 the year that Social Security becomes fiscally sound.

Means testing should be one of those changes. Some people are so successful, they don’t need a government paycheck. There should be a national cut-off, somewhere in the middle six-digit income range, where people don’t get a Social Security check.

But those who are successful above the limits of means testing should continue to contribute part of their income into Social Security. The agency reflects a shared, national responsibility to caring for the aged and infirm. The privilege of living in a country where a person can be successful can carry with it the obligation to care in some way for our senior citizens or people with disabilities.

Finally, payroll taxes also have to be part of this discussion. Social Security payroll taxes increased starting in the 1980s. American businesses accepted it. There is room to discuss whether we should increase those taxes a little more in the name of solvency

http://www.wisinfo.com/northwestern/news/opinion/stories/opinion_22173662.shtml