There is a secret process which occurs around the State of the Union Address in Washington. An advance text is released to the press late in the afternoon with the words "EMBARGOED UNTIL DELIVERY" across the top and woe betide the news organization which releases it on their web page early.
Copies are also made available to Members of the House and Senate at about the same time, although the Reagan folks tried to keep texts out of the hands of Members so there wasn't a WHOOSH in the House Chamber when everyone who was following along turned the page simultaneously.
This is how you get those intense Capitol Hill TV correspondents giving you the inside scoop (... the President is expected to say ...) starting with the evening newscasts. And this his how reporters and politicians get to sound so smart talking about the speech just seconds after hearing it.
Which brings us to the President's midday speech in Chicago yesterday laying out the details of his plan to stimulate the economy.
Enough was known about the details by Sunday that the New York Times ("White House Aides Launch a Defense of Bush Tax Plan: Say Many would Benefit") and the Washington Post ("Bush Will Propose Larger Stimulus: $674 Billion Initiative Accelerates Tax Cuts") each ran major front page stories about the plan in the editions people found on their doorsteps hours before the speech was actually delivered.
House Democrats felt safe in releasing their plan a day early for which the Times rewarded them with a third subhead atop the main story ("Democrats Offer an Alternative and Maintain the President is Favoring the Wealthy") which is a long enough sub-sub-headline to qualify as a lead paragraph.
Like a State of the Union Address reaction (called a REE-act in the trade as in "Can I get your boss for a quick REE-act to the President's plan?) anyone who has been around here long enough could have written the Republican-Democratic-Left-Moderate-Right versions of the reacts without even hearing the President's speech.
In fact, the AP's Scott Lindlaw, in his piece which was filed minutes after the President's speech, wrote: "Democrats offered their own rival plan and hurled PREDICTABLE charges that Bush's plan was a budget-buster that favored his rich supporters." (emphasis, of course, mine)
It is interesting to note that the Democrats' plan is not a stimulus bill in the traditional sense. Their centerpiece is a tax rebate rather than a whole slew of new spending programs to, as we used to say, prime the pump. The lessons of the 2002 elections were not lost on the Democrats who were afraid to say they wanted to raise taxes then - and are afraid to introduce new spending now.
It is unclear how the Democrats would rebate tax money to people who never paid any taxes in the first place, but that's a subject for a different column.
The details of the two plans are freely available in your local newspaper, but the constant wail of distress by the Democrats and the major dailies' editorial writers about this favor-the-rich business needs to be whacked down.
We don't have to go back in time very far to remember the Democrats, and their allies in the media, wringing their hands over the state of 401k plans that millions of working Americans are depending upon for their retirement. The end of taxing dividends will likely increase share prices and, therefore, increase the value of those 401k's.
Today that is the part of the President's plan which the Dems claim "favors his rich supporters."
Here's what's going to happen: Extension of unemployment benefits will be done within days - if not within hours.
The House will give the President 90% of what he wants in the overall package. The Senate - after much gnashing of teeth - will give the president 75% of what he wants. The House and Senate will gnash some more in Conference Committee and they will split the difference.
Result? President Bush wins. Again.
On the Secret Decoder Ring today: A link to the White House Fact Sheet, a fascinating catchy caption, and a Mullfoto of a Mullings favorite new Congressman .
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