Remember, in 1992, President Clinton promised a middle-class tax cut then disavowed the idea after just three weeks in office. He said he would be a new Democrat, ostensibly, meaning a moderate one, and then proposed a 1400 page bureaucratic nightmare for a national health care system. He pledged to have the most ethical administration ever. I’ve lost count of the number of resignations, indictments and investigations that continue to plague his administration. The GOP, whether you agree with their vision or not, is at least keeping faith with the voters and fulfilling their campaign promises.

In regards to the President’s SIU visit, be wary of the fear-inducing sound-bites that will surely be rehearsed on Air Force One. Since November, the Democratic leadership has been cracking up over the prospect of losing some of the power they accrued through sixty years of raising taxes and fostering dependency. As a result, this promises to be a banner year for Democratic scare campaigns and the deliberate omission of pertinent facts. Since the Democrats find themselves losing the battle of ideas, they’ll have to frighten voters. As former-Democrat- turned Republican Sen, Richard Shelby said, The party is ideologically Bankrupt.

So be forewarned. The President will portray Republican plans to reign in the federal government as mean-spirited, resulting in dirty air and water, starving children, and senior citizens having their Medicare benefits cut (the President’s own Medicare Board of Trustees warns of bankruptcy if nothing is done). Even under the proposed GOP budget cuts, the federal budget still rises from $1.5 trillion to over $1.8 trillion in seven years. Some cut!

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In this speech, however, President Clinton’s most grandiose vision of terror will center on the death of education proffered by the evil Republican revolutionaries. The fact is that under the Republican budget, student loan funds will grow from $24 billion this year to $36 billion in 2002a 50% increase. Pell Grants will increase from $2,340 to $2,440the largest increase in a single year. Graduate students will be marginally affected by having to pay back interest on loanswhich are now subsidized by tax payers when they graduate and get a job (Alice Rivlin, a Clinton appointee, originated this idea). Even a Washington Post editorial writer noted in Dec. 1994 that, America’s schools are not noticeably better because a Dept. of Education was created.

What SIU students should really fear is graduating into an economy with anemic growth, stagnating incomes, and federal, state and local governments take that 42 out of every 100 dollars they earn. According to the Congressional Budget Office, our national debt will top $6 trillion by the year 2002, leaving children born in 1995 with about $187,000 dollars in taxes over their lifetime just to service the national debt. And if the status quo continues, early in the next century all federal revenues collected will go into entitlements and interest payments on the debt, leaving us with unconscionable tax rates and no discretionary money left over for any social spending. In short, we’ll have the economy of Mexico, with no one to bail us out and no rivers to cross.

The President and his party need to cease the tired classwarfare rhetoric, the incessant scare tactics aimed at seniors, the habitual reliance on government programs, and begin to work for the future of all Americans. To borrow from the title of our own Sen. Paul Simon’s book, We Can Do Better.

Darren Boch, vice president, SIUC College Republicans