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In
his book “1984,” George Orwell described a
society controlled by a government whose Ministry of
Truth rewrote history. The government’s slogan
was, “Who controls the past, controls the
future.” Orwell’s totalitarians also invented a
new language, “newspeak,” which transformed the
meaning of words: “War is Peace,” “Freedom is
Slavery,” and “Ignorance is Strength.”
The
novel, written in 1949, was prophetic. Not only did
it describe the totalitarian regimes of Orwell’s
era, it predicted the political correctness, spin
and doublespeak of our own, supposedly democratic
millennium. The similarities are uncanny.
Consider
some of Gov. Mark R. Warner’s statements about our
state budget. For example, he claims to have cut
$6.0 billion from the budget, whereas during his tenure
state
spending has increased by $2.5 billion. In
Orwell’s newspeak, that would be coined
“Spending is Cuts.”
Orwell
would have loved the fact that our governor insists
that we need to increase taxes to be able to afford
additional tax cuts. In newspeak that could be
phrased as “tax increases are tax cuts.”
Then
the governor maintains that we cannot grow our way
out of the present budgetary predicament, that’s
why we need to increase taxes. When he submitted his
budget, he projected the growth in state revenues at
over 11 percent, yet insisted that we needed to grow
government spending by more than 13 percent, hence
the need for a $1 billion tax increase.
The
latest figures quietly released by the
administration show that state revenues are now
projected to grow by more than 15 percent, which by
using old math, is at least 2 percentage points higher
than the governor’s proposed 13 percent spending
increase.
Yet our governor still tells his audiences that
we’re in a dire fiscal predicament and tax
increases are unavoidable.
I’m
not sure how Orwell would coin this in newspeak;
perhaps, “15 percent revenue growth is not enough
to cover 13 percent increase in spending.”
Our
good governor campaigned on a “read my lips — no
new taxes” promise and is now actively thwarting
the will of the people who elected him based on his
“no tax increase” platform. Had only former
President Bush used the art of newspeak in the 1992
campaign, Bill Clinton and the era of “it depends
of what the meaning of ‘is,’ is” would never
had come to light.
As
recently as last year, Gov. Warner said: “What I
believe the people of Virginia
want is they want people who are going to keep their
promises.” This is from the same guy who promised
no new taxes and is now proposing the largest tax
increase in the history of Virginia. Can you spell “P-i-n-o-c-c-h-i-o?”
In
Greek tragedies, hubris is usually the hero’s
tragic flaw. Can our governor expect a tragic ending
to the arrogant path he’s been following since he
was elected?
In
2002, Warner suffered a humiliating defeat after
campaigning in favor of the sales tax referendum
while the voters resoundingly voted against higher
taxes. Instead of learning his lesson our governor
went back to the drawing board.
He
now seeks even higher taxes, while making sure that
voters are not given a choice or allowed to
participate in the debate. One would surmise that in
Warner’s newspeak “a vote for no new taxes is a
vote for higher taxes.”
No
wonder the United Seniors Association has printed
political signs with the caption “Mark Warner
Lied.” Would voters have elected Warner in 2001
had he openly admitted that he’s a liar who cannot
be trusted?
Unfortunately,
Warner has a number of willing accomplices in the state
Senate. These Republican senators all faced
challengers last year and campaigned on anti-tax
platforms. Now that they have been safely re-elected
for another four years, they are proposing even
higher taxes than Warner.
Is
this the sort of dishonesty we have come to expect
from our politicians? No wonder less than 50 percent
of the eligible voters bother to vote in national
elections. The numbers are considerably lower for
state and local elections.
Unless
we return to the days when a politician’s word was
his bond — remember George Washington and “I
cannot tell a lie” — more and more voters will
become disgusted and drop out of the political
process.
--
February 16, 2004
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