Wes Vernon, NewsMax.com
Saturday, Dec. 7, 2002

Speaking at a luncheon meeting of the National Press Club, Armey, who pondered long and hard before finally voting for the Bush administration’s Homeland Security Bill last month, warned Americans that their liberties were “in peril” of being sacrificed for another important right and concern: personal safety.

Citing the long-accepted American luxury of “sitting home” while “sending our heroes off to fight,” the Texas lawmaker, who retires from Congress next month, noted that the terror threat has already hit us “in our own neighborhood.” This in turn has made some Americans all too willing to give up some cherished freedoms.

“What I fear,” he said, is that we may cross the “fine line” in favor of government intrusions.

“Now, I’ll tell you ladies and gentlemen, we will be safe if we had a cop on every corner. We will be safe if we have a spy camera in every home. We’ll at least be safer.

"We’ll be safer if we have an elaborate system by which we … spy on one another, and report it to the proper authorities. We would probably be safer if we had a national identification card. We may be safer, in fact, if we can snoop in the Internet and read everybody’s e-mail. There are many authorities that we can extend to this government that will make us safer,” Armey said.

“But will we be free?”

Crossing that “fine line” is not an easy task, he acknowledged, but it is well to remember, “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.”

On Iraq

Congressman Armey, who early expressed skepticism about going to war with Iraq, praised President Bush, who, unlike some others he “could name off the top of my head,” made it clear that with or without permission from the United Nations, he would deal with Iraq in a way that is consistent with American interests.

In answer to a question submitted by NewsMax.com, Armey said if that means the president tells Saddam Hussein “We will get you,” so be it, because the Iraqi dictator is highly capable of hiding weapons.” The president gets high marks from the congressman for combining “patience with a firm assertiveness.”

In the Q&A period, the Texas Republican begged off passing judgment on the departure of Treasury Secretary Paul O”Neill and White House economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey. “I appreciate and respect both of those two fellows,” but that is “an internal decision at the White House,” he said.

However, Armey went on to say that “in the end, we are left with nothing but tax reduction policy and smart tax reduction policy as the only fiscal stimulus available to the federal government, and I believe that the White House has plans along that line.”

O’Neill was recently quoted in an overseas interview as making comments interpreted as a call for an increase in taxes. The White House will not say whether he and Lindsey were asked to resign.

When Armey was asked if he himself, a former economics professor, would accept a nomination for treasury secretary, he replied he was “leaving the best job in Washington” and that “I love the House of Representatives … but I gave it up for something better: my wife.”

Tax Relief, Education, Retirement Security

Relieving Americans of excessive taxation is a matter of “decency,” in Congressman Armey’s view, and is one of the three top priorities, at least after privacy, that he urged upon policy-makers in future years. Armey, who has advocated a flat tax, said the current tax code is motivated by “income distribution and social engineering.”

The Texan’s second farewell policy point, after 18 years in Washington, is a decent education that puts children first, rather than giving priority to special-interest groups. He did not mention teachers unions by name. Anything less than the best education is “immoral,” Armey declared.

Finally, retirement security should be reformed through “a serious adult policy debate,” as opposed to the demagoguery that has been present in much of the campaign rhetoric over the years. It is hard to imagine a retirement savings account plan that would provide any less to the retiree than what the current Social Security law offers, Armey opined.

Noting by implication that in last month’s election, the voters became tone-deaf to the old slam about throwing grandma down the stairs or out in the snow, the congressman warned, “The American people will not tolerate us ignoring this any longer.”

The Social Security program is on a course to go broke. A voluntary retirement savings account program for younger workers is viewed as one viable alternative to either bankruptcy or intolerably huge taxation to avoid for it.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:

Bush Administration

Homeland/Civil Defense

Privacy

RNC

Saddam Hussein/Iraq

School Choice

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