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Armey defends liberties Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://news.mysanantonio.com/story.cfm?xla=saen&xlb=180&xlc=887872http://news.mysanantonio.com/story.cfm?xla=saen&xlb=180&xlc=887872
Outgoing Armey sees civil liberties under siege
By Gary Martin
Express-News Washington Bureau
Web Posted : 12/07/2002 12:00 AM
WASHINGTON — House Majority Leader Dick Armey, the architect of the Republican takeover of Congress in the 1990s, praised GOP economic and social policies Friday, but warned leaders against encroachment on civil liberties in the war on terrorism.
Armey said lawmakers need to seek a balance that protects freedoms before it creates a national identification card, puts up spy cameras and encourages residents to snoop on each another.
"We the people had better keep an eye on 'We, the People,' that is our government, not out of contempt or lack of appreciation or disrespect, but of a sense of guardianship," Armey said in a farewell speech at the National Press Club.
Armey, 62, is stepping down after an 18-year career in the House of Representatives to spend more time with his wife, Susan, in Flower Mound, northwest of Dallas.
A former economics professor at the University of North Texas, Armey dismissed speculation that he'd be interested in an appointment by President Bush to replace Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill or White House economic adviser Larry Lindsey, both of whom resigned Friday.
"I don't believe I'll ever have another office, elective or otherwise, in the government," Armey said. "I've had the best. And I gave it up for something better — my wife."
O'Neill and Lindsey were forced to resign in a Bush administration shakeup to address political concerns about the plunging economy. Unemployment figures released Friday were at an eight-year high.
Bush is expected to quickly name a successor to O'Neill, and unveil a new package of tax cuts.
Armey said the struggling economy was damaged by the 1998 Justice Department suit against Microsoft, jolted by the Sept. 11, 2001,t attacks and further rocked by corporate scandals and congressional attempts to rein in white-collar wrongdoing.
"The economy has taken some pretty severe blows," he said.
Armey long has advocated free-market economic principles, and is the leading proponent for reform of the current tax code and replacing existing brackets with a flat tax on income.
The lanky Texan said a new package of tax cuts the Bush administration plans to propose would provide relief if they are targeted at disincentives that hamper the ability of Americans to save and financial investment to flow to growing industries.
"We are left with nothing but tax reduction policy and smart tax reduction policy as the only instrument of fiscal stimulus available to the federal government," Armey said. "And I believe that the White House has plans along those lines."
Armey praised former President Reagan for economic policies in the 1980s that had stymied U.S. presidents since Lyndon B. Johnson.
The supply-side economics Reagan imposed whipped inflation, but resulted in political fallout that caused Republicans to lose control of the Senate in 1982.
Twelve years later, Armey was the chief architect of the "Contract with America," the Republican manifesto used to capture control of the House of Representatives for the first time in 45 years.
Armey became the House majority leader, a powerful position that controls the legislative agenda.
He was a controversial leader, creating a stir in 1995 when he referred to openly homosexual lawmaker Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, as "Barney Fag." Armey claimed the remark was a slip of the tongue.
Armey again was the subject of controversy and barely survived a party challenge to his leadership post when he backed an aborted coup of former Speaker Newt Gingrich.
During his stint in Congress, Armey was an opponent of agricultural subsidies and the unabashed author of the base closure law that shuttered 97 military installations and 200 smaller facilities.
Many Texas cities, like San Antonio, suffered economic blows due to the closure of bases that the General Accounting Office estimates has saved $16.7 billion in operating expenses.
Kelly AFB in San Antonio, targeted in 1995, closed last year with the loss of 10,912 military and civilian jobs.
An effort by former President Clinton in 1995 to privatize jobs at the San Antonio base to dull the economic impact was publicly opposed by Armey and other Republicans who accused the White House of pandering to political interests.
gmartin@express-news.net
12/07/2002
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