All for what?
All for what?
Updated 00:49am (Mla time) Nov 10, 2004
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the November 10, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
WHAT is the best way to describe the Palace spin that it proclaimed a potential fiscal crisis just to get the sin tax bill passed? It was like shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theater so the janitors could clean it.
Granting for a moment, that this was the real intention of the administration, it was an extremely harmful way to get things done. It involved spending a tremendous amount of political capital just to get a law through Congress.
But it is precisely the Palace's current spin on things -- that it was willing to sow near-panic to instill a sense of emergency to enable the passage of a law -- that makes us question the administration's saying that since it got what it wanted in Congress, everything will be okay.
What the administration did politically -- going for broke, in gambler's terms, or indulging in brinksmanship, or rushing the country to the edge of political and economic panic just to get the opposition to blink, in political speak -- it has been doing financially. That is to say that it speaks very poorly of an administration when it is willing to manipulate national emotions while apparently cynically knowing it was using the better nature of people to achieve short-term political ends. In proclaiming the potential of a fiscal crisis in a manner that implied it might actually almost be upon us, the President played fast and loose with public opinion, against, it must be said, the better judgment of her more prudent advisers. They were rather taken aback by the President's not bothering to take a nuanced position. The way she expressed it, the sky might not just fall, it was actually falling.
Her people went with her and with the country, which went into as close to a frenzy of patriotic fervor as can be summoned in these tiring times. A sense of purpose captivated the country, at least for a time. Any administration is lucky if it can summon similar levels of emotion and concern; this administration came pretty close and it is well to remember it can only do so once. Having said it was all a scheme to pressure Congress, the President can be sure neither Congress nor the country will be easily convinced to believe her the next time she says there's a matter for national concern.
The fact is the fiscal standing of the government remains a cause for concern. The national debt still stands close to the P5.5 trillion mark; the budget deficit is still immense at about P200 billion; the economy is still wobbly. The Palace may have spun a sense of fiscal urgency to foist the cooperation of Congress, but the economists have weighed in saying there's more to a potential fiscal crisis than the barking of administration propagandists.
Aside from the figures concerning the government's finances, there, too, remain other causes for concern that won't go away simply because the President tells the country to stop worrying. There is the growing number of offices and presidential appointees, with their accompanying perks and privileges. There is the harsh reality of a dwindling taxpayer base and the unchecked evasion or avoidance of tax payments by big taxpayers. There continues the insatiable appetite for pork barrel of Congress.
If the President feels she can tell everyone to relax after getting only one out of the eight tax measures she has proposed (and which Congress, in fact, still has to pass), she is either incredibly clever or frighteningly arrogant. In reaction to the Palace's pronouncements, the opposition is showing signs of being disinterested in cooperating to pass the other tax measures. The President may not care since she has overwhelming numbers in Congress, but what if everyone in government now refuses to do any belt tightening? What about the tax evaders and cheats, who will think they are now off the hook?
Shouting "Fire!" to clear the theater certainly works, but no one will trust the theater owner again. Imagine if the theater owner decided to panic people because the theater's engineer told his boss there was faulty wiring and there was actually the potential danger of fire. An ordinary person would consider such behavior lunatic, but this is not an ordinary country governed by ordinary people. It is a country where a President, with a factual basis for declaring an emergency, actually declares such an emergency not to prevent it, but to put a stop to the skepticism of those who are not fully convinced of the emergency.
Updated 00:49am (Mla time) Nov 10, 2004
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the November 10, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
WHAT is the best way to describe the Palace spin that it proclaimed a potential fiscal crisis just to get the sin tax bill passed? It was like shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theater so the janitors could clean it.
Granting for a moment, that this was the real intention of the administration, it was an extremely harmful way to get things done. It involved spending a tremendous amount of political capital just to get a law through Congress.
But it is precisely the Palace's current spin on things -- that it was willing to sow near-panic to instill a sense of emergency to enable the passage of a law -- that makes us question the administration's saying that since it got what it wanted in Congress, everything will be okay.
What the administration did politically -- going for broke, in gambler's terms, or indulging in brinksmanship, or rushing the country to the edge of political and economic panic just to get the opposition to blink, in political speak -- it has been doing financially. That is to say that it speaks very poorly of an administration when it is willing to manipulate national emotions while apparently cynically knowing it was using the better nature of people to achieve short-term political ends. In proclaiming the potential of a fiscal crisis in a manner that implied it might actually almost be upon us, the President played fast and loose with public opinion, against, it must be said, the better judgment of her more prudent advisers. They were rather taken aback by the President's not bothering to take a nuanced position. The way she expressed it, the sky might not just fall, it was actually falling.
Her people went with her and with the country, which went into as close to a frenzy of patriotic fervor as can be summoned in these tiring times. A sense of purpose captivated the country, at least for a time. Any administration is lucky if it can summon similar levels of emotion and concern; this administration came pretty close and it is well to remember it can only do so once. Having said it was all a scheme to pressure Congress, the President can be sure neither Congress nor the country will be easily convinced to believe her the next time she says there's a matter for national concern.
The fact is the fiscal standing of the government remains a cause for concern. The national debt still stands close to the P5.5 trillion mark; the budget deficit is still immense at about P200 billion; the economy is still wobbly. The Palace may have spun a sense of fiscal urgency to foist the cooperation of Congress, but the economists have weighed in saying there's more to a potential fiscal crisis than the barking of administration propagandists.
Aside from the figures concerning the government's finances, there, too, remain other causes for concern that won't go away simply because the President tells the country to stop worrying. There is the growing number of offices and presidential appointees, with their accompanying perks and privileges. There is the harsh reality of a dwindling taxpayer base and the unchecked evasion or avoidance of tax payments by big taxpayers. There continues the insatiable appetite for pork barrel of Congress.
If the President feels she can tell everyone to relax after getting only one out of the eight tax measures she has proposed (and which Congress, in fact, still has to pass), she is either incredibly clever or frighteningly arrogant. In reaction to the Palace's pronouncements, the opposition is showing signs of being disinterested in cooperating to pass the other tax measures. The President may not care since she has overwhelming numbers in Congress, but what if everyone in government now refuses to do any belt tightening? What about the tax evaders and cheats, who will think they are now off the hook?
Shouting "Fire!" to clear the theater certainly works, but no one will trust the theater owner again. Imagine if the theater owner decided to panic people because the theater's engineer told his boss there was faulty wiring and there was actually the potential danger of fire. An ordinary person would consider such behavior lunatic, but this is not an ordinary country governed by ordinary people. It is a country where a President, with a factual basis for declaring an emergency, actually declares such an emergency not to prevent it, but to put a stop to the skepticism of those who are not fully convinced of the emergency.
posted by Dante at 9:51 AM
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