Child Care: Bill and Hillary Really Care
Tom Brokaw: "The dilemma of every working
parent is front and center tonight at the White House, President Clinton
unveiling a multi-billion dollar plan to provide more and better care for
America's children."
Reporter David Bloom: "...It was a
carefully choreographed moment: the President and First Lady walking hand in
hand with children. The White House convinced that in this election year
Republicans will have a hard time opposing a plan that helps working families
better afford child care."
Jan. 7 NBC Nightly News.
"The President was raised by a single
mother who left him with his grandparents when she went off to school. Today,
Mr. Clinton proposed what may be the largest increase in child care funding in
the nation's history."
Scott Pelley opening the January 7 CBS
Evening News story (though Clinton survived unregulated care by a
relative.)
Reporter Bill Plante: "This
Administration is making this proposal in an election year and that, of
course, is no coincidence because they see it as an extension of the other
family-friendly things they've done. Republicans, though, would probably
like to take some credit, too, Cynthia."
News reader Cynthia Bowers: "I wonder
why? Because it's an election year, right?"
Plante: "Well, thats exactly
[it]."
Bowers: "Who would be against this? This
seems like a winner."
Plante: "That's just it: almost no one.
It just depends on how the legislation is written and what that means to you,
I think, is that there is a very good chance that in 1998 there will be
additional federal support for child care."
December 15 CBS This
Morning.
"So some may argue that the government is
getting too involved in bringing up baby. But with a higher percentage of new
mothers working than ever before, and welfare mothers headed to the work
force, a helping hand to rock the cradle may be a necessity."
CNN's
Kathleen Koch concluding a World Today story, December 14.
Taxpayers Won't Pay, the Government Will
"From President Clinton, another proposal
for Congress to consider when it gets back to work. This one to help more
working parents find and pay for child care. The total cost to the government
if Congress agrees: $21 billion dollars."
Peter Jennings, January 7 World
News Tonight.
Tax Their Parents' Twinkies
"The cure for obesity is no mystery either: better diet, more exercise. The trouble is that no one knows how to get more Americans to follow that regimen. Obesity grows for men and women of all ages and all racial groups despite everything our culture has thrown at it: bran muffins, spinning classes, diet books, diet drugs, liposuction, weight-loss clinics, and Oprah Winfrey. Educators and doctors dont seem to have the answer, either....
"So what's the solution? Tax Twinkies,
says Kelly Brownell, Director of Yale University's Center for Eating and
Weight Disorders. Hit junk-food junkies where it hurts: in their wallets.
Slapping high-fat, low-nutrition foods with a substantial government 'sin
tax' is the one step society hasn't tried, and while the obstacles to its
enactment are enormous, there's good reason to think it might work. Study
after study of price increases on tobacco and alcohol suggests a correlation
between cost and consumption. When the tax is high enough to sharply increase
the price, fewer of these products are consumed. Brownell argues that a tax on
junk food would have a similar effect."
U.S. News & World
Report reporter Shaheena Ahmad in December 29, 1997/January 5, 1998
"Outlook 98" article on "how to slim down the worlds fattest
society."
Ich Bin Ein Doofus
"People on both sides are only now fully realizing that the disappearance of the wall and the withdrawal of Allied troops means less security both physical and economic as well as more freedom. There, as elsewhere, that is the political trade-off. During the bad old days, families were fractured and East Berliners had few civil liberties. But the Ossies [Eastern Berliners] had guaranteed employment, health care, and housing; an astonishingly low crime rate; and subsidized entertainment. West Berliners earned more than other West Germans because the government gave them tax breaks to ensure that talented and able-bodied people didnt move to Munich or Hamburg."
"With all that swept away, Berliners find
themselves pitched into the rough-and-tumble competition of today's Germany
a prosperous, well-organized, well-governed country, but one afflicted
with all the stresses and uncertainties of modern life. These tensions are
heightened by mounting inflation and record postwar unemployment."
R.W. Apple, New York Times Chief Correspondent and former Washington
Bureau Chief, in a January Gourmet magazine article about dining in
Berlin. (Thanks to Washington Times editorial writer Ken Smith.)
Jennings Tossing In His Opinion
"But if America wanted to go back to the
Moon, it would take three years to get ready again. It might cost $10 billion
to send men to Mars, which by the way is what it cost to produce just four of
the nine B-2 bombers that Congress wants and the Pentagon says it does not
need."
Peter Jennings after the December 12 World News Tonight
Person of the Week segment on the 25th anniversary of Apollo 17.
Rehnquists Concerns
Rehnquist asks limit on federal purview
Seeks to reduce judges' caseload
Washington Times , January 1
Rehnquist laments a lack of Senate action on
judges
Boston Globe, same day
Spend It, Don't Return It
"I sure hope they don't get in to the
Great Tax Giveaway Game here. There are two sides to Newt: one is reasonably
responsible, wanting a balanced budget and to do something about entitlements,
actually, and the other is the Free Lunch Newt, who is talking about big tax
cuts. We'll see which one emerges."
Newsweek Assistant
Managing Editor Evan Thomas, December 27 Inside Washington.
This is CNN
"In his new office, a sunless rectangle
inside the atrium at the CNN Center, the furniture had yet to arrive, but some
of [Rick] Kaplan's personal effects were already in place: a seat from the
old Comiskey Park in Chicago; Norman Rockwells famous painting of that
stalwart citizen rising to speak at a New England town meeting; and what
Kaplan called 'my favorite picture in life.' It was a 1986 Vladimir Sichov
photograph of a homeless man, who holds a sign declaring 'I'm hungry.
Please help'; copies of David Stockman's The Triumph of Politics
are visible in a bookstore window behind him. 'That's trickle-down
economics,' Kaplan said."
From David Margolicks January Vanity
Fair profile of new CNN President, and former ABC News Executive Producer,
Rick Kaplan.
Just a Revolutionary Excess
"Let me ask you first about the hostage
crisis, which is emblazoned in every American's mind. As you know, in all
revolutions the communist revolution in Russia, the French Revolution,
perhaps even the American revolution the early years contain many
excesses. Would you say that taking the American hostages at the beginning of
the Iranian Islamic revolution falls into the category of early revolutionary
excesses?"
CNN's Christiane Amanpour to Iranian President Mohammad
Khatami, January 7 World View.
Eric Darbe, Geoffrey Dickens, Gene Eliasen, Denise Froning, Steve Kaminski, Clay Waters; Media Analysts
Kristina Sewell, Research Associate; Sherrie Pascale, Circulation; Jessica Anderson, Intern