Editor:

Here we go again. Clinten (interesting name!) Garrett states that President Clinton is riding high on the polls because he's simply a liar, and the Republicans just can't compete with the lies he's telling.

What lies is he telling? Well, Clinten uses the "Medicare Lie" as an example. He says that the GOP is simply "slowing the growth" of Medicare, and not cutting it, as the Democrats are claiming. Not true. When the increases in growth are half the inflation rate, you're talking about a cut. Period. Pure and simple. Now, I'm not saying there shouldn't be cuts, but when the bipartisan committee on Medicare funding recommends $110 billion in "slowed growth," and the GOP comes up with $260 billion in "slowed growth," one who depends on Medicare should be worried. And when they offer $245 billion in tax cuts at the same time, I'll be really mad.

Clinten then goes on to claim that Clinton comes in three versions. He claims that Version A is really a Republican, so you might as well vote for them. This is curious, since the Republicans seem to be so pissed off at him so much of the time. He claims he talks about balancing the budget and welfare reform, but implies that he doesn't do anything to back it up. Well, he's only reduced the deficit three straight years, which is something no GOP president has ever done, and proposed two welfare reform bills that the GOP killed before they even reached debate.

Version B is the liberal Clinton, according to Clinten. That bastard actually tried to ensure that all Americans could get sick and not have to go to bankruptcy court afterward. Let's see, the last president to try that was ... that flaming liberal Nixon.

He doesn't even explain Version C, but he calls Clinton inconsistent because he does sometimes change his mind. I always thought that acute intransigence was a character flaw, but apparently, to a Republican, admitting mistakes, apologizing for them and trying to correct them is a character flaw. Of course, what can you say about a party that bashes Clinton as a draft dodger, when a large percentage of its leadership also avoided the draft?

What do you expect from a party that uses as its titular head a man who claims a franchise on "family values" but divorced his wife while she was lying in a hospital bed with cancer, and then refuses to pay alimony and child support until a judge forces him to? Now, I'm not a huge Clinton fan, but the man is trying. He's closer to balancing the budget, for real, than the GOP has ever been. And he's done so without causing a recession; something your beloved Ronald Reagan couldn't do. He failed with the health care plan, for sure, but it was because we need a single-payer plan, and the one he proposed was too convoluted. But at least he tried. You can't even get the GOP to admit there's a problem.

Politicians lie. They have to, and to believe otherwise is naive. Look it up. The last politician to tell the truth was Walter Mondale, and a lying Ronald Reagan trounced him. Oh, and by the way, a little factoid. While it's true that GOP increases in Medicare are more than double the overall inflation rate, health care is still rising at more than triple the overall rate. Have a nice day.

Milt Shook
political science senior