Cato Daily Dispatch for October 8, 2002
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Bush Attempts to Make Case for WarCost of Labor Dispute Will Continue to Rise
EchoStar and Hughes Ask FCC for More Time to Revise Merger
Bush Attempts to Make Case for War
President Bush grimly catalogued his administration's reasons for war with Iraq in a speech Monday, warning that the United States can't afford to allow Saddam Hussein to hold the world hostage with nuclear weapons, according to USA Today.
In a 30-minute address intended to build support in Congress, with the American people and at the United Nations, Bush warned that inaction could lead to consequences ''far more deadly'' than the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
His speech was the most extensive and detailed case against Iraq that he has made directly to the public. Bush labeled the Iraqi threat "unique," which aides said signaled that he does not intend to target other hostile nations, such as North Korea or Iran, with pre-emptive military strikes.
In response to Bush's speech, Ivan Eland, Cato's director of defense policy studies, said:
"President Bush's speech attempting to make the case for invading Iraq contained little new information. Thus, the speech failed to bolster his administration's weak case for a very risky change from the existing and effective U.S. policy of deterring and containing Saddam Hussein. The president attempted to argue that if the United States does not act, the threat from Iraq will worsen when Saddam Hussein gets nuclear weapons. Yet the historical record of the Gulf War indicates that Hussein was deterred from using weapons of mass destruction against the world's only remaining superpower by its huge nuclear arsenal."
Cost of Labor Dispute Will Continue to Rise
The Associated Press reports that President Bush moved Monday toward forcibly reopening West Coast ports, creating a special board of inquiry to determine the impact of a labor dispute that has brought shipping trade to a virtual halt and is costing the economy about $2 billion a day.
The move came hours after contract negotiations between workers and management collapsed.
In an executive order, Bush gave the board of inquiry one day to report back to him, and he was expected to ask the courts to order a resumption of work for 80 days. Though the administration promised an unbiased examination of the lockout, Bush appeared to have made up his mind that it was hurting national security and the economy. Senior administration officials said it was virtually certain Bush would seek the "cooling-off period."
Today on MSNBC, Associate Director of Cato's Center for Trade Policy Studies, Dan Griswold, said that we haven't yet begun to feel the effects of this labor dispute, but "something has to be done real soon . . . or we're all going to pay for it." Griswold added that this strike will soon affect economies around the world because many countries will temporarily be unable to export goods to the United States.
EchoStar and Hughes Ask FCC for More Time to Revise Merger
Los Angeles Times reports, in an apparent last-ditch effort to salvage their merger, EchoStar Communications Corp. and Hughes Electronics Corp. asked the Federal Communications Commission on Monday to delay its review so the companies can discuss the possibility of major revisions.
The two satellite TV providers, in a letter filed Monday, also asked the agency to hold a public hearing on the merger before completing its review.
Officials at the FCC, which had been poised to block the deal as early as this week, declined to comment. But sources inside the agency dismissed the letter--particularly the sudden interest in a public hearing--as a transparent delaying tactic and vowed to move forward as scheduled.
A majority of FCC commissioners are prepared to block the deal, but a vote is not expected until Wednesday because EchoStar Chairman Charlie Ergen was scheduled to meet with some commissioners today.
Adam Thierer and Wayne Crews, Cato's director of telecommunications studies and director of technology studies respectively, wrote yesterday in TechKnowledge about the merger and the FCC's case against it:
"It is becoming an all-too common feature of modern high-tech regulatory policy: If you feel you don't have the infrastructure necessary to compete against a rival, just petition regulators for access to your competitor's networks and technologies instead of building your own. The latest example of such infrastructure socialism comes from the field of direct broadcast satellite (DBS) where the two largest competitors in the industry, EchoStar Communications and DirecTV (owned by Hughes Electronics) have proposed to merge their systems into a single satellite constellation to serve American consumers."
Jonathan Block, editor, jblock@cato.org