The Washington Post - 20.02.2020

thursday, february 20 , 2020. the washington post eZ sU a21

BY STEPHEN STROMBERG

T

he Boy Scouts of America on Tuesday filed for bankrupt- cy, following a decade of alarming revelations about the alleged sexual abuse of more than 12,000 Scouts; belated at- tempts at reform, including the de- cision to admit girls and gay Scouts; and profound disagreement about the youth organization’s future. I became an Eagle Scout in the late 1990 s. Here’s s ome of what I learned back then, and have learned since, from the Scouting program. I learned that the Boy Scouts of America was founded in 1910 “to teach patriotism, courage, self- r eliance, and kindred values.” I learned that the most satisfying meal is a single banana and a gulp of water after a day of much hiking and little food. Even if you hate bananas. I learned that if you capsize in a small sailboat, you should try to bail out some of the water that has accumulated in the hull before hop- ping back in. I learned that institutions steeped in tradition do not change quickly enough. I learned that a good friend of mine was gay, and that was why he had to abruptly leave our troop, even though he was by far the most competent Scout in our ranks. I learned that you can do the bare minimum and persuade a merit badge counselor to grudgingly sign off on your art merit badge. But it feels a lot better when the basketry instructor wants to keep your warp- and-weft m asterpiece as an example for future Scouts. I learned what it feels like to jump 40 feet into a deep pool of freezing- cold water. I learned that some of the bravest people are the ones who acknowl- edge who they are, knowing the consequences of telling the truth. I learned how to use a compass. I learned that you should always check whether the tide is coming in before you hike along a narrow beach abutting a steep cliff. I learned that those who told children to be brave for decades ostracized vulnerable young men simply because of their sexual orien- tation. I learned that those leaders were themselves afraid that membership would fall when some religious or- ganizations ended their partnership with the Scouts after the organization finally stopped expelling boys based on who they were. I learned to hate the cowardice those leaders exhibited. I learned to hate my own cowardice, after I failed to stand up for my friend in front of adult leaders.

I learned that, when using a pock- et knife, you always cut away from your body. I learned that nature does not spare your feelings, and a wildfire in the Angeles National Forest might suddenly consume your favorite campgrounds. I learned to fear bears less. I learned to fear ticks more. I learned that nearly 1 million adults volunteer their time to men- tor young people in the scouting program. I learned that some of the people involved in scouting do wrong, like the 7,819 who, according to an inter- nal investigation commissioned by the Boy Scouts of America, may have sexually assaulted or abused 12,254 boys between 1946 and 2016. And one might not hear about that wrongdoing until years after it oc- curred. I learned many adjectives. A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent. I learned that I rarely qualified to be a Scout. I learned to try harder. I learned that if I brought a heavy pan on a backpacking trip, no one was going to carry it back out for me. I learned that even an awkward late bloomer, the second-shortest person in his eighth-grade class, could carry a heavy pan on a backpacking trip. I learned that female Boy Scout leaders were often tougher than male ones. I learned that their daughters should have been allowed to become Eagle Scouts years before the program finally became more inclusive. I learned that you never tie a slipknot when you’re throwing a line out to a drowning person. Al- ways tie a bowline. I learned CPR. I learned that I could swim a mile. I learned that life is rarely simple, but rather a disordered cacophony of triumphs, failures, facts, impres- sions, intentions, hopes, fears and acts of courage. Good lessons come from imperfect sources. Flawed people make bad decisions for what they think are good reasons. Some- times your assumptions about your friends and the adults around you can be upended when you’re just trying to up your archery score. Fond memories can get mixed up with dark questions and horrible truths. I learned that it is easy to be angry. It is harder to be both angry and grateful.

stephen stromberg is a post editorial writer.

What the Boy Scouts

taught me

I

f next February, Democrats control the presidency and both houses of Congress — this is neither probable nor highly improbable — the legis- lative branch’s most consequential member might be the c hairman of the Senate Finance Committee. Oregon’s Ron Wyden, 70, and in his fifth term, understands the patience that politics both requires and rewards. He is spending 2020 tilling the political soil in Congress and the private sector to earn at least a hearing for a momentous proposal: taxation of unrealized capital gains. His contention is implied by the title of his explanatory booklet, “Treat Wealth Like Wages.” Wage earners pay taxes as they earn. Those whose wealth is in the form of capital should p ay t axes on it as it appreciates. And as a necessary corollary, they should be able to deduct losses on held assets that have declined in value. Wyden, whose proposal would apply only to those with more than $1 million in annual income or $10 million in assets f or three consecutive years, says that 72 percent o f realized capital gains go to taxpayers with annual incomes of more than $500,000; that in 2018 almost 70 percent o f realized capital gains went to the wealthiest 1 percent; and that more than 50 percent w ent to the wealthiest 0.1 percent. Because capital gains on assets passed to heirs upon death are not taxed, an asset bought for $250,000 that has appreciat- ed to $10 million when the owner died will not be taxed on the $9. 75 million capital gain. Furthermore, Wyden argues that an unrealized capital gain is not an unused gain: It can be collateral for borrowing that enables the borrower to spend and invest without tapping savings. Melding his proposal with government’s most popular undertaking, the revenue raised by taxing unrealized capital gains would, Wyden says, be dedicated to Social Security. This is not, however, a momentous idea. Arithmetic says Social S ecurity benefits must be cut about 20 percent w hen, in 2035 a t the latest, the trust fund is projected to be exhausted. Politics guarantees that this cut will not happen: Money infusions will be forthcoming, with or without Wyden’s measure. Possible problems with Wyden’s proposal include: How do you value trans- ferred assets such as illiquid real estate, businesses and venture capital? Com- pliance costs might be steep, particular- ly when the wealthiest Americans’ law- yers and accountants set about gaming the system. (Wyden has done some anti-gaming exercises.) And what Wyden considers a major inequity c ould be cured simply by ending the e xclusion of capital gains taxation at death. Furthermore, many economists across the political spectrum argue that the current treatment of capital gains en- courages risk-taking, a.k.a. investment, and economic growth. Wyden, however, is a true progres- sive, serenely confident about undertaking major alterations of complex systems. This is today’s context: During t he Trump administration’s first three years, the government’s average annual revenue increase was 2.6 percent (the preceding administration’s: 3.9 percent), spending has in- creased 5.7 percent p er year (preceding administration: 2 .6 percent) and the deficit has grown 20.8 percent p er year (preceding administration: 9.4 percent average annual decline). In three years, the current administration has added more to the national debt ($2.6 trillion) than the preceding administration did in four years ($2.1 trillion). The $1.02 trillion federal deficit for calendar 2019 ( up 17.1 percent over 20 18, which was up 28.2 percent over 20 17) o ccurred with economic growth about as brisk as can be prudently projected (2. 3 percent), and at full employment. This is redundant evi- dence that the nation is more threat- ened by consensus than by discord, as follows: America has an aging population and an entitlement system (principally So- cial Security and Medicare) into which 10,000 b aby boomers retire d aily. I t has a political class ideologically quarrel- some but operationally united by a shared incentive arising from a shared understanding. The class understands there are only two ways to finance government, present taxes and future taxes. The class has a political incentive to enlarge as much as possible the latter’s role in fiscal planning. America cannot, however, forever fund the government it has chosen to have with the tax code it has, the domestic promises it has made and the defenses it needs. In fiscal 2019, t axes raised revenue e qualing 16.3 percent of gross d omestic product, and the g overn- ment spent a sum equal to 21 percent of GDP. Higher tax rates and/or new taxes (e.g., on carbon) are coming. The Democratic Party and an Ameri- can majority believe the wealthy should pay higher taxes. The Republican Party believes... well, whatever today’s president says it believes. In its current plasticity, will it stand athwart this majority yelling “stop”? Wyden has a proposal, and patience, and plastic opponents. [email protected]

george F. Will

A plan

t o treat wealth

like wages

W

hile the Democratic presidential candidates tear each other to pieces, President Trump is sending a message to the country: The rule of law means nothing to him. He will weaponize the federal government to his own political purposes, and things will only get worse if he’s reelected. Trump has said many awful things, but here are his most chilling words yet: “I’m actually, I guess, the chief law enforcement officer of the country.” Trump as “the chief law enforcement officer” is akin to putting the Houston Astros in charge of policing cheating in Major League Baseball. It should worry Democrats that as the dangers posed by four more years of Trump (and two more years of a supine GOP Senate) become clearer, their presidential race may be coming down to a choice between a billionaire and a democratic socialist. “ ’Tis the final conflict,” as “The Internationale,” t he old anthem of the left, put it. It’s hard to imagine a confrontation more likely to shatter the party. Everything that Mike Bloomberg and Bernie Sanders say about each other will play into the hands of the king of divide- and-conquer. Trump will use their fight to split off one part of the Democratic coali- tion, or the other. No wonder the president is acting as if he has absolute power. Consider his 11 pardons, clemencies and commutations on Tuesday. The writers of our Constitution tried to guard against potential overreach by presidents, but they never reckoned with the possibility that someone such as Trump would lead our government. So they gave the president unlimited pardon power. Naturally, Trump is abusing it. Just to name three of those who received Trump’s m ercy: He c ommuted the sentence of Rod Blagojevich, the former governor of Illinois, convicted of trying to sell Barack Obama’s Senate seat when Obama resigned after his 2008 election as president. Trump pardoned Edward DeBartolo Jr., the former owner of the San Francisco 49ers, convicted in connection with an illegal payment for a casino license. And then there was the pardon for Bernard Kerik, who served as New York City police commissioner when Rudy Giuliani was mayor, jailed for tax fraud and false statements. It is by no means far-fetched to think about these actions as Trump’s way of softening us all up for pardons-to-come to

those who have directly served his interests, including Roger Stone, Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort. As Post blogger Paul Wald- man noted, “what Trump is really after is the normalization of corruption.” Then came word to The Post from Attor- ney General William P. B arr’s c ircle that “he is considering quitting over Trump’s tweets about Justice Department investigations.” Maybe Barr will shock us and resign at some point. But his servility to Trump up to now — from his radical public distortion of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report to his intervention, against the wishes of pros- ecutors, to reduce the sentencing request in Stone’s case — makes the claim about his distress look like an exercise in public relations. The attorney general seems quite happy to serve Trump’s interests by bend- ing the Justice Department to the president’s will. He just doesn’t want his exer- tions advertised on Twitter. “He has his limits,” a Barr associate told The Post about the attorney general. It would be lovely to learn exactly what they are. In the meantime, the Democratic presidential candidates turn inward. Yes, much of this is inevitable in a primary. Each of these candidates thinks she or he would make the best president and the best oppo- nent to Trump. They’ll do what they have to do to prevail. And better that each of them be vetted thoroughly now rather than have the party discover a nominee’s fatal flaw only after it’s t oo late. Bloomberg, for example, showed Wednesday night that all the ad spending in the world doesn’t make you ready for prime time — or to take on Trump. But this is not a normal time. We have seen too many cases in history when au- thoritarian leaders triumphed because their opponents were so focused on adver- saries within their own camp that they lost track of the larger struggle to preserve democracy and free government. Thus a modest suggestion: Can these Democratic candidates start competing over who i s best positioned to bring togeth- er the majority of Americans who disap- prove of how Trump is running things? Can they try to prove it by reaching out now to constituencies n ot part of their own natural base — and by taming the furies within their own factions? Can they look at the smirk on Trump’s face and realize the dam- age they’ll do our nation if they just pretend that this primary is like every other? Twitter: @EJDionne

e.J. Dionne Jr.

Will Trump scare some sense

into the Democrats?

M

ike Bloomberg’s best moment Wednesday night came about five minutes before the Demo- cratic presidential debate started. It w as when one of his ubiquitous television ads ran on MSNBC. From there, things went pretty much downhill for him. The former New York mayor who ap- peared onstage in Las Vegas with five other contenders for the Democratic nomination was not the confident and commanding f igure that we are constant- ly seeing and hearing in the $409 million worth of television, radio and online ad- vertising his campaign has produced. Bloomberg seemed to disappear for much of the debate. When the camera caught him on a split screen as someone else was talking, he looked annoyed and, occasionally, lost. He w as caught flat-footed e ven by questions t hat he surely knew were coming. Bloomberg will not be on any ballot until next month’s Super Tuesday contests. His strategy has b een to leverage his enormous wealth into a presumption that he is invincible. Strategists for his campaign are already arguing that he is the only one who can prevent t he Democratic nomination from going to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a self-described democratic socialist who many in the party f ear would go down to a landslide defeat

against President Trump. Across the country, Democrats were sizing Bloomberg up, not only against the others who were actually on the stage, but in their estimations of how well he would do against Trump a nd his slash-and-burn tactics. Bloomberg’s uneven performance Wednesday offered little r eassurance that he could hold his ground against Trump on a debate stage this fall. Asked about sexist comments that he is alleged to have made to female employees of his news and business information company, Bloomberg tried to deflect by talking about his record of promoting women. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who had an especially good night, was ready for that one: “I hope you heard what his defense was: ‘I’ve been nice to some women.’ ” She and former vice president Joe Biden double-teamed Bloomberg on his refusal to release women who have sued him for sex discrimination from nondis- closure agreements (or, for that matter, to even say how many of them there are). “They decided when they made an agreement that they wanted to keep it quiet,” Bloomberg said, lamely. That exchange brought boos from the audience in the hall. Bloomberg’s w as the most highly antic-

ipated debut of a presidential candidate on a national debate stage since Trump made his entrance in Cleveland back in August 2015. That first one saw Trump standing alongside five current or former gover- nors, three senators and an acclaimed neurosurgeon. They were part of what was arguably the most highly creden- tialed field of GOP contenders in modern history. It was largely because of his dominance — and, often, his shameless- ness — in those debates that Trump man- aged to vanquish them all. Bloomberg suffered from the fact that the other five were far more agile and seasoned, having been through eight p re- vious debates this campaign season. He may get better at this as the campaign progresses — and, indeed, seemed t o have found some footing in the second half of the debate. He offered, for instance, a strong defense of capitalism in a sharp exchange w ith Sanders. Or maybe, it just won’t matter. Never has any candidate had the financial resources that Bloomberg says he is pre- pared to spend on his quest for the White House. But one thing that was made clear to Bloomberg on Wednesday is that his ri- vals are not going to give way for him, as some of his campaign strategists have suggested they should. A large and frac-

tured field benefits Sanders, who after contests in Iowa and New Hampshire has emerged as the front-runner. “I’ve been told many times to wait my turn and to step aside,” Sen. Amy Klobu- char (D-Minn.) said. “A nd I’m not going to do that now, and I’m not going to do that because a campaign memo from Mayor Bloomberg said this morning that the only way that we get a nominee is if we step aside for him.” Bloomberg also got slammed by com- parisons — and surely not for the last time — with the president they want so desper- ately to unseat. “I’d like to talk about who we’re running against,” Warren said. “A billionaire who calls women ‘fat broads’ and ‘horse- faced lesbians.’ And no, I’m not talking about Donald Trump. I’m talking about Mayor Bloomberg.” S he was referring to a comment that was attributed to Bloomberg in a joke book that he was given as a long-ago birthday present, but he did n ot deny that he had said it. If nothing else, Bloomberg is going to have to learn how to take a hit — and how to deliver one in return. Because, in a presidential campaign, there are going to be many more moments like this, when people are going to find out what kind of candidate is somewhere back there behind his ads. [email protected]

Karen tumulty

They came for a debate, and a fight broke out

christopher Millette/associated press

Henry olsen

excerpted from washingtonpost.com/people/henry-olsen

Not a sound investment

Political pundits are abuzz about former New York mayor Mike B loomberg’s s uppos- edly rising chances to win the Democratic nomination. Savvy market watchers see something different: a bubble about to burst. Bloomberg’s rise is fueled entirely by his unprecedented level of campaign spending. No one has ever spent so much so quickly in a presidential primary. Despite that, however, Bloomberg has yet to lead any national polls, and the gap between the media attention and the polling results is huge. Bloomberg leads in only two polls of the 14 Super Tuesday states voting on March 3, and that is in tiny Oklahoma and Arkansas. He i s tied for first in two others — Virginia and North Carolina — and he trails in the two largest states, California and Te xas. It’s not hard to figure out why Bloomberg’s bark exceeded his bite. Mes- sage, not money, is what produces victory, and so far Bloomberg’s has been lacking. His chances, such as they are, rest on being able to quickly drive all other centrist Democrats from the race and consolidate

their support behind him. But why would they drop out? Former vice president Joe Biden and former South Bend, Ind., mayor Pete Buttigieg also poll well and are as likely as Bloomberg to win a large number of delegates on Super Tuesday. They can’t match Bloomberg’s money, but they can probably raise enough to keep going. Nor is it close to a certainty that these candidates’ voters would fall in line behind Bloomberg if they faltered. Given all these data, it’s hard to see how Bloomberg wins. Democrats award their delegates proportionally to the share of the vote a candidate gets. After Super Tuesday, he would have to beat Sanders decisively in almost all the remaining contests in a one-on-one contest to win a majority of delegates. No public data supports the idea he can do that. Nor would a contested convention play to Bloomberg’s strengths. The Democratic left would be apoplectic if the establishment steered their votes to him because of his billion-dollar war chest. To use an analogy from the financial markets, Bloomberg’s candidacy is much more like a political version of Tulip Mania than a sound investment. The smart play on Bloomberg is to sell short, now.

The Washington Post - 20.02.2020

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