In Belnick Lecture, Rudman critiques Bush policies

By Blaine P. Friedlander Jr.

Warren Rudman speaks plainly. Regarding President Bush's tax reduction plan, he said, "It's dead wrong." And Warren Rudman is a Republican.

Former Sen. Warren Rudman is interviewed by Elizabeth Harness from News Center 7 before his afternoon lecture, April 26. Nicola Kountoupes/University Photography

The outspoken former senator from New Hampshire, known for his legislation to staunch steep federal deficits in the middle 1980s, gave the first annual Ben and Rhoda Belnick Lecture April 26 in Goldwin Smith Hall.

The audience in the nearly full Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium heard Rudman examine the current Bush presidency, and he minced no words. "His tax proposal is irresponsible," he said, referring to Bush. "The tax plan will create serious problems for Social Security and Medicare."

Rudman, who also had been the campaign manager for senator and former presidential candidate John McCain (R-Ariz.), discussed the administration's domestic social policies, the environment, education and taxes.

"I don't know where Bush is going on his foreign policy," Rudman said. He said he thinks that internal fissures in the White House between Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell could develop, but he said it is too early to predict how things will shake out. But he said there is one certainty: "Powell is the only member of the cabinet who cannot be fired. Powell has become an icon with the American people, and he is so well-respected."

On Bush's faith-based social initiatives, Rudman said, "It is an ill-advised policy; there is a lot of danger inherent in it." He explained that federally funding church programs in the name of community improvement would come with a steep price tag -- the intertwining of church and state.

The Belnick lecture fund was created by Cornell alumnus Mark A. Belnick '68 to honor his parents, who also attended the lecture. It is planned that the new fund will enhance the teaching and undergraduate experience in government studies at Cornell by bringing political leaders and political scientists to campus to stimulate intellectually challenging dialogue beyond the classroom.

Rudman, who served two terms in the Senate, was an author of the landmark Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act of 1985 that put federal budget deficit reduction into law. "People still think my first name is Gramm," he quipped. Additionally, he earned bipartisan recognition for his aggressive investigation of the Iran-Contra affair as vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee. In 1992 he became a founding member of the Concord Coalition, a nonprofit group dedicated to increasing public awareness of national fiscal affairs.

When asked if Americans should worry about having the Roe v. Wade decision overturned by virtue of new Bush-picked Supreme Court justices, Rudman said that Americans need not worry. The administration and the Senate will likely ensure that the next Supreme Court will not change Roe v. Wade, he said. "Besides, it's not the Supreme Court you should be worried about," he said. "It's the lower federal courts. Those judges are drawn from the ranks of young Republican lawyers, who are usually members of The Federalist Society."