Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 11, 1976)
Page 2 THE BATTALION WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 11, 1976 Threshold test ban: cosmetic pact By SANFORD GOTTLIEB The word “cosmetic” comes from the Greek, meaning skilled in adornment. That’s a good descrip tion of the threshold test ban treaty between the Soviet Union and the United States. The treaty — or more precisely two treaties, one on underground weapons tests and a second on so-called “peaceful nu clear explosions” (PNE’s) — had its genesis in Watergate. In 1974 Pres ident Nixon was under fire, and needed a quick and easy treaty with the Soviet Union in order to en hance his image as a peacemaker. The result was the 1974 threshold test ban treaty, banning under ground nuclear tests above 150 kilo- tons. This ceiling is equivalent to 150,000 tons of TNT, 10 times the size of the Hiroshima explosion. Underground tests are used for weapons development; tests up to 150 kilotons permit development of nuclear weapons of considerable size. Under the guise of “arms con trol,” the treaty gives the military establishments of both nations dip lomatic immunity to seek bigger and better weapons of mass destruc tion. The threshold treaty was signed by both sides, but the Nixon and Ford Administrations did not sub mit it to the Senate for ratification. Meanwhile, the two governments slowly negotiated a pact linking “peaceful nuclear explosions” to the 150-kiloton threshold. Now the Se nate must decide whether to ratify a double treaty which permits both kinds of nuclear tests to continue below a level of 10 Hiroshimas. Moreover, the PNE accord would allow a series of linked nuclear de tonations totaling 1,500,000 tons of TNT equivalent! The private groups and individu als which constitute the arms con trol and disarmament community are opposed to the threshold treaty. They see it as a setback to their ef forts to bring the suicidal arms race under control. They present a solid front, urging the Administration to reopen negotiations with the USSR in order to achieve a total ban on underground nuclear tests. The Administration makes much of the fact that the PNE treaty pro vides for on-site inspection for the first time. But the complex proce dure for inviting “designated per sonnel” to a specific place at a cho sen time resembles in no way the kind of mobile inspection that ex perts talked about 15 years ago. This carefully stage-managed version of inspection would not be a good pre cedent for serious disarmament treaties. Nor would it even be \ necessary to monitor a con ban on underground tests. 1 ( instruments are capable ofidj ing most seismic events asj earthquakes or explosions. In the Limited Test BanTij 1963, the super-powers pi themselves to seek an end to clear tests. In the 1965 Proliferation Treaty, they pi themselves to seek nuclean j] rs mament. With the threshold they are doing neither. Socos are needed to make it smell like something thatitis Gottlieb is a correspondent for lull Interest, a press service of thef. Peace. tra Sun Theaters 333 University The only movies in town. AF in seL tnu on< oi yfitnmy Carter s secret is zero base budgeting k WASHINGTON — Last week. Sphere was a fascinating example of !me gap between campaign rhetoric jjnd governmental reality. It in volves the somewhat forbidding djipic of “zero-base budgeting.” ^ Zero base budgeting is a manage- Jjnent technique that was developed “bight years ago in private industry, at jtTexas Instruments. The technique tivas carried by its inventor, Peter A. •jPyhrr, to the state of Georgia and japplied by the state government ^luring the four years Jimmy Garter jwas governor. As defined by Allen Schnick, a rtnanagement specialist in the Con- David S, Broder jgressional Research Service, zero- jjbase budgeting or ZBB is “a proce- jjidure for examining the entire •budget, not just the funds requested Jtebove the current level of spending. It thus differs from (normal) incre mental budgeting in which review is concentrated on proposed increases while the base’ is given little atten- ion. The term zero-base budgeting’ indicates that a government’s budget should be rejustified from scratch each year or two, with the same standards applied to old and new programs.” 1201 HIGHWAY 30, BRIARWOOD APTS. (FORMERLY “THE PENTHOUSE CLUB”) Carter, in his presidential cam paign, has promised dozens of audi ences that zero-base budgeting will be instituted in Washington “by executive order the day I become President. He has publicized ZBB, along with his promised but unde fined “total reorganization” of the executive branch of government, as the principal tools for cutting down “the wasteful, bloated, overlapping inefficient” federal bureaucracy. Over half the Senate and more than 100 members of the House have cosponsored legislation applying the principle of ZBB to the budget. The Senate Government Operations Committee recently approved a bill sponsored by Sen. Edmund S. Mus- kie (D-Me.), requiring virtually all existing programs of the federal gov ernment to undergo zero-base re view prior to a decision on whether they should be continued. The bill sets up a systematic schedule of pro gram reauthorization between 1979 and 1983. The “sunset legislation,” based on laws passed in Colorado and other states, has also been heavily pub licized by politicians this year as an answer to the public’s rising impa tience with ineffective, costly and duplicative government programs. Given all the political attention to this topic, it was somewhat surpris ing to walk into a hearing on ZBB at the House Budget Committee one morning last week and find no other reporters'.' present. Nor .was .tips a. unique situation. Reading the tran script of the hearing which Muskie conducted on his bill last spring, you find him lamenting the fact that only one reporter, John Averill of the Los Angeles Times, was present during key testimony from Dr. Alice Rivlin, head of the Congressional Budget Office. What this reflects is the tendency — which all of us in the press have been guilty of— to publicize a slogan or proposal without giving compara ble attention to its substance. Par ticularly is that the case when that slogan is announced in circus-size headlines of a presidential cam paign, while its substance is slowly being explored in the fine print of a congressional hearing. This journalistic habit of leaping first and looking afterward is itself a major contributor to the public dis illusionment with politicalpromises. Too many proposals have been acclaimed in the press and and then revealed to be hasty, ill-considered and exaggerated. ZBB may well be one of thern, judging from the largely ignored testimony. Last week, the four principal wit nesses before Chairman Brock Adams’ (D-Wash.) House Budget Committee hearings were highly re garded professionals in the area of government program evaluation. All of them have spent most of their working lives in pursuit of greater productivity and effectiveness in government. And all expressed strong cautions about a precipitous plunge into the world of ZBB and “sunset laws,” even while reaffirm ing the need for more effective evaluation of government spending. Schnick, the Library of Congress expert, noted, for example, that “the few studies of ZBB in operation have suggested that it does not signifi cantly affect the efficient allocation of a government’s financial resources, that the content of the budget is not necessarily different after ZBB than before.” GABE & WALKER’S One Mile West of West Bypass on FM 60 DINE-IN, ORDERS TO GO, OR EAT OUT ON “THE SLU” Featuring: BEEF PORK RIBS LINKS Tuesday-Saturday 11:00-9:00 Sunday 11:00-8:00 Closed Monday CATERING SERVICE • Plates • Sandwiches • Beer • Cold Drinks 846-4121 ★ / Univ. Dr. FM. 60 It a&m Butcher Paper Spreads to your Order Cbe Battalion Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the editor or of the writer of the article and are not necessarily those of the university administration or the Board of Regents. The Battal ion is a non-profit, self supporting enterprise operated by stu dents as a university and community newspaper. Editorial policy is determined by the editor. Acting for the Director of Student Publications Scott Sherman LETTERS POLICY Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words and are subject to being cut to that length or less if longer. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit such letters and does not guaran tee to publish any letter. Each letter must be signed, show the address of the writer and list a telephone number for verifica tion. Address correspondence to Listen Up, The Battalion, Room 217, Services Building, College Station Texas 77843. Represented nationally by National Educational Advertising Servic es, Inc., New York City, Chicago and L 0 s Angeles. Mail subscriptions are $16.75 per s^^ester; $33.25 per school year; $35.00 per full year. All subscriptions # u bject to 5% sales tax. Advertis ing rates furnished on request. Addles: The Battalion, Room 217, Services Building, College Station, T£ x ^s 77843. Rights of reproduction of all matter herein are reserved. Second-Class postage paid at Collet® Station, Texas. Editor • • . . -Jerry Needham ’ Managing Editor • • . • -Richard Chamberlain Sports Editor ■ Paul McGrath' Campus Editor Lisa Junod 1 Photographers Sfr^ve Cfoble, Kevin Venner 1 Production L^Ann Roby, Susan Brown the Urban Institute, a Washington think tank and evaluator of govern ment programs, said that the review program envisioned by the Muskie bill would vastly overstrain “the capacities or potential capacities” of the executive branch and Congress and inevitably “undermine the cre dibility of the act. ” Special Midnight Shows Friday A Saturday $2.00 per pem No one under 17. Escorted Ladles Free ALL SEATS $3. $1 off with this ad. THere IS a difference!!! Similar warnings came during Senate hearings from: Roy Ash, the Nixon administration budget chief; James T. Lynn, the current budget director; Alice Rivlin of the Congres sional Budget Office and a dozen others who would not be considered soft on wasteful government spend ing by anyone. Paul H. O’Neill, the deputy direc tor of the Office of Management and Budget, said ZBB and the “sunset legislation” establishing it “may lead to a paperwork process that is mind-boggling even by Washington standards. ” As Peter Pyhrr, the inventor of ZBB, said, “Some of Sen. Muskie’s words at the time of the introduction of this legislation are most appropri ate to such a massive change as I think zero-base budgeting would produce. GMAT MCAT • CPAT • LSAT VAT • GRE DAT OCAT .SA • NATIONAL MED. & DENT. BOARDS • ECFMG • FLEX Flexible Programs and Hours Over 38 years of experience and success. Voluminous homi study materials. Programs that are constantly updated. Center! open days and weekends all year. Complete tape facilitiesforre view and use of supplementary materials. -rnj*. f) ll 11300 N. CENTRAL EXPWY. ShmaJ SUITE 407 KALIAN DALLAS, TEXAS 75231 (214) 750-0317 In Bryan/College Station, Call 846-1322 . CDITI« TEST PREPARATION SPECIALISTS SINCE 193! Phillip S. Hughes, assistant comptroller general in the General Accounting Office, the congres sional watchdog agency, cautioned that experience with “sunset laws” and ZBB is “very limited” and warned of the “danger . . . that it be regarded as some magical black box. • What Muskie said was: “In too many cases, we in Congress have satisfied ourselves with the rhetoric of legislation, leaving the hard work of implementation ... to the executive branch.” “A good many more people are writing books telling you how to do it than are actually doing it effec tively, he said. William Gorham, the president of To which one could add: In too many cases, the press has satisfied itself with publicizing a program in stead of examining both the pitfalls and potential of a program. Let’s hope that’s not going to be case again. (c) 1976, The Washington Post Company For Battalion Classified Call 845-2611 NEED EXTRA CASH? Become a Plasma Donor at Plasma Product Inc. 313 College Main, College Station Cash given with each Donation. M c Laughlin / s of corpus christi 1403 University Dr. 846-5764 Attention — Off Campus Students Do You Need Telephone Service?? Applications Will Be Taken At The “GTE FALL SIGN-UP CENTER” (Located N.E. Corner Culpepper Plaza, Texas Ave. & Hwy. 30) AUG. 16 — — SEPT. 3, 1976 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. MONDAY SATURDAY “Let our Sales Representatives Show You The Latest Styles Phasionable Phones” “Come Early & Beat the Rush” !\vh Ijea be,i