h R 5® t Th E BATTALION
THUWSDA^ SEPTEMBER 23, 1976
4 modest proposal
As Texas A&M approaches its Centennial Celebration, an oppor
tunity for the University to take a firm step forward presents itself.
This coming January, three positions on the Board of Regents must
be filled. What better way could A&M fulfill its goal of being
“planned for the future” than to take the progressive step of seating a
student on the Board? c u
This act by itself would reveal the true spirit of change tor the
better and erase the image held by some that A&M is just a cow
college.”
The idea, at first thought, seems to be radical, not because it
transgresses any deep-seated American principles, but only because
it is untried. .
The idea is actually of a conservative nature in that it reaffirms
basic American democratic principles.
While it would be a first in the history of Texas’ state universities,
the primary motivation behind such a move would be representation
for those who currently have none. This idea of being fairly repre
sented is the same one that motivated a cluster of colonies to take on a
world power 200 years ago in their quest for a voice in their own
affairs. From this struggle was formed the basis of representation of
the citizenry on which our nation stands.
In recent years many students have felt that the Board of Regents
was beyond their influence. By substituting one of the positions on
the Board with that of an elected student representative, a vitally-
needed line of communication would be opened. When one takes
into account that the decisions of the Board affect every student, the
logic of a student voice on the Board, even if it is in the minority, is
obvious. .
The election of the student member of the Board could take place
in the spring preceding the year he or she would take office. Obvi
ously, for a student to be elected to this one-year term, he or she
would have to be responsible, experienced, and concerned with stu
dent problems or there would be no hope of receiving a majority of
the votes. ,
Even though the ultimate decision rests with Governor Dolph
Briscoe, he can be strongly influenced by the recommendations of
the Board of Regents.
The young people of today must be drawn into the mechanics of
our political system through the efforts of today s leaders or else our
system will fall by the wayside in time. D.F.,J.N.
Readers’ Forum
Guest viewpoints, in addition to • Limited to 100 lines
Listen Up letters, are welcome. „ ,
All pieces submitted to Aggie s u b mit articles to Reed
Forum should be: McDonald 21 7 , College Stat.on,
. Typed triple space Texa u s - 77843 ‘ Author s P hoi ? e
• Limited to 60 characters per number must accompany all sub
line missions.
Slouch
by Jim Earle
1 i
“What scares me most about dressing like this is th feai that
my mother will hear about it!
Queen Elizabeth not the second
* — . . „.little intorocf Inf
Editor:
I am a Scots Aggie, and I’d like to
point our your mistake in labeling
Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain
with “II. (Bath, 21 Sept.)
This is a popular misconception,
mainly disseminated by the En
glish, and exhibiting their arrogance
in regarding their country as being
all there is to the United Kingdoms
(sic).
The present monarch is Queen
Elizabeth I of Great Britain. How
come? Well, the first Queen
Elizabeth lived and reigned before
the union of Scotland and England
in 1707—and with her successor in
1603, James VI, England was
brought under Scottish rule to
begin with. Thus the present queen
is Elizabeth I of Scotland, as the
whole country should properly be
called. (We Scots can be almost as
bad as the English.)
Colin Crombie ’79
Showing respect
Editor:
This past weekend I found still
another in the long list of reasons for
being proud to be an Aggie. During
the Texas A&M-Kansas State foot
ball game I watched two Kansas
students do what an Aggie would
never do, they embarrassed their
school with their bad manners.
During the half-time period sev
eral Texas A&M alumni were in
ducted into the Lettermen’s Hall of
Fame. They were introduced and
presented with plaques in the cen
ter of the field. On the east side of
the field two of the Kansas football
trainers played a private game of
toss with the football.
I can understand that the cere
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mony was of little interest 1
but out of respect for the men!
honored, I feel that they couldlw
refrained from their game. IU
distracting to the people sitting
hind them who were trying to
the ceremony.
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■ ON
Carter handled tax reform issue sloppil;
WASHINGTON — What Jimmy
Carter didn’t need before the first
debate was what he got — a rip
roaring controversy stemming from
his own sloppy discussion of the
sensitive subject of taxes.
The whole strategy of the past
two weeks in the Carter campaign
had been essentially defensive — to
avoid giving President Ford any
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opening that would allow him to
take the offensive against his chal
lenger.
The Carter camp liked the first
debate just as it was — on domestic
issues and the economy, with Ford
defending the record of the past two
years and the status quo, and Carter
promising he could do better.
The speech Carter gave to the
Michigan AFL-CIO last week
showed he was loaded for bear on
the economic issues. It was tough,
specific and effective — all the
things worried Democrats have
been saying he must be in his con
frontation with the President.
And then in a weekend interview
with the Associated Press, Carter
incautiously opened the door to
counterattack by a discussion of tax
reform that can be charitably de
scribed as confused.
After telling the AP — as he had
many other interviewers — that his
idea of tax reform “means people
who have a higher income would
pay more taxes at a certain level,’
he was asked what constituted
“higher” in his mind. “I don’t
know,” he said. “I would take the
mean or median level of income and
anything above that would be
higher and anything below that
would be lower.”
Well, a “median level of income’
is a specific measure. In 1974, it was
$12,836 for the median American
family, and it’s gone up slightly
since then.
If Carter meant what he said,
then Republican vice-presidential
candidate Bob Dole was justified in
declaring that the Democrat
planned to raise taxes for half the
American families — including
those in that $12,000-to-$15,000
bracket who are not normally con
sidered affluent.
But that interpretation was unac
ceptable politically, whatever its
economics. Stuart Eizenstat, Car
ter’s issues director, undertook to
redefine the middle-income family
up to the $25,000 level. Whatever a
median means to other people,
Eizenstat said, for Jimmy Carter it
means the bottom, the middle and
all but the top 10 percent.
Not to be outdone, Ford in an
interview with Reader s Digest said
he wanted to cut taxes for a “mid
dle” group of families from the
David S.
Broder
$8,000 to the $30,000 level, which
bends the meaning of words even
further.
There is more than semantics to
this problem, for the real roadblocks
to effective tax reform come from
the politicians’ worries about that
very “middle-income” group. Car
ter discovered that fact earlier this
year when he incautiously hinted
that he might tamper with the
mortgage interest deduction — a
mistake he has been trying to recant
ever since.
But the fact of the matter is that
we cannot forever avoid the conflict
between tax reform and the tax
privileges of middle-income
families. There is no way to balance
the books without boosting income
taxes for many who do not consider
themselves rich.
Until this year, when it achieved
modest reform without an overall
tax reduction, Congress has been
avoiding this dilemma by sugarcoat
ing its “reforms” with tax cuts for
everyone.
That is a delightful system — with
only two drawbacks: higher budget
deficits and an overall tax system
that is increasingly inequitable.
As the individual income tax rates
have been reduced, we have moved
further and further from the point
where even prosperous times can
produce a balanced budget. And we
have shifted the burden of financing
government to other, more inequit
able taxes — flat-rate federal payroll
taxes and the regressive state and
local sales and property taxes.
The income tax provides a stead
ily smaller share of federal revenu
es, while Social Security taxes pro
vide an ever larger share. Between
1974 and 1976, it is estimated that
Treasury revenues from flat-rate
payroll taxes grew $16 billion, while
the receipts from the so-called pro
gressive income tax grew only $11
billion.
Real tax reform in this
must begin by restoring the fed
income tax as the prime instnim
for financing government, andt
in turn requires realistic, upn
adjustment of the rates for th
middle-income families. Fordi
Carter are equally guilty of avoid™
this reality, but Carter compoiM
it by the pretense of promising!
form without the political couram
describe honestly what it woulde
tail.
His comments to theAP'
politically dangerous; but his hast!
in disowning them was even r
disingenuous.
(c) 1976, The Washington Post
Mttfe,'-*-
An
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0 yT
•«3SALIj>
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THIS THURSDAY THRU SUNDAY ONLY
SEPTEMBER 23,24,25, & 26
WE NOW HAVE 3 NEW STORES TO SERVE YOU!
#1 2323 S. Texas Ave. (Between K-Mart & Gibsons) 693-4299
#3 312 Villa Maria (At Texas Ave.) 822-2914
#5 3507 E. 29th (Next to Bryan High) 779-1876
80
Inter Varsity Christian Fellowship
We are striving to be a student W>
denominational Christian commuifi
committed to developing matured#
pies of Jesus Christ, meaningfully cot'
municating the truth of historic Ch#
tianity to the university, and enett'
aging involvement in God’s world-it^
purpose.
Weekly Friday
Night Fellowship
7:30 p.m.-9:45 p.m.
607 Rudder Tower
Starts September 3
Small Group Bible Studies
Weekly meetings — various times s'-
locations (with a great text!)
Prayer
Monday through Friday, 7:20 am
7:50 a.m. and 5 p.m. - 5:30p.m.at^
Faith’s Chapel Lounge
For more information call:
Mike Lindig 8454757
Lynn Lassiter 693-3433
Vernon Achgill 845-2892
Bill Ashbaugh 845-5466
Terry Aycock 845-4479