Viewpoint
The Battalion • Texas A&M University • Thursday • July 5, 1979
Where will windfall profits go?
By JOHN F. BARTON
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Congress has
ducked one of the toughest decisions con
cerning the tax on windfall oil profits: How
and for what should the tax revenues be
spent?
Windfall tax supporters and critics alike
agree the postponed fight over how to
spend the tax revenues will make the battle
over how much tax to collect look like an ice
cream social.
By ducking that decision, critics claim.
Congress simply is creating a multibillion-
dollar windfall for the Treasury.
For that matter, so is the windfall tax
itself. Republicans argue. Better the
money had been left with the oil com
panies, to be used for energy development
and increased production, they say.
In fact, the decision on how to spend the
windfall tax revenues is so controversial
that Democratic congressional leaders felt
the windfall tax itself would surely be killed
unless the issues were split.
So they have agreed first only to set the
windfall profit tax rate and to create an
energy trust fund through which the tax
revenues would be funnelled. They post
poned for later legislation the decision on
how the funds shall be spent.
The situation now is a bankers dream:
Congress is figuring how to get money into
the Treasury, without deciding yet how it
can be withdrawn.
President Carter has asked Congress to
use the windfall revenues for three pur
poses: to expand and develop mass urban
transit systems; for energy research and
development; and to alleviate fuel bills for
the poor, who are hit hardest by Carter’s
decision to phase out price controls of
domestic crude oil production.
That last purpose sticks like a craw in
many congressional throats.
Republicans generally are opposed to
using windfall revenues to fund any social
programs.
But Republicans and Democrats alike
are split on how else to use the funds.
Republican efforts to allow tax credits for
oil companies that would reinvest the
windfall taxes in energy research or pro
duction were killed in the House Ways and
Means committee. So were Democratic ef
forts to use the tax funds exclusively for
energy development.
Rep. Andrew Jacobs, D-Ind., believes
the multibillion-dollar windfall revenues
should be used to reduce the national debt.
He intends to offer that plan to the full
House at the appropriate time, and could
get considerable bipartisan support — and
administration opposition.
The Senate will get a crack at the windfall
measure — and the subsequent legislation
determining how the energy fund will be
used — in the near future. But Sen.
William Roth, R-Del., already has apian to
use the revenues to rollback higher Social
Security taxes.
Roth, who unsuccessfully tried last year
to cut individual income taxes 33 percent,
believes a tough windfall profits tax com
bined with greater corporate taxes gener
ated by higher oil prices “would raise at
least $50 billion between 1980 and 1984.”
“Approximately $35 billion of this reve
nue could be used to roll back the higher
Social Security taxes facing the American
people in 1981 and 1982,” Roth said re
cently.
The rest of the extra revenue, Roth said,
should be used to develop alternate forms
of energy and improve the gas efficiency of
cars.
A search for gas:
get the lead out?
Slouch
by Jim Earle
JCO -?- 7 *
THIS IS IT, GEORGE, ONLY ONE MORE WEEK TO GO! THIS IS
WHEN YOU OPEN UP, PULL ALL THE STOPS, BURN THE MID
NIGHT OIL, LET ER RIP, AND ...GEORGE? ...GEORGE?
By ROY BRAGG
The gas situation has been a rather dis
tant problem to me this summer. There
has been plenty of gas in town this sum
mer since the majority of the students
have left, so I haven’t had to sweat it out in
any lines.
I’ve had a 1969 Dodge 4-door for the last
four years.
The car, the “Millenium Barracuda,” is
named after the notorious Millenium Fal
con in “Star Wars.” It has a Saturn V
engine and can go almost three miles on a
tank of gas.
So, to play it safe, I decided to go out
and pay almost $5,000 (!) for an “economy”
car.
Paying 5,000 samolians for a car so small
that I could fit it into proverbial flea’s
navel isn’t so bad; what gets me mad is that
someone in Detroit actually had the nerve 1
to call it an economy car.
There’s a paradox in there somewhere.
Maybe I’m just hallucinating on un
leaded gas fumes or something, but I feel
as though an economy car ought to be
cheap to buy and run.
Paying half of my annual earnings for a
car that runs on the second most expensive
gasoline available is not my idea of cheap.
Of course, it's a lot better than a car that
runs on gold — oops, I’d better watch out.
I’d never forgive myself if I gave the auto
industry their next big idea.
But I’ll have to admit one thing — the
car gets good mileage.
The car has a hatchback and seats four
uncomfortably. It’s great! To say the car is
small is to say Muhammed Ali talks. I only
hope my coffin has more room.
I got the car with a few options.
The best one is the factory air condition
ing. Sure, the air wastes a little gasoline,
but what the hell! I’m going to be comfort
able in gasoline lines, even if I have to be
in a few more lines because of the air con
ditioning!
Another option on my new car — it
won’t blow up if it’s rear-ended! For $200
bucks extra, the factory mounts the gas
tank in the driver’s side door. What’ll they
think of next?
The only other option I got on the car is
special tires — for $50 extra, I didn’t get
Firestone 500s.
Well, after a couple of weeks of driving,
the “Millenium Tunafish” has gotten 26
miles per gallon in the city.
A couple of weekends ago, I decided to
go to Fort Worth to see my brother and his
wife.
We payed 90.9 cents for gas at a local
convenience store for gas Sunday morn
ing.
Few gas stations on the highway were
open. Those that were had gas at 99.9
cents and up!
When we arrived in Fort Worth,
gasoline was harder to find than good disco
music; in other words, impossible.
On the way back, I stared at the gas
gauge for too long or something and the
needle dropped from three-fourths to
one-fourth.
It was 7 p.m. on Sunday. I was getting
scared. Only four gallons of gas and miles
to go before I sleep.
I pulled into several stations on the
road. They had regular, premium and die
sel fuel, but no unleaded.
For a few brief moments, I saw myself
ripping the catalytic converter out of my
car and beating the director of the
Environmental Protection Agency with it.
Eventually I was able to till the car up
just outside of Hillsboro at 85.9 cents a
gallon because I was able to talk my way
into the front of a line that was ready to
close. I told the attendant I would kill him
if he didn’t sell me 8 gallons of gas.
After filling up, I was able to determine
that the car got 35 miles per gallon on the
highway.
With a sense of relief and accomplish
ment, I smiled to wife and said, “Well
make it home okay — with the air condi-
tining on!”
Ahead warp five.
Mail order catalogs next?
CIA now accepting major credit cards
By DICK WEST
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The next sound you
hear will be that of another illusion biting
the dust.
I have just learned that the CIA now
accepts credit cards.
The CIA — once so secretive it had
markers identifying its Langley, Va.,
headquarters as an Alaskan road bureau.
The CIA — where security was so tight
the switchboard operator wouldn’t give
the name of the agency when she an
swered the phone.
That CIA.
That CIA not only now makes some of
its publications and maps available for sale
to the public; you can charge them to your
American Express account.
Suffering spooks! The next thing they’ll
be publishing mail order catalogs for
cloaks and daggers. Or opening a rent-
aspy service that gives Green Stamps.
And where did I learn of this latest dilut
ing of the CIA mystique?
Did the information come from the Los
Alamos library where Progressive
magazine learned how to built an
H-bomb?
Was it whispered to me in a dimly lit
parking garage by a disgruntled agent wist
fully yearning for the good old days when
everybody had a cover story?
Would the source have been even half
so dramatic!
Though it pains me to say so, my infor
mation came from — yes! — a CIA press
kit.
It’s true, fellow espionage buffs. The
CIA, that long-time symbol of clandestine
manipulation, king of undercover, master
of the “burn bag,” has sunk to the lowest
level of bureaucratic flackery — a press
kit.
A press kit complete with a diagram of
the director’s “command responsibilites.”
During the past couple of decades,
novels based on covert CIA operations
have risen to the status of a cottage indus
try in this country. Even now, we may
assume, some enterprising hack is at work
on an updated plot.
In the first chapter, a Soviet secret
agency parachutes into a remote section of
the Maine woods. His assignment is to ob
tain a copy of CIA document number SI
78-10058.
Authentic touches are the hallmark of
CIA novels. There really is a document
bearing that number. According to the
press kit, its title is “Influence of Ag
rotechnology and Geoclimate on Grain
Yield Potential in the USSR.”
Moscow is eager to get its hands on the
Letters to the Editor
Editor:
I take exception to Keith Taylor’s com
ments regarding senior exemption policy
document because nobody in the Kremlin
has been able to figure out what the influ
ence of agrotechnology and geoclimate on
Russian grain might be.
Eschewing microfilms, tiny mi
crophones embedded in wisdom teeth, se
cret decoder rings, exploding cigars and
other conventional spy paraphernalia, the
Soviet agent carries only one trick device
— a clever imitation of an American Ex
press card.
And in the next James Bond movie, 007
will be an insurance agent.
as published in the June 26 edition of the
Battalion.
It appears Mr. Taylor may need to go
back to Math 102 so he can leam to add
numbers properly. Granted, he may have
a point, but many people may have missed
it completely. Since University policy
generally prohibits registration in excess of
7 hours per summer session, it usually re
quires attendance for both sessions in any
given summer to gain the equivalent hours
of a regular semester. In this light, it is
unclear to me just where the distinction
between the two types of semesters lies. It
would be nice to see August grads cut a
little more slack than they are now.
Only one other item is deserving of
comment: it’s nice to know there is some
one out there who is worrying about my
missing more education than I absolutely
have to; but one mother is plenty.
—Fred Bolton, ’79
Writing the editor
The Battalion welcomes letters to
the editor on any subject. However,
to be acceptable for publication these
letters must meet certain criteria.
They should:
V Not exceed 300 words or 1800
characters in length.
V Be neatly typed whenever
possible. Hand-written letters are
acceptable.
V Include the author’s name, ad
dress and telephone number for
verification.
One mother is enough
Rabies possible cause of death
An 8-year-old girl from Eagle Pass, Texas, died at Santa Rosa Chil
dren’s Hospital in San Antonio Tuesday from a suspected case of
rabies. Jack Finger, hospital spokesman, said the girl died at 2:10
p.m. of cardiac arrest, after suffering six heart seizures over night,
Finger said four of five laboratory tests conducted by the Center for
Disease Control in Atlanta registered negative, but that further tests
and an autopsy were being conducted. If confirmed, it would befirsl
rabies-related death in the United States this year. Three persons
died of rabies nationwide during 1978. Two other children — a
2-year-old girl from nearby Poteet, Texas, and an 8-yearold boy from
Piedras Negras, Mexico, — remained hospitalized at the same in
stitution.
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NATION
Five gang members shot in N.C.
Five members of the “Outlaws” motorcycle gang were found shot
and stabbed to death early Tuesday in north Charlotte, N.C., city and
Mecklenburg County police said. Authorities said a club member
found the bodies of four men and one woman at the clubhouse just
north of Interstate 85 at about 5:30 a.m. The victims, in their 20s and
30s, have not been identified. Authorities said they found shell cas
ings in the clubhouse that appeared to come from a handgun and an
automatic rifle. The “Outlaws” motorcyle gang has been in existence
for more than a decade. It has been frequenting the Charlotte-
Gastonia area this year.
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Ford raises prices on small cars
Following the example of General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co.
in Detroit has announced a price increase on its fast-selling, smaller
models — its fourth price hike of the model year. Ford officials said
Tuesday the increases go into effect Thursday. They range from $204
on the four-door Fairmont Sedan, hiking it from $4,016 to $4,220, to
$100 on several Granada and Monarch models as well as the Pinto
Pony.
A statement by the automaker indicated the increases were due to
increases in labor and material costs.
Second space shuttle flight fails
Another attempt to test the space shuttle Columbia’s three-rocket
cluster failed in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Monday when a hydrogen
turbine overheated, forcing shutdown of the engines after 21 seconds
of a 520-second firing. It was the second fruitless attempt to test the
engines of the space shuttle, whose maiden flight has already been
postponed well into 1980. In the first test, on June 12, an instrument
problem forced a shutdown. The rockets are being tested at National
Space Technology Laboratories, Bay St. Louis, Miss.
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WORLD
Soviet soldier defects to Norway
A 19-year-old Soviet soldier walked across the Russian border at
Kirkens, Norway and turned himself over to border police saying he
was “fed up with the Soviet Union,” the Foreign Ministry said Wed
nesday. The unidentified soldier, who was serving with Soviet
ground forces stationed on the Kola Peninsula, crossed into this
NATO country on Monday, police reported. The Foreign Ministry
refused to say if the man had asked for political asylum. Soviet au
thorities have been informed about the defection.
Yugoslav quake causes no damage
An earthquake in Yugoslavia rocked the Livno area in the sparsely
inhabited Dalmatian Mountains about 190 miles southwest of Bel
grade Wednesday but caused no damage, seismologists said. The
quake measured 4.6 on the Richter scale and was felt along the cen
tral Adriatic voast up to the central Yugoslav city of Sarajevo.
Spanish legislator shot in Madrid
A member of the Cortes (the Spanish parliament) was shot and
critically wounded in Madrid, Spain during the night in what ap
peared to be an attempted kidnapping by Basque separatist guerril
las, authorities said Wednesday. The victim was Gabriel Cisneros
Laborda, 38, secretary of information for the ruling Democratic Cen
ter Union and a member of the parliamentary committee studying a
proposed statute of Basque autonomy. The statute is opposed by the
guerrilla organization ETA which seeks independence for the Basque
provinces of northern Spain.
Iran: death blow to kung-fu films
Iran’s revolutionary ax, which has already banned liquor, drugs,
and mixed swimming, fell Tuesday on Bruce Lee and kung fu films.
The head of the state-owned film publicity and exhibition organiza
tion, Mohammad Ali Najafi, announced in Tehran that martial arts
movies in particular would be banned, and other foreign films limited
as part of official post-revolution policy.
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The Battalion
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