Viewpoint
LC
The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Thursday
March 26, 1981
Slouch
By Jim Earle
“You mean he changed his name to ‘None of the Above ’ just
for the election?”
Stockman is sought
by almost everyone
By ROBERT SHEPARD
United Press international
WASHINGTON — David Stockman,
David Stockman. It’s the highest-rated
show on Capitol Hill these days, as the
young budget director travels through the
halls of Congress spreading the gospel of
the Reagan administration.
Some say the show may be suffering from
overexposure, but others clamor for more
personal appearances by the former two-
term congressman from Michigan.
Stockman’s roadshow is unmatched in
recent years by any other administration
official, least of all by a budget director.
Bert Lance, the Carter administration’s
ill-fated budget director, spent a good deal
of time on Capitol Hill, but mostly trying to
explain the tangled financial affairs that
eventually led to his resignation.
Most budget directors do their work
downtown and leave it to others to testify
before Congress. Stockman has agreed not
only to testify before the full committees of
the House and Senate, but even goes so far
as to appear before subcommiteees — of
which there are 189, as he ruefully noted
last week.
Almost every working day since early
February has seen Stockman at the Capitol
testifying before committees, having break
fast or luncheon meetings with members of
Congress, or giving informal briefings. In
all those contacts he explains why the admi
nistration’s drastic budget cuts are needed
and how the country will — in the long run
— be better for them.
Stockman is in such great demand be
cause he is the chief architect of the massive
budget cuts Congress is being asked to
approve.
Cabinet secretaries are also called to
testify, but most members of Congress feel
Stockman is the one calling the shots. And
this view has been reinforced by the poor
performance of several Cabinet secretaries
who have testified before commitees.
Stockman, along with Secretary of State
Alexander Haig and Defense Secretary
Caspar Weinberger, come across as the
most Jcnowledgeable and forceful members
of the Reagan team,'while some of the other
Cabinet level officials seem to be struggling
to keep up with the frenetic budget-slasher.
One of the most frequent questions put
to Cabinet secretaries deals with whether
they had anything to say about the cuts
ordered in their own departments.
“Did you get your marching orders one
by one?” one Cabinet officer was asked last
week.
“That’s not what happened, ” insisted the
secretary. He said there had been “give and
take” in the budget discussions, “but some
times matters had to go before the presi
dent.”
The persistent impression is that Stock-
man usually prevailed in those cases, and
thus he is the one to answer questions from
members of Congress.
That impression is reinforced by the fact
that Stockman goes before the various con
gressional committees prepared to field
those quesions by himself.
Last week, Stockman went to a subcom
mittee hearing accompanied by just one
aide. The day before that same subcommit
tee saw a Cabinet secretary show up with 17
assorted aides and deputies.
Stockman is an able defender of the
administration’s economic program, but his
appearances on the Hill do not always go
smoothly. Under intense and hostile ques
tioning by Rep. Parren Mitchell, D-Md., a
leader of the Congressional Black Caucus,
Stockman was moved to shouting.
And last week, after about an hour of
answering questions, Stockman had to
leave to attend a Cabinet meeting at the
White House. But Rep. Mary Rose Oakar,
D-Ohio, complained she had not had a
chance to ask her questions.
“Either he can stay for a bulk of time or
we can just forget it and we can vote the
budget down immediately, ” she said.
Stockman replied testily that he was “not
willing to be subjected to those kinds of
statements for the efforts which I am
making. ”
Warped
Laugh away tuition survey
When Student Government leaders pre
sent the results of their student poll on
tuition increase to state officials, they
should be laughed all the way back to Col
lege Station.
The survey, poll, or whatever you want
to call it is the most one-sided attempt to
stack a deck since gambling boats plied the
Mississippi.
The knee-jerk appeal of the form is appa
rent: “Do you favor the increase in tuition?”
is the only substantive question asked. The
other seven are designed to provide de
mographic information about the Texas
A&M student body.
In trying for simplicity, the survey
obscures a set of circumstances which are as
necessary for an understanding of the tui
tion increase as they are complex. None of
the background information which students
need to adequately consider the question is
provided.
What do students need to know in order
Sidebars
By Dillard Stone
to participate in a survey on tuition? The
most obvious is why a tuition raise is being
considered at all. To suggest that there’s no
real perceived need for an increase is to say
that legislators are considering this merely
to nail students to the wall.
That’s untrue. There are at least two good
uses for money generated by an increase.
O" With the near abolition of the ad
valorem tax, the schools which are not part
of the University of Texas and Texas A&M
Systems have no source of construction
funds. They desperately need money for
permanent improvements on campus, and
the UT- and Texas A&M-sharedf
University Fund will not, at]
time being, be divided any further, i
o* Texas university faculty salari|
abysmally low compared to other i
One option for an increase in tuitioi
dedicate the funds toward higher!
salaries. : |
The survey simply ignores thesejmj
tions; instead it strives for knee-jerli|
tion, trying to get students torejecttl
of a tuition increase out of hand.
Only when we’re prepared
appropriate information can we i
sponsible answers — but todotk|
have to have responsible questions.
Whatever is done with the monel
goals are worthy, and to notpointoul
tuition increase is being consideredisij
the students of their right to pr<
informed opinion.
It also invalidates any results djheatr<
survey. Kwei
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Texas
Dromedary repellants available
Re-acquiring the green thumb
By DICK WEST
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Nothing about the
arrival of spring lifts my spirits more than
the profuse re-emergence of gardening
tips.
You can have the jonquils and forsythia.
My heart leaps up when I behold the blos
soming of esoteric floriculture advice in the
Q. and A. format that may be seen below:
Q. I am having trouble with vegetable
coloration. My carrots are coming up light
blue and the tomatoes off-white. What is
causing this?
A. The conditions you describe indicate
the soil needs more lime. It also might help
to add more chocolate and tutti-frutti.
Q. lam bothered by camels getting into
my garden and trampling down the rhu
barb. How do I got about camel-proofing a
vegetable plot?
A. Are you certain they are camels and
not dromedaries? A good way to tell is by
the hump test. If they have one hump,
chances are they are dromedaries. Most
camels are double-humped.
Any good garden supply store can pro
vide you with a dromedary repellant. There
are several effective brands on the market,
among them Drom-Away, Drom-B-Gone
and Shoo-Drom.
Spray a few drops on the rhubarb after a
heavy dew and it will keep dromedaries
away for up to 20 days.
Camels are harder to deal with. An eight-
foot electrified fence is the only sure way of
keeping them out.
Q. My squash plants have gone simply
ape this year. We eat squash at least twice a
day, the freezer is full of squash and I pick
an armload every time I go to the garden.
What is the best way to get rid of surplus
squash?
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there any easy way to control bu/m!'? 011 ^ ^
A. Bulrushes taking over a soybean^. J K)rn<
usually means the garden is beinjM,? e ^ ^
heavily watered. You can test this M{i c L l0 j is
ping a rock in the center of the garden tion Satur
rule of thumb, the depth of the wateifversion oi
be twice the height of the splash. Ifthas been
soundings indicate a depth ofnineincltWon
more, it is a pretty good bet the garde- 1 He wa
getting too much water. Either turn ol ^ nc ^aid
sprinkler or move the soybeans to fiitf® 511 f , act
ground. W,oldul
A. Fill a wicker basket with squash and
take it under the cover of darkness to some
house in the neighborhood where you can
be pretty sure they will give it a good home.
Place the basket on the front stoop, ring
the doorbell and run like hell.
Q. Every year when I start weeding my
garden, I find bulrushes coming up in the
this show
O. How can I tell when parsnim ^ le s t
ripe? ’’ acce
* By was v
A. Pluck a trial parsnip and tkirdts basic t
smartly with the index finger. If it malj||stay in:
resonant plunking sound, the parsnips]
ready for picking. If it makes a tinny pfe,
ing noise, leave them in the ground a?
days longer.
By Scott McCullar
The Battalion
ISPS 045 .460
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