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The Battalion
Viewpoint
August 12,1981
Slouch By Jim Earle
‘Can you see any reason for him to identify with me?’
The inside moves
By JERELYN EDDINGS
United Press International
WASHINGTON — A few days after the
House approved Ronald Reagan’s budget
cuts last June, a Democratic leader said it
would be no great task for the president to
get a tax cut.
>, Everybody loves tax cuts. Every politi
cian loves to give people money. So the
only uncertainty was the shape it would
take and whether Democrats could offer a
more appealing tax cut than Reagan’s.
The big question then was whether the
budget cuts would actually reach the enact
ment stage or whether House Democrats
would find a way to derail the administra
tion’s push to take big chunks out of federal
social programs.
The answers to those questions —
budget and tax — now are known. The
wheeling, dealing and appealing by the
President and his men to get their bills
finally approved are a new page of legisla
tive history.
But the role of a few Democrats in the
final days of budget-cutting was crucial to
preserving many of the traditional Demo
cratic programs. They didn’t stop the cuts
;— although one was powerful and secure
;enough to threaten something akin to de
railing the Reagan express.
* Most of them worked in private, using
.the negotiating skills that brought them
power and success in Congress over the
years.
£ Once the budget bills were passed by
;both the Democratic-dominated House
’and the Republican-controlled Senate, the
tssue became reaching compromises over
^details of the spending reductions.
- That’s where the horsetrading experi-
3ence of veteran House chairmen came in
-handy. It helped that they were pitted
against the new Senate Republican chair-
inen, many still learning their jobs.
«• At first, the administration was leary of
bringing House and Senate together under
Circumstances in which the Democrats
-might possibly delay or destroy the budget
Cuts.
* David Stockman, Reagan’s budget dire
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Going in diplomatic circles
By DICK WEST
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Last week marked the
end of President Reagan’s first 200 days in
office. The period closed with a presidential
victory on tax legislation, but some of his
critics are saying Reagan has yet to develop
a cohesive, overall foreign policy.
They say the Reagan style thus far has
been more a reaction to international
events than the creative use of diplomacy to
shape the world’s course.
I didn’t get much sleep last night and
consequently don’t feel peppy enough to
explore the validity of these allegations spe
cifically. I do, however, feel up to passing
along a few general observations that may
be applicable.
It is almost axiomatic in this town that the
first step a president must take toward
molding a good, solid foreign policy is to
establish diplomatic relations with the State
Department.
The department is relatively small, sure,
and its capital, Foggy Bottom, is beset by
miasma and terrible humidity. It has little
to contribute to mutual defense, its own
security forces being barely strong enough
to prevent the Soviet ambassador from us
ing a private entrance when he comes
calling.
In influence, though, the State Depart
ment ranks right up there with the major
powers.
The secretary of State, as Alexander Haig
keeps telling us, is the vicar of foreign poli
cy. A president may follow a two-China
policy and get away with it. But any presi
dent who adopts a two-vicar policy is asking
for trouble.
The last president to try it was Richard
Nixon. While formally recogizing Secretary
of State William Rogers as his foreign policy
vicar, Nixon actually gave vicarious support
to the White House’s own Henry Kissinger.
Ht'.ulan. I’m Mire, can strike at; I
deal if lie plavs Ins cards right. Hi; Iâ„¢
alliance that may be attainablen|T
cated during the early hours aftertk
dent was wounded in an attemptedi
nation. j|^|
Haig, you 11 recall, went to I
House and expressed a willingness]
in during the emergency and runi
country, in addition to his otherl
That display of friendly
appears to bode well for future n
between the president and the ^
partment.
A return to the two-vicar system^
entirely ruled out, however.
As we now know, the two-vicar concept
didn’t work out well at all. Fortunately for
him, Nixon was able to negotiate a merger
between Kissinger and the State Depart
ment. But peace hung in the balance for
awhile.
Vice President George f
made points for himself with hisr
to the Philippines. His astutepert
democratic tendencies by the Mar
ernment astonished everyone ^
— particularly Marcos. .
A few more discerning mission]
sort could put Bush in a positioiili
lenge Haig for the vicarage.
of federal budgeting
ctor, counseled the Senate to avoid a huge
conference committee and simply accept
the original House bill. But Senate Repub
licans, led by budget chairman Pete Dome-
nici, R-N.M., said “No way.” Theirs was
the better bill. And House Democratic
leaders promised they wouldn’t delay the
measure.
So the conference began. About two
weeks later, on July 30, it was over.
But in that brief time period, the Demo
crats made great gains, saving many prog
rams that will merely be streamlined rather
than terminated.
There werfe people like Rep. Carl Per
kins, the soft-spoken Democrat whose
speech is punctuated with whistles and
whose Kentucky mountain mannerisms
have been known to deceive his adversar
ies. Perkins, chairman of the House Educa
tion and Labor Committee, rescued mil
lions of education dollars in the conference
meetings.
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., the
short, wily chairman of the House health
subcommittee, threw up his arms numer
ous times and said he couldn’t compromise
with Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and
Robert Dole, R-Kans., on health cuts. In
the end, he won many concessions on prog
ram changes that Reagan wanted in prog
rams like Medicaid.
The big, open power play threat came
from Richard Bolling, the self-assured
chairman of the key Rules Committee
which must clear virtually all bills for con
sideration on the House floor.
Bolling, D-Mo., threatened at the last
minute to hold up the entire budget-cutting
package unless the $122 Social Security
minimum monthly benefit was restored.
He was talked out of it by other House
leaders, who recalled their earlier promises
to avoid obstructionism. They may also
have reminded Bolling of his own past posi
tion that the Rules chairman should not use
the committee to thwart the will of the ma
jority.
There were many touchy moments, a
few threats, and several close calls. But the
President got his budget cuts — with some
Democratic touches.
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The m
By LeROY POPE
United Press International
NEW YORK — There will be a new baby
boom in the United States in this decade
that will cause some serious conflicts for
government, business and individuals,
according to a new Arthur D. Little survey.
The study is called “The Impact of De
mographic and Lifestyle Trends on Con
sumer Spending in the 1980s. ” It deals with
a lot of other things but demographic expert
Judith Campbell’s baby boom prediction
raises some of the most interesting ques
tions.
She says the new baby boom will not be
caused by any change in fertility rates but
simply by the fact that there will be more
women of childbearing age in the popula
tion.
The first question raised is what effect
this will have on the still-growing trend for
both spouses to hold down jobs. Campbell
says she simply doesn’t have an answer to
that yet, but it certainly will create conflicts
for many young women.
For local government, the 1980s baby
boom may be big enough to create over
crowding in a diminished number of
schools and compel emergency expansion.
For business, it may prove a corrective
to consumer demand declines resulting
from the end of the earlier baby boom of the
1950s and early 1960s. This means, Camp
bell said, that marketers may have to shift
their focus to an older market in this de
cade, then be prepared for a younger mar
ket in the 1990s. But products for babies
may do well late in this decade.
Elsewhere in the study, consumer be
havior specialist Ellen I. Metcalf predicts
some gradual but radical changes in mar
keting. She says consumers will have less
discretionary time and less discretionary in
come in the years ahead and this will force
segmented and sharply targeted marketing
with less reliance on mass media advertis
ing and mass merchandising outlets.
Cable television and video systems and
specialized print media will get an ever in
creasing share of advertising. The consum
er’s tight discretionary time needs will force
her or him to do more buying via telephone
or new communication methods. This will
produce a conflict between
oriented towards individualism amii
facturers and marketers who 1p|
going all out in recent years form®
keting.
“The name of the game will bet*
audiences through targeted media*
targeted product,” said Metcalf.
Another and possibly more serif
flict between business and coff-
Metcalf said, will arise from thed#
tion of people to “do their own thM
though they have less money an^
devote to it.
“This means they will take up
that can be mastered easily, sorndj
or close to home, and will give!
satisfaction quickly.” She mention^
ging, racquet ball as distinguish^
tennis and said there are manyotk
hobbies and pastimes people
This will make them sales resi st
much of today’s leisure advertisirL
All of these tendencies, she said,*'
up to a climate in which it will bed!
market nationally branded mercl#
Warped
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