I:
The Battalion
\ IE WPOINT
August 26, 1981
Ke
at
i
Slouch By Jim Earle
... if you let me change my schedule just one more time, I
promise that it will be my last change. “
By DAVID S. BRODER
! WASHINGTON — I spent a miserable
jveekend, worrying. And sinee I cannot
idiake the worries, I am going to share
them. That is the kind of generosity that
comes naturally to those of us who are stuck
m Washington in August.
I ; I have been driven to the brink of de-
tpair by one of my favorite papers, The Wall
Street journal. I believe in The Wall Street
Journal bettmsv I see all those successful
corporate'executives on the Journal’s TV
ads who owe it all to reading The i Journal.
They are my role models.
Last Monday, I picked up my Wall
Street Journal and turned, as usual, to the
front-page column called “The Outlook. I
read a sentence that knotted my stomach:
“Alter laboring and lobbying for the tax bill,
some businessmen are wondering if they
got more than they wanted.’
More than they wanted? I read on, shak
ing: “Businessmen wanted a corporate tax
cut that would encourage capital spending.
They got most of the faster write-off of
buildings, machinery and vehicles that they
were seeking. But along with it came a per
sonal tax cut of 25 percent over 33 months
that many executives worry will give birth
to a huge federal deficit over the next few
years. That unwanted offspring could bring
on either continued inflation or high in
terest rates, or both, businessmen say. As if
that wasn’t enough to worry about, some
fear that the effort to control inflation by
restricting growth of the money supply is
already causing a sluggish economy that
may persist for several more years.’’
Oh my gosh, I thought, they’re talking
about Kemp-Roth. A shudder went
through my frame. For The Wall Street
Journal to express doubts about Kemp-
Roth is, as Mort Said said of another famous
switcheroo, like Steve Canyon repudiat
ing MiltCaniff.’’
I was still recovering from this shock
when The Journal hit me again the next
morning. The lead story in the paper was
headlined: “Budget Blight. Economic
Slow-down Could Widen Deficit, Some
Reaganites Fear. Tax Revenues May
Plunge; High Interest Rates Lift Cost of
Financing Debt.”
The story was as bad as the headline sug
gested. Lawrence Kudlow, chief economist
at the Office of Management and Budget
and a leading supply-side theoretician, was
quoted as saying, “There’s a growing risk
that weak ecomonic activity will generate
revenue levels that fall below our fore
casts.”
I was panicky enough by this time to
consider sending the President a telegram
asking him to veto the whole thing, but
decided that was futile. Sure enough, the
next day he signed the budget-and-tax-
package, citing some figures that had not
been heavily publicized before.
“This represents $130 billion in savings
over the next three years,’’ he said, ” and
$750 billion in tax cuts over the next five
years. ” There seems, I said shrewdly, to be
a slight $620 billion gap we’re going to have
to make up in two years. And then I threw
up.
I was still queasy on Friday morning
when I picked up the Journal and saw that
the first item in the invaluable “Washington
Wire” was this: “Economic worries de
scend on Reagan even after budget and tax
cuts....Concern grows that interest rates
won’t fall much any time soon.... Reaganites
find budget pressures mounting....”
I tried to call my broker to sell both
stocks, but he was, of course, on vacation.
So I went home to bed.
While in bed, I read the transcript of the
President’s press conference after the bill
signing, and I noticed he had said that Con
gress had put “additional reductions” into
the tax package that might add to the de
ficits.
Suspecting a partisan plot, I called a
friend at the Democratic National Comittee
and screamed at him: “How could you guys
destroy my dream by loading down the tax
bill with cuts even The Wall Street Journal
thinks excessive?”
“It wasn’t us,” he said. “You remember
that line Reagan used to use about the Pana
ma Canal?”
“Of course,” I said. “I taught it to my
children like any good American would
do.”
“Well, ” he said, “we’ve got a little variant
we use about the Republicans and Kemp-
Roth. We say, ‘They bought it. They paid
for it. And we re not going to let them give it
back. ’”
Sobbing, I hung up.
The Battalion
ISPS 045 360
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Address all inquiries and correspondence to: Editor, The
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I got dem registration blues
By I
There are few aspects of university life
that can raise temperatures, start argu
ments, and provoke the use of foul language
quite as well as registration can.
Admittedly, the Registrar’s office has its
hands full getting everyone registered each
semester. And with enrollment reaching an
all time high this year, the problems are
multiplied.
Even so, there is no excuse for some of
the problems that I, and many others, have
encountered. Having already confronted
several problems with registration, (i.e. not
being able to find my card packet), I was not
in the best frame of mind when I was told
that my non-resident tuition waiver form
was not acceptable. My department head is
on vacation and the acting department head
had signed the waiver.
Reader's
Forum
By Janet Joyce
deciding an editorial was definitely
order. I went back to find out the name
the woman who had caused me so mini
grief. Upon returning, I overheard hertel tii
ing some of the other people there tli
“there’s one like her every semester.
When I asked for her name she refhseit
give it to me.
When I referred to the possibility of
writing an editorial concerning the difficul
ty of registration, the woman immediately
became defensive, insisting that everything
that had happened to me that day was of no
fault of the registration people.
There is a university rule that any st
dent must present identification to am
culty or staff member who requests
There is no rule requiring staff to do
same for studen ts, according to the Pers®
nel office. Their comment was that tot
tify one’s self would just be common com
tesy. This woman obviously is not veil
familiar with common courtesy.
State Si
told gradi
College ol
Friday tha
a constant
and challe
to learn e’
ion.
Capert
body pres
was the fe
college’s
during wh
veterinary
plomas.
"Your
plete,” he
educating;
liability in:
The Bry;
himself to
jReagan’s tax cut bill
Worries reporter sick
I went over to the desk at the back of the
registration area to ask for a suggestion as to
what my next move should be. Before I
even began to ask a question, I prefaced my
remarks with an apology if I seemed rude,
saying that it had been a bad day. On the
subject of the unacceptable waiver form,
this woman informed me that there were
only two things that I could do: wait until
Monday when my department head re
turned or pay out-of-state tuition. She was
wrong. The correct response, as I later
found out, was to have my dean write a note
to the fiscal office giving the acting depart
ment head the authority to sign the tuition
In addition to my tuition-waiver prob
lem, my card packet had the wrong name (I
have gotten married since the last term be
gan) so I asked if she could provide me with
a new card with the correct name to have
my ID picture taken. She said she could if I
had proof from the registrar’s office that the
records department knew that my name
had changed. I showed her my ID card
from last semester which has my married
name on it. She did not consider that suffi
cient proof. When I asked why, she said she
didn’t know where I got it from. I asked her
where she thought I got it from. She said I
had probably made it myself.
By this time I was really upset and left
This unidentified woman accused
forging an ID , gave me inaccurateinfonrir
tion, and refused to identify herself,
my remarks may indeed have been hostl
they were only bred from her own hostil
My intentions were honorable when Ilk
came looking for help, and if she had bed
having a bad day, she could have indicate
that as I did. Communication isatwowi
street and yes, we students needtoreali
that staff members are responsible I
seeing that life at A&M goes smooth
However, it is also about time that certar
staff members get off their high horses,
begin to realize that without the student,
they wouldn’t have a job.
Editor’s note: Joyce is a doctoral eandidatf
at Texas A&M University.
JVe
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which had
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was chosen
stand high
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Two day;
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What ‘moos’ and gives tax relief?
By DICK WEST
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The big news from the
California White House this month is that
the president of the United States has been
spending a lot of time “clearing brush.”
These brush-clearing communiques are
by no means the only important dispatchs
to emerge from the Reagan ranch,
however.
hear anything about the president pun
ching cows. Tm not even sure where are
any cows on Reagan’s ranch. If there are,
somebody else must be punching them.
One wonders where the president and
Mrs. Reagan go and what they do when
they set out on horseback.
the president’s pursuits has Freuds
meaning.
Riding — When Reagan bolts forv®
astride a spirited steed, he is manifesto
subconscious desire to grab the reins of)
ernment and spur on the bureaucracy
I also have read a number of in-depth
reports on presidential wood chopping.
Plus I have seen several penetrating analy
ses of Reagan’s horseback riding.
It could be these activities of inter
related.
It could be that after he clears away the
brush he chops it into firewood. Or perhaps
is clearing riding paths that he and Nancy
gallop along when they saddle up.
I know next to nothing about ranching in
California, so all of this is strictly conjecture
on my part. But it does seem that ranch life
has changed a great deal since I was a young
buckaroo.
Cows truly are versatile and utilitarian
beasts. They provide cream for our Brandy
Alexanders. They provide carry-on luggage
for air travel. They provide raw beefsteak
for our black eyes. And they provide hand
some tax breaks for doctors and dentists
who own ranches.
It could be there is method in Reagan s
brush clearing. It could be he is clearing a
site for a ranch-style tax shelter.
Mainly, however, it’s the symbolism that
interests me. Psychologists tell us each of
Wood chopping — Each time the prf'’
dent sets forth with his ax he is giving I
to suppressed desires to whack more deef |
ly into federal spending.
Brush clearing — The frequent fori; t
into the undergrowth at Rancho del 0-
are metaphysical attacks on the great t
of federal regulations that Reagan has
striving to thin out.
Now that we are aware of the psyche)
gical significance of these pastimes, *’
should be able to view the news in bett<
perspective.
In the part of Texas where I grew up,
there was a rule of thumb that if a spread
had a fancy name like Rancho del Cielo it
probably was owned by a doctor or a de
ntist.
In those days, ranch owners seldom
cleared brush or chopped wood. Those jobs
were left to the ranch hands or maybe to
some of the women folks who were lolling
around the bunkhouse.
Another peculiar thing about the news
from Rancho del Cielo is that you never
the small society
by Brickman
OFF 7U£
©1981 King Features Syndicate, Inc World rights reserved
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