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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 18, 1981)
> The Battalion V IE WPOINT Slouch By Jim Earle / would like to take on Leonard for about $7,000,000 Impoundment proposal should serve as warning By DAVID S. BRODER WASHINGTON — There was an in structive little drama played out last week when the Republican leaders of Congress propounded the notion that the answer to the latest budget crunch might he to give President Reagan limited power to im pound appropriated funds. The idea died faster than talk of the Cubs second-half pennant drive. It stayed around just long enough to remind everyone that no matter how much he may have won on Capitol Hill in his first eight months as President, it is utter nonsense to call Ronald Reagan “the king of Congress. Congress, these days, does not recognize outside monarchs. It does not recognize them, because there is a clear institutional memory of how profoundly Congress was embarrassed by its last capitulation to such a claim of sovereignty. It came only eight years ago — in the presidency of Richard Nixon — and impoundment was the crux of the issue. Nixon impounded — that is, he refused to spend — more than $8.7 billion of money Congress had appropriated, thus effective ly vetoing the legislative action without the bother or political risk of an actual veto. There were cries of outrage, court suits and a general uproar from the Democratic ma jorities on Capitol Hill. But the issue was resolved only the following year, when Congress, as part of the law creating its own new budget process, made such impound ments illegal. It was the beginning of a profound pro cess of reasserting the prerogatives of the legislative branch, a saga which is skillfully recorded and analyzed in a new book by The Brookings Institution’s James L. Sund- quist, “The Decline and Resurgence of Congress. ” Listening to House Republic Leader Bob Michel argue last week for a restoration of limited impoundment power to Reagan, I had the impression that the canny Illinoisan the small society by Brickman g&Y/ COYT\\^d£=- U\/\^G CALMLY IN )1981 King Features Syndicate. Inc World rights reserved Warped No lighting up in the lifeboats By DICK WEST United Press International WASHINGTON — Say you are a two- pack-a-day smoker, a habit that costs you about 10 bucks a week. By giving up cigarettes right now, you could in a little more than two years save enough money to pay for a ticket on the Royal Caribbean Lines’ first seven-day cruise with separate accommodations for non-smokers. Unfortunately, the sailing date is just four months ago. But don’t let a little thing like missing the boat discourage you. If there is a similar voyage in January 1984 — and who is to say there won’t be? — your savings by that time would just about equal the “special cruise rate of $1,193 per person for an outside cabin on main deck, based on double occupancy. Morever, having been 28 months with out a cigarette, you would be in a better frame of mind to enjoy the trip. Anyone going on the cruise a mere four months after quitting smoking likely would still he suffering withdrawal symptoms. But after two years, an ex-smoker would be off the weed long enough to be over the jitters. After that long, smoke from another per son’s cigarette would be more annoying than tempting. Which is the proper atti tude for the non-smoking section. As the press release announcing the cruise makes clear, a certain amount of tes tiness on the part of non-smokers will be part of the fun. iwix-^ It Arrangements for the “special accommo dations and rates for non-smoking passen gers’ were made by the Nonsmokers Travel Club of Bethesda, Md., in cooperation with ASH (Action for Smoking and Health). Here is what ASH has to say about it: “Travelers with a special sensitivity to cigarette smoke, or those who simply prefer to breathe air unpolluted by tobacco fumes, have long been able to find protection in the no-smoking sections of trains, planes and buses, but usually could count on little pro tection while trying to enjoy the surely and luxurious form oftransportat the cruise ship.” Then it goes on to express “cruise lines will finally realize that tie jority of their passengers who are smokers want, and will begin to expert, same protection they now enjoy smaller and less expensives formsoffc portation. ’ Hear! Hear! T he ultimate, i sup^| would be a cruise with smokers r allowed on board. Any passengerseei the pier with a cigarette in his mouthw have the gangplank yanked out fromm him. Smokers, of course, can always together and organize their own cni Perhaps the tobacco companies will! things along by embellishing cig packs with coupons that can be traded ii 1 Ty cruise tickets. Could be a good sel point. The Caribbean may not seemasesot it once did but it sure makes a fine asha I HP (TU***£ <9 rzw W oirxfco iXfUK knew perfectly well that it was too soon for such a counter-revolution. Michel indi cated that Reagan is given to exclaiming with some frequency that he wishes he had the item-veto power as President he en joyed when he was governor of California. Michel and his Senate counterpart, Ho ward If. Baker, Jr., have apparently ex plained to the President a number of times that the U.S. Constitution is not so gener ous to executives as is the California feeling that Michel was floating the impoundment notion as a way of showing Reagan how unrealistic his dream really is. Be that as it may, the cold shoulder the idea received from both Democrats and Re publicans on Capitol Hill showed Congress is not quite the submissive creature that some had depicted in the wake of Reagan’s earlier budget and tax victories. The problem — as Sundquist points out in the conclusion of his book — is that an assertive Congress is not at all the same thing as a Congress ready or able to provide leadership of its own. “A resurgent Con gress,” he writes, “is, by definition, one that has turned away from its old depend ence on the executive. But Congress has not, in the eight years since it rebelled against Nixon’s dictatorship, systematically addressed the conditions that would allow it to fill that leadership gap, either on its own or in tandem with the President. The crucial questions still remain on Congress’ own agenda: policy' integration vs. jurisdictional fragmentation; party loyalty vs. individual autonomy; national perspective vs. parochial representation. That the Republican leaders even consi dered suggesting a retreat from the im poundment victory of 1974 should be a warning sign to conscientious members of Congress. It is a signal for them to go about the work of strengthening their own institu tion, lest the next crisis be the one where the call for strong leadership does become an excuse for a new assertion of executive domination. me [: nons, c pf Jesi Saints, 1 ..lifestyle mily { Satu lare tl alts v ‘cond It’s your turn un [.Religior Thrist i Dexter f Station. Ovei jlanned i"g food ating, neese ! jng, spr llants, ! manufac ^ gluten,: &g wit] Vandalism really ‘hits’ home Editor: This past Wednesday night at midnight as I was busily doing my homework in Davis-Gary Hall, I was rudely interrupted by a projectile thrown through my window. It turned out to be a rock with about 20 firecrackers attached to it. I managed to throw some of themback out the window, but before I could remove all of them they flared up and started a small fire in my shag carpet. I quickly put out the fire but not before it had permanently charred a section of my carpet. It was fortunate that I was in my room at the time or else the damage could have been much greater. I informed University Police about the incident. They filed a criminal mischief complaint and told me that I was not the only person victimized that night. Several individuals had their car antennas broken off or the air let out of their tires during the night. The incident anges me and weakens my faith in the human condition. It is bad enough that University property is the target of senseless vandalism (the deface ment of the A&A building) but it really hits home when my personal property is des troyed. The only benefit of such action is the satisfaction of the pyromaniacal inclina tions of the low-life that instigate such ac tions. Zack Heckmann ’82 thousand kisses to the super-neat™ Law’ Hall w'ho came to serenade usoim day night. For ya’ll to take time cutoff evening to come over (and rescue usli the book monster) with young guitars,! jo, violin and golden throats just got show that those men of Law have gotil{ Serenade appreciated The KeathleyKiss Editor: On behalf of all the Keathley Kissers, we would like to extend a warm thank you and a Editor’s note: This letter was accompa^ by 60 signatures. By Scott McCullar The Battalion USPS 045 360 MEMBER Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Congress Editor Angelique Copeland Managing Editor Marcy Boyce City Editor Jane G. Brust Asst. City Editor Kathy O’Connell Photo Editor Greg Gammon Sports Editor •. Ritchie Priddy Focus Editor ■ Cathy Saathoff Asst. Focus Editor Debbie Nelson News Editors Jennifer Afflerbach Bernie Fette, Belinda McCoy Diana Sultenfuss Stall Writers Frank L. Christlieb Gaye Denley, Terry Duran, Nancy Floeck Phyllis Henderson, Colette Hutchings Denise Richter, Rick Stolle Cartoonist Scott McCullar Graphic Artist Richard DeLeon Jr. Photographers Brian Tate Becky Swanson, Dave Einsel ty administrators or faculty members, nr of the Regents. The Battalion also serves as a laboratory news; students in reporting, editing and photograph) within the Department of Communications. Questions or comments concerning any editorial S** shonlti be directed to the editor. 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