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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 13, 1982)
The Battalion Viewpoint January 13, 1982 Slouch By Jim Earle “What III miss most about coming hack to school is 'Dialing for Dollars, ’ 'As the World Turns, and ‘The Edge of Sight. Robbing Peter to pay the piper By DICK WEST J l »«trd fru iMteraatioMl WASHINGTON — Here s the way it was supposed to work. The new ‘all-saver^’ accounts, with tax- free interest up to $2,000. would attract fresh capita] into the mortgage market, thereby stimulating home buying and giv ing the housing industry a boost. As we now know, the cash flow has not been as copious as anticipated. For reasons why, I refer you to my investment adviser, Sigmund Waterstock.! I asked Waterstock if he advised acquir ing an all-savers certificate from a friendly neighborhood savings and loan association. “It depends,” he replied. From whence do you plan to get the money with which to purchase the certificate?' (Investment counsellors, at least the* bet ter ones, habitually use words like “whence ” That is why when investment advisers speak, everybody listens.) I told Waterstock I had a “money mar ket certificate that ctaild be converted to ffTHJgpir * an all-savers certificate as soon as it ma tured. Swapping a money market certificate for an all-savers certificate does nothing to in crease the amount of capital available for home loans,” Waterstock pointed out. "In effect, you are only taking money out of one pocket and putting it into anoffier pocket. We II never break out of the housing slump that way.** Ver y well. I said, conceding the point. I II withdraw enough money from my checking account to cover the allsavers cer tificate. ” Waterstock smote his forehead in con sternation. Y ou can t do that! he protested. Ranks use the funds in checking accounts to make* loans for car purchases If t^tose funds shrink, it will make things worse for the auto industry, which already is hard hit by sagging sales " I said. How about if I refinanced my house and invested that money in an allsav ers certificate?” “Bad, bad, bad. Waterstock admo nished. By entering the credit market, you 1 tighten the squeeze on the money supply, thus driving up interest rates which pro vides fuel for inflation.” i “I certainly wouldfr^want to do that, I said “Would it be OjflB sold one of my children to a passing G^^y for the price of an all-savers certificate “I wouldn t recommend a transaction of that type," Waterstock counselled. “By Uv* ing in wagons, nomadic tribes tend to weaken the demand for housing.** I said. Is there no way I can invest in an all-savers certificate without weakening some other segment of the economy?” "Have you tried the Irish Sweepstakes?” he asked “Should you hit a winning num ber, the proceeds can be invested in all- savers certificates with no ill effects on em ployment, foreign trade deficits or the cost- of-living index. The promem now is raising enough money to buy a sweepstakes ticket. I’m still waiting to hear from Waterstock on that. \Reagan s lobbying techniques praised JWAND JOUKILK \ NKKDTOtt. INJBfr \ X LKSSON.KHMftFy- 1 FROM NOW ON, DON'T wPKmwMOSwua. ANDIWSfeML- V. By WESLEY C. PIPPERT l nited Ptcm International WASHINGTON — IVcsuIcnt Kc.tgans (congressional lobbying team has drawn (wide praise for effectiveness in getting Reagan almost everything he wanted on (Capitol Hill in 1981 ‘It is necessary to go back to Lyndon (Johnson to find a president who received I similar support for his major legislative proposals during his first year. ” said George I Washington University political scientist (Stephen J Wayne Wayne, a specialist on the presidency, Ipaaaantt d a paper on the Whitt House s igressional liaison at the conservative |American Enterprise Institute s conference ing Reagan s first year One of the main reasons Reagan s team |succeeded, in Wayne s view, was “agenda itrol" — focusing attention of Congress the news media on a very few legisla- Itive items This was one of the mistahaa ■made by President Jimmy Carter that iReapui sought to avoid ‘By promoting a wide range of social and lie policies. Carter had difficulty itrolling the congressional calander, ising the media and mobilizing sup- |port,” Wayne said*^- "The lesson was clear — the fewer the linitiatives, the easier the coordination and Ithe greater the time that could be spent on |baMing congressional majorities. ” Thus Reagan s campaign rhetoric that iment was too large and costly, taxes too high, defense was too weak and (regulations were too numerous, was pm (pointed into two basic legislative initiatives budget and tax cuts. Wayne believes Reagan s style also con- (tributed to his effectiveness. ‘He used a soft sell Citing basic argu- |ments and illustrating them with a few sta he would ask for support and then questions He was always affable; demeanor was presidential,” \yayne Wayne said the only persistent criticism Reagan the lobbyist has been on the of his knowledge about the issues, ! even this lack of specificity may be part the White House s strategy Said Wayne: “In addition to being consis tent with Reagan s personal style, it re duces his burden and most importantly, his risk. Verbal blunders, poor judgments, costly errors can be and have been blamed <i>n subordinates. The president avoids re sponsibility and ridicule by not havingbeen informed or involved in the details. , "One has to go back to Kennedy ta find another chief executive with a similar com bination of lucidity and charisma aad to Eisenhower to find as commanding a pre sence in the White House,” Wayne said. The combination of all this was to pro duce near Republican unanimity for Reagan s programs both in the GOP Senate and Democratic House. Rep Richard Chqpey, RWyo., c hairman of the House Republican Conference and chief of staff in the Ford White House, emphasized the importance of the GOP unity. He said that even more impressive than Reagan’s getting the conservative House “lx»ll weevil” Southern Democrats to vote for his programs was getting moderate House "gy psy moth Republicans from the Northeast to go afong with him. But Wayne held out the prospect of hard times for Reagan on Capitol Hill: He will find it increasingly harder to control the legislative agenda, and already lack of coor dination is apparent in the White House "If White House* lines of authority con tinue to be blurred, if interagency coordi nation is not systematically*extended into the legislative area, if turnover increases among liaison aides, if the senior staff be come preoccupied with non legislative mat ters, the administration may be in for trou ble, big trouble in the days ahead, Wayne said. Bill Cable, a Washington lawyer andCar- ter’s House lobbyist, agreed that Reagan’s lobbying effort had biwn extraordinarily effective r Cable explained in part his own adminis tration s problem in that Carter believed what a president can accomplish in four years is determined by what he lays out the first year —► and so he had completed Bend ing his long list of proposals to Capitol Hill by August 1977. Parliamentary drama in the House keeps bill from going to president * The Battalion USPS MS 380 MEMBER Editor Anapbque CoprUnd Manapna Editor ..........m JaneC Bruit CRy Editor . brnise Richter Ant. City Editor Diana Sukenfass Sports Editor Frank Christliek roeva Editor Cathy Saathoff Aaat. Focua Editor *. Nancy Floeck News Editors Phyllis Henderson, Mary Jo Hummel. Nancy Weather ley StaffWitten Cave Den lev Tim Koarde. Sandra Cary. Colette Hutchings Johna Jo Maurer. Daniel Pliocett. Laura Williams Cntoontat Scott McCullar Graphic Artist Richard DeLeon Jr hatographars Daniel Sanders. Cohn Valentine Greg Watermann EDITORIAL POLICY Tfcr hMahsa m a aaa pnudt. wtV-ampporfmg newspaper N»y •mvtcm la Tams ABM UntvnHy maw Opinmm mprr-Ktod in The Bmt thaar af fhr edftnr nr the author and do not V 'XPran nf the npimimi >4 Tram ABM Umhmnt- ty adminisfrafor. or faculty members, or of the Hoard of Negpats The 0attai|<in aho serve, as a Uhmrmtors nr\npapea for students in reporting editing and photograph* classes within the Deportment of ( omnmnication* (Jnettron* or naauin nts consenting anv editorial nugtrr •hould be diroctmd to the editor letters polic y Letters to (ha Editor should not exceed 300 worth ta iengri. and are ralijeci to be»n« cut if they are longer The editorial stair raearvrt the right to adH letters for style and length, but will make every effort r 0 maintain the author ' intent Each letter must also be signs d show the addaes. and phone number of the writer Columns and guest editorial, am also welcome, and are not subject to the same length constraints as letters Address all inquMes and correspondence to Editor tV Battalion. 21B Reed McDonald Teaas ABM L'airetdBy. Cofegr Station TK 77043 The Battalion is published daily during Teaas A* M s tail and spring seiapatars except for hobdav and examination periods Mail suhtampttnro are •!« 75per semester. *33.25 per school year mad *35 per foil pear Advertising rates furnished on request Our address The Kattainm 216 Reed McDonald Rudd tag. Teaas ABM Uaiverstts College Station. TX 77B0I l ntted Press iatematsnnal is euBtiad exclusively to Rre use for raproduettan of al news dtapatch.-s credited to it Rights of reproduction of all other matter herein reserved Second dess potaage paid at Cofe* Station TX 77003 I'nfeed Press International WASHINGTON — Sometimes the news media strains so hard to explain parliamen tary procedure in simple terms that it con fuses more than enlightens. Too l»ad, because parliamentary proce dure sometimes can be intriguing. Sports writers and sportscasters make careers of talking endlessly about par liamentary procedure, but they don’t call it that They call it strategy, or signals or any one of a thousand quiet little things that go on behind the scene* in any KamfR So why not occasionally be specific alxiut what goes on behind the scenes in Con gress? Take for example the Alaska natural gas bill that passed Congress, which would give several valuable new rights to the builders ofthe Alaska natural gas pipeline, including the right to charge consumers higher prices to cover costs, even before the pipeline is completed. Probably no one outside Washington in ner circles knows it, hat a young Republi can congressman from Illinois —* Rep. Tom Corcoran — became the new darling of the consumer movement aad rubbed the noses of the moss bound House leadership in its own rules by discovering a new parliamen tary trick. Corcoran actually forced the House to vote again on the Alaska gas bill, embarras sing Democratic leaders and giving the con sumer movement two extra days to lobby against it, after the lawmakers had already passed a bill that was identical to a bill that passed the Senate. Every school child knows that when the House and the Senate pass exactly the same bill, it goes to the president for his signa ture. Right? Not so, at least not in this case. The parliamentary procedure! — or in side baseball — enters the scene at this point. Even if the House and Senate bills are identical tn every way, they must" have the same number at the top. In this case, the House bill was numbered II.J. Res. 341, and the Senate bill was numbered S.J. Res. 115. Under the usual routine procedure, after the House bill passed Rep. Morris Udall, D-Ariz., the floor fnanager. asked unanimous consent to place the House bill under the Senate number. For decades', such unanimous consent requests have been mumbled through the House with hardK any notice, sort of like placing the peruxf at the end of the sent ence. »• Not this time. Corcoran objected. Udall stood fluis- tered, slowly realizing he had been had. With Corcoran’s objection, there was no unanimous consent. The next step was simply to go to the Senate and let them put their bill under the House number. But Sen. Howard Mftzenbaum, D- Ohio, took up the cause at that point, threatening to filibuster ^iy attempt to change the bill’s number. With final ad journment rushing closer, the Senate had no time for a filibuster Warped Meanwhile, the consumer movement' was turning up the heat, making everj? move on the bill a new embarrassment. * There was no choice for Udall. He had tou ask the Rules Committee to allow a vote oil the Senate bill, meaning that the whole issue was thrown hack before the House and the consumer movement had vet another chance to defeat it. The hill passed again, but by a more nar row margin. And the added political dam age to Democratic leaders, including for mer Vice President Walter Mondale a consultant to the pipeline builders —► is hard to calculate. However, no one listening to a broadcast or reading a newspaper would know about this moment of high drama that created new alliances, broke old ones and may have political consequences for years. Instead, almost every media outlet,.in cluding UPI, attempted to find some sim ple key word to explain this crafty m o v e—• parliamentary move," or parliamentary tangle,” or some such. Some even said — incorrectly — that hills had slightly different language Nothing was different about the bill’s guage What was different was that a young cony gressman had propelled himself to the ford^ front of the consumer movement, and som« old “friends" of the movement had been written off Now that’s real parliamentary proce dure." By Scott McCullar HIRE ALLfcff, THE BULB'S OUT, MOULD YBU DO THfc\J --■■G : - - . u1 lL LET'S SEE #0W, WET THE END FIRST*.. ^ uc-i*———