opinion
Battalion/Page 2
March 31, 1982
Senate leaders
held in squeeze
by Robert Mackay
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Senate Republi
can leaders trying to put together a
budget compromise find themselves in a
rather difficult position this year —
caught between their president, Ronald
Reagan, and their Democratic col
leagues.
The result has been a virtual stale
mate. with the GOP leaders warning the
.Democrats and the White House they
better start seriously negotiating a com
promise or the Senate will start mosing
ahead on its own.
“There is a triad, and two parts of that
triad aren't talking,” a GOP leadership
aide complained.
Budget talks began this week between
White House chief of staff James Baker
and House Budget Committee Chair
man James Jones, l)-Okla., and House
Ways and Means Committee Chairman
Dan Rostenkowski, D-Ul.
But Senate Republican leader Ho
ward Baker of Tennessee — in a warning
directed at the White House — said if he
did not get an indication of progress
soon, he would order the Senate Budget
Committee to start writing its own budget
resolution.
Reagan is partly to blame for the im
passe. Iiecause of the fiscal 1983 spend
ing plan he sent Congress with a pro
jected deficit of $91.5 billion —a figure
Treasury Secretary Donald Regan has
since conceded will probably be* a lot
higher — and because of his refusal to
compromise to slash the deficit, despite
the fact there is virtually no support in
Congress for his budget.
Also, Democrats are uneasy about
compromising with him localise of the
tactics he used last seat to secure his
budget and tax-cut victories.
Republicans can’t support the stagger
ing deficits in the Reagan budget. Ije-
cause most of them campaigned on the
traditional GOP stance that high deficits
cause inflation and keep interest rales
high. Neither can the conservative
Democrats, who formed the coalition in
the I louse last year that provided Reagan
his crucial victories and who are up for
re-election this year.
“The coalition of last year is not here
this year,” a Senate GOP leadership aide
said, when asked why Senate Republi
cans were giving such importance to
House Speaker Thomas O'Neill's partici
pation in the budget process.
Baker said he feels a new budget coali
tion could be formed this year and
O'Neill would “probably be a part of this
one.”
While Baker contends the Republican
Senate could pass a budget resolution
now, he would prefer to wait to see what
kind of budget is acceptable to the Demo
cratic leadership in the House and to
Reagan. The president’s budget cannot
be forced through the Democratic House
with conservative “Boll Weevils” this
year.
The two main sticking points are the
three-year income tax cut program
enacted last year and the cost-of-living
adjustments for entitlements programs
such as Social Security, Medicaid, Medi
care and food stamps.
Reagan is willing to “look at” some
reduction in his proposed level of milit-
ary spending, but he is refusing Demo
cratic calls for deferring the 1983 indi
vidual income tax cut to help lower the
deficit.
The House Democratic leadership,
meanwhile, is skittish about agreeing to
reduce the growth of entitlement COL-
As, especially for Social Security, that is
being suggested by the Senate Republi
can leadership.
The Democrats feel their only budget
\ ictory last year was in getting the admi
nistration to reverse itself and restore the
$122-a-month minimum Social Security
benefit.
The Democratic leadership contends
it was led to believe by Reagan they could
work out budget and lax legislation com
promises with the White House last year,
but the president then ran roughshod
over them.
“Jonesand Rosty (Rostenkowski)came
back wounded,” said O’Neill’s press sec
retary. Chris Matthews. “Its an
apprehension that what happened last
year can happen again."
Still stinging from last year's budget
fight, Jones said. “I don't intend to en
dorse anything the president doesn t
support publicly."
And a Rostenkowski aide said the Illi-
nois Democrat will not sign anv com
promise agreement this sear that does
not have Reagan’s signature on it as well.
Meanwhile, Senate Republican leaders
anxiously wait for some action as the
deadline of April 15 approaches for pas
sage of a budget resolution in the .Senate.
“It’s like everybody is sitting, waiting
for everybody else." a Baker aide said.
the small society
by Brickman
/MY " as-
OF TvJO
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WhiA~ PO YOU Z&cofrtAB-tW ?
President taking serious risks
By David S. Broder
WASHINGTON — The situation
now unfolding in Washington has no pa
rallel in the recent history cjf this govern
ment. Senior associates of the President
— Cabinet members and top-rank White
House aides — are conspiring with lead
ing members of Congress of both parties
to force the President to abandon his
opposition to any significant change in
his own defense, economic and budget
plans.
The plot is well understood by all con
cerned, even though the President’s ada-
mancy has forced their discussion into
underground and sometimes cryptic ex
changes. Whether they can succeed in
their effort, under these circumstances,
is very doubtful.
Even before budget director David A.
Stockman made his doubts public late last
year in the interview with William Greid-
er, two salient and interrelated facts were
becoming clear to almost everyone ex
cept Ronald Reagan.
The persistence of high interest rates
— which the administration was power
less to attack directly — was distorting the
economy, driving it into a severe reces
sion, and almost certainly blocking any
strong and sustained recovery. That fact
undercut the hopes that a series of deep
tax-rate cuts at the heart of Reaganomics
would trigger an economic boom.
I he rates were frozen at historically
high levels — despite the welcome de
cline in inflation — because of the wide
spread recognition in the financial com
munity that the federal government
could not finance its activities in the fore
seeable future on the revenue base that
was left after last year’s presidentially en
couraged orgy of tax cutting. For deficits
to diminish in coming years, planned
growth of all government spending, in
cluding defense and individual entitle
ments, must be restrained. And some of
the squandered revenue base must be re
captured.
Those facts were grasped by Reagans’s
economic and budget officials and by the
members of his senior staff. But in the
final stages of preparing the fiscal 1983
budget, they were unable to persuade
him to abandon his doctrinal views about
defense and tax cuts and recommend
appropriate policies.
The Gabinet members and White
House aides have not forgotten w'hat
they learned then about the realities. The
conclusions they reached are now shared
by most senior Republicans and Demo
crats on the House and Senate budget,
tax-w'riting and appropriations commit
tees, and the leadership of both parties in
Congress.
But the official administration posi
tion is that the President cannot — and
should not — move off his own budget
unless and until Congress presents an
alternative. That has a surface plausibil
ity but, as a practical matter, it is a
tortur
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ruinously rigid stance.
The President’s immobility is not be
nign. In public rhetoric, he is takingpot
shots at those who have recognized tht
need for politically unpopular steps liti ! ,r * s
higher taxes and lowered benefits.
The result is that the process ofn
tiations between the parties and
houses in Congress and between tht
Congress and the administration hai Xuesd
been forced into backdoor channel! Co
where the many substantive problem
are far harder to resolve. Realisticall
the chances of the government assetnl
ling a counter-budget against the vod
disapproval of the President are exceed
ingly slim.
The effort continues for one very sim
ple reason: Time is running out. If the
budget cannot be rewritten this springs
time to encourage an economic turnar
ound, then the advent of the autumn
election campaign will destroy any hopa
of bipartisan cooperation on that project.
I have never seen a time when more
thoughtful men and women in both par
ties were more concerned about tht
country’s future — or more f rustratedb\
their inability to enlist the President in
what they see as an urgent task.
His aloofness from the processandhij
hostility toward those who are strugglii
to work without him put the heaviestbur
den of responsibility for future eventson
Ronald Reagan’s shoulders. He is risking
more than he seems to understand.
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DID 'KXJ SM,
WHAT BRAKES?
Letters: Junk food is not enough
Editor:
Did you know that only one item in the
snack machines within walking distance
from Halbouty is not a cigarette, a cor-
bonated beverage, or full of caffeine or
sugar? That one item is dry-roasted
peanuts and they contain MSG (monoso
dium glutamate) and lots of salt. How
much trouble would it be to offer a few
items that are not cancer-causing or full
of sugar, caffeine or salt? We are not
asking for fresh carrot juice or sprouts on
stone-ground whole-wheat bread. A few
fruit juices, milk, and maybe even fresh
fruit, trail mix (gorp), or cheese and
crackers would be nice. Many high
schools in Texas have been forced to re
move carbonated beverages and sugary
snacks from their vending machines. We
don’t think that things should be taken
that far here. I am sure that we are all
mature enough to be able to decide what
snacks to consume. We just think that
healthier snacks should be available on
campus at all hours just like the junk
foocE Or. W ow! \\ e want to Have a \ -8.
the GSSO. He immediately stood up and
created a scene by informing everyone
around us of what I had just said. G’mon
Ags, we are normal people! We go to
football games, go to church, and go out
on Friday nights. The GSSO is an organi
zation just like any fraternity, or for that
matter, even the Gorps.
I love this University and mv fellow
Aggies, but sometimes I wonder if
might not be better to attend t.u. whet
we are accepted as normal people.
Please Ags, try to show a little mort
understanding.
Wayne Guns
Bucknel! Street, CS
Richard Theiss
Katrina Withers
Understanding needed
Editor:
l am tired of having to remain quiet
about what I am! What is it about people
that the\ can t understand someone w ho
is gay?
Yesterday . I was talking to a “friend”
in class and in the conversation just hap
pened to mention that I was a member of
The Battalion
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