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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 1, 1983)
local Battalion/Page 3 March 1, 1983 * Gov’t must keep within its budget i i ) s U.S. Rep. Phil Gramm ling the true h lame ft ilitical] ter del cent of the Dt * threat) sist thai y can’t ) the ui hey insi t into the who w Reag ;1 of these it ection ply to ity and ith tha ent chai ur relict ol mi) nuclear )nd (lease le hot* cess us) :es?” tter-i have by Kelley Smith Battalion Staff The high cost and possible ies of heart surgery rescan It nd technologs are issues that ill have to be faced in the In ure, heart surgeon Dr. Michael DeBakey said Mondav night n Rudder Theatre. The objective in heart urgery research is not only to ai jrolong life but to try and te- D tore the patient to his normal ife and previous working abili- ies, said DeBakey, chain ellor ol Javlor College of Medicine. A society that is very humani- arian and compassionate will ry to find the means lor the ob- ective, DeBakey said in his peechsponsored by MS( 1 (treat issues. If it doesn’t achieve the ob jective but only prolongs life and he costs are high, a lot ol qnes- ions might be raised even In a ompassionate society,’ hr' said. In some countries, these ques- (ons already have been raised ind funding for heart research jmd treatment has been re- tricted, he said, therefore many seople have to wait in lines to eceive treatment and often old- ;r people are even refused treat ment. However, he said, researchers ire not going to stop doing ic- iearch on heart diseases. Recent research has reduced he mortality risk of heart iurgery from about 20 percent ;o about 2 percent, DeBakey aid. Of the people who have heart urgery, HI percent are able to eturn to work; of those, 57 per- :enl return at the same or a higher level of work. Depending on the type and severity of the disease, b! to 82 percent of the patients are alive II) years after surgery. In the last ten years, resear chers have made progress in the treatment of heart diseases but the exact causes of heart disease are still unknown, DeBakey said. “Today, there is a great deal we can do about heart disease. Although there are some forms of heart disease we can still do little for." Public attention is always given to good nutrition, low cholesterol levels, normal weight and the avoidance of smoking as important factors in avoiding heart disease, but they are not causes of heart diseases, DeBakey said. “In general, there tends to be too much emphasis on choles terol." DeBakey, who developed a pump which became an impor tant part of the heart-lung machine that made open heart surgerv possible, helped de veloped tlie present method of treating the two types of heart disease, aneurisms (enlarge ments of l he middle wall of blood vessels) and closures of the blood vessels. He worked with different types of fabrics to develope arti- ficial artery and vein segments that could be implanted to re place diseased vessels. Major contributions to the adv ancement of cardiovascular surgery include safe methods of X-raying the veins, blood trans fusions, anesthesia and che motherapy, DeBakey said. MARCH SPECIALS Any Burger with fries. Taco Salad or Fajitas ONLY $ 2.99 No Coupon Needed FUN • FOOD • DRINK= 764-8064 CULPEPPER PLAZA HAPPY HOUR — 4 till Midnight WEEKEND HAPPY HOUR — 4 till 1 am Economy recovering, Gramm says by Kim Schmidt Battalion Staff The American economy, which has been in sharp reces sion since June 1981, is on its way back to a strong recovery, U.S. Rep. Phil Gramm said Monday. Speaking at the 31st annual Texas Farm and Ranch Credit Conference at Texas A&M, Gramm told the audience of bankers and ranchers that if the economy follows patterns set in post-war recessions, it should re cover just as quickly and sharply as it went into recession. He said recovery should start this spring and summer. “I think it’s pretty clear that we have a very strong and vib rant economic recovery under way,” Gramm said. “But how well it goes will depend on the government’s fiscal policy.” Gramm said the recession was caused by a variety of factors. “The recession was not caused by a collapse in demand but was caused by a record-high interest rate,” he said. The high interest rate dis couraged people from investing or saving their money and, therefore, the amount of capital available for banks to loan was depleted. Gramm said people only saved 4.5 cents of every dol lar in 1981 compared with 11 cents saved on every dollar in 1971. This, along with the rising inflation rate, the reduction of growth in the housing industry and other factors, sent the eco nomy into a tail-spin and re sulted in a drastic increase in the federal deficit, Gramm said. At the same time, the unem ployment rate increased from 7.4 percent to 10.4 percent, further increasing the deficit. Gramm said that each increase “I think it's pretty clear that we have a very strong and vibrant eco nomic recovery under way. ” — U.S. Rep Phil Gramm. of one percent in the unemploy ment rate drives up the federal deficit by $28 billion because of the loss of taxable income and the added need for unemploy ment benefits. But now, Gramm said, the economy is on the road to recov ery because the same factors that caused the recession are being corrected. The most important of these, he said, is the increase in the in vestment rate. People are now saving about 9 percent of every dollar and thus new capital is available. But Gramm said for the eco nomy to recover fully, the gov ernment will have to make some changes. “As the private demand for capital grows, we have got to back the government out of the capital market so that money will be available for the private sector.” Gramm said if the govern ment competes with the private sector for capital it would cause “a drag on the economy.” Besides getting the govern ment out of the capital market, other measures to quicken eco nomic recovery were outlined by Gramm. He called for a decrease in defense spending, better target ing of expenditures for welfare programs and a program to force the federal bureaucracy to live within the budget it set last year. Although Gramm maintains that the economy will experi ence a full and strong recovery if the growth in savings and cor rections in the other areas con tinue, he did say one problem may arise. “My concern in 1984 with the budget is that we will be faced with a stalemate.” He said the Democrats have enough votes to defeat Reagan’s budget, but they do not have a budget plan to replace the Presi dent’s and this could create a problem. eBakey speaks n heart surgery GOING OUT OF BUSINESS AT THIS LOCATION SALE STARTS WED., MARCH 2nd MEN’S WEAR RENOWNED BRANDS AND DESIGNER LABELS ARE NOW AVAILABLE TO YOU AT NEVER BEFORE PRICES! «fte r7 y HS TOR E is obi, ears disposed to entire s toch UP TO 30%-50%- 70% OFF Largest inventory in our 7 years’ history, including large selection of newly arrived merchandise SUITS • SPORTCOATS • SLACKS SHIRTS • SPORTSWEAR • Corbin • Arnold Palmer • Ferrell Reed • Majer • H. 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