Wednesday 21,1988AThe Battalion/Page 5
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World and Nation
iHomeless report cuts anger authors
Officials: Surplus
may be large hoax
WASHINGTON (AP) — A report
hatl termed homelessness a “na-
ional disgrace” was watered down
nd should have contained even
trofiger language and more specific
ecommendations, say members of
Rgroup that worked on the study
or the National Academy of Sci-
:nces.
; Bhice C. Vladeck, president of
■United Hospital Fund of New
fork and head of the 13-member
Committee that prepared the study,
aidkhe academy refused to include
^strongsupplemental statement,
^■"he report, as it now stands, ba-
ically, was rejected by a majority of
hf-committee because they felt it
■ not strong enough,” Vladeck
I aid.
' Phvllis Wolfe, a panel member
■the head of Health Care for the
flomeless, Inc., in Washington com-
rajined the edited Final report did
lot reflect the outrage and anger at
vhat was studied.
is^Rhose who served on the panel . .
were a little disturbed that we were
Rable to go into more detail on the
problems of the homeless and some
ifRhe corrective measures that
ihould be taken,” added Nathan
a Washington lawyer and
panel member who joined in signing
reJ six-page supplemental statement
issued by Vladeck’s office in New
York.
Despite the complaints, Vladeck
raised the prospect that the material
in the supplemental statement actu
ally generated more attention by be
ing left out of the official report than
if it had been included.
Faced with a choice of leaving out
their strongest comments and issu
ing no report at all, the majority
chose to permit the Academy to is
sue the bulk of the study and then
make nuhlir their supplement inde-
MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) —
The number of confirmed dead in a
flash flood caused by Hurricane Gil
bert rose to 140 Tuesday and au
thorities said a fifth passenger bus
had been located in a drying river
bed.
“We have recovered 140 cadavers.
It’s difficult to say how many more
there could be. It could be very terri
ble,” said Daniel Dimas, assistant in
formation secretary for the Nuevo
Leon state government.
Dimas said by telephone that most
of the bodies were being found in
pendently, he explained.
“And frankly,” he added, “I think
we wound up getting more publicity
than we would have if it was buried
in the report.”
The supplemental statement
called for a restoration of federal
support for low-income housing to
1981 levels, criticizing the sharp cuts
in these programs in recent years.
It also urged a minimum wage at a
level which would make decent
the Santa Catarina River about 20
miles downstream from Monterrey.
Rains unleashed by Hurricane
Gilbert in the 14,000-foot-high
mountains surrounding this state
capital sent waters raging through
the normally dry Santa Catarina
River on Saturday. The flash flood
swept away five passenger buses and
private vehicles that were traveling
on roads built in the river bed.
The Santa Catarina divides Mon
terrey, with a population of 3 million
the largest metropolitan area in
northern Mexico.
housing possible in most cities and
called for the federal government to
be the guarantor of last resort in
health care.
• “The way you do away with home
lessness is to provide homes,” Stark,
a former undersecretary at the De
partment of Health and Human
Services, said.
The flash flood, the worst Mon
terrey has seen since 1909, also
swept away squatters’ homes, streets,
electricity towers and miles of sports
facilities that had built in the dry riv
erbed.
State authorities estimated dam
age at $90 million.
The torrent’s destructive path ex
tended for nearly 40 miles. Hun
dreds of homes were destroyed and
thousands more flooded with water
and mud. About 30,000 people re
mained in shelters on Tuesday.
NEW YORK (AP) — For a nation
accustomed to enormous debts in its
consumer, business and government
sectors, the idea of trillion-dollar So
cial Security surpluses tends to
sound like a financial fairy tale.
The surplus talked about is in
amounts almost incomprehensible,
not just to ordinary folks who have a
difficult time adjusting to millions of
dollars, but even to actuaries.
As calculated by the Social Secu
rity Administration, the surplus
could grow to $12 trillion in about
40 years. And, since the surplus
would have to be invested in Trea
sury securities, it might absorb the
entire national debt.
But there is another side to the
story, too, and it adds to the incredi
ble nature of this financial phenom
enon. Is it possible for highly trained
actuaries to make multitrillion-dollar
errors? Could all this be a dream?
There are those who say it is.
Writing for the Heritage Founda
tion, a conservative think tank, Pro
fessor Peter J. Ferrara of George
Mason Law School calls the projec
tions the great Social Security sur
plus hoax.
“The trouble is that there is and
will be no cash mountain,” he says.
“Those who think there will be have
been misreading U.S. government
Social Security projections and do
not understand federal budget ac
counting,” he said.
A study by Donaldson, Lufkin 8c
Jenrette, a securities firm, questions
some underlying assumptions. It
claims estimates are based on an ab
sence of recessions, mortality rates
that improve too slowly and an unin
terrupted, and unlikely, increase in
real wages of 1.4 percent a year.
In fact, the Social Security Admin
istration itself offers a pessimistic
scenario of slow growth and rela
tively high inflation that has the sur
plus peaking at $3.3 trillion in 2015,
rather than at $12 trillion in the year
2030.
Generally, these critics argue that
the projections are based on invalid
assumptions regarding demogra
phics, health, income, interest rates,
fertility rates and a dozen other con
siderations, many of them economic
and political.
j ^ v'7 t 1vT 1 11 \Z U1 LIlclL
not enough emphasis was put on the
plight of homelessness, Stark said.
Gilbert-related deaths reach 140
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