The Michigan Daily-Saturday, December 5, 1981-Page 3
Reagan administration
I
may no
WASHINGTON (AP)- The Reagan
administration may soon try to more
than double the federal gasoline tax-a
move that congressional sources say
will meet strong opposition on Capitol
Hill, especially in an election year.
Transportation Secretary Drew
Lewis says the new taxes are needed to
meet highway construction and repair
needs. To blunt some of the
congressional criticism, he suggested
recently that 1 penny of the increase by
funneled to mass transit.
A PROPOSAL discussed increasingly
by Lewis and his staff would boost the
gasoline tax from 4 cents to 9 cents. One
penny of the increase would go to mass
transit construction and the other 4 cen-
ts would go into the highway trust fund.
The plan has been mentiohed several
times by Lewis in recent weeks and was
reiterated by his top deputy, Darrell
Trent, at a meeting Thursday with city
and county officials at the White House.
Lewis is expected to try to sell other
Cabinet members and the White House
u
ible gasoline
on the idea in the coming months. While (coming) year."
Treasury Secretary Donald Regan is crease "as we ge
said to oppose any such new taxes, tion," he predicted
some senior White House officials and All members of
Budget Director David Stockman are third of the SenateE
described as leaning in Lewis' favor. next year.
BUT, ACCORDING to sources at Senate source
several House and Senate tax and tran- ministration woul
sportation committees, it is highly support from a "d
unlikely that Congress will want to mass transit andr
tackle additional gasoline taxes during have any chance of
the 1982 election year. opposition still
In 1975-when gasoline was con- congressmen who+
siderably cheaper and the energy crun- increases not aim
ch more apparent-a prdposal to double federal deficit.
the gas tax managed only 57 votes in the Lewis wants the
House. because the costso
"We didn't even come close," said a tion and repair are+
House Ways and -Means Committee in the coming y
staff member. "Now with gas $1.35 and coming into the hi
no sense of crisis, it's going to be that diminishing asn
much harder." gasoline.
"I THINK they have a long way to go States are facin
to getting a constituency to get it 32 state legislatur
passed," said one Senate committee gasoline taxes du
staffer. "It's not going to happen this years.
tax
Opposition will in-
t closer to the elec-
1.
the House and one-
are up for re-election
es say the ad-
ld have to develop
delicate coalition" of
highway interests to
f success. Significant
would come from
oppose any new tax
ned at reducing the
new gasoline taxes
of highway construe-
expected to increase
years while money
ighway trust fund is
motorists use less
g similar problems;
es have levied new
uring the past two
AP Photo
Double parked
Two cars wound up in a precarious position after an accident Thursday on Chicago's Lake Shore Drive.
So liarity urged to call strike
Reagan OKs but
WASHINGTON (AP)- President Reagan yesterday en-
dorsed a compromise plan worked out by his staff and
Republican congressional leaders to cut $4 billion from the
domestic budget and avert another government spending
crisis.
Deputy White House press secretary Larry Speakes an-
nounced Reagan "is willing to accept the agreement"
reached Thursday night and hopes it will be incorporated in
new emergency spending legislation to replace a continuing
resolution that expires Dec. 15.
THE CUTS IN the compromise agreement would "go half-
way toward meeting the request Reagan made in Septem-
ber," Speakes said. The White House had said on several oc-
casions it was willing to settle for half the amount Reagan
proposed in his Sept. 24 package of budget cuts.
Earlier yesterday, Reagan signed the first of 13 regular
appropriations bills for 1982. He said then that he was
"pleased with the progress" of negotiations but refused to
specifically endorse the tentative agreement.
Congress so far has passed only three of 13 appropriations
bills, forcing the government to operate on emergency
resolutions 'such as the one approved just before
Thanksgiving after the government temporarily ran out of
money.
dget compromise
REAGAN WON a showdown then, vetoing a compromise
resolution that the administration said had only $2 billion in
domestic spending cuts. After the president ordered all non-
essential operations suspended, Congress agreed to continue
the old level of spending until Dec. 15 as a stopgap measure
House Republican leader Robert Michel, one of those who
helped hammer out the new agreement; said yesterday he
was "very optimistic that we can fly this thing."
However, key House Democrats, who hold the majority in
that chamber, were not involved in formulation of the new
plan.
SPEAKES SAID the White House did not consult
Democratic leaders before Reagan issued his endorsement.
But sources on Capitol Hill said several Republicans had had
informal discussions with key House and Senate Democrats
in an attempt to smooth the way for the plan.
On Sept. 24, Reagan asked Congress for $8.4 billion more in
domestic spending cuts-12 percent across the board-than
he had asked for in his original budget proposal last spring.
"The president has met us more than halfway this time"
by accepting "some of our priorities" in achieving the com-
promise of $4 billion in savings, Senate GOP Whip Ted
Stevens of Alaska said yesterday.
WARSAW, Poland (AP)- Rank and
file pressure mounted on Solidarity
yesterday to call a general strike, and a
hardline Communist Party member
urged the Polish government to take
extraordinAty measures to head off
bloodshed.
Solidarity's 900,000-member Warsaw
branch, still on strike alert over a police
raid that ended a protest at the
firefighters' academy Wednesday,
published a list of demands it said the
government must now meet.
IT SAID IT would not come to terms
with the regime without an end to
repression, a new trade union law and
economic reform, democratic elec-
tions, improved food control, an in-
dependent economic watchdog panel
and access to radio and television.
Although such demands have been
the subject of talks before, it was the
first time such a list appeared in the
form of what amounted to an
ultimatum, observers said.
It put new pressure on Solidarity's
national leaders, who threatened on
Thursday to, call a 24-hour general
strike if Parliament enacted a proposed
strike ban and one of indefinite duration
if the government tried to enforce it.
THE COMMUNIST Party newspaper
Trybunu Ludu accused Solidarity of
pointing the "strike pistol" at
authorities under "any pretext,"
Tadeusz Grabski, who heads the party
in Poznan, told the hardline daily
Reality, "We know that the conflict has
not been extinguished, that the crisis
has been aggravated many times over
and that all the perils facing this nation,
including that of bloodshed, have not
vanished but grown."
"The authorities. . . cannot find ways
of enforcing their decisions and counter
destruction," Grabski said. "They have
indeed done little in this field, not to sa
nothing."'
Grabski said that the curre
situation demanded "extraordinai
measures. Resolute action is neede
the interrupting for a time of all strik
and demonstrations, the stamping o
of rebellion. It is necessary1
reanimate the law.. . on the liquidatii
of illegal activities aimed against tl
state and its institutions.
"I BELIEVE that the overwhelmin
so-called silent majority of our nati4
would approve the taking of extrao
dinary measures. We are facing tt
ultimate decision."
Poland's latest crisis erupted We
nesday when 500 commandos stormE
the firefighters' academy in Warsa
and ousted 320 cadets who occupied ti
building for eight days demandi.
civilian status and inclusion of the
school in a new academic reform bill.
ay
nt
ry
'd,
es
ut
to
on
he
ge
on
r-
he
d-
ed
45 killed in India stampede
Unemployment hits six-year hig
WASHINGTON (UPI) - More than 10 million Americans
were out of work in November, pushing the unemployment
rate to a six-year high of 8.4 percent amid a deepening
recession, the government reported yesterday.
Even the advent of Christmas shopping'failed to curb the
jobless trend, with officials reporting that merchants hired
fewer workers than usual in the pre-holiday period.
OF THE TOTAL unemployed, over 9 million were still
looking for jobs, while the remaining 1 million were listed as
"discouraged workers" who have given up the hunt. In Oc-
tober the number of unemployed Americans seeking work
stood at 8.5 million. '
Blue-collar workers and teenagers took the brunt of
November's downward economic trend. The 21.8 percent
rate for teenagers was a record high since the Labor Depar-
tment began keeping monthly statistics in the mid-1940s.
President Reagan termed the high number of Americans
unemployed "a very great tragedy."
AT THE SAME time, White House officials remained op-
timistic that Reagan's economic program will reverse the
trend next year.
"This is the price you have to pay for bringing down
flation," said deputy press secretary Larry Speakes. "
feel proper measures are in place to put the economy back
track. We believe unemployment will begin to abate nE
year."
But on Capitol Hill, Sen. Edward Kennedy, (D-Mass.) sa
"The president promised that his economic plan would bri
jobs, jobs and more jobs. Instead, it has brought recessi
recession and more recession."
KENNEDY ACCUSED the administration of "playing Sa
ta Claus for the wealthy and scrooge for the working people
Sen. Robert Jepsen (R-Iowa), countered at a congression
hearing by saying that if Congress had passed Reagai
original tax cut, "We would not now be seeing the unei
ployment rates that we see today."
The overall rate increased 0.4 percentage points from o
tober's 8 percent and stood at the highest level since the 19'
75 recession. The total number of unemployed people seeki
work was listed at 9,004,000.
November's 21.8 percent jobless rate for teenagers was t
highest on record, with nearly 1.9 million people aged 16 to
unemployed. The previous high was 20.9 percent in June 197
Lw NEW DELHI, India (UPI)- A stam-
he pede of more than 400 screaming school
ng children-touched off when young men
ir began sexually molesting women
tourists during a blackout-killed 45
people yesterday in a human pileup on
the winding steps of an ancient tower.
L hPolice said 23 of the dead were
- children.
AT LEAST 30 people-mostly
in- elementary school children as young as
We five-were injured in the stampede
on down the narrow steps of the 234-foot
ext tall Outab Minar tower, which momen-
ts before had been plunged into
dd, darkness by a power failure.
ing Survivors said panic erupted when a
on, group of women tourists started
pushing and shoving their way down the
steps of the 13th Century tower,
an- shouting they were being molested by
." the men in back of them.
nal Horrified screams resounded through
n's the stone structure as hysteria seized
m- the crowd of tourists and school
children descending the circular stairs,
)c- which measured 3-feet-11 inches at the
74- top and widening to 4-feet-9-inches at
ng the bottom, witnesses said.
THE BODIES were sent to two
he hospitals where grief-stricken parents
19 gathered to search for their sons and
75. daughters.
Inside the musty mortuary of the All-
India Institute of Medical Sciences,
seven dead school boys lay sprawled on
the floor with th'e word "unknown"
written across white bandages on their
chests.
Next door in the autopsy room, doc-
tors huddled over two men.
AS THE BODY of one boy-his eyes
open and a smile on his face-was
rolled out of the hospital's white rear
doors, his father, standing nearby,
collapsed on the ground in tears.
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi visited
the hospitals and parliament adjourned
for the day in miourning.
The tragedy was the worst accident
in the history of the 781-year-old tower,
built by the first sulan of Delhi, Qutab-
Uddin-Aibak, to commemorate his vic-
tories in battle.
THE TALLEST stone tower in" New
Delhi, it is now a tourist attraction and
a plate from which many unhappy
lovers have leaped to their deaths in
recent years.
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-HAPPENINGS-
HIGHLIGHT
The University's Center for the Continuing Education of Women will spon-
sor a conference on "Image of Professionalism: Issues for Women in Scien-
ce," from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Rackham's East Conference Room. For further
information, call 764-2382.
FILMS
Alt. Act.-The Buddy Holly Story, 7 & 9:15 p.m., MLB 4.
AAFC-9 to 5,7 & 9 p.m., MLB 3.
CG-Straw Dogs, 7 & 9:05 p.m., Lorch Hall.
C2--The Decline of Western Civilization, 7 & 9 p.m., Angell Aud. A.
Mediatrics-Atlantic City, 7 & 9 p.m., Nat. Sci. Aud.
MISCELLANEOUS
Ann Arbor Civic Theater-A Life in the Theater, 8 p.m., Civic Theater, 338
S. Main.
Alumni Theater Series-Seminar, Jack Bender's Mornings At Seven, 10
a.m., League Henderson Room.
PTP-Mornings At Seven, 8 p.m., Power Center.
Theater & Drama-The House of Barnarda Alba, 8 p.m., Frieze Trueblood
Theater.
School of Music-Double bass recital, 4 p.m., Recital Hall; Contemporary
Directions Ensemble, 8 p.m., Rackham; Piano recital, 8 p.m., Recital Hall;
Percussion recital, 8 p.m., Rehearsal Hall.
UAC-How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. 8 p.m.. Men-
MSU trustees axe
alumni group funds
(Continued from Page 1)
of its successor.
Sederburg, who presented the board
with a resolution from 34 senators op-
posing the disfranchisement, said later
the move "makes it harder to sell
Michigan State University and its
programs in the Legislature" and could
have an impact on appropriations for
the fiscally strapped college.
He blamed the situation on the
board's "isolation" from the views of
the community and the Legislature. He
said he felt Mackey "started the
ball rolling down hill" with his effort to
have Kinney removed.
Sederburg said Mackey's position
seems "very secure as long as he has
the board of trustees on his side."
The thing Mackey has to worry about
is the next election, the Republican
lawmaker said, however.
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