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OPINION
Page 4
Tuesday, March 6, 1984
The Michigan Daily
Hart's answer to the Reign of
Error
4
By David Kopel
"Gary Hart is only staying in the race
till January 1984, to pay off his debts
with federal matching funds." "Gary
Hart is really running for 1988."
"People won't listen to a candidate who
discusses the issues in so much detail."
That's what the "experts" all said
about Gary Hart in 1983. All the experts
were wrong. Now the experts are
saying that Gary Hart can't beat
Ronald Reagan in November. Don't bet
on it.
A recent Newsweek poll showed
Reagan decisively ahead of Mon-
dale-but neck-and-neck with Hart.
Small wonder that, according to U.S.
News and World Report, Gary Hart was
the one Democrat that White House in-
siders worried could win in November.
AS JIMMY CARTER and Walter
Mondale demonstrated in 1980, just
being closer to the political center than
the opposition doesn't guarantee vic-
tory. But if the Democrats nominate
Gary Hart, the party can recapture the
White House by appealing to the main-
stream American values that the
Reagan Presidency subverts.
The American people want
America's schools to be the best in the
world. Ronald Reagan's response to our
educational crisis is to cut aid to
education, and to make speeches about
school prayer. Gary Hart's response is
the American Defense Education
Act-to provide matching-funds to loeal
school districts for math, science,
foreign language, and computer
studies. And as the Democratic
nominee, Gary Hart won't have to face
any charges that he is the mouthpiece
of the teachers' unions.
Nothing illustrated Reagan's ex-
tremism better than his stand on the
Equal Rights Amendment. An Equal
Rights Amendment had been part of
every Republican Presidential plat-
form since 1948, until 1980, when Moral
Majority fanatics and Ronald Reagan
took it out. Gary Hart's presidency
(unlike the Carter presidency) will put
ratification of the E.R.A. at the very top
of he agenda. Hart is the main
Democratic sponsor of legislation to
remove anti-female bias from tax, in-
surance, and pension laws. His em-
phasis on women's issues should come
as no surprise, for he has more impor-
tant female advisors than any other
candidate.
POLLS SHOW that over 85 percent of
the American people support strong
environmental laws, even if the laws
increase costs for business. Only a tiny
band of right-wing businessmen sup-
port Reagan's anti-environmental
policy. While Ronald Reagan's E.P.A.
has ignored acid rain, Gary Hart has in-
troduced legislation to reduce sulfer
dioxide emissions. While Ronald
Reagan's E.P.A. has been in bed with
toxic waste dumpers, Gary Hart in-
troduced the Hazardous Waste
Management Act; by putting a steep
tax on toxic waste, the Act would use
economic incentives to discourage
waste production, and would also raise
the revenue necessary for clean-up of
existing waste dumps.
The American people over-
whelmingly support a strong military.
Ronald Reagan's military spending
program weakens America on all fron-
ts. His nuclear strategy rests on
destabilizing weapons like the MX
missile. And his conventional strategy
prepares us to fight World War II all
over again. For example, Reagan's
naval strategy is built around 13 giant
aircraft carriers-sitting ducks for a
precision-guided missile. Naval Reser-
ve officer Gary Hart argues that we
should put our resources instead into
many more smaller and less expensive
carriers. Hart's "Military Reform
Budget" would increase our military
strength by procuring larger quantities
of more reliable and efficient weapons,
and would save $100 billion over five
years by eliminating purchases of ex-
pensive weapons that don't work. An
expert on military reform since his
election to the Senate in 1974, Hart is the
Democrat who can beat Reagan on
defense.
Economics will be the most impor-
tant issue this year. Reagan's economic
fiasco will cost him the election, if the
Democrats launch a powerful attack.
Ronald Reagan promised us a balanced
budget by 1984; he delivered a $200
billion deficit. From 1776 to 1980, the
national debt grew to three quarters of
a trillion dollars. In just four years of
recklessness, Ronald Reagan has in-
creased the national debt by over 75
percent. Even according to Reagan's
own wishful predictions, a second
Reagan term will leave us with a
detailed plans to chop the budget deficit
will appeal to the common sense of the
American people.
"JOBS, JOBS, and more jobs," was
the Reagan theme in 1980. Now more
people are unemployed than in
January 1980, when Reagan declared
we were in the worst economic mess
since the Depression. And as
technological leadership migrates to
of special interest groups, Walter Mon-
dale can offer the American people,
nothing more than a different set of
special interest groups to run the coun-
try.
Voters will prefer to trust the
economy to Gary Hart, the first
presidential candidate ever to refuse to
accept any P.A.C. (political action
commitee) donations. As President,
Gary Hart will owe no favors to special-
interest contributors. Ronald Reagan
supports tax deductions for three-
martini business lunches. Gary Hart
wants to slash the tax deduction and use
the revenue to restore the school lunch
program. On this issue, as on so many
others, Gary Hart represents the best
instincts of the American people, and
Ronald Reagan represents a selfish
fringe.
WHEN BIG businesses such as
Chrysler and U.S. Steel come knocking,
Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale
always open the door. Gary Hart
believes that government aid to in-
dustry should be tied to industrial
reform and modernization, and to
worker retraining. And Senator Hart
knows that whether you call protec-
tionism "voluntary import quotas" (as
Reagan does), or "domestic content"
(as Mondale does), protectionism costs
America jobs by provoking retaliation.
Protectionism caused the Great
Depression. The American people don't
want another ounce of it. Gary Hart's
response to the challenge of foreign
competition is to beat the competition,
not to retreat behind trade barriers.
While the Reagan and Carter-Mon-
dale economic records are stories of
failure, Gary Hart's economic reform
program will stimulate solid economic
growth and restore America's inter-
national competitiveness. President
Hart will revise tax and regulatory
policy to discourage "paper entre-
preneurialism" and to encourage
productive investment and moder-
nization. One of the best of GaryHart's
"new ideas" is to revive one of the most
successful New Deal policies.
To rebuild our decaying roads,
bridges, and water systems, Hart
favors a 15-year public works "In-
frastructure Investment Program." To
foster high technology industries, Gary
Hart would remove regulations that
impede venture capital formation. To
preserve long-term international com=
petitiveness, Gary Hart would raise
government investment in research:
and development to 3 percent of our
G.N.P. Payment for these crucial in-
vestments in our economic future
would come from elimination of
thousands of unproductive tax shelters,
from elimination of the $28 billion
nuclear and synthetic fuel subsidies,
from repeal of the third year of the
"trickle-down" tax cut for incomes
above $50,000 from postponment of in-
dexing, and from a corporate tax sur-
charge.
The strongest candidate the
Democrats can put up against Ronald,
Reagan is Senator Hart. With the ex
ception of the 1964 Johnson landslide,
the Democratic party has over-
whelmingly lost the West in every
Presidential election since 1952.,
Senator Gary Hart of Colorado can win
the West back for the Democrats. As
the primary and caucus results show,
his appeal to independents is unmat-
ched. Hart's intelligence and mastery
of the facts will contrast favorably with,
Reagan's lazy ignorance.
Gary Hart won't lose the debates with
discussions of his children's thoughts on,
nuclear war. He will win the debates
with his thoughtful command of the
issues, his cool self-assurance, and his..
already-demonstrated media appeal.
Gary Hart is the candidate one
traditional American values: outstan-
ding public schools, equal rights for all,
a healthy environment, a strong and ef-
ficient military, an economy second to'
none in innovation or compassion. Gary.
Hart is the candidate of the mostV
traditional American value of all-a
proud determination to find new ideas
to meet the future's challenges. Ronald
Reagan's Reignor Error is coming to'a
close.
Kopel is a second year law
student. He is also a volunteer
working on Gary Hart's campaign.
Daily Photo by DEBORAH LEWIS
When Gary Hart spoke to a group of University students ,last September
there were a few other than himself who could have predicted his strength in
the early Democratic primaries.
national debt of over two trillion
dollars. By soaking up such a huge
amount of the available investment
capital, the debt strangles economic
growth. The resulting credit shortage
causes a grossly overvalued dollar,
which in turn has created the worst
balance of payments deficit in
American history. Senator Hart's
Japan, we are losing the innovative
edge that has been the basis of
prosperity. Reagan calls all this a
"recovery"!
Walter Mondale can't successfully at-
tack Reagan's economic disaster
because Walter Mondale was a key ar-
chitect of the failed Carter policies.
Having received money from hundreds
i aestThaU eailty
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
Stewart
Vol. XCIV-No. 122
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
IVE HEARD OF BEING
"SmOKE-OUT" BEFORE,
BUT NEVER
"NON-SMiOKED-OUT"
4
Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board
Overdue dues
T HE GRADUATE Employees
Organization has suffered from a
lack of support among the teaching
assistants it represents since the
union's creation in 1973. The recent
protestations of non-unionized TAs
angry over mandatory dues required
by GEO underscore this lack of sup-
port and reveal the need to view more
sympathetically what the union has
accomplished for University teaching
assistants.
Difficulties in leadership_ have
brought the union some tough times
during the last ten years-membership
during 1981 fell to anall-time low of 38.
But the gains won for teaching
assistants should not be ignored. In
November of last year GEO won a five
percent pay hike, a guarantee that
there would be a net gain between
salary and tuition next year, health
benefits, limits to class size, and
recommendations for the development
of training programs. Most importan-
tly, the union has succeeded in
establishing the position of teaching
assistants as legitimate employees of.'
the University. The administration for
too long viewed TAs as nothing more
than upper-level students participating
in a financial aid program. Any
student who has taken a large lecture
course would recognize, however, that
the TA plays a fundamental role in the
education process at this University.
They should be treated accordingly.
Add to this list of gains the continued
efforts on the part of GEO to achieve
full tuition waivers and affirmative ac-
tion guarantees, and you've got a union
'that deserves the support of all the
employees it has benefitted.
Membership is, of course, not
required of University TAs. What is
required are minimal dues-normally
no more than $25 a term -- that allow
the union to cover expenses incurred in
the process of organization and
negotiation. The union's enforcement
of payment by non-members in the
past has been lax, but now the union is
pressing for more consistent collec-
tion. Angry non-unionized TAs have
responded by petitioning for dues to be
made voluntary.
But in a very real sense, GEO dues
have been voluntary for the last ten
years. The union has shown a great
reluctance to come down hard on those
TAs who haven't paid, and has been
rewarded with unpaid dues from a
very large number of teaching
assistants. Evidently some TAs think
$25 is too much to pay each term for
benefits that total far more.
University teaching assistants
should be appreciative of the gains that
GEO has won for them. Coughing up
dues once a term is an appropriate and
necessary show of support for a union
committed to representing its workers
in such a constructive manner.
4
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LETTERS TO THE DAILY:
GSTAs urged to support petition drive
To the Daily:
As a Graduate Student
Teaching Assistant, I wholehear-
tedly support the petition drive to
revoke GEO's shop authority, as
do most of my acquaintances. In
recent years, GEO has been all
but invisible to the average
GSTA. It seems that the only time
that contact is made between the
union and its rank and file is
when it's time to collect dues and
representation fees. Even then,
all we hear are threats and war-
nings that failure to pay these
dues/fees will result in a loss of
our TA appointments. Is GEO
completely unaware of what this
type of behavior has done to its
public image?
In response to GEO's
statement in Thursdays paper
"Petitioners Protest GEO dues"
(Daily, March 1), of course there
are reasons why people might
minimum, they should have
already started a letter writing
campaign. They've had plenty of
time to do so! The University has
already offered us emergency,
no-interest loans to help us
through any financial difficulties
BLOOM COUNTY
that these extra taxes may cause.
It makes me wonder who is really
protecting my interests.
This petition drive has been a
long time in coming. I've already
signed the petition, and I urge all
GSTA's who are tired of being
forced to pay these dues/fees W
seek out those who have
organized this petition drive and
join in their effort to give GSTA"
a choice. -Mohammad Partovi:
March.
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