The Michigan Daily - Friday, October 24, 1986 - Page 7
I I
Congress avoided tough choices
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP)-The
99th Congress produced dramatic
changes aimed at controlling the
government's budget problems, but
it left for the future the hard choices
of deep spending cuts or a tax
increase.
The 99th first helped create the
largest federal deficits in history.
During fiscal 1986, which ended
Sept. 30, the government spent
about $230 billion more than it
took in, eclipsing the record of
$212 billion set just a year earlier.
Then, largely in reaction to
those figures, which pushed the
Treasury's borrowing needs past the
$2 trillion mark, Congress last
December approved the Gramm-
Rudman law.
THE STATUTE for the first
time set limits on how far spending
could exceed revenues, and it
tightened those limits for each year
through fiscal 1991, when the
budget would be balanced. And it
held out a threat: if Congresds
missed its annual targets by more
than $10 billion, automatic
spending cuts would be imposed
across the board.
The Suprme Court threw out the
automatic nature of those spending
cuts in July, and the 99th Congress
never put them back. But the
targets . remained a powerful
political tool.
CONGRESS was stalemated
through most of the year, missing
every budget deadline and failing to
pass a single one of the 13 annual
appropriations bills. It finished
II, Baker
effort of Carl Pursell to divert
attention from the issues of the
campaign. . . red-baiting is the
refuge of political scoundrels. It
seems to me he should be
addressing the issues of concern in
that district-Star Wars, the nuclear
weapons buildup, joblessness,
crisis of the small family farm...
Pursell ought to be offering
solutions to these problems rather
than red-baiting Dean Baker or
anybody else," Webb said.
GARY CATES, Pursell's
press secretary, countered, saying
Pursell was not dodging the issues
by talking about the Democratic
Socialists of America's
endorsement. "It's a legitimate
issue," he said.
with a flurry of fiscal activity, with
all of its spending decisions
wrapped up into huge compromise
packages,
The bottom lines included:
-A halt to the Reagn-era
buildup in defense spending. The
Pentagon that received huge annual
increases through the first half of
the 1980s actually received less,
when inflation was taken into
account, in fiscal 1986 and 1987.
-No significant tax increases.
President Reagan stuck stubbornly
by his 1984 campaign pledge, and
Democrats declined to challenge
him.
-No deep cuts in domestic
programs. Congress repeatedly
rejected Reagan's calls for sharply
reducing government services,
instead freezing most programs for
local governments.
UNABLE to cut and unable to
raise taxes, Congress had to fudge
to meet its Gramm-Rudman
deficit limit of $154 billion for
fiscal 1987.
Lawmakers voted to sell off
some government assets, including
the Conrail freight railroad; raised
some fees for governement services
and made some accounting changes.
They promised not to rely on a
onetime windfall of $11billion
from the tax overhaul bill, but they
did.
Still, even if the fiscal 1987
deficit estimate is too optimistic, as
many contend, it could still result
in the biggest one-year reduction in
the deficit in history.
"We should pause and take some
pride in this accomplishment," Sen.
Pete Domenici (R-N.H.),
chairman of the Senate Budget
Comittee, said as Congress was
completing its action. "But again,
we cannot rest on our laurels.
Another mountain looms in the
near distance, and the 100th
Congress will once again begin its
trek up that difficult mountain."
Redman stressed that Reagan
stands by his arms reduction
proposals.
"Translating those proposals
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into specific negotiating
instructions is a complex process,"
he said. "A decision on how best
to table such sweeping proposals is
a tactical negotiating one."
Gorbachev on Wednesday decried
the U.S. expulsions as "a
provocation," while saying he still
saw hope for an arms agreement
growing out of the Reykjavik
summit.
Presidential spokesman Larry
Speakes ignored the Soviet leader's
criticism and focused on
Gobachev's assertion of good will.
Bunch o' clocks
An inspector at St. Regis Clock in San Francisco prepares for Sunday's
return to Standard Time. Students should set their alarms for 2 a.m. this
Sunday, so they remeniber to set their clocks back and enjoy an extra
hour of sleep.
\. , j
Soc iaIists
(Continued from Page 1)
parties. Socialist Party National
Secretary Alan Jacobson said, "It is
against our principles to endorse
someone who is not a socialist.
The national level (of the Socialist
Party) is not aware of this (Baker's)
campaign."
He added that the Socialist Party
encourages candidates "whenever
possible to run independently" and
criticized both the Democratic Party
find Republican Party as parties of
big business.
Willa Kenoyer of the Michigan
chapter of the Socialist Party said
she has not heard of Baker's
campaign and that Baker is not a
inember of her party.
MEMBERS OF the Socialist
Workers' Party and Workers'
;*ague echoed the Socialist Party's
criticisms of the Democratic Party
as a party of big business.
"They're all capitalist politicians
and defenders of the interests of
U.S. imperialism," said Workers'
League member Barry Grey,
referring to the two major parties.
te added that the Workers' League's
efforts to establish an independent
labor party include a demand that
tlie AFL-CIO break away from the
Democratic Party.
Grey said the Worker's League
opposes Baker.
ED JOSEPHSON of the
Socialist Workers' Party campaign
Ju Michigan also objected to the
Baker campaign as a waste of the
peace movement's energies.
"Running in the Democratic
Phrty takes away from the effort to
build an anti-war movement," he
said. He added that the Socialist
Workers Party's write-in candidate
for Governor, Kate Kaku, will
attend an anti-war rally in Chicago
qp Oct. 25th and challenged Baker
i6do the same.
In reference to Pursell's charge
that Baker has the socialist
endorsement, Josephson said,
"That's his way of slandering Dean
Baker."
*Losses may
harm U.S.
monitoring
(Continued from Page 1)
"decapitated" a Soviet spy
:operation.
The Soviet also retaliated by
:imposing stiffer visas and other
:restrictions on Americans who
work temporarily in Moscow, on
;such projects as the construction of
;the new U.S. Embassy there.
Redman said similar curbs would
;be put on Russian laborers here.
THE U.S. official said the two
;governments had evidently accepted
;the concept of "parity" in their
;diplomatic complements and should
-move on to arms cnntrnl anA nith.
1e
rip Purse
ROBERT Bills, the National
Secretary of the Socialist Labor
Party, which distributes a
newspaper called The People, said
he did not understand Pursell's
attack on Baker. "I don't know what
he means by the socialist
endorsement," he said. "I don't even
know who these people are. I doubt
very much that any Democrat is
calling for any fundamental
change."
The Executive Secretary of the
Michigan branch of the pro-Soviet
Communist Party of the United
States, Sam Webb, also said the
local chapter of his party does not
endorse Democrats. But he noted
that his party would like to see
power taken from the "Reaganites
in government,"
"It seems to me that this is an
U _______________________________________________________________
Robert J. Smith
Professor of Anthropology, Cornell University
"From Village Japan to Rural Communities:
Perspectives on Richard K. Beardsley's
Contributions to the Ethnology of Japan"
Richard J. Pearson
Professor of Anthropology, University of British Columbia
"Okinawa: Changing Patterns of Trade and Exchange"
Walter Edwards
Assistant Professor of Anthropology.
University of Michigan
Discussant
The Center for Japanese Studies,
Department of Anthropology,
Museum of Anthropology.
and the Horace H. Rackham
School of G;raduate Studies
Presents
The Richard K. Beardsley
Memorial Lectures
October 24
Admission: FREE and
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
4:30-6:30 p.m.
Auditorium A
Angell Hall '
In celebration of the publication
Window s on the Japanese fast:
Studis in Archaeology and PrehistorV
a ai
ANN ARBOR UN DAYS
Friday, Oct. 24 First Presbyterian Church
7:30 p.m. 1432 Washtenaw
"AFRICA AND WORLD PEACE"
Dr. Ali Mazrui
Saturday, Oct. 25 Rackham Assembly Hall
9:15 a.m.
"STAR WARS: PRESCRIPTION FOR DISASTER"
Dr. Donald Rucknagel
10:00
"THE UN AND INTERNATIONAL LAW"
Dr. Bruno Simma
11:00
"TEACHING ABOUT AFRICA:
MYTH AND REALITY"
Robert Brown and Dr. Mutumbo Mpanya
All above events open to the public without charge
12:00 LUNCH AT CAMPUS INN
"THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN AFRICA"
Dr. Niara Sudarkasa
For lunch reservations ($10),
phone 662-5529 or 971-5723
WANT TO EARN
EXTRA
FOR THE HOLIDAYS*?
EATERIES &
COMMONS
is now hiring U-M
employees for temporary
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