Page 4-The Michigan Daily-Wednesday, February 13, 1991
Wbe £rivbr1juu &ai g
420 Maynard Street
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109
Edited and Managed
by Students at the
University of Michigan
ANDREW GOTTESMAN
Editor in Chief
STEPHEN HENDERSON
DANIEL POUX
Opinion Editors
Unsigned editorials represent a majority of the Daily's Editorial Board.
All other cartoons, signed articles, and letters do not necessarily represent the opinion of the Daily.
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Bush in Di
New budget's priorities reflect
EI very cruise missile fired at Baghdad costs
three times as much as the federal government's
entire budget for this country's homeless. Every
day that the United States is at war in the Gulf,
Washington spends more money than it spends in
a year on Head Start programs for preschoolers.
Numbers like these once again question what
the "American way of life" - which people are
supposedly dying for in the Middle East - is all
about. Butsuchquestions aren'tbeing asked, largely
because President Bush has his own set ofnumbers
concerning the cost of the war, both at home and
abroad. They're part of his recently proposed 1992
budget, and they have about as much to do with
reality as Disneyland.
Bush's budget projects the cost of the war from
October 1990 to October 1992 at less than $13
billion. Never mind that the latest estimates place
the cost at between $164 billion and $268 billion.
Never mind that Washington has received only $8
billion of the promised contributions from its al-
lies, and nevermind that Bush has earmarked $318
billion for the Pentagon war machine over and
above the cost of the Gulf war.
Meanwhile, on the domestic front, the pro-
posed 1992 budgetcontinues Bush's long-standing
practice of stealing from the poor to benefit the
rich. Bush's proposal persists with his long-standing
aim to cut the capital gains tax, which would give
billions back to the rich. Already, the top 1 percent
of the U.S. population makes more than the com-
bined incomes of the bottom 40 percent, while
families earning more than $50,000 receive $40
billion in government-sponsored subsidies and tax
abatements.
While the rich enjoy their mortgage interest
exemptions and capital gains deferrals on housing
sales, the poor are trying to find a house to live in.
While Bush's proposed budget plans to eliminate
federal payments for the construction of public
Budget "new federalism" take
Part of "the American way of life"- for Bush
as for his predecessor - involves so-called
"new federalism." It sounds great on paper: make
government more responsive to the people by
giving state and local governments more decision-
making power and more control over formerly
federal programs.
But what it has meant in practice, under both
Reagan and Bush, is that Washington shifts pro-
grams tothe states andthen bankruptsthem,leaving
local government holding the bag. Bush's latest
addition to this scam - incorporated into his 1992
budget proposal - is no exception, despite his
promise that it would move "power and decision-
making closer to the people."
The proposal itself is deceptively simple and
inviting: from a"menu"of $21 billion of federally-
funded programs, states can choose $15 billion's
worth to run on their own. In return, Bush has
promised that Washington will "fully fund" the
programs for the next five years.
But "fully fund" is a rather vague concept -
one that says nothing, for example, about whether
issues such as inflation will be factored into those
five annual installments. And what happens to the
programs in question five years from now, when
the federal government - beset by the legacies of
war, recession, and the savings and loan bailout-
sneyland
president's fairy tale vision
housing, there are more than 170,000 families on
the waiting list for public housing in New York
City alone.
Given the deepening recession, that list - and
waiting lists for other benefit programs - will
only grow longer. Bush's solution is to eliminate a
whopping 238 domestic programs - including
many unemployment benefits and federal funding
for numerous school districts, libraries, and foster
care programs. At the same time, the budget has
earmarked $2 billion for a space station and $4.6
billion for Star Wars - a 58 percent increase.
Neither space nor defense should take prece-
dence over the domestic, human needs which gov-
ernment on all levels in this country is increasingly
ignoring.
This is not to say that all domestic programs
should escape the axe. But Bush, with his custom-
arily stunning ability to make the wrong choices, is
beefing up the very domestic programs that should
be cut and gutting those that should be saved. For
example, there is no need for the $71 billion
allotted for research, especially when one consid-
ers that two-thirds of that total is budgeted for
military research.
An even more obscene aspect of Bush's domes-
tic proposals involves the budget's 17.5 percent
pay raise for Congress and 9 percent pay raise for
the White House office that cobbled the budget
together.
Bush's bribe to Congress is a microcosm of
what the budget as a whole is all about: the poor
must once again tighten their belts while the fat
cats get fatter, just as the poor must go fight in the
Gulf while the fat cats rake in the profits. This
process is unfair, and it needs changing. It is time
for a peoples' budget - one which reflects priori-
ties dictated by the "American way of life" as most
Americans actually live it.
s aim at nation's cities as well
might well be even more broke than it is today?
Such questions take on an even sharper focus
when looking at who benefits from the specific
programs on Bush's menu. More than 80 percent of
them -including community development grants
and programs geared toward housing assistance,
child care, and inner-city education - are cur-
rently earmarked for people with low-incomes.
America's poorhave never been high on Bush's
agenda, and hence it is not surprising - to quote
Representative Leon Panetta (D-Ca.) - that the
only thing the menu programs have in common is
that Bush's Budget Director Richard Darman spent
last fall griping "about every one of them." Hence
Bush's proposal is less a means to democratize
these programs than a preparation for their even-
tual elimination.
It is no wonder, then, that the nation's mayors
are up in arms about Bush's proposal; they should
be. As currently laid out, it would give the states
complete discretion over how to spend the money
in question-meaning, potentially, that they could
choose to spend money specifically designed for
social welfare programs on debt relief or road
construction rather than their own poor. This is not
democracy in the name of the people, but, like
Bush's overall budget, another way of stealing
from the people while invoking their name.
To the Daily:
The meal plan reform reported
in the Daily ("Meal plan reform
offers flexibility" 2/11/91) offers
welcome changes. At last, we
won't have to pay for meals we
don't eat.
But before students rejoice in
this reform, they should look very
carefully at some of the changes.
For example, students who only
use Entree Plus will, according to
the story, now have to pay a hefty
fee just for eating at the dorm
cafeterias.
Students will have to pay so
much because, as David Foulke,
associate director for Housing
business affairs, says in the story,
people who use Entree Plus solely
"...should share in the cost of
running the residence hall
because those units are provided
for room and board."
However, don't the inflated
prices of meals cover these costs?
And why should people who
don't live in the dorms pay for
those who do?
Another big concern to
students should be the fact that
only four dorms, according to the
story, will definitely be open on
the weekend. Is meal flexibility
Students wait in line for food at the West Quad cafeteria. New meal
plan reforms hope to restructure the current food service.
really worth the chaotic over-
crowding that will result?
The new meal plan may well
be worth the weekend over-
crowding and the expenses to
Entree Plus users. But before
students jump to praise the
Don't change
Nuts n' Bolts
To the Daily:
I would like to address my
comments to Judd Winick
concerning his cartoon strip "Nuts
n' Bolts." He shouldn't be a
wimp! Even Lumus wouldn't ask
people how he was doing. He
should just keep doing what he
wants to do with his cartoon strip.
Would Hollander or Trudeau care
what people like or hate about
their strip?
John Woodford
"Zap the Dude"
To the Daily:
For 19 years, regents and
presidents have actively resisted
attempts to add "sexual orienta-
tion" to regental bylaw 14.06,
which currently expresses the
University's commitment to anti-
discrimination "for all persons
regardless of race, sex, color,
religion, creed, national origin or
ancestry, age, marital status,
handicap or Vietnam-era veteran
status."
We find 19 years of opposition
to basic human rights for lesbians,
gay men and bisexual people to
be astonishing. We are embar-
rassed that the University's peer
institutions, like Harvard, Yale,
Princeton, MIT and the University
of California, have already done
what the regents and President
Duderstadt currently refuse to do
and that the University has thus
become a model of Neanderthal
prejudice. We find bigotry of any
kind to be unacceptable at an
American university.
The enthusiasm expressed on
"Zap the Dude Day" (1/30/91)
shows that most of the commu-
nity agrees. Indeed, we found
policy, they should take a hard
look at both the strengths and
weaknesses of the plan.
Mikael Elsila
LSA first-year student
supporters in what some might
think to be unlikely places
(support came from some
participants on the Michigan
Review computer conference, for
example), and we watched while
fraternity men and sorority
women, members of Michigan
sports teams and others "Zapped
the Dude" with us. We thank
MSA for supporting our call to
amend the bylaw with a call of
their own. And we thank the
Daily for its excellent and
consistent front-page coverage of
the widening effort to bring the
University into the 20th century.
What's next? We invite
everyone to our 15 minute
Valentine's Day Dance-In from
1:00-1:15 on the Diag. We
welcome everyone, regardless of
sexual orientation.
Sam Kaufman
Julie Delaurier
COL.LG..
..O.UN.....Support,
This weekend brought more protests, more demon-
strations, more outcry both for and against the con-
tinuance of the conflict in the Persian Gulf.
Supporters of American action and anti-war pro-
testers have faced off, each group decrying the position
of the other. But whether the people involved see it or
not, there is a common theme on both sides. Everyone
supports the men and women who are serving in the
Middle East.
One soldier's parent, in a television interview, was
heard to say that anti-war protesters were sending the
wrong messages to troops in the Gulf.
If that's true, then the actions of the anti-war
movement are being terribly misinterpreted. The troops
should be heartened to see that their country and its
democratic foundations are unshaken.
They should be glad to see that America's citizens
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Gulf war threatens people of color
U.S. troops
are exercising their right to think and to disagree and to
debate the actions of the government. If this were no
longer tolerated, this would not be the free society for
which the soldiers fight.
It is our position at the Lantern that no greater
support for the troops could be expressed than the hope
that they do not die.
The soldiers fighting the war are not to be held
responsible. They are faithfully carrying out the terms
of an oath they took in good faith. They are the pawns
in a game President Bush is playing.
Our support for the troops is absolute. We have no
malice or anger against those carrying out the policy.
We are, however, at strict odds with the policy itself and
in no way support the decisions of the policy-makers.
Jan. 28, 1991, The Ohio State Lantern
The Ohio State University
People of Color Against the War
is a new group of students of color
and members of the surrounding
Ann Arbor community that have
been meeting for the past several
weeks. We
are out-
raged at the
Bush Ad-
ministra-
tion for
dragging us
into yet an-
other racist
and imperi-
alist war,
especially
at a time
w h e n
money and
I1
RS
white Americans, only to return
home to the same oppression they
left - an oppression our peoples
have known ever since our initial
association with peoples of Euro-
pean descent and their quest to rule
the world.
Citing the principle of self-de-
termination, Bush projects himself
and the U.S. government as guaran-
tors of human rights throughout the
world by launching a war against
Iraq and the Iraqi people over the
occupation of Kuwait. But we need
to put this freedom-loving image in
its proper historical context.
Is this not the same government
that implicitly accepts the 23-year
Israeli occupation of the West Bank
and Gaza by continuing to give more
than $3 million a day to the Israeli
state? Is this not the same adminis-
proposed budgets of Bush and Gov.
John Engler, this government will
again attempt to cut social services,
child nutrition, financial aid and
other programs as a declaration of
war against the most disempowered
members of our community.
We must continue to struggle
against these attacks in the tradition
of resistance that our community
demonstrated during the U.S. war
in Vietnam and throughout history.
Therefore, People of Color
Against the War is continuing in
our efforts to join with the sur-
rounding Ann Arbor community in
its opposition to this war. We have
also issued 10 demands to the
University, including ademand that
it become a true alternative to the
military for people of color and
poor by eliminating racist admis-
by
Michael
Wilson
Nuts and Bolts
(mm s~a~uwus -
By Judd Winick
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resources for food, housing, educa-
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