European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 29, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes june 1985 columns Tom Wicker rudderless dems desperately need charismatic Leader editors note this is the second of two if in 1988 the democrats arc to re gain a presidency that has become almost a Republican which must come first changes in party or a win Ning candidate if you think policy changes Are the first consider the in the first an american political party is not one thing but Many things 50 state a National a congressional numerous ideological or eth Nic various regional re lated like the labor unions or the fundamentalist churches and innumerable individual interests would be Campaign advocates of causes from tax Reform to prayer in the and those lawyers and specialists who go in and out of office As Power shifts Between the in such a cacophony of its hard enough to get agreement on what policy changes would be its harder still to find some forum sufficiently unified and official to ratify these much less to persuade the voting Public that whatever resolutions Are passed dont make up just one More platform to be David Broder proclaimed and the democrats current plight Means that policy changes Are even less Likely than usual to be agreed adopted and publicly the party has no titular save the avuncular tip its Lam Duck speaker its last two presidential candidates Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale do if they provide leadership and no party chairman in years has wielded real policy the National committee has neither the Money nor the organizational reach and strength to put the party on a new and winning policy changes voted by the majority in some disputations party con Clave wont necessarily be accepted by the losing minority and even if they policy changes would not necessarily pro Duce a candidate who can american voters certainly do weigh the issues in making their choices but they rarely vote for a candidate they dont believe in or merely because of his or her abstract stand on important on the other a Strong by the Heady prospects of Vic office and Power that he or she of can make Over a party in that Candi dates image most Ronald nothing so much As the Prospect of winning and keeping Power causes disparate party elements to live with one however uneasily and nothing better enables the candidate or the president who offers that Prospect to hold a party together on the course he or she sets for it was after Only the ideological and political differences within his party that led to the Liberal democrats insurgency against president Carter in that would not have happened had Carter not been perceived by major elements of the led by Edward Ken As neither a Strong Leader nor a Likely Winner in can a party of As Balkans Zed As the democrats Are among interest and ethnic and As committed to Choos ing their National candidates mostly in state nominate a win Ning candidate in 1988 one who can define a More appealing position for the make the voters believe and offer such a Strong Prospect of Victory that various party elements can suspend their differences in rallying to his or her support it wont be More nominating re even if in themselves might bring on one More party fight to picture the democrats As War torn and committed mostly to scoring Points among another pre primary Al Cio endorsement could make the party or its or again appear to be captives of a special the Southern dilemma the More Blacks run and participate As the More Whites turn to the republicans and probably can be solved Only by a candidate with Strong Appeal to Southern Whites and powerful Appeal to try to think of but the emergence of such a candidate is important for More than Victory in a disappointing Sec Ond term for Ronald his assured absence from the race and a weak econ omy can win for the democrats that but if a Democrat who regains the presi Dency in 1988 is not also a Strong and popular Able to set and keep the party on a course the voters he or she and the democrats Are unlikely to stay in Power any longer than Jimmy Carter judging reagans tax proposal by the four is now that president Reagan has sounded the trumpets for a charge against the internal Revenue the hard work of tax simplification and Reform How Are those of us who Are not experts in the intricacies of tax Law and dont want to become experts going to judge the merits and demerits of what All these differ ent people and groups Are proposing h helps at the Start of a prolonged process like this to Jot Down the criteria by which you want to judge the final when its you can look Back at the list and decide How Well Treyve my checklist consists of the four the first is this is a practical Imper we live in an increasingly competitive International economic our workers Are competing for not just with each but with the workers of Western Europe and the third our firms Are competing with their companies for markets and for this is a fact of life the most important reality we no theoretical or ideological or emotional argument for socking it to this group or that can be Given greater weight than that practical Many reformers want to make business in or a particular pay that but not if the Cost is to make them noncompetitive in the world the criterion should be of help in deciding which business tax preferences Are defensible and which Are theres a difference by tween Domestic service industries like for and International businesses like steel or diners cannot easily Fly to London to get a better tax break on a meal they can do their resource buying or investing the tax code has to reflect those realities and pm incentives to investment Over the second criterion is our income tax system is progressive its based on ability to the Rales increase As the tax bracket All the major proposals reduce the number of and that automatically reduces the progressivity of the you can offset that by closing Down some of the deductions or exemptions which Benefit a mainly upper income it takes a Sharp Pencil to calculate who the winners and losers wll but the criterion has to be that progressivity is maintained in the income tax that is particularly As payroll taxes for social Security continue to climb and As state and local taxes generally less progressive than Federal Rise to meet the growing responsibilities of those Levels of the third criterion is in tackling something As Complex As the internal Revenue there Are constant temptations to Cut deals to take care of this or that cons Titu any Reform will obviously require and there is nothing dishonourable about Compromise becomes dangerous when those who Are not party to the deals cannot see any principle that is employed to guide the then cynicism undermines the since the whole purpose of tax Reform is to restore Confidence in the fairness of the tax visible Prin Ciple has to be Are we going to give tax Breakston real estate then lets debate the principle of Home ownership that lies behind these and see if we want to apply it to commercial buildings and to resort properties Are we going to repeal the deductibility of state and local property taxes then lets debate the principle of federalism that underlies that and see if its a principle were prepared to abandon or Compromise for the billions of revenues the Federal government will in every lets put that principle front and and measure the tax code changes by that my final criterion would be and while i list it maybe it belongs at the top of the the poor and near poor will have fewer lobbyists and advocates outside the ways and Means and finance commit tees doors than anyone else and they have a Large stake in the just How Large is demonstrated in a study last week from the coalition on Block Grants and human needs called Untal the using data from the House ways and Means it showed that a family of four at the poverty level paid percent of its income in Federal taxes this year two and a half times As much As it did in Many families just beyond the poverty line Are being taxed Back into poverty by the existing that is probably not something anyone intended to see happen in the last big round of tax but it shows the ack of attention the poor characteristically receive in this it will shame us All if it happens c Washington Post writers croup