European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 4, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 12 the stars and stripes july columns Anthony Lewis reagans fax rhetoric ignores economic realities saying so out loud seems the president is still going around the country talking up his but the signs of mortality arc legislation of this making fundamental changes in the tax can be enacted Only with the broadest consensus of sup the Reagan Bill docs not and in my judgment cannot such a the weeks since its announcement have made it Clear that it is flawed As Reform and out of joint with economic the urgent economic necessity right now is to reduce the Federal the tax Bill was presented As Neutral in its fiscal but we now know that was the Bill would reduce tax making the deficit the congressional budget office looked at the Busi Ness tax provisions of the Reagan it found that they would produce substantially less Revenue than the Treasury estimated billion less Between 1986 and no such detailed analysis has yet been made of the proposed tax changes for but it would not be surprising if the estimates of their Impact were also Over optimism is a necessary ingredient of a plan that president Reagan presented As if just about every one would pay lower taxes while the Treasury would collect just As More and More people have been that they would pay More under the Reagan Bill than they do Bob Packwood of chairman of the finance said a great Many More Middle income taxpayers Are adversely affected than the administration said in its charts and the big sufferers would be families with husband and wife and to say that is for in contemporary America the family with two wage earn ers is the Reagan in their puffing of the tax Sim ply ignored that social Secretary of the Treasury Baker testified that the Media income family would be better off in every state under the Reagan but he was talking about families with one and internal Revenue service figures show that roughly two thirds of Media income families have two perhaps the administration simply overlooked what has happened to the pattern of american family life in recent More those who shaped the tax Bill had a social vision that they wanted to be True the in Patrick Buchanan of the traditional with the wife staying the whole Reagan tax package reflects a Polit ical that May have been in doubt at when Reagan unveiled the but after Pat Buchanan and the presidents own no one can doubt that the Bill is designed to carry out the con James Reston Serva Tive philosophy of less less Public sup port for the by ending the Federal deduction for state and local the Reagan Bill would penalize states that provide More services for their resistance to that led by Mario Cuomo of new has brought bitter attacks from the notably the Buchanan gibe of the tactic is to try to isolate the higher tax states and make them the that makes Clear the ideological Content of the tax in it is not tax As the president Calls it in his it is a political change in the tax favouring some interests and disc adoring Oil producers the capita gains loophole gets but american companies doing business abroad face complicated arid damaging the administration has responded to particular criticisms by saying it will accept some changes in the but making the kind of changes needed and winning congressional assent while deliberately arousing partisan feelings seems close to the Atten Tion of Congress and others is focused increasingly on the David Stockman is talking about raising not lowering them in the Guise of Murray who was reagans chairman of the Council of economic May have interred the Bill the other Day in an article for the Washington Post when he the key economic challenges to the United states in the 1980s foreign fragile debt structures and huge budget deficits tax Reform As currently contemplated is c new York times am of tax Reform plan comparing stockmans White House fantasies for the first time since the last world according to the the National govern ment in May spent More than twice As much Money As it took this set a new monthly budget deficit of according to the Commerce the nations Trade deficit amounted to billion in the second highest on imports that month Rose to a near record of while exports Sank to the lowest level in 15 these were the administrations own reports of the and its reaction to these facts was interesting when David the director of the office of management and made a private speech about them in Washington on june 5 to directors of the new York Stock Exchange and several members of the who always seems to get in trouble for telling the said that unless president Reagan and the Congress agreed to raise the Federal deficit would probably remain around billion a year through As a policy Stockman it is obvious enough that to close this threatening billion budget we must either massively Cut spending or raise taxes by Large unprecedented magnitudes or by the likes of enact a sweeping mixture of the new York times got a copy of this speech and reported it on the front As the fiscal crisis has wors ened and the political conflict Stockman we the administration and the Congress have increasingly resorted to squaring the Circle with accounting half truths and downright dishonesty in our Bud get debate and the times reported this and much More under a headline Stockman says tax increase May be Best budget this not supported by the gave the impression that Stockman favored a tax though he merely stated it As an so the administration ignored the Burden of stockmans speech and turned its anger on the stockmans offt Hereford speech As if anything can be off the record to 50 congressmen and their wives May have been imprudent but nobody could question the accuracy of his facts or the clarity of his criticism of both the administration and the the degree of political divisions and policy conflict with in our governing institutions has now reached such an extreme and intense state that it is nearly impossible to see where the political will and consensus will come from that is necessary to enact any plan big enough to balance the books or even substantially close the the Basic fact is that we Are violating even the Cardinal Rule of sound Public finance governments must extract from the people in taxes what they dispense in services and per haps not every but certainly Over any intermediate period of if the securities and Exchange commission had jurisdiction Over the executive and legislative Many of us would be in How did the administration react to All this they not Only denied the headline but the body of the Stockman he didst say Reagan said on his Way Back from we have the we know exactly what he and the Story is Larry the White House said the times Story was totally off and suggested that the reporter ought to have his Mouth washed out with and even de an old times reporter who is now stockmans press Secretary and ought to know bet said that the budget directors remarks were completely As the president is always All you have to do is read in the times the text of what Stockman did and judge for and also read the responses of stockmans masters in the White which Are a diversion and a its a fact that Stockman had the courage to and not the fantasies of the administrations that is David Stockman Laid it on the line the government spent twice As much in May As it took in and had the second highest Trade deficit on but of he was not to according to the president and his Public relations it was the times that was to blame for printing what Stockman but getting the headline c 1985 new York