European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 15, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes August 1985 columns comments Anthony Lewis done Fame industrious japanese for faults Tokyo when Japan 40 years Douglas Macarthur undertook not just to occupy but to re make the it he had been asked then what his most extravagant Hope i think he might have said to Channel the drive of this aggressive people away from militarism and into economic that Hope has been realized to an extraordinary it is one of the great achievements of any foreign policy in modern but now the country that had the vision and carried it the United is in a state of alarm about its successful alarm May be too tame a judging by a recent dramatic expression of american feelings about japanese eco nomic that was a piece by Theo Dore White in the new York times headed the danger from it rang with resentment and expressed in almost military the article began with nearly words describing the surrender ceremony aboard the Missouri in the Power was All White there was no question but that we had won this those were the in when men were men and japs were but now we find ourselves challenged by japanese products in our own those japanese had better be or we shall strike Back just As we did after Pearl that was the tone of the it was nostalgic for the just after world War when american Power was unit charged the japanese with winning economically by deceit and nationalistic it suggested that we should have been less less enlightened kept Japan in subservient the japanese Are rough economic they have used some unfair tactics in protecting their Home but can anyone doubt the main reason for their Success they have made brilliantly economical that is Why americans bought japanese cars not because we loved Japan but because we Are a practical people and we know a William Safire Pamm foreigners better car when we see the visitor Here quickly feels the commit ment to the satisfaction of the most modest shop assistant in doing the Job even in an alien language and culture to Kos International Airport is easier to Man age than Kennedy Airport in new with its confusion and those fearful of japanese Competition would do Well to think about correcting our own we waste billions in corporate raids that prevent lon term business for while japanese companies build up loyalty and plan years the Militarist spirit still lurks and some think it is even in Hiroshima sound trucks prowl the streets with right Wing Militarist messages a reminder of the alternative to the economic Miracle that has rebuilt that flattened would our friends in Southeast Asia be happier with an economically frustrated Japan would China one reason Why America lags behind Japan economically is deeply while we forced Japan to renounce we ourselves have become a profoundly militarized we faced a threat from the soviet but instead of dealing with it we have again and again exaggerated the seeing missile gaps when none now the compulsion to build More and More weapons is fed by the Laborati the the the local citizens who fear there is no other source of it is no longer a question of controlling a military Industrial Jerome the former president of Mit and scientific adviser to wrote in the current bulletin of the atomic it is a of keeping the United states from becoming a totally military Cul by All Means press Japan to compete but begin by understanding that America cannot compete effectively while it wastes billions on Star wars and needless mortgaging its economic future with immense the dear Bru is not in our stars but in c 1985 times news service heading for a soup Kitchen without soup in our last Looman doom Captain Reagan was at the smiling amiably into the As the ship of stale headed straight for the iceberg of a trillion Dollar since that the Sharp Pencil boys have been in to see the president to Tell him that the billion supposedly Cut from next years budget is a and that the deficit is now projected to go Over even that figure is based on the expectation of a surge in the rate of growth to 5 percent for the rest of the if that turns out to be which is the real level of red Ink will Rise Over a Quarter this recalls a routine by the comedian red he told of a Bare dinner table in his with the family dressed in overcoats because they  afford and the Mother dividing the half loaf of stale bread among a dozen who swept up and ate the he then came the de if the economic growth rate drops to Zero or below sometime in the next year no but the kind of downturn that is at least a real possibility then revenues would government spending would have to in and we would be in the soup Kitchen without the soup we would be borrowing Money at a rate to alarm the sunniest when asked about this in private by top Reagan gets out a Pencil and paper and draws his favorite and the lines intersect and the budget is balanced somewhere Over the then he More in really bleeding up the president knows that he has been led up the Rose Garden path twice by tip three years James Baker told him a Deal with tip had been set in spending reductions for every new tax Dollar but Reagan was double crossed the tax increases went in without the spending last he was had again at the famous meeting under the old Oak tree behind the White with jets Roar ing speaker Oneill said there could be no costo living increase reductions in the president agreed to take that off the table if reduction could be replaced by some other no defense tip took the cola Concession and pretended never to have heard the making the president appear to be a weak and leaving his reputation As a Cost Cutter bleeding among More responsible As a result of these two visits to tips Reagan now must Deal with a Treasury next when the Senate must raise the debt ceiling before Federal checks go he will be embarrassed on the deficit Issue by his own How does he get out of this bind before the monster deficit ceases to be an abstraction and becomes a gut Issue of what Are we doing to our children Long he will press for a balanced budget liberals Dis miss this As rhetorical but All other methods have failed majority Leader Dole and others will stump Michi Gan next month to get the 33rd state to pass a Call for a constitutional convention to mandate budget if it comes Down to Only one state shy of forcing the greatest weakening of Congress in 200 Congress will pass that Amend averting a convention by accomplishing its and at least the next administration will be forced to Stop the Short the president will have to rely on Democrat Daniel chairman of the once powerful House ways and Means Rosty has been in that seat for five years and no tax Bill bears his imprint now is Lostys Chance to seize tax simplification with Reagan he is Likely to scrap the capital gains re permit state and local tax deductions but with a Cap on the total permitted each and use a relatively painless Oil import fee to change the pre sent slight Bias toward tax reduction into a Bias in the other the result would be a whome tax in crease without Republican fingerprint bound tightly to a no fault entitle ment reduction without democratic that change of fiscal course leads to the current course takes us smack into the c new York times news Syndicate