European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 14, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes saturday september 14, 1985 columns & comments James Reston Reagan should get his act together before Geneva it. Griir Minlu it Iii anole or a nut la Tipri so ent Reagan and inc Lead ers of Congress have come Back from vacation proclaiming that they re "rarin1 to  the problem is that they re going in opposite directions. Caring the end of the president s fifth year in office with three More to go they arc noised for a Battle Over the control of Congress in next year s elections Over control of the budget world Trade and the nuclear arms race. Everybody in Washington of whatever political persuasion senses that we have come to another Fork in the Road with wrong Way signs flashing. The budget figures Are in dispute. Give or take a few billions of cuts out of last year s budget the deficit is still threaten ing to reach a couple Hundred billion a year and Over the Long run that s pea nuts. This year the United states became a debtor nation for the first time since 1914. As sen. Lloyd bunt san of Texas has pointed out and he May be the critical figure in the coming Trade debate the United Stales will owe other coun tries Over $1 trillion by 1990 if current trends continue. What is going on Here especially since the members of Congress have come Back from talking to the people Back Home is a Challenge to the president and his administration about what is really meant by the Security of the nation " is Security to be defined mainly in terms of missiles and the defense budget and the Star wars of outer space or in terms of the russians what about the Farmers of America who now owe their creditors $213 billion or the children and old Folk of Ameri Ca whose Security is also influenced by the budget these Are at least relevant questions. And the interesting thing is that in this pause after the summer recess and before we plunge into the political arguments about who s to blame the president and the Lead ers of Congress arc not talking seriously and privately to one another about the larger questions of inc Security of the Republic one thing is fairly Clear about these purity and objectives of policy both at Home and abroad there is general agreement Between the parties and the nations. All want 01 at least  hat they want peace and Prosperity and control of the arms race and the Trade race and respect for the suffering of the hungry majority of the human race. But about the Means to these Noble lad probably not quite attainable ends there h wide and honest disagreement. All this a understandable. But what is harder to under stand is Why there is so Little candid talk be tween the political leaders in Washington for example about the things that unite them and there Are Many rather than about the things that Divide them. Nothing the president or the democratic leaders in Congress want to do can be achieved one without the other. Popular at the president is he cannot impose nil poli cies on the democratic majority in the House or on the Republican leaders of the Senate even if he made up his mind what his policies were. The same thing is True of the democrats. They Are a divided company of War ring tribes. The result is that the president has come Back from the ranch in California and the congressional leaders Back from their junkets to Moscow and elsewhere without any new ideas about How to resolve the policy problems at Home and abroad. President Reagan is talking As if be had t presided Over the most spectacular budget deficit in history. And tip o Neill has come Back from Massachusetts growl ing about Reagan s failures As if anybody were listening. Meanwhile there is a Summit conference with Mikhail Gorbachev Moscow s new Jet ignited hitter at Geneva in november. Everybody seems to be wondering what l in Gorbachev s mind which is probably the wrong question. The really important