European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 27, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes sunday october 27. 1985 columns William Safire budget Strait jacket uncomfortable but necessary Ikin am at re Uin nude i silk some Trees i m e-uisnu1 environment i in . A sin lied in the trunk of .1 tree Slop me before i ill is the Philosoph adapted it Imp a i prom Donl Mil unless thai has ambled Ilie National debt in file Carv incapable of redeem the deficit in a period no pro Penix. Thi generation s leaders have been saddling Ilie next j i with the of a in thu ppm sums of Milt Cal in i he tie i run up in the irresponsible sos. If in i Iris of Don i succeed. In Fin Imp with Sulci a resounding Ali unit that uni will be forced to come to your own Rescue. Our elected officials have failed to Ball fun in i deficits and ibis Congress is not about to Cut spending or raise taxes any time soon. At such an impasse with our fiscal ability to combat n future re cession being steadily stripped away today s politicians have found the least offensive Way to Cul budgets. Hie answer is roiled in the balanced budget amendment to the Constitution which some of us have been touting for years. Thai proposal was to mandate balanced budgets except in War or recession forcing the president and con Gress to Stop borrowing either to pay for new spending with new taxes or to curtail spending. Bui that amendment would Lake years. To employ that self discipline immediately Republican Sens. Phil Irani of Texas and Warren Rudman of new Hamp Shire Hae tacked a budget reduction requirement on the Bill that raises the debt ceiling. In five years we would Stop borrowing nun our children. Liberals Are opposed and no wonder. This legislation plays into the hands of right wingers who want to reduce the deficit by culling spending rather than by raising taxes. No longer will congressmen who vote to reduce most Ireat society programs be lacerated b irate pres sure groups instead the villain will automatically be the amendment. Don t blame the budget cutlers can say then blame he that is Why House speaker Thomas tip o n Eill. D-mass., is decrying the proposal As a disgraceful Man Euver to subvert the his real Gripe is thai in is biased against tax increases but he cannot say hat so he opposes it on inc grounds in it it would Transfer Loo much Power to Ilie president. His fellow has stale liberals. Sens. Ted Kennedy and John Kerry who like Strong Actie presidencies up port the new discipline. They can see that the huge interest of the i Ulusc would foreclose increases in government assistance for the poor and ill. This is not so much a Transfer up Power fight As an in Dialion of leadership fight. In an Ideal political William Buckley 3-t�k world our representatives would Deal with each on i s Merit. In Ilie real world however. Boll the legislative and executive branches have demonstrated their inability to Stop the red Ink. So the Clarnc free solution has popped up. Dismaying you bet. Be should not Lave to pay a live Pilot if he is just going to sit Back All the Lime and put the controls on automatic Pilot. Hut in this Case the Best is the enemy of the Good. Liberals on a spectrum from no conserva lives to yup pies Are holding out for making the hard choices our they espouse a Fine principle but Are using Ilas a cover for avoiding the hardest Choice Between reducing social programs or increasing debt. In a conservative Era. They cannot gel taxes up. Or defense below the present Yero increase so these liberals would prefer to live with the growing debt rather lha Cut social spending. Certainly the chop in or close legislation is imperfect having been rushed into the breach by a couple of touchable. Is his Sorl of governing by formula a Pood Way to run .1 country no. Bui is in boiler than continuing to sink into deficit Quicksand thai could ruin the country yes. We arc boiler off in High dudgeon than in Dee debt. Black leaders not representative of most Blacks Tiik other Day the Banquil speaker before the slate bar association of Michigan was Jesse Jackson. If the Rev. Jackson gave fewer than 10 speeches that week he is sick. Me is regularly introduced of course As a great Black Leader with Here and there the Hinl thai he is the preeminent Black Leader which in terms of publicity received is certainly Correct. How do you figure who Are Black Lead ers .1 Well the Center for Media and pub Lic affairs of Washington Alt pled to do so by pretty Slraight Forward Means. We did this by tabulating citations of the civil rights groups and political organi actions that received the most coverage on issues related to race in the new York times Washington Post. Time and Newsweek in ivn4." what did they discover according to our analysis i Host groups receiving the most National Media coverage were the naaci1. The Urban league the err Christian leadership conference operation push the National Confer ence of Filasek mayors and the congressional Black and whal Are inc leaders of these or Pani aliens saying or instance about president reagannaaci1 chairman of the Board William i. Gibson has called Ronald basically a reactionary and i hat s a pretty unpleasant thing to be called if you come to think of it. Hul Heads of inc Urban league and the have said about the same thing about Reagan. And of course he Rev. Jackson says it with his usual panache. Under or Reagan we have achieved a r ical climate of anti Black we Are More and More accuse Lomed to the hyperbole Imp alive in politics and inc louder you scream. The less people tend to pay any attention to you. Always supposing thai you arc screaming about Reagan s racism nol screaming because you have just fallen off the top of the Empire Szalc building. Well the Center for Media and Public affairs undo look a study the purpose of which was to ascertain whether the views of the Black leaders As identified above Are i Host of inc Black people of America and he results of inc inquiry arc re assuring. Reassuring because the majority tendency toward any minority that is easily swayed by preposterous lies is to feel contempt for Hal minority. And contempt for inc Black minority is the last thing one wants to encourage. Consider. Ihen the provocative ques Tion of affirmative action defined As the allocation of jobs or Slud enl scholarships i t whatever with exact refer ence to percentages. In Short. Affirmation As quotas. The research Indi rated that 77 percent of Black leaders agree Hal minorities should be Given preferential treatment in jobs and col Fly one of i Host neat coincidences exactly 77 percent of Black americans reject the notion that race should be a major criterion for Selec it is roughly so in the matter of busing he percent of Black leaders arc in Avor. But Only 47 percent of Blac americans. School prayer Only 40 percent of Black leaders Are in favor. Eight three percent of All Blacks Are in favor. Abor Tion no -. 14 percent of Black leaders no 43 percent of Black americans Day rights three out of five Black Lead ers in favor Ihrck oui of five Black americans opposed to idling homosexuals Leach in Public schools. And on the Overall question of or Reagan thirteen percent of Black Lead ers in favor. Thirty percent of american Blacks in favor. Thai s More than a to percent difference Between the views of inc leaders and of their Pulat ivc constituency. You will remember Jeane Kirkpatrick Al the Republican convention in Dallas and her repeated insistence on Denom ruling the democrats who had convened in Nan i Francisco to nominate Walter Mondale As the san i Francisco democrats i.e., not to be confused with dem corals in general. And indeed the Washington Post no less ran an illuminating poll shortly Afler the convention ended revealing thai the delegates in san fran Cisco were widely sep Arald in their views on critical issues from american democratic voters. Fiven Hal registered democrats exceeded republicans in iw4. Nothing made clearer that inc Posi was Correct than the political returns american democrats voted against san Francisco democrats in droves. So what docs the dissenting Black american do about in How can he of Feci a fresh emancipation proclamation i hat is another Way of asking. What does in take to get the times. Inc Post. Time and Newsweek. Lbs and Nuclo acknowledge inc existence of inc 13 per cent of Black leaders who favor Reagan s policies and give them a Lillic More space in the press and Lime on inc air there is no question thai they arc out there inc Black men of moderation who understand Hal the Federal govern ment in t the key Loblack Equality. Bui All of us need to keep our eyes open to remind ourselves Hal on Many issues they speak for the Black majority. 198v or Lam san Vicale
