European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 18, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes tuesday february 18. 1986 columns mar Mcgrory Why the president and o Neill can t work fogey Fietje president Reagan s invitation to House speaker o Neill has the same Gossamer Quality As the other elements in his shimmering state of the Union address. The suggestion that they work together on the Bro Ken budget before they both leave town seems As Likely of fulfilment As the Orient express that the president dangled before the eyes of those who wish to Fly to Tokyo in two hours in a Low Earth orbit. The speaker at his press briefing the next Day explained Why it would t work out we kind of antagonize each other when we sit that s what happened at their last encounter which took place on Jan. 28 at the White House an hour or so before the shuttle exploded. The president was going on about one of his favorite subjects the allergy of welfare recipients for a Day s work and the speaker blew up. He told the president it was a Bunch of baloney that he was just repeating old Campaign anecdotes and he the speaker would not sit there and listen to you Haven t grown in office o Neill said heatedly and More than once. As to whether or not Reagan has grown in office historians will have to judge. But a study of his first state of the Union speech shows he has not changed. The themes the soviet threat the need for forearms school prayer More voluntarism less government the heroism of Ordinary citizens the innate nobility of the american people Are constant. His 1982 address was much More detailed than this years which was written in the Shadow of the Gramm Rudman budget cutting la which May have much More to say about who gets what than he does. All we really Learned was that Reagan wants More Money for the Pentagon and space and for the poor the elderly and the sick More study. He was dealing in poetry. The prose came the next Day in the budget. Only Reagan would suggest cutting Amtrak while envisioning Low orbit travel to the Orient or while he s slashing funds for an Extension of the Washington sub Way system. He knows the american people will be prouder of seeing the Tokyo express take off than see ing the people of Anacostia ride the metro to work. With him circuses always win Over bread. Life at its Best is a Cecil b. Demille he was standing in the House of representatives he was t speaking to Congress. He was sending Candy and Flowers to the american people keeping their Romance alive. He told them that they were the world s Champion peace lovers and said that it was strictly up to the soviets whether or not we have a reduction in nuclear arms. It in t his fault if we Don to and it certainly in t the american people s. He still believes in the soviet drive for Summit was dismissed. It is to be regarded Only As. William Buckley 0. Marf . Suggesting a More stable he warned arms control is no substitute for members know that Reagan can get away with kissing off arms control failures. Come november they May have to explain them. Representatives from agriculture states Are also mindful that they have to go Home and Tell prostrate Farmers that they can t get help from the Federal government because Jonas Sav Imbi of Angola has to pay his Public relations Bills and the contras in Nicaragua missiles. That s Reagan s idea of a moral Mere members can t stand up in Public and run against Jimmy Carter again. Reagan can. He reminded his audience of locked factory Gates Long gasoline lines intolerable prices and interest he did t talk to congressmen about what lies before them in the Way of the Rock breaking work of getting $144 billion out of the budget. He was crooning to the people telling them they Are wonderful. He has never made his pc Decesoro s mistake of suggesting that icons Are sometimes wrong. No be Rem Emba Carter once told them they had a it if Carter had said they had bad breath. It was All in Reagan s world of falling Oil prices a Stock Market and a healthy Economy citizens Are Little. They should look up to him look ahead an him weep Over fallen astronauts cheer Over " victories. They should give the Odd Farthing to but not press the government to. Defense said is government s prime that is Why he and tip o Neill would their time if they sit Down Over the budget o or the notion that government has other Obliga helping the poor the unemployed College Sien of Public transport and others. He said he would help the president i help him explain How much it is going to Cost for american people to go to Tokyo for c Una virus pm by a by i huh hib Pmj Reagan s real concern for America obvious of All 1? concerning the president s state of the Union address a few observations 1. Those who criticized the address for scant attention to detail should re mind themselves that a president is Best off doing what comes naturally always assuming that what comes Natu rally in t a deadly sin. It is interesting to note that the democratic High com Mand has finally decided that it might just As Well criticize Yellowstone Park As criticize Ronald Reagan. This was Clear to some of us two years ago Whin a flush of democratic impartiality counselled Walter Mondale and damage Paufine Forgard stakes not to base their Campaign on what an awful Man Reagan was How he hated Blacks and minorities the poor and the Little Man. The principal reason Why that does t work with Reagan is that his concern for All of America shines through his rhetoric and through him. 2. Reagan s second skill is his facility for Central focusing. In 1968, president Johnson gave a state of the Union Mes Sage so Long winded As to lose even the attention of the lobbyists. His principal motive in devising that speech was to reanimate enthusiasm for the Vietnam War the tet offensive Lay Only a few Days ahead. So he pulled out the plugs on his entire great society program and in what seemed hours into the speech he was talking about what he would do for the Wisteria tree blight and from there he went to the plight of the redwoods. In a studio standing by to comment on the speech. Professor Arthur Schlesinger or. Leaned Over to me and muttered better redwoods than it was the principal achievement of president Johnson state of the Union speech that he provoked a witticism from professor Schle Singer. Reagan s treatment of Ameri Ca s Pri bless was synoptic but dead on target. The principal foreign problem is the continued aggressiveness of soviet foreign policy. The principal Domestic problem is the dissolution of family life. 3. On the matter of the budget deficit uppermost in the minds of most of the nervous citizenry Reagan turned to speaker tip o Neill with a fraternal Ges Ture and said now or. Speaker you know i know and the american people know the Federal budget is broken it does t work. Before we leave this City let s you and i work together to fix it so that we can finally give the american people a balanced a Nice Ges Ture unfortunately not by any Means Likely to succeed Given that tip o Neill is the original big spender and has not within living memory adopted a position manifestly geared to the Commonweal if it is burdened with political disadvantages. But Here or. Reagan must acknowledge a guilty conscience of his own. It has to do of course with social during his first four years he was ambushed the first time by David Stock Man who in making proposals for social of Jajw of in 1981 paid no attention to political realism resulting in an imry t Nous endorsement by Reagin. And an All but unanimous rejection by the Senate 1 "?4 Wai Mondale Pagan assu"i8 the voters a Ore Nul ices would he pr�8n m. That is the still the bipartisan gesture a sincerely intend Edwand no doubt it caught the attention of the great audience that saw to made and Wilt be looking to o Neill a Little leu indulgently than been the Case in the past. 4. But of course the most observation of the president has with the diminished understanding of it is that big government can realized families if family is the e word to describe a Mother and her image child or children. Bill Moyers Fine television documentary on Lem an epidemic in particular " Blacks the majority of whose f now born illegitimate to be single Parent headed As the Stan reveal to a lifetime on the 1 poverty. What happened and
