European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 25, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes tuesday March 25, 1986 Jim Fain debate Over Nicaragua reaching hysterical Levels when president Reagan turned up the hype last week the already irrational debate Over Nicaragua degenerated into screaming hysterics. The russians Are not just coming the Gipper insisted with a straight face. They re Here and soon will be drinking borscht in California and Texas unless unless we Send in the marines and fall out to protect our Homes with baseball bats and pitchforks nope. Unless Congress votes $100 million so Nicaragua s contras can be talked into moving out of their honduran sanctuaries and actually doing some fighting. Last week s political theater was chock full of Bull on All sides none quite As excessive As Reagan s and that of his nuke pm into the Stone age communications director Pat Buchanan. Buchanan branded anyone who opposed the Aid package As pro communist a contribution to Ameri can letters Matching his previous service As speech writer to Spiro Agnew. Mccarthyism Aid opponents yelled Back while Reagan fretted that communists in Nicaragua Are Only two Days by car from Harlingen Texas prov ing if nothing else that he never has driven in Mexico. Reagan May actually believe his non sense about Nicaragua As armageddon. Anyone who sees Grenada As the greatest feat of arms since Midway has a quaint View of geopolitics. But because he is president he is listened to. His nicaraguan policy is the creature of Cia director William Casey and former . Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick. Both arc romantic warriors of the Radical right. Casey is an old Oss troop from world War ii who wants to expand Cia dirty tricks. Kirkpatrick formulated the Reagan doctrine which seeks to Roll Back communist regimes by military methods. Methods Are what our. Nicaraguan de Bate is All about. Except for a few kooks on the left americans agree the sandinista Are Rotten and would like to see them either deposed or fenced in. Many Congress men who voted against the Aid package Don t object to helping contras. They were trying to Force Reagan to negotiate. James j. Kilpatrick a Khz Heads beget Ufa posse ims we Call . Nicaragua once agreed to a settlement promising to Boot out most cuban advisers and live in peace with her neighbors. The enforcement provisions needed work but could have been improved. We torpedoed the plan. Eight South american nations beg us almost weekly to negotiate. Reagan says he s tried but he has t. He will Settle for nothing less than military overthrow. The Reagan doctrine Calls for arms not Diplo Macy. Casey must have his Macho. It s a silly and even dangerous business which is Why the Contra Aid Bill was Defeated. Congress has been ready to Compromise from the beginning. If Reagan will truly balance guns with diplomacy he will get funding. Last year he euchre Congress into approving Aid with a letter promising to negotiate. He broke that Promise saying he would talk Only if Nicaragua sat Down with the Contra rebels something no govern ment would agree to unless facing defeat. This time Well probably end with a Simi Lar Deal to saw the baby in half. That will continue the killing in a Messy Little conflict our joint chiefs of staff say the contras cannot win and All the nations in the area say should be ended by diplomacy. Reagan Calls Nicaragua the historical test of his presidency. That s As absurd As the rest of his hyperbole. But history May footnote it As one of his odder More inexplicable mistakes. C Cox news service budget bringing out the worst in human nature How goes the president s budget not Well sad to say not Well at All. It is suffering from an ailment that almost defies political cure. It is suffering from human nature. You will recall that on feb. 5, or. Reagan sent con Gress a modest proposal. He proposed to spend $994 billion in fiscal 87, to take in $850.4 billion and to wind up with a deficit of $143.6 billion right on the target fixed by Congress in the Gramm Rudman deficit reduction act. You would have thought everyone would be pleased by the president s cooperative Effort. You would have thought wrong. A few Days after the president disclosed his budget 300 people turned out on Pennsylvania Avenue to picket the White House. They were Federal employees from around the country. They had come to protest the presi Dent s proposal to limit their pay increases to 1 percent. Not Long after the incident 3,500 members of the National league of cities came to town for a three Day congressional conference. These Are mayors City manag ers members of City councils and other municipal officials. They had come said the associated press to protest strongly the reductions in Federal Aid to local governments proposed by president Reagan in his budget for fiscal 1987." b for the past several weeks we have been hearing an orchestrated outcry from authors scholars professional students and Little old ladies. They Are upset by economies at the Library of Congress. Effective March 1, the Library was required by the Gramm Rudman Hollings act to absorb a Cut of 4.3 percent in its budget. So the Library Cut its hours by one third and announced that hereafter it would close on sundays. Back to the future the american meat Institute and the National broiler Council also have been heard from. The department of agriculture pursuant to Gramm Rudman had to trim 4.3 percent from its program of meat and poultry inspection. The department came up with a great idea it would furlough All 9,000 of its inspectors for nine consecutive Days thus shutting Down the nation s entire processing Industry for that period. Publicizing this proposal was like hitting the mule on the head with the 2-by-4 it got the president s attention. Suddenly the White House released an extra $5.7 million for meat and poultry inspection and the department determined on reflection that it could furlough the inspectors on holidays when the processing plants were close anyhow. So it goes. The president can t even get help from his own party. Sen. Lowell Weicker of Connecticut is Balking at cuts in funds for health research. Sen. Jeremiah Den ton of Alabama won t go along with a reduction in funds for juvenile programs. On March 6, the Senate budget committee voted 16-6 to reject the presidential budget. Among the 16 were republicans Mark Andrews of North Dakota Slade Gorton of Washington Charles Grassley of Iowa Nancy Kassebaum of Kansas and Rob Ert Kasten of Wisconsin. Some Days you just can t make Nickel. If Congress Ever is to reduce the government s Appal Ling deficits everyone is going to have to do better. The ploy advanced by the Library of Congress is entirely too typical of the response of Federal agencies to Economy measures. All the agencies including the Pentagon play the same game. They will propose drastic cuts in the most necessary programs and Roll their innocent Eye when the outcry begins. The president s budget is basically sound. It would get the nation to the goal fixed by Congress in december but we will never make it unless every affected interest everywhere agrees to sacrifice something c Universal press Syndicate