European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 16, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes saturday August 16,1986 columns Carl Rowan House Senate grappling for right tax formula it is supposed to be a truism that no program to help the poor can get through Congress if it docs not also Lay Tome goodies on the Middle class. That is Why the children of some fairly affluent families get fed under the school lunch program and Why the children of families earning up to $ vs.000 a year can get a government subsidized loan to go to College. As House and Senate conferees meet to Hammer out the final provision of a historic lax Reform Bill the question arises As to whether that truism about the Middle class will hold. The House version does a lot belter by Middle class taxpayers than does the Senate measure which has a 27 percent top tax rate thai has High income Ameri cans salivating. Rich people can afford to George will see a lot of tax loopholes closed if they know Uncle Sam will take no More than 27 cents on the Dollar. Some senators and Many in the House think 27 percent is too Low offer ing too much Gravy to the wealthy and there will be some powerful tugging and hauling in the conference Over what the maximum rate ought to be. The Senate Bill raced to passage by an incredible 97 to-3, not just because of what it does for or to the Rich but because it offers a unprecedented level of fairness to the working poor. In fact so Many Blacks and other minorities would Benefit that tax Reform might be called the Best civil rights Bill of the 80s. The Center on budget and policy priorities Here says that the Senate Bill would eliminate Federal taxes for 6 Mil lion Low income working households and would Cut the Federal tax Burden by$1.000 a year for families of four with earnings at the poverty line of about $ 12,400 a year. The Center reports that while Blacks account for 12 percent of the National population they comprise 20 percent of americans who work full time but Are still poor. Forty three percent of Black Heads of households Between the Ages of22 and 65 now work but Are still poor. A $1,000 tax Relief for families of the working poor can Man an awful lot in terms of added Comfort and Hope for deprived children. The House Bill also offers decent tax Breaks to the working poor but finances those Breaks less through denials to the Middle class and More by limiting the possible benefits of the Rich. If the conference committee runs into a firestorm of demands that More be done for the Middle class the question will arise from whom do we take tax Reform benefits in order to give More to the Middle class the very Rich or the very poor wealthy americans express fear that soak the Rich demagoguery will work against them. Others argue that since the Rich have Campaign contributions clout and powerful voices to protect them the relatively voiceless and cloudless poor could Sec some of the gains offered in the Senate Bill suddenly snatched away. It will be serious fun to watch the two houses grapple Over what is the right for Mula for determining which groups pay How much to run America and keep it profitable and secure. Not Ann Roca syn Etcitt hypocrisy is capturing the High moral ground if arguments acquired co gency from vehemence the Case for sanctions against South Africa would be made. Vehemence abounds As does right mindedness the Brief that morality consist of voicing certain senti ments. In the name of capturing the High moral ground that real estate was Lastin the news when Mondale said we lost it by liberating Grenad moralists Are de manding denial of Landing rights for South Africa s airline. That May be done butt As soon As we finish re establishing Landing rights for the soviet airlines. It will Cost the University of califor Nia $118 million in commissions and other administrative costs to divest itself of holdings in companies that do Busi Ness in South Africa. Political hygienists in the British Commonwealth have pronounced themselves too fastidious to participate in the Commonwealth Camel with the British because  opposes unctions. These by Gen its include Zimbabwe s president the state of emergency begun under White Rule continues under Mugabe see torture in Zimbabwe by amnesty International and the current reincarnation of Ghana s popular will right  Rawlings and whoever is now supreme in Uganda. Ethiopia s communist regime has engineered a famine that kills More people every Day than die in violence much of it Black against Black in South Africa in months. People up there on the High moral ground calling for sanctions should study a new word  that May be the Fate awaiting 80 million Black africans in the six Southern african nations whose economies in some cases barely subsistence economies Are dependent on soul Africa s Economy. These nations depend substantially on South Africa for transportation electricity and jobs for itinerant workers. Those nations will be forced to collaborate with South Africa in defeat ing sanctions by Tran shipping material and other assistance or face Ethiopia  today 1.2 million Black workers from the North Are in South Africa illegally and 350,000 Are there legally pie Money they Send Home to their families in their much poorer countries is crucial to those countries. The flow of Money will slow if South Africa s Economy slows and will Stop sanctions cripple South Africa s Economy so much that these workers Are expelled. Which Side Are we on asks the new York times assuming there Are Only two sides that the Choice is obvious and that the Reagan administration has chosen immorally. The times is thrice wrong. Obviously America is not on the Side of while oppressors having condemned apartheid As immoral and called for re lease of Mandela its Foremost opponent. What is the Side of the Blacks the Leader of the largest Black group the zulus opposes the sanctions the times supports. It is not in the . Interest to contribute to the creation of a Lebanon a War of All against All in South Africa. American interests include pluralism and Prosperity in Southern Africa neither of which will be Adya cd by deepening South Africa s isolation. The social and cultural As Well As eco nomic dynamism that accompanies Cap Tialisa is the surest solvent of superstitions and i rationalities like apartheid. So South Africa needs More of what sanctions would diminish. It needs for eign capital operating under rules of racial Justice written in the nations from which the capital comes. And South Africa also needs some thing the London times advocates something incompatible with a policy of isolation. It needs a Marshall plan targeted at educating housing training and capitalizing Blacks. The pounding of South Africa by moralists at a Safe distance is not softening the regime. Support for the Botha regime from English speaking South africans the More Liberal element has recently risen sharply. Even if All the English whiles emigrated there would be three million afrikaners armed with the products of a Domestic arms Industry that grew in response to Western sanctions an arms embargo. The Industry produces Tine aircraft tanks howitzers projectiles. Will the regime use these the exam ple of the Shah Somoza. Duvalier and Marcos May suggest that oppressive re Gimes at least non communist ones melt away rather than use military Force against their populations in order to hold Power. But the Well armed afrikaners Are descendants of the ferocious Boers who fought the British Empire at the Peak of its Power. They will fight if it comes to full civil War. They probably will lose but not before a million Blacks have lost their lives. Will the West having disengaged have clean hands in the years before the american civil War abolitionists wanted slavery abolished. But that could not be done immediately so some of them favored abolish ing the Union lest they be sullied by further association with slave states. That would not have helped the slaves but helping the slaves was not their Pri Mary concern. A sense of purity right mindedness was. Riihl Niton pol Ortun on up constructive engagement