European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 29, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes monday. September 23, 1986 columns Andrew j. Glass tax measure stands As Monument to hypocrisy the tax Reform . Soon 10 be Signo Minlu Law by 1 res Ideal Icacan belongs in a menagerie of curious political animals to has a Liberal  brain Ami Raga Nile Republican claws. Hile. By cd Large congressmen arc no More we faced than say. Inc average newspaper columnist Liis Ian legislation stands As a Monument to hypocrisy. Despite an overwhelming vote in the House for Pas Sage most House members from what one can Dis Cern privately Loii Llu the Bill. The Senate seems similarly disposed. House minority whip Trent Loit of Mississippi who had voted against the Las Bill last december and still wishes it had died then nevertheless supported the final package. Said loll Reagan put us All in a Box. The democrats had hollered for years for a fairness. The republicans had to pro we were nol the Cap lives of special incr Catt. So we resisted we argued we gnashed our Teeth we fought. And then we lid  Tiik underlying reasons for such Leeth gnashing Are nowhere 10 be found in the Many Volu Minous reports which accompany he Revenue package Here is an important one just 10 congressional districts comprising merely 3 percent of the nation s pop Lalion and entered in the downtown business districts of no York. Chicago Dallas. Houston and Washington account for More than one fifth of the Money which Firth incurs inc races for All House seats. These big political givers Wil also be the big tax lasers. The new measure raises business taxes by $ 120 billion Over he next six years. Even More to the Point it also closes a Brace of key tax shelters which have permitted Many of these political com Vulors to he la cd at Low effective rates. Some Capitol Hill insiders say thai so Long As these sheltering practices inaugurated Early in the Cragar presidency were confined to a smattering of million Aires fortified with layers of la advisers. Reagan and the Congress could have continued to Duck a wholesale Reform Effort. However in recent years big Wall Street broker age houses and other investment packagers had begun to aggressively Market passive income Tan shelters mainly in commercial real estate. These deals were aimed nol Only at Rich people but also at a far wider Circle of comfortably affluent taxpayers. This phenomenon in turn raised the risk thai a few years hence the Federal tax base could implode As More and More upper Middle class taxpayers families which have accounted for a High percentage of Overall individual tax receipts found better ways to invest their Money than outright Cash donations to the . Treasury. Tax reformers chopped away at these real estate tax shelters with gusto. Nol Colonl to fell new ones icy sawed those she Loco already in place into financial pulp. Although sen. Lloyd Nemson of Texas inserted a phase Oul Rule into tic Bill it is too Steep to be of any real value to heavily committed real estate Rev colors. Industry officials widely envision a collapse of an already overbuilt commercial Craf Clale Marker since the tax advantages of buying existing build mrs Are to be curbed drastically  officials see Little incentive for investors to plow Money into construction projects which can t be sold on favourable terms. Perhaps they re wrong. But if they Are right. Con Gress will have to pass remedial Tan legislation in the next year or iwo. Undoing what it did this year. Even in this hype prone Era the lax Law should be viewed As landmark legislation. But in also remains hostage to any Strong economic ill wind which might sweep across the land. Should business activity col lapse in the final Reagan years for whatever real reason the new internal Revenue code will get the blame. Tom Wicker setting the record straight before going fishing Tiik. Last two presidents have been former governors which is Worth renumbering now that former Cov. Pierre s. Dupont in of Delaware has become the first honest Man in the 1988 presidential Campaign his confession Hal he s running brings to mind the Candor of William Tecumseh Sherman he civil War Gen eral the republicans tried to nominate in is84. In a recent column i insidiously compared Lee Iacocca s hedged denials i do not plan to become a candidate 10 Sherman s 2 unmistakable words if nominated i will not run. If elected i will not  Thomas Vinciguerra of Garden City. N.y., writes that the general did turn Down the nomination in 12 words but hat they actually were i will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected 1 think my version has a better ring to 11 and either Way Sherman s words Are unmistakable. But Vinciguerra knows whereof he Speaks which suggests again the periodic necessity for a practising commentator to own up to his mis some limbs Mal Fea Saccs. Even in the at of doing so Good intentions May Lead one Down the path of error for example after quoting supreme court Justice Sandra Day o con nor s dictum that there were no Public schools when the first amendment was adopted 1 reported a Reader s assertion that the encyclopaedia Britannica said Public schools did then exist in new eng land. But professor emeritus Charles t. Dougherty of inc University of Missouri at St. Louis says o Connor had i right. At the time the first amendment was approved he writes certain villages were required to support from general funds a school open to All White children. In this sense., they were Public schools but these a re protestant sectarian schools under the direction of the local minister. They were nol Public schools As we now understand the  Only after catholics attained enough political Power to demand the secular religiously Neutral Public school Dougherty adds did such schools develop and it was much later before in occurred to anyone thai this was a constitutional  another supreme court Madr on sept. 5, i quoted Justice Lewis Powell s remark hat the irreplaceable value of the Federal judiciary was inc Protection of minorities and individual liberties against oppressive or discriminatory government. In that article i also chid ird Justice William Rehnquist for voting to the effect that Texas need provide no education whatever for the children of illegal  David Kaplan of new York cily an attorney now chides me i think prop Erly for nol mentioning that the Tenas decision was by a 5-4 vote with Rochn Quill in the majority and that Powell wrote Hal majority opinion. And still another on sept. 14,1 wrote that Franklin Roosevelt s court packing plan in the 1930s was less manipulative and More openly pursued As a proposed constitutional amendment than the cur rent right Wing Effort to purge three justices from the California supreme court. Among readers who informed me thai for proposed a statute nol an Amend ment was my Learned colleague Anthon Lewis. With head bowed on Hal Point i still say the court packing plan was less manipulative and More openly Pur sued than the court wrecking scheme going Forward in California. Two quickies on july 25, i labelled not quite lib eled sen. David Duren bar Ger of Minnesota in some editions As a Democrat my apologies to a staunch Republican for this cruel error. And on sept. 9, some Gremlin in the terminal misspelled the los Angeles res Lauranie  finally on april 23, 1985, after the Tilburg fiasco and a few Congress Iona setbacks for the president. Wrote Hal Ronald Reagan s Power in Congress May have peaked and turned Down and suggested among other things thai he might have missed the oppo Nunnly to push through major lax  , Sweeney of Cleveland politely requests please take a look Al your Arti Cle with  i hive and i confess unlike Reagan that column looked a lot belter at the time than it docs now. With All that off my Chest. I m going fishing for a week or two. There s Noth ing like a Fly Rod to bring out he truth Ina Man. J Carlo Onither Opman