European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 15, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes wednesday october 15,1986 columns David s. Broder press failed to relate Content of tax revision one of the puzzles for politicians and journalists this tall has been the wide spread Public scepticism about the tax revision Bill passed by Congress last month. While president Reagan its original proponent and leaders of both panics in Congress hailed the Bill As a major step toward economic rationality and Politi Cal equity voters have appeared either indifferent or hostile. Claims that 6 Mil lion of the working poor will come off the tax Rolls entirely that 76 million mainly Middle income people will receive a tax Cut of about $800 apiece by 1988, and that Only 20 million mainly wealthy will pay More seemingly have fallen on deaf cars. What has come through to voters so far is that the government is changing the tax system. And any sentence that contains the words government and taxes spells bad news to them. This oddity of Public opinion provided a peculiarly fitting background for the ceremonies in Cambridge mass., last weekend. It was the opening of the Joan Short Stcin Brunc Center on the press politics and i Public policy at Harvard s John f. Kennedy school of government. The event had special meaning for me because Joan who died of cancer last year was a dear Friend for the last 16 of her 38 years. I met her when she was a graduate student at Harvard encouraged her to come to the Washington Post As a political researcher in 1970 and watched with Pride As she outgrew that Job moved to lbs news and became pro Ducer of its face the nation interview program my Many of its Best political pieces. The Center her parents Walter and Phyllis Shorron slain of san Francisco endowed As a memorial to Joan can be of enduring importance to All of those who have a slake m the Way this nation s George will 1. . And which is the , l version 2. % Are these a jigs still smiling press and government function. As Derek Bok the president of Harvard said our understanding of the extraordinary role and influence of the press in american politics and government today is Only  and the same Point could be made with equal Force about the Way in which government officials at All Levels from the president Down to the City councilman seek to influence manipulate and control the press coverage they and their issues receive. In a panel discussion at the Center s opening Albert Hunt of the Wall Street journal clashed with Richard ecu slant and Martin Linsky of Harvard academics with government backgrounds on the classic question of whether a journalist or news organization should weigh the consequences of a particular Story on government policy before deciding whether to publish or broadcast. What both journalists and government officials would agree i think is that cynicism is equally a threat to both of us. When the Public distrusts what its elected and appointed officials say and what its journalists report the chances of maintaining a healthy democracy arc sharply diminished. That is Why so Many of us were dismayed at the recent polls showing sub Stantial minorities or even pluralities of the american Public saying they thought Nicholas Daniloff might be a spy in the soviet Union despite assurances from the president the Secretary of state the publisher of Daniloff s Magazine and his colleagues on the Moscow beat that the soviet accusations were false. And the climate of cynicism surround ing the tax Bill makes it even More remarkable that a Congress divided be tween the panics had the courage and persistence to pass such an ambitious measure lowering rates closing Loop holes and broadening the tax base. My own feeling is that we in the press and television contributed to the scepticism on the lax Bill by questioning president Reagan s motives in proposing it and by dwelling endlessly on the influence of the special interests on the members of the congressional tax panels. Most of All we failed As we too often do to illuminate the substance of this sweeping measure so that the voters could comprehend the boldness of what has been done. That is where the new Harvard Center can do a service if it just finds a Way to embody and communicate the standards to which Joan Barone devoted her professional life. She was renowned among her col leagues for being a stickler on the details for never letting a politician or a reporter slide off the hard Points of evidence or argument. She never doubted that news papers and television had a responsibility that went far beyond entertaining peo ple or boiling things Down to easily digested simplicities. She shared the Faith of the nation s founders that an informed Public would exercise its sovereignty with Wisdom. She believed that those who acquire vital in formation whether government officials or journalists have an absolute obligation to communicate As much of it As they possibly can to the readers the viewers and the voters to whom they Are accountable. She worked to those exacting Stan Dards All her life even when gravely ill and the Center that bears her name will i Hope instill those same standards in others from the academic political and journalistic world who come through it doors. C Washington Post democrats loud family in new policy approach digging and delving in the democratic party s latest policy pronouncement new choices in a changing  you come upon this thumping affirmation families  what is going on a Back to basics movement among democrats that is ominous news to republicans. Democrats have gone out in the pasture behind the barn to practice new lines. Since the late 1960s, Many voters have doubted whether the National democratic party shares their anxieties about a dissolution of traditional  the democrats new policy document addresses that doubt by among other things lavishing attention on the  by the third paragraph the document is dispensing bromides Strong Independent families Are the Cen Ter piece of democratic Domestic  democrats in their a modulated new enthusiasm May be about to Pound the idea of family policy into the son of hapless goo they have made of the idea of civil rights  for years democrats have been christening their favorite Domestic policies Job programs Public housing Urban renewal As civil rights policies in an attempt to give them momentum and insulate them from criticism. Now there is a tendency to turn family policy into another classification that does not classify a classification that includes everything. Tax Reform Job training Aid for Small sorry Imean family farms Allare advertised As pro family policies because they ease social distress and Dis Tress is hard on families. The traditional Liberal Agenda can come clothed in the language of traditional values. However the democratic document does contain serious thoughts about the changing texture and rhythms of family life. The median income of families doubled Between 1947 and 1973, but has stagnated since then in spite of the dramatic increase in two income families. Today mortgage payments take 29 percent of the me Dian family income up from 17.9 percent in 1970. The average annual Cost of attending a private University takes 40.4 percent of median family income up from 29.6 percent in 1970. Home ownership and Access to College Are Basic aspirations of Middle class families and Are becoming less accessible. And there Are other new anxieties. In the aver age kindergarten class today one in six of the children was born to a teen age Mother. More than 25 percent of America s families arc single Parent families and 95 percent of them Are headed by women. Seventy per cent of All mothers with school age children work out Side the Home. When the women who today Are be tween 30 and 39 were 21 to 30, Only 58.3 percent had children. Today 78.2 percent do a 40 percent in crease. Many of these Are trying to continue professional careers. The democratic document states that the most common emotion associated with child rearing is guilt Over not spending enough time with the  the democrats speak tentatively promising Only to con Sider promoting such measures As parental leave for childbirth flexible work times Job sharing and other measures to alleviate stress and guilt. The ideas May be slender Reeds on which to lean a More persuasive argument than Republican claims to be pro family and anti government the average american does not think the welfare of his or her family depends primarily on this or that Micro policy that delivers a particular service or Bene fit. Rather it depends on the Success of one Macro policy the management of economic growth. Regarding Republican mismanagement of the Economy As exemplified by the deficit the demo cratic document is a tissue of evasions. For example in what May be the most backhanded Praise in the history of politics the document says almost any Combina Tion of approaches to deficit cutting is preferable to the Poison Pill represented by Gramm Rudman hol Lings across the Board budget cuts but Gramm Rud Man Hollings is preferable to no strategy at  however the most illuminating aspect of the demo cratic document is the care it takes to express a partic ular attitude using families to suggest solutions to the problem rather than a More modest attempt to demonstrate empathy with voters who Are anxious about problems for which there Are no political solutions. Democrats Are getting a message about values a message first offered to them in a Book published by two democrats in 1970. In the real majority Richard Scammon and Ben Wallenberg warned that crime Campus unrest and changing sexual mores were giving Many voters a sense of moral dissolution and Many voters were saying i do not expect a politician any political can make these conditions disappear overnight i even under stand that some of the problems Aren t strictly political problems. But i do expect that any political i vote Tot will be on my  that is one reason Why 16 years and several Electo ral trouncing later this democratic document and even bromides like families matter matters. C we a Loopo i