European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 30, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 columns the stars and stripes monday March 30,1987 Tom Wicker big budget big deficit put Wright in a bind i Tomsk speaker Jim Wright of Texas among other democrats has been chastised in this spate for a political death wish wanting to raise taxes to reduce the Federal deficit. More in sorrow than in anger Wright rec Nily insisted Over lurch that he has a problem Only a tax increase can vase. President Reagan has sent Congress his annual Dis honest budget As usual featuring inflated Revenue a images new taxes disguised As user tees and spending cuts no one believes can be made. This spurious document  project however a fiscal 1988 deficit of about Side billion the Legal limit set by the Gramm Rudman Hollings Law passed by a Panick Congress a couple of years ago. The president s budget has put Wright and the res of the or morals under pressure to produce their own budget with a deficit of about la same size. They say it can t be done honestly without spending cuts in essential government services that congressional constituencies would never accept or tax increases to pro  additional revenues or a combination of spend ing reductions and new lanes. Complicating the matter is Reagan s Adamant stand against new taxes except for the subterfuges he has himself proposed. So Wright s problem and that of other democratic leaders in the House and Senate i that they must either risk Reagan s denunciation and veto of a tax increase or labor under his potent charges that their failure to meet the arbitrary Gramm Rudman deficit target confirms them As the big spenders he always said they were. The speaker s favored three part solution is a to accept Reagan s inflated Revenue estimates knowing full Well thai the reality will fall Short b or Cut $18 billion half in Domestic social programs and half i military spending from the fiscal 1988 budget and c to find 118 billion in new revenues that would bring the deficit Down to about $111 billion on paper at least and near enough to the Gramm Rudman target to satisfy legality if Little  even this course will not be easy. Aside from the tax Issue the administration will resist a Cut of that size in the Pentagon budget. And a reduction of  billion actual 1 would need to be made in Domestic spending to allow room for about s1,5 billion in initiatives like welfare Reform. What Are the alternatives the democrats could accept Reagan s budget but hat would mean an impossible $30 billion in spending cuts and $6.5 billion in user fees that Wright accurately Calls the wrong  they would hit lower income and Middle income americans harder than the wealthy. James Kilpatrick the democrats could repeal Gramm Rudman produce an honest budget and blame its High deficit on Reagan s 1981 tax cuts and his profligate military spending but Wright s political judgment is that con Gressional democrats would have neither the courage to do this nor the better of the resulting political argument with the president and his parly. They could repeal Gramm Rudman and 30 on the offensive or so 1 argue by initiating a big Public works program to reduce unemployment massively together with other social and economic gains this would initially increase the deficit but ultimately re  it by about 130 billion a year for each percentage Point Cut from unemployment. Wright not personally unsympathetic to this idea throws up his hands at the Prospect of getting it through a deficit conscious Congress put Reagan s veto and political charges and across to the Public. The speaker s View is that no program costing big Money is politically possible unlit the deficit has been substantially reduced and he believes that s what Reagan has had in mind All along. So Wright will continue to push for a new tax in the somewhat forlorn Hope that a weakened president can be pressured into supporting it Reagan did limit his opposition at his recent news conference to a tax rate increase which suggests thai a new gasoline us or an Oil import fee might be More nearly acceptable to him particularly if it had the support of Howard. Baker now Reagan s senior adviser. Rep. Dan Rostenkowski. D-ij1., chairman of the ways and Means committee also favors thai approach. But if Reagan won t be pressured hell surely veto a democratic tax increase his party will get a new Opportunity to shout tax and spend and next year s democratic presidential nominee will have a problem bigger than Jim wright1.nrfvorttl statehood for District of Columbia is Rotten idea the Flowers that Bloom in the Spring tra la Are Blooming again on Ca Pitol Hill. Among them is a Hardy Peren Nial that has blossomed this year As . 51. It is a Bill to provide for the admission of the stale of new Columbia into the  let us trample it underfoot for the past 10 Yean More or less a few activists Here in Washington have been pushing for statehood for the District of Columbia. In 1980, local voters launched a statehood initiative. In 1982, they approved a proposed  past january the District s non Vot ing Delegate in the House Walter Faun Troy Retro Ducco his statehood Bill. Last week he held the first in a series of hearings thai conceivably could Lead o the formation and admission of new co Lumbia is our 51 St state. Fauntroy s Case for statehood is Short and simplistic residents of the District pay the same Federal lanes that others pay they Are subject to the same Federal Laws they Are equally liable to military service but thy have no voting representation in Congress. A proposed constitutional amendment 10 provide such representation failed ignominiously. Now their Only recourse As Fautroy sees it is to go Tor statehood. Unlike the aborted constitutional amendment which would have required the consent of 38 Stales the statehood Bill would require Only a majority in each House plus a president s signature rep. Thomas s. Foley a Wash. Majority Leader of the House recently gave the Bill Bis influential support and predicted it would pass the House this year Possi Bly before the Independence Day recess. Say not so Faun trove Bill would carve out a National capital service area extending roughly from the Kennedy Cen Ler on the West to the supreme court on the East and from Lafayette Park on the North to the Jefferson memorial on the South. Without a definitive Survey which could require up to two years the Bill could not possibly be approved in its present form. Any Good title examiner would scorn a. Marker a Gauzy As the Northwest Corner of the Kennedy Cen Ter anyhow this service area would become the scat of the government of the u nit cd Stales. The North Side of Pennsyl Vania Avenue would be in new Colum Bia the South Side would be in the serv ice area. All the embassies not to mention the vice president s residence. Would be in n. Col. The problems of conflicting jurisdictions boggle the mind. Fauntroy s Bill would accept ratify and confirm the draft Constitution for new Columbia approved by local voters in 1982. This remarkable document was so fatuous by Liberal that even the Washington Post blanched at its terms. The Constitution would prohibit discrimination Public or private against any per son anyhow anyway including discrimination by reason of sexual orientation poverty or parentage. It would create a woman s inviolable right to an Abor Tion la would guarantee every person an income sufficient to meet Basic human  it proclaims that grand juries shall not engage in fishing expedit  it promises Day care centers for the Young and special assistance for theold. Where would the Money come from to support these goodies proponents of statehood speak grandly of a tax on com Muters that would raise half a billion dollars a year. Somehow new Columbia would have to support its own courts and its own prisons. The District s present mayor and 13-member City Council would give place to a governor and a 40 Iris Ember stale legislature. All the trap pings of statehood save Only for reality would be created. The whole thing is preposterous. Washington d.c., is a City. It cannot plausibly be made a stale by legislative legerdemain. True with a population of 626,000, it would number More resident than one finds in Delaware Wyoming Vermont or Alaska but this is irrelevant a City is a City and on the record this City under Home Rule has been abominably governed. Proponents disdain some serious constitutional questions. What ii no the District was ceded to the United slates by Maryland in 1790 pursuant to the Tenor and effect of the Constitution Al provision dealing with a seat of the government of the United states. For Congress to create new Columbia would violate this express understanding. Moreover under the 23rd amendment the Bill would leave he status of three presidential electors from the District of Columbia in limbo. Republicans in Congress will tend to oppose a Bill that would add two Liberal democrats to the Senate but that is the poorest reason for opposition. This monstrosity of a Bill in i a Flower it s Weed. Stomp it Down or yank it out