European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 30, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes monday March 30,1987 columns Tom Wicker big budget big deficit put m find douse speaker Jim Wright of Toms among other democrats has been chastised in this space far a political death wish wanting to raise taxes to reduce the Federal deficit. More in sorrow than in anger Wright recently insisted Over lunch that he has a problem Only a tax increase can ease. President Reagan has sent Congress his annual Dis honest budget As usual featuring inflated Revenue estimates new taxes disguised As user fees and spending cuts no one believes can be made. This spa Nous document does project however a fiscal 1988deficit of about $108 billion the Legal limit set by the Gramm Rudmin Holling Law passed by a Panicky Congress a couple of Yean ago. The president s budget has put Wright and the rest of the democrats under pressure to produce their own budget with a deficit of about the 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 taxes complicating the matter is Reagan s Adamant stand against new taxes except for he subterfuges he has himself proposed. So Wright s problem and that of other democratic leaders in the House and Senate is 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 Rud Mait 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 that the reality will fall Short b to Cut Sis billion half in Domestic social programs and half in military spending from the fiscal 1988 budget and c to find si8 billion in new revenues. That would bring the deficit Down to about Sill billion on paper at least and near enough to the Gramm Rudman target to satisfy legality i Little else. But even this course will not be easy. Aside from Theta Issue the administration will resist a Cut of that size in the Pentagon budget and a reduction of about si0.5 billion actually would need to be made in Domestic spending to allow room for about $1.5 billion in initiatives like welfare Reform. What Are the alternatives the democrats could accept Reagan s budget but thai would mean an impossible $30 billion in spending cuts and 16.5 billion in user fees1 that Wright accurately Calls the wrong  they would hit lower income and Middle income americans harder than the wealthy. James Kilpatrick the democrats cd Fri repeal Gramm Rudman produce an honest Bud stand blame its High deficit on Reagan s 1981 tax Jato and his profligate military spending but or Igbal political judgment is that con Gressional demo Jfe would have neither the courage to do this nor the Ometter of he resulting political argument with the Nomi Deni and his party. They cow repeal Gramm Rudman and go on the offensive my i argue by initiating a Bis Public works Prog porn to reduce unemployment massively together Vrh other social and economic gains this would in rally increase the deficit but ultimately re  it m about 130 billion a year for each percentage Point cd from unemployment. Echt not personally unsympathetic to this throws up his hands at the Prospect of getting it Jyh a deficit conscious Congress past Reagan and political charges and across to the Public. The speaker s View is that no program costing big Money is politically possible until the deficit has been substantially reduced and he believes that s what Reagan has bad in mind All  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 that a new gasoline tax 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. Deli chairman of the ways and Means committee also favors that approach. 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 Wright  to fam Newi Sirbau statehood of 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 . 51. It is a Bill to provide for the admission of the slate of new Columbia into the  let us trample it underfoot. 4 for the past to years More or Lei few activists Here in Washington i been pushing for statehood for the District of Columbia. In 1980, local a bless launched a statehood initiative. In/1982, they approved a proposed cons Nulion. This past january the districts on Vot ing Delegate in the House wafer Faun Troy Rem produced his stat Nood Bill. Last week he held the first if a series of hearings that conceivably buld Lead to the formation and admits Jan of new co Lumbia As our 51st stale., Fauntroy s Case for  is Short and simplistic re sleeps of the District pay the same  that others pay they Are subject to the same Federal Laws they arc equally liable to military service but they have no voting representation in Congress. A proposed constitutional amendment to provide such representation failed ignominiously. Now their Only recourse As Fauntroy sees it is to go Lor statehood. Ike the aborted constitutional ,. Mienl which would have required that consent of 38 states the statehood would require Only a majority in i House plus a president s signature. P. Thomas a Foley d-wash., majority Leader of the House recently gave the Bill his influential support and predicted it would pass the House this year Possi Bly before the Independence Day  not sol Fauntroy s Bill would carve out a National capital service area sex lending roughly from the Kennedy Cen Ter 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 As Gauzy As the Northwest Comer of the Kennedy Cen  anyhow this service area would become the seat of the government of the United slates. 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. It 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 forthe Young and special assistance for the old. 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 8 billion dollars a year. Somehow new Columbia would have to support its own courts audits own prisons. The District s present mayor and 13-Mcmber City Council would give place to a governor and a 40 member state 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 residents than one finds in Delaware Wyoming Vermont or Alaska but this is  City is a City and on the record this City under Home Rule has been abominably governed proponents disdain some serious constitutional questions. What is no the District was ceded to the United Stales by Maryland in 1790 pursuant to the Tenor and effect of the Constitution Al provision dealing with a scat of the government of the United Stales. For Congress to create new Columbia would violate this express understanding. Moreover under the 23rd amendment the Bill would leave the status of three presidential electors from the District of Columbia in limbo. Republicans in Congress will tend to oppose a Bill thai would add two Liberal democrats to the Senate but that is the poorest reason for opposition. This monstrosity of a Bill in t b Flower it s a Weed. Stomp it Down or yank it out