European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 18, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes saturday april 18,19b7 Tom Wicker fiscal tangle demands coordinated approach the collapse of thai interstate Highway Bridge Over Schoharie Creek in new York dramatizes what inc Federal Highway administration recently told Congress thai it will Cost js0.8 billion si3 Bil lion of it needed immediately to make All the nation s Bridge Tare again. Meanwhile the Dollar has fallen to new tows against the yen not least because the Treasury has been trying to devalue the Dollar in an Effort to rectify the huge . Trade imbalance both House and Senate budget committees have proposed unspecified new lanes to help reduce the deficit which now requires substantial borrowings from Japan. Third world debt by any sober analysis More of a threat to this hemisphere including the United Stales than a marxist government in Nicaragua amounts to billions of dollars most of which a things now stand can never be paid Back. All these problems Are linked More intimately and intricately than May be generally realized. As the Dollar Falls far Only one example the . Trade deficit May gradually shrink but at the same time inc declining Dollar weakens the Export earnings of third world countries hence their ability to repay existing debt already damaged in countries Tike Mexico and Venezuela by the drop in Oil prices. The . Deficit which forces borrowing abroad reduces the ability of Japan to make new capita available to the third world. And the same budget deficit is the major economic and political Barrier to the needed 550.8 billion investment in Bridges. The deficit also drives the move toward new taxes which could have a deleterious effect on a . Economy that still permits nearly 7 percent unemployment. But if the problems Are interrelated the reme Dies if any Seldom Are coordinated. Thus Rais ing say the gasoline lax May reduce . Borrowing from Japan but by itself that won t help third world Export earnings without which third world debts simply can t be repaid. And rolling Over that debt nation by nation Only postpones the question of repayment while actually increasing the debt itself. But easing the debt problem could res fire regulatory Relief for . Banks which Means Cral legislation protectionist Bills which have much support in Congress might have Good Short term effect on the Trade deficit but that too would damage third world exports while also making the japanese m beggars Mit  choosers Butco Olp i get this in vent less Able to invest in latin America and doing Noth ing for the budget deficit or . Infrastructure needs such As worn out Bridges and ancient Urban sewage systems. If interest rates Rise because of a collapsing Dollar that would be depressing to the . Economy and increase the third world s debt service Burden. Different executive agencies and congressional committees Are charged with separate elements of these interlinked problems. Private Banks Here and abroad Are heavily involved. International cooperation is not always sufficient witness . Efforts to persuade reluctant Japan and Germany to expand their economies. Congress and the Reagan administration Are often at Odds top on new taxes for instance and protectionist legislation. As for the future there Are nine sure or probable democratic candidates for president already and a least six republicans and there May be More to come in both parties. That s a cacophony of voices Well be hearing for the next year on How the United slates ought to approach one or More aspects of the economic crunch the nation has got itself into. Elections in Mexico and Britain could complicate things further not to mention the Ever present danger of major third world debt default what s needed numerous knowledgeable persons arc beginning to realize and some arc say. Ing is a More coordinated approach to what is really a Angle rather than a series of separate economic needs. The responses they say should be As interrelated As the problems. Why not a bipartisan National commission of authoritative persons charged with having ready forthe president elect in november 1988 a comprehensive response to the Complex of major economic questions he or she will face it could not be Manda tory of course but at least a new president and the Public would have at hand an Overall proposal for dealing with interrelated challenges. Gov. Mario m. Cuomo and Felix Rohatyn the new York investment banker favor the idea. House speaker Jim Wright and Howard Baker the Whitehouse chief of staff have expressed interest privately. That s a Start but who can or will appoint such a commission and give it the authority i needs mix vow time us sown James Reston faces May change but it s the same old conflict Gary Hart of Colorado entered the presidential election with the Assumption that the mood of the american people is changing. Unlike Jack Kemp on the Republican Side who thinks the people want More of Ronald Reagan s policies Hart wants less confrontation abroad and More compassion Ai Home. While Kemp is hailing Reagan As the Best president of this Century and Call ing for rapid deployment of his Star wars program the former senator from Colorado is doing the opposite. The United Stales should not be so preoccupied with the superpower confrontation he said in his opening announcement that it neglects the needs of the poor at Home or the aspirations and Hopes of the nations to the South. Sadly he added in recent years we be fallen far Short of the Ideal of America. We veil personal greed re place a sense of social Justice and equity and National Good. We be let right Wing ideology skew this nation s Basic priorities. We be increasingly let Nar Row single interests finance our campaigns and control our political  Here then Are the two extremes that arc Likely to be debated in the coming months on the one hand an Appeal to less government More Supply Side economics and More cold War rhetoric and on the other More government at Tention to education to revitalizing the Economy and to the genuine needs in Mart s words of the poor the elderly the sick disadvantaged and Dis  Hart talks a lot about new ideas but he sounds closer to the spirit of Franklin Roosevelt and John p. Ken Nedy. In fact he said the Issue in the election of 1988 was not whether the country should move left or right but whether it could recapture the Basic principles As we did in 1932 and i960. It is easy to see what both Hart and Kemp Are doing. Kemp is Belling thai the conservative so called Reagan revolution has not run its course de spite the deficits and the scandals and will endure Afler Reagan retires. This May be a Good strategy for winning the nomination in a Republican convention that is More conserva Tive than the party or the electorate Asa whole but a poor strategy for heating the democrats. Hart is Belling thai the Reagan revolution will not survive the loss of the president that Reagan s policies Are not As popular As his person and that what the historian Arthur Schle Singer or. Calls the cycles of american history Are now moving again toward the democrats. Schlesinger like his father before him has recorded a rough alternation of Public purpose and private interest in american politics since the begin Ning of this Century. First he notes the progressive move ment under Teddy Roosevelt and the first world War under Woodrow Wil son followed by the conservative and Miniel rations of Harding Coolidge and Hoover in the 1920s, succeeded by inc new Deal of Franklin Roosevelt and fair Deal of Harry Truman. Then in the 50s As in the 20s. The pendulum swung to eight years of Eisenhower followed by Kennedy s new Frontier and Johnson s great society which finally gave Way to the conserva Tive politics of presidents Nixon. Ford Carter whom Schlesinger Calls the most conservative democratic presi Dent since Graver Cleveland and Rea Gan. Will the popular mood change again in 988? Schlesinger thinks ii will Butis not dogmatic about in. The electronic age he observes has vaporized the parties and May also interrupt inc historical Cycle. But Hart is counting on inc Liberal number coming up again. He rejects the Label and Voles against Protection is measures despite his parly s connections with the labor unions but it s hard to read his two excellent books on the coming issues without hearing the echoes of Roosevelt and the appeals of Kennedy to the Young. This will not. However be a race merely Between the Supply Side economics and harsh anti communism of Jack Kemp and the Liberal policies of Gary Hart. More moderate voices will be heard in both parties thai will reject both the Roosevelt revolution and the Reagan counterrevolution. Vice president George Bush for example would undoubtedly take a mid dle position if he could Ever gel out of the Reagan Shadow and sen. Bob Dole will undoubtedly find his own Middle Way. Bui in general the fight Between the panics will be Between the Republican emphasis on private concerns and in democrats emphasis on Public Pur pose. In Short the same old conflict with new faces and Only shades of Dif Ference. Nek Byork Timnui a Nna Sai Vico