European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 27, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 columns the stars and stripes George will looking beyond the super tuesday horizon when morning flatten inc Mountain tops on wednesday. March 9. Voter May not know what they did the Day before. Democrats who vote on super tuesday May determine Only the person who would be a democratic administration s Choice As . Representative at the United nation. Republican voters May think they Are deciding who shall seize the rein iof the Reagan revolution but the most they will deter mine is who will Wear the straitjacket that Reagan policy has tailored Tor the nation. On super tuesday while Dukakis Gephardt and Gore go Cherry picking targeting particular area Jackson will begin bringing in his sheaths of delegates. Whether or not a Democrat arrives at the Atlanta convention with a lock on the nomination Jackson will have to be paid. What can he want from a democratic administration As representative at he United a. Lions he would because or his political clout enjoy virtual immunity from brine fired an air plane in which to roam the world and a work place where the specially is his specially talk. Al Gore is the other Democrat whose Daw if he is to have one is supposed to be super tuesday. But oven democrats who have a crush on him and who Are not economical of Enomia show when they give vent to their emotions How dyspeptic democrats arc feeling. In an editorial that is impossible to read without giggling. The new Republic a democratic Magazine has thrown its weight behind Gore. His spontaneous speech is both vivid and  with some of his vivid Allus Veness he makes the sciences of the next Century his special  timed to tip the super tuesday balance. Inc Magazine s Dixie readership a of Rcd an arresting vision Gore understands not Only the threat to the Ozone layer but also inc fact that technologies like fiber optics Are the key  actually the real Case for Gore is less lyrical but More concise he alone among democratic candidates is not n foreign policy Naif. That s it. No need to drag in fiber optics. The new Republic paints warts and All por traits Ocic Phardel and Dukakis that arc a dermatologist s dream. The cold Comfort one can Lake from Gephardt s reckless Agenda of crude populism and ugly and deluding xenophobia is this his record of flip flops indicates that any professed belief of the moment a just a marketing tool that must take a terrible loll on the sinews of his  turning to Dukakis. The new Republic says his rigidity represents neither deep conviction nor great passion Only an overweening estimate of himself i Dukakis believes something this suffices As evidence James Kilpatrick Are born Nanc tour its to Weib i it of the lightness of the belief. No arguments  Aren t democrats fun when they fight Aren t republicans Clever when they Duck re a possibility. That is. They have devised the us tamale Southern  with the Reagan administration s new budget the Republican party now stands for the Scarlett o Hara approach to governance let s think about problems tomorrow. Seven Yeara ago the party stood for two disciplines trillion and a half dollars president that will be his cumulative deficit. In the history of the Republic be fore him the local deficit was j9i4.3 billion. If the new budget is enacted defense spend ing will have risen 87 percent under Reagan but spending generally will have increased 61 percent. Be cause of the political choices posed by Reagan s deficits _ wheel chairs or tanks this is probable when the fiscal decade 1981-91 is done the growth rates Fot defense and general spending will have con verged. Seventy Percun of the budget consists of defense declining interest soaring medicare and social Security. Under Reagan spending on medicare and so Cial Security will have risen 115 and 67 percent respectively. As the population Ages and expensive medical capabilities multiply government will become evermore of a machine transferring wealth from Young to old. Under Reagan interest payments As a percentage of the Federal budget have More than doubled to 14 per cent. The fiscal 1989 budget envisions interest pay ments of ji51.8 billion More than the combined Bud gels of nine departments agriculture Commerce education Energy Interior Justice labor state transportation. The biggest change in the budget Dur ing the Reagan years is the enrichment of a rentier Cla a Hose who live in places Ike Gross Point an Riyadh and rent their Money to the profligate . Government. This regressive Transfer of wealth is an Issue made for a conservative populist a Hawk on Ibe deficit. But can Bob dote expand his message beyond that one of us slogan we will know by the Lime hat morning flatters the Mountain tops. Wisl Ston Mil it Marionw agriculture department doing something right on the matter of subsidies to Honey producers there is a Ood news and had news. The bad twi is that these subsidies Are continuing. The Good news is that costs of this program Are drop Ping. By the end of March the govern ment s Stock of surplus Honey will be gone. Of a textbook were being written on How our government drifted into the Fis Cal pcs it s in at least a chapter could Well be devoted to the Honey program. The chapter would remind us How very difficult it is to get rid of a Federal entitlement once a program has become entrenched. The Story goes Back to world War ii and its shortage of sugar. It seemed a Good idea at the time to encourage production of Honey As an alternative Sweet ener. Beekeepers set busily to work and before Long Honey was flowing like milk. Economic causes produce economic effects the Price dropped and the pro dui in full the sting. Political pressures mounted. In 1949 Congress Utola into the farm Bill a Price support for Honey that was bated at firm on a parity plan. In time this gave Way to a specific Price producers could obtain government Loans at 65 cents a Pound about 10 or 15 cents above inc world Price. The Loans naturally went Inlo default the government took Over the collateral Honey and by 1985 the taxpayers owned 108 million pounds of the stuff. Total costs of the program were in the neighbourhood of si00 million a year. The department of agriculture by Law could not sell the stuff the Honey had to be stored processed and Given away and All this added is cents per Pound to the Bill. To gel to inc Good news in 1985 Congress began to Back fill. The sup port Price edged Down to 64 cents in 1986, then to 61 cents at the end of last year. For 1938. The loan rate will fall again to about 59 cents. It will come Down by 5 percent a year through 1990. Of greater significance. Congress provided a complicated buyback option similar to programs for Cotton and Rice and this seems to be working remarkably Well. In 1985 roughly 98 percent of the Honey under loan was forfeited. Since then inc forfeiture Rale has dropped to 17 percent. Total program costs Are fall ing to s40 million a year. Stockpiles in mid february were Down to 3 million pounds by the end of March not a drop South Dakota claimed 1838,000 a Jocil will remain. It is not exactly relevant or of North Dakota Gol 1712,000, major but Rice inventories also will disappear in producers strongly protested a system March and stocks of cheese and non fat dry milk will dry up in May. The depart ment of agriculture must be doing some thing right note further Good news . Sex Pom of Honey Are increasing and imports of Honey mostly from China Canada Mexico and Argentina ate diminishing. Imports Nave dropped from 138 million pounds in 1985 to an estimated so million pounds in 1967. Our exports Are at the highest Levels since 1973. A touch of bad news in the omnibus budget act thai landed on inc president s desk in december Congress removed a 1150,000 Cap on Loans to individual pro Ducer. This Means thai the big boys will be Back in Clover. About 200,000 people arc identified As beekeepers but Only 3,000 of them maintain 300 or More col onies. Among the 3,000 Are the bitten who produce from 12 percent to i i percent of the total crop. For the big ten Honey subsidies have been big business. In 1984, . Mcyr &. Sons of South Dakota obtained pay menu of 1912,000 Richard Dace of thai made them subject to two Caps one on loan limits inc other on payment Lim its. No other agricultural producers were subject to such a restrain. Congress yielded in december and lifted the Cap on Loans. For inc big ten it s a swell proposition. This is the Long and Short of it nearly 40 years after Honey subsidies came into being the costly program goes on. No rational economic Politi Cal or social justification supports the continuance. The payments Benefit barely 3,000 commercial producers the Supply of bees for agricultural pollination is not in danger. Honey produced in inc United Stales n of High Quality there is a demonstrated world Market for it. Nevertheless like so Many other fed eral programs this one has a political immortality of its own. In a trillion Dol Lar budget marked by a j150 billion deficit a Mere 140 million scarcely is Visi ble. We seem la hear thai often on Capitol Hill. Among the special interests that s Whalley All Sny in Nuj pm