European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 4, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 columns Steve Gerstel the stars and stripes Many of Laws if passes Don f apply to Congress with prideful l boasts and self congratulations inc Senate passed a Bill prohibiting former members from lobbying their old colleagues and Cabinet Mem Bers for a year. This infliction is already in effect for officials who leave the executive Branch has been in somewhat different form since 1978 and May Well Lead to former while House aides Lyn Nofziger and Michael Denver taking up residence in Federal prisons. Nof Iger has been convicted of violating the anti lobbying Law and Denver for lying about his lobbying activities. The Law however never covered members of con Gress who. Once out of office frequently take up lobby ing As a Luc Ralic Hobby and frequent Capitol Hill As if they were Mill in office. There is a Senate Rule which prohibits former senators from lobbying the Senate for one year but if anyone has been caught violating in it remains a secret. There is no punishment involved of course. I think this is a signal Day in the history of the . sen. Howard Melz Chaum. Domo Senate has unanimously passed a piece of legis lation indicating that in wants to Reform some of its own procedure and the Mcnair has said unanimously thai members of this body arc to be governed by some of the same rules thai arc applicable to other people in the signal Clement of the Bill s passage is that in came 10 years after Ami lobbying prohibitions were slapped on everyone else in the government and underscored if is needs underscoring thai Congress has Cuc pled itself again and again from Laws which apply to All other americans. What s Good for the country is not necessarily of Tod for the . Senate and the . House. Congress has exempted itself from civil rights and Lubor Laws including the 1964 civil rights act Chr l 72 equal employment Opportunity act. The civil service Reform act the age discrimination in employment act the equal pay act and the occupational safety and health acs. Congress and members of Congress can Wilh impunity discriminate on the basis of sex. Race age religion or anything else that comes to mind. They can and do stuff employees into virtual closets that would not pass minimal health and safety standards. Congress can. And docs Bury workers in the bowels of their office buildings and work them 10 hours a week with no overtime and nothing requires them to Ellen Goodman. Vul. R with men for Canas work. /. Dot used passage of the anti. Lupine off spot to launch another i i -. I etch current Laws on employment pro i i � of of work arc. In a Standard is a Plain injustice to those who Nuiji. ,.work possible Leahy said. It is an Eban ascent to us Leahy said the employment Laws taken log Chi or spell out civil social physical and economic work ing rights and standards for All americans except if they work for unfortunately. Leahy s fair employment in con Gress act which he has again introduced docs not rave a Good track record. In Nasreen submitted by him in four of her congresses and never budged. Citing the resistance. Leahy said i recall when i first introduced the Bill 10 years ago. I gave what 1 thought was a stirring speech on this floor. When 1 finished explaining exactly what this legis lation would do a senior member came up to me and asked me where t was going he recounted. I said i was hurrying to catch a plane to Vermont and he Laid Good stay there " so much for Leahy s Hill although he considers the climate More amenable this year. Indeed there is no guarantee that the Home will accept the Senate passed Bill. The opposition Here could be stronger. The Senate inserted some anti House hookers such at wiping out a Rale that allows members of he House elected before 1980 to pocket any leftover Campaign Money. That of course. Is a Windfall denied everyone else. United p to internal wat responsibility for child care should be shared it is payday and the working Mother is counting her wages. After Tasei. Afir social Security alter health insurance How much ii left to show for her workweek if she is typical the working Mother Jan Home and pays her baby Sitter or slops at the Day care cell or o deliver inc weekly Check. Sometimes More Money changes hands from the Mother of the children or the caretaker of the children than remains with the Mother. Every once in a while the working Mother and her husband hold one of those conversations about family i ances. They casually or formally calculate How much her work is Worth really Worth. From her take Home pay they subtract transportation clothes lunch und then the Biggie child care. At times stressful times she reruns these numbers in her head. And invariably she concludes this arithmetic exercise with a diminished sense of the value of the Job. But rarely does either Parent wonder Why child care is taken As an automatic deduction from the maternal Side of the Ledger. Why do the overwhelming majority of married working mothers pay for Day care oui of their pockets and paychecks Why is the care of their children her business expense the census Bureau May categorize couples like these As partners in a two Parent working family. But in the everyday life of these economic units the partnership is psychologically divided in a Way thai puts children under her Masthead. In the majority of american families women arc no longer the full time care takers of the couple s children. But they remain the managers of the full time care. The mothers of preschool Chil Dren Are usually the ones who search out that cure write the ads conduct the interviews make the choices. It is their jobs thai hang by. The thread of the Day care Conler opening. By and Large they arc the ones who slay Home from work when a baby Sitter or a baby is sick. And by and Large the Price comes out of their purse s. Often when a woman pays for child care directly exclusively she is also making a statement. She is paying someone to do her work not her Hus band s paying someone to replace her not him to perform her role not his. There Are any number of reasons Why mothers even professional women with High wages assume this arithmetically traditional role. Many in these transitional times May be comforted with the sense of control Over child care Hal comes to the person who holds the purse strings. Tor other mothers perhaps most it comes from their image a a marginal worker a secondary expendable earner in a family. Mothers of Young children often and anxiously reassess he rela Tive values of going to work and staying Home. For them child care costs arc part of their ongoing tally but when women take this expense As their own personal Burden it inevitably costs something in terms of both self Worth and net Worth. In strictly economic terms. Child care expanses arc generally High est at the time of life when wages Are lowest. Most of us have children when we Are Young during he Early years of our employment. It is easy to reckon the Cost of Day care from our current paychecks even to decide that it in t Worth working. But it s harder to calculate these casts As an investment for the future. The women who remain at work Are Likely to stay in line for the promotions that later offset the temporary expenses to a Young family. It s hard to re enter harder to catchup. As for the emotional equation women generally earn less than men in the work Force. Subtracting child care from the female Side of the Ledger Dou Bles the Price of being of Smaje Lowers her contribution to the family income child care looms larger As a portion of her Check than of theirs.1 t s also True that As Long As child care remains a Cost of female employment Many men May go on assuming that it costs them nothing. They can maintain the Altitude toward Day care their fathers once had toward diapers hands few married people keep i and hers Bank accounts. Our paychecks go into one put. But families do have these psychological accounting system j. How simple a mathematical step in would be to recalculate child care As a Cost of two parents Raider than one Mother. How simple to share the Job of paymaster the person who hands Over the Money. There arc Large and Mayo crucial messages that would come in those modest Are after All. A joint creation and a joint concern. The Parent who pay together pay attention together to this delicate and critical enter prise. The opinions nor Busti in the columns and cart Nii on this Page rep Reinl Thost of the authors and Are in no Way to a considered is Rupram a Tang the views of the stir and stripes or the United Stales government
