European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 2, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Tuesday August 2, 1988 the stars and stripes Page 5 Congress May face Tough Choice Washington not the con Gressional budget office has warned con Gress that it May soon face a Tough Choice Between reducing the size of the armed forces or making them less ready for com Bat because operational and support funds Are being held Down in favor of buying More arms. The budget office which analyses is sues for Congress but seeks to remain apolitical by avoiding recommendations said such a Choice could be avoided if Congress made operational and support spending More efficient. For example it said military bases could be closed and their activities consolidated. But the budget office held out Little Hope of that saying previous attempts have sparked controversy about the nature of these efficiencies an apparent reference to resistance by members of Congress to Job losses in their Home states and districts. In an analysis for the House budget committee the budget office defined operational and support funds As those for pay and allowances to military and civilian personnel fuel to Fly air planes drive tanks and sail ships repairs to arms and equipment and medical serv ices. Altogether such spending takes about 55 percent of the annual military budget. The procuring of arms and some spare parts plus spending for weapon research and development takes up much of the rest of the budget. In president Reagan s 7 /2 years in office procuring of new arms and equipment has risen at an average rate of 7 percent a year reaching $118 Bil lion this year. In contrast spending for operations and support has risen to $155 billion a year an annual rate of Only 2 percent. But current budget projections for the next five years Call for a total of $300 billion in cuts beginning with a $33 billion slice in the 1989 military programs Bill now awaiting the presi Dent s signature. Investment is expected to slow but Only slightly As members of Congress seek to preserve programs in their districts. Confronted with this the congressional budget office said Congress could hold Down operational and sup port costs by reducing the number of military  under an agreement Between Congress and the White House 36,000 people Are to be retired or discharged from the 2.2-million member armed forces. Under another option the budget of fice said Congress would accept some risk of the consequences of reduced military  readiness the capacity of forces to fight on the first Day of hostilities includes the training of troops and the necessary amount of ammunition fuel and supplies on hand. Wright gets plenty of pork for his county fort Worth Texas a the Home county of House speaker Jim Wright a Texas collected the most Federal Money on a per capita basis of any Large Urban area in the nation in 1986, the Dallas morning news which tracked Federal spending for fiscal years 1986 and 1987 through 50 states and 3,041 counties said sunday. The newspaper said Tarrant county achieved its top ranking primarily through the awarding of Multi Bil lion Dollar defense contracts. The Federal government spent More than $5.5 Bil lion or $5,481 per person in Tarrant county in 1986. In 1987, amid a Steep decline in defense spending the county dropped to the no. 4 position with $4.4 billion or $4,030 per person according to the newspaper s analysis. Tarrant county s total for the two years was $9.9 billion or $9,511 per capita. The average . County studied received an average of $3,577 per person for the same two years. Wright s District which he has represented for More than three decades includes most of fort Worth and its suburbs. Wright is unopposed for re election this year but faces an investigation by the House ethics committee into allegations that he improperly interceded on be half of troubled savings and loan executives in Texas and that he wrongly profited from royalties on a Book. Jim Wright generates More pork than is hanging in a Kansas slaughterhouse said Don Mcniel the Alva Rado Texas Republican who tried to unseat him in 1986. It s the pork barrel capital of  military spending makes up the greatest slice of tar rant county s Federal pie with 83 percent of the $9.9 billion in funds received coming from defense con tracts. The bulk of Tarrant county s $8.2 billion in defense contracts went to general dynamics maker of the f-16 Jet fighter and the county s largest employer with 28,000 workers. 25 of 2,000 on death Row were executed last year wedding ceremony a Matthew Brockman a 23-year-old landscaper and Mary Vincent the Young woman whose fore arms were chopped off after she was raped 10 years ago were married saturday at an Undis closed location in Northern California. Lawrence Singleton now 60, was convicted of raping Vin cent and hacking off her arms with an a after picking up the then-15-year-old Hitchhiker in september 1978. Black Leader questions gop commitment Detroit a National Urban league presi Dent John e. Jacob sunday lashed out at the Republican party saying he questioned its claims of trying to woo Black voters in this year s presidential election. Jacob told a news conference at the opening of the group s four Day National conference that certain gop presidential nominee George Bush declined an invitation to address the gathering just As Ronald Reagan did t come in 1984." that makes you wonder about the sincerity of claims to try to get Black support in 1988," he said. It makes you wonder about the Wisdom of the advice he s getting. And it makes you wonder whether a candidate who refuses to come to the Urban league s annual meeting will be a president who refuses to let the Urban league come to the White House Jacob said. In remarks prepared for his keynote address sunday night Jacob continued his criticism of the gop. Eight years ago Ronald Reagan Rode into town and everyone but Blacks cheered he said. Americans have now discovered Why Blacks weren t waving their hats never in living memory has there been an administration whose policies have been so insensitive to the needs of poor and working people Jacob said. And we remind America that More far More poor people Are White than  in the speech Jacob called for racial parity by 2000, a National Job program an Early childhood education program welfare Reform and health care for people with no health insurance. Although critical of the republicans Jacob said the organization would not endorse any candidate for the nov. 8 general election. On saturday Bush spokesman Mark Goodin said a scheduling conflict prevented the vice president from accepting the invitation. He said Bush plans to spend this week examining potential running mates and will deliver a major foreign policy speech in Chicago on tuesday. Sands of time in the stars and stripes 40 years ago today Washington a nearly 2,000 prisoners were on death Row last year and 25 of them were executed both figures record highs since the supreme court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, the government reported sunday. The highest population on death Row previously was 1,800 in 1986. There were 21 inmates executed in 1984, the former yearly High. State courts sentenced nearly 300 people to death in 1987, while the death sentences of 79 were vacated or commuted the Bureau of Justice statistics said. A total of 1,984 men and women were on death Row in 34 states As of dec. 31. Just 2.9 percent of the people under death sentences were executed from 1976 to 1987 92 men and one woman. During the same years nearly 1,100 people or 34.3 percent of those facing capital punishment were removed from death Row. The 25 prisoners executed last year in eight states had spent an average of seven years and two months waiting for the sentence to be carried out. More than 60 percent of the death Row prisoners were held in states in the South 18 percent in the West 15 percent in the Midwest and 5 percent in the Northeast. Since the supreme court reinstated the death penalty the Fri reported 224,400 murders and non negligent manslaughter and 217,120 arrests for these crimes. Aug. 2, 1948 three b-29s of the strategic air come took off from new York s Idlewood International Airport on a 5,000-mile non Stop flight to los Angeles and return climaxing the greatest demonstration of air might in american history. 30 years ago foe a. Aug. 2, 1958 some 1,800 american soldiers arrived in Beirut from Germany Only hours after a bomb blast broke the peace following maj. Gen. Fuad Shehab s election As president of Lebanon. 20 years ago today. Aug. 2, 1968 a Gallup poll showed that Richard Nixon would defeat either Hubert Humphrey or Eugene Mccarthy in a presidential Raee while a Lou Harris poll showed that either Democrat would defeat the former vice president. I0 years ago today. Aug 2 1978 the House of representatives voted to repeal a three year old congressional embargo against . Military Aid to Turkey giving president Carter a major foreign policy Victory