European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 17, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 columns the stars and stripes Joe Murray a Democrat s View of the traditional Republican new Orleans the adventure continues this time with the elephants taking Center stage for the political Ani Mal act we Call the american Way. Here i am Way Down yonder just Asmal town boy who was born bred and All but baptized a Democrat cast into the midst of the worst kind of republicans those who take it exceedingly seriously. Least Wise that s what i m told. But Idon t know that much about republicans. I m not even sure i know the when i see them. For a fact i did t meet my first on until i was 11 years old thereabouts. I remember it Well. I was attracted by the big Bonfire that night. No it s not what you might  weren t burning books. What it was a fellow who lived Dow the Street had bought an old Shack of a House across from our place and was tearing it Down for the materials. Now that i think about it i can imagine what there was left to Burn. I remember my Mother saying that fellow was straightening and saving each and every Nail from that old House. She said that s Why he had Money he hated to let go of so much As a ten Penny Nail much less a dime her telling me that should have told me something. Anyway my Cousin Bubba and were attending the Blaze trying to help Heap on whatever we found lying around Loose More help i m sure than the a builder needed or appreciated. To and behold there amidst dark shadows and the glow of leaping flames we came upon an Eisenhower for presi Dent poster that had been tacked to a Telephone pole. As far As Bubba and i were concerned the Only question was which one of us William f. Buckley would have the Honor of pitching our president elect s likeness into perdition. Blame it on our upbringing. But a democratic president was All we had known during our Short lifetime. The Only thing we had Ever heard about the grand old party was what we had been told about the great depression. It was the a builder who stepped in and stopped us. Now that the election was Over he had taken Down that poster for the purpose of saving it. He said he respected and admired the Man who Lethe army in time of War and had voted for him to Lead our country in peace. Granted that May sound patriotic to your ears. But for Good Young democrats it was like unto treason. We eased away from that Man Kramedas he was by the fire like the Devil him self. Anybody who would t Burn a Pic Ture of a Republican was Likely capable of most anything the least of which would be throwing a couple of Little boys into a great fire. That was my introduction to re publicans flames in the night. The strange thing was the Man had neither fangs nor forked Tail not at Al what i had imagined a Republican to be. It s no different Here. If anything  seem to have rather even Teeth. But there s no telling what shape and for they can assume. . Truth is even my daddy did always vote democratic in years to come. In 1968, i know for a fact that he supported George Wallace of All people. That bothered me at the time. But what the hell i had voted for Nixon Joe Murray editor and publisher of the Lufkin Texas news is a regular columnist for Cox news sen Bush s Day care proposal Superior to Dukakis so George Bush has come up with a proposal for a Federal Day care program. It is probably too late in the Century to say with any Hope of altering the course of things what nevertheless most needs saying namely Why Federal the Reagan administration of which or. Bush is a part and the principal political beneficiary began by huffing and puffing about the new federalism and ends by inaugurating a new Cabinet department for Veteran affairs maintaining in the Cabinet a department of education and another for Energy and now we Are going to look after babies As a Feder Al project. That is the bad news. The Good news is that the Bush plan is far Superior to the Dukakis plan. Dukakis wants Federal Day care centers. Bush says let every Mother decide for herself How to effect what is desired namely looking after children when the parents Are away working. The Bush plan Calls for returning Money to parents which Money is then available to subsidize whatever arrangements the Mother wishes tomake. Yes if she wants to pay Granny $1,000 to look after the child the Mother is free to go in that direction. Early last month professor Milton Fried Man commented on the Day care problem in National review. He wrote that a fatal flaw in currently promoted proposals for government financing of child care is that they penalize the family in which the Mother stays at Home to provide child care under first Choice conditions. In effect such families would be taxed to pay the child care expenses of other families. We already have enough government policies that penalize the traditional family. We surely do not need any  George Bush s proposal meets this criticism substantially. Even so there is built into the Bush plan yet More income transfers. He proposes to phase inthe plan by returning $1,000 of tax Revenue to any family whether with two parents or one so Longas there is a working Parent beginning with families whose total income is $ 11,000 or less. Then the Bush plan would phase in parents who make up to $20,000. The refund would be per child up to 4years of age. The Dukakis plan sees Bush and raises him Al the Way around. Parents would be entitled to the re fund if their earnings were below 115 percent of the median income of the state they lived in which can come to $37,000. And although the plan is not in it final stage it is suggested that the refunds continue to provide Day care for children up to 15 years of  such Day care centers would occupy them selves in persuading 1 a year Olds not to smoke pot or become pregnant. Neither Dukakis nor Bush has suggested any specific Means by which their Day care plans would be financed. The Bush plan would Cost something like $2.5billion, and we Are left to suppose that the Money would come from an increase in general revenues Ashe result of the Rise in Prosperity. Dukakis in t anxious to assume that a legacy of reaganomics would be increased Prosperity but neither is he willing to spec Ify where he is going to find the Money. The spirit of the entire Endeavor is perfectly Cap tured by Leslie Dach who is the director of communications for the Dukakis Campaign. He said of Bush s proposal this is just another example of George Bush finally discovering America. While Mike Dukakis has led the nation in child care George Bush sat by for seven years while this administration did  this administration did quite a few things that help children and adults such As crimping unemployment interest rates and inflation. But the planted axiom of Dach s statement is that anyone who thinks of a fresh Federal responsibility on monday is morally advanced Over the person who dreams it up on tues Day. By that reasoning Franklin Roosevelt and John f. Kennedy were Way behind John Brown on the mat Ter of civil rights. And Washington Madison Hamil ton and Jay were moral cretins for not having come up with social Security. The mature political world works  Bush recognizes that we live in a society in which married women Are expected to work be cause the level at which american families expect to live cannot be sustained on the income of a single earner. Add to this the incidence of illegitimacy and you have a fresh social problem which needs to be addressed. It is a fundamental mistake to make it a Federal project but to have called for government Day care before it was absolutely necessary is to make one As hungry As Mike Dukakis is to do for the United states what he has done for Massachusetts i.e., double its budget and bankrupt it. Universal press Syndicate the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoon son this Page represent those of the authors and Are in no Way to be considered As representing the views of the stars and stripes or the United states government