European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 15, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 columns the stars and stripes James Kilpatrick barks Over budget could take Teeth out of bites it is howling time along the Poto Mac. Every january is the same. The president sends his proposed budget to con Gress and a Banshee chorus goes int action. On monday Reagan recommended a modest Cut in farm subsidies. Rep. Rika de la Garza chairman of the House Agri culture committee howled in pain. The president urged a one year freeze on Cost of living increases for military and civilian retirees. This brought a howl from the retired officers association. Once again the president sought to Ter Minate the Legal services corp. The poverty lobby will be heard from. He asked authority to lease offshore drilling rights in Alaska and California and he proposed a slowdown in outlays for medicare. Professional environmentalists howl almost As loud As the old folks and the old folks howl louder than anyone. So it goes and after a while the predictable clamor gets to be a bore. Virtually no group evinces the slightest willingness to accept a measure that might adversely affect its own turf. Under present policy the government meaning you subsidizes school lunches for the children of families earning upward of $40,000 a year. Once again Reagan proposed an end to this nonsense. Listen for the howls to resume. As usual the budget evoked hoots sneers and catcalls about the assume  of necessity every budget has to be based in Large part upon Uncertain projections of income and outgo and these projections depend upon Uncertain estimates of the Economy. If the econ omy is booming unemployment rates will stay Down and income taxes will go up. The Reagan budget for fiscal 1990, which begins oct. 1, relies upon assumptions known As the Rosy scenario. Thus the outgoing president As Sumes a growth in the Gross National product of 3.4 percent he estimates that inflation can be kept to 3.5 per cent he reckons unemployment at 5.1 percent and he predicts that the inter est rate on a 90-Day Treasury Bill will fall to 5.5 percent. The congressional budget office Esti mate is not nearly As Rosy. It forecasts Mary Mcgrory higher rates of unemployment inflation and interest it assumes a growth in the Gnu of Only 2.2 percent. At the co things Are nearly always going to the powwows but the truth is that Over the past 15 years both the co and the president s office of management and Bud get have come up with budget estimates that have missed by Miles. Their projections May be educated Guesswork but they Are Guesswork All the same. In every budget economic assumptions Are accompanied by political assumptions and the political assumptions Are both easier and phonies. The president was Able to work the anticipated deficit for 1990 Down to an unbelievable $92.5 billion by Assum ing for example that Congress will Termi Nate 82 spending programs. These paper economies required no More than a brisk stroke of the pen to write them into the budget. But they Are fiction pure fiction. Kill Amtrak oper ate on the Small business administration forget it. The howls Are mighty and they will prevail. The Senate s new majority Leader George Mitchell of Maine gave the Rea Gan budget an instant Brushoff. He termed it irrelevant and in a sense this is True. This was for Reagan the same song eighth verse or As one critic rudely termed it the last quack from a lame Duck. Mitchell has his ear poised for the Fine tuning George Bush has promised for next month. If Bush is to live up to his Campaign promises he will ask Congress for $4 billion in added spending for Educa Tion the environment and medicaid. Bush will have other problems with the Reagan budget. In some fashion Over the next four years Congress will have to find billions for a cleanup of toxic wastes Bil Lions to Salvage failing savings and loan associations and billions to repair old highways and to buy new computer sys tems. The Reagan budget treats these obligations tentatively. They won t go away. Many recommendations in the Rea Gan budget will be approved As written. The president recommends a substantial increase in the space program he asks for 695 additional air traffic controllers he would keep the airline ticket tax at 8 percent rather then let it drop to a sched is where we Start emr Hasi the Kipper 6ehtler stuff �1986 r u this is not Only the How ing time it i Many of his Nickel and dime user also a waiting time. Congress is waiting tees May make it to enactment this on Bush. Once he Speaks his piece the time the budget is by no Means a use howling will go on and on and  document. ,. C Universal press Syndicate . S rogue mayor May get his vacation Der .1. No big City mayor in the country is More drenched in self pity than Washington s rogue mayor Marion Barry. None is More insistent on the need to get away from the stress of Public service. Now his Honor has put himself in the Way of a permanent vacation from his duties. His new Jam has made him a candidate for abdication. The mayor who has survived vast Public Embarrass ments has always left much to be desired As an Alibi artist. He rarely bothers to be plausible. But this time he has to explain Why he was in a ramada inn room with a Man who was accused by a chambermaid of having offered her cocaine. Two police officers were sent to investigate but before pouncing they were mysteriously called off at the last moment. The mayor of the Federal City shares one trait with its most consequential inhabitant the president whatever happens is not his fault. But his Counselor warned him that dumping on the police who Are try ing to Cope with a record number of homicides 363 to Date was a dog that would not Hunt. Previously Barry said that his meeting with Charles Lewis a former District of Columbia employee was undertaken for the purpose of giving an old Friend a copy of a Book called indices a statistical guide to the chaotic City government. He subsequently told the Washington Post that he is in constant danger of being either killed or set up. That is because ironically he considers himself the Generalissimo in the City s losing War against drugs. This is not the first time that he has been embroiled in drug charges. In 1984 there was the Case of Karen John son a City employee and convicted drug dealer who has since said she was Given hush Money to go to jail and keep her Mouth shut about her dealings with the mayor. His lawyer called that Liaison a personal rela  Barry said it was non intimate although he admitted visiting her often in her apartment. It is not unusual for me to visit a number of peo ple said the mayor with his usual display of careless Ness in these matters. If i knew you i might Stop by to visit you sometime and have a cup of  in 1982, he had another close Brush. Barry according to employees at a strip joint called this is it openly snorted cocaine. His reason for being there in the dead of night he was seeking Campaign contributions. Marion Barry came to Washington with a record As a civil rights worker. He turned in his Yashiki for pinstripes in order to run the affairs of a Black City in a compassionate progressive manner. He was considered just the one to bring Washington from Colony status to proud self government by the Post and the White liberals. The mayor despite rhetorical initiatives on behalf of the poor operated like a big City Boss in the style of Richard Daley of Chicago. He adopted a lifestyle reminiscent of a third world p9tentate. He built his Power on the strategic award of Juicy contracts to minority entrepreneurs and Grants to Black churches. He consolidated his hold on his fellow Blacks who comprise 70 percent of the City population to the Point where he became invincible and mayor for  he also created what Washington monthly Calls units current Issue the worst City government in Ameri Ca a chronicle of unresponsiveness and inefficiency written by Jason Parle. Reading it you wonder How Barry persuaded Blacks that he was on their Side. You might think that the appalling ambulance service the scandalous state of homeless shelters the notorious fail ure to help poor tenants in struggles with their landlords might make them suspect the mayor s claims of  no. Barry played racial politics relentlessly. When Ever he got caught he whined that the White establish ment the White Media the Post in particular were en"/1".8 him he likened the investigation of the Karen Johnson affair to a Kun flux klan Lynching. Barry s defenders say that despite 11 indictments of a Isiais a record is no worse than new Yor mayor he Koch  administration did graft on a to name of James Michel Curley of Boston from a Federal prison is self preserving bureaucracies Are i ins,is.tent5e on respite from official stress to level a by aryeness last summer when he him f with aerobics and meditation Pulc exp5nse two 8ecurity officers we 0userve As  is for the  he May get the rest he needs having definitely c Universal press Syndicate