European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 21, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 columns the stars and stripes tuesday february 21,1989 James j. Kilpatrick Bush Congress should Stop playing you Back in the Early 1900s, the Hearst newspapers carried a comic strip featuring a pair of French Dan Dies who became famous for their exquisite sense of Politeske. The recur ring gag went this Way you first my dear  no no you first my dear  we saw a reprise of that elaborate Courtesy on Capitol Hill last week. Said the president of the United states to the speaker of the House you first my dear  to which the speaker replied no no you first my dear  with such  it May be Christmas before they work out a budget. Bush s amiable invitation Drew coarse growls from Dan Rostenkowski chairman of House ways and  democrats fumed that the presi Dent had claimed the tasty vegetable for himself and left them to pick at the Brussels sprouts. He proposed increases in spending Congress May spell out the cuts. This is not a bad gambit. We have been through eight years in which Ronald Reagan was endlessly badgered for the Reagan deficits and the Reagan debt As if the former presi Dent had run up the red Ink All by his lonesome self. It is entirely appropriate that Congress share responsibility for the difficult choices that must remade in the coming months. One Section of Bush s budget message is titled meeting special obligations a Kinder gentler  Here the president sets Forth All kinds of goodies More Money forthe environment More for child Wel fare More for water Quality lots More for the homeless. He asks a Quarter of a billion dollars More for head Start,$313 million More for aids $3.3 Bil lion More for medicaid. These aspects of the Bush budget have conservatives rolling their eyes. Whatever is the Man thinking of herein a Republican president talking warmly of children of adoption of maternal health of expanded Job training and educational opportunities. Bush who does t look at All like Michael Dukakis has appropriate great chunks of the democratic plat form. One is reminded of Disraeli s com Leon Daniel a i s. To #t1 v cwt Tak \. A a ment on prime minister Robert Peel in1845 the famous tory caught the whigs bathing and walked away wit their  democrats will have trouble denouncing a budget that i plump As a pot pie with causes that Are dear to democratic hearts. If the want to raise the Ante they will have to share the onus of raising Revenue or cutting somewhere else. On this matter of cuts a semantic footnote is required. In the wonder land of commentary on the budget familiar words lose their familiar mean ing. We now spend $759 million for operation of the National Parks. Bush proposes $765 million for 1990. Is Thisa Cut yes and no. Obviously it is not a Cut in dollars but because the $6million increase is less than the anticipated rate of inflation it is a Cut i purchasing Power. Bush does propose some reductions that Are cuts by an definition but we need to use care in speaking of cuts in a budget that ingoing up not Down. Such gamesmanship is goo fun for those of us who sit in the press Box watching the playing Field below but the entertainment is subdued by an underlying seriousness. Under the Gramm Rudman Hollings act the prospective deficit for the 1990 fiscal year must be reduced to something inthe neighbourhood of $100 billion. On paper Bush s projections would accomplish that goal but some of the president s economic assumptions Are scarcely Worth the paper they Are printed on. Only the most cheerful Optimist is Likely to believe that interest rates will drop to the Levels of the bus forecast. These rates assuredly will not drop if the rate of inflation  things go badly Over the next six months if Alphonse and Gasto cannot agree on critical Points of in come and outgo the harsh provi Sions of Gramm Rudman Hollings would have to be invoked. This would mean sequestration a process by which most outlays except for social Security other social services and in Terest on the debt would have to beaut across the Board. And these cuts especially in National defense would be cuts that bleed. Almost no one wants to see sequestration which is the worst of All ways to handle a Federal budget. The country does want to see Congress and the White House agree on a level of government within our Means. It is in material who goes first. Universal press Syndicate agreement May end . Funding of contras 117 a i a i to 1 a of a i to r i. The agreement by five Central american nations to disarm the nicaraguan guerrillas caught the United states napping and May Bury forever its failed policy of bankrolling the contras. But american supporters of the rebels May be right in scoffing publicly at Nicaragua s Promise of open elections in return for dismantling contrabass in Honduras. The agreement also Calls for an estimated 11,000rebels Many of them with families to be repatriated to Nicaragua or resettled in third countries. The United states assured Honduras last Yea that it accepts responsibility for rebels living in Camps there. So the ultimate destination for Many of them Al most certainly will be Miami a City already afflicted with an unwanted influx of nicaraguans. If they come acknowledged Miami mayor Xavier Suarez a lot of people would scream bloody Mur  while the rest of the Bush administration was trying to decide whether to go along with the pact resist it or seek changes in it vice president Dan Quayle sounded off. On free elections in Nicaragua the Man some seems the administration s Point Man on latin Ameri can affairs said we need to see actions rather  Quayle said nicaraguan president Daniel or Tega had failed to keep earlier promises to hold elections. On a radio Call in show hosted by conservative commentator Cal Thomas Quayle was asked if the pact signed by the presidents of Nicaragua Honduras Costa Rica Guatemala and Al Salvador would destroy the contras. I would t describe it As a death warrant Quayle said. He said the administration does not now plan to renew military Aid to the contras adding that it is going to go along with the diplomatic route for awhile until it sees whether Ortega delivers on promises of democratic reforms. Contra leaders sought to put the Best face Possi ble on the agreement a setback for them that could end their eight year struggle. Their cause Al ready had been crippled by the . Military Aid cutoff last year. An american official in san Salvador spoke vol Umes about the . Policy vacuum in Washington when he told William Branigin of the Washington Post events Are moving very quickly in Central America and nobody is telling us what to  provisions in the agreement for . Teams to patrol the Region s Borders would make it difficult for the United states to rearm the contras eve if they Are not disbanded. Honduras based rebels crossing the Border tonight in Nicaragua would violate . Rules As would the United states if it asked Congress to renew military Aid for the contras. Ronald Reagan the most prominent Booster of the contras he called Freedom fighters once hinted darkly that Harlingen Texas was threatened Bysani Omista hordes. Now the former president is Back at the ranch and the contras May have to leave the Jungle and Settle in Miami. Ollie North faces trial for his efforts to Supply them secretly. Sandinista hordes have not breached the Rio Grande. The stars and stripes still Waves Over Harlingen. Leon Daniel is senior editor of up 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 Mars and stripes or the United states government