European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 22, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes Carl Rowan Hud mess could cause More neglect of poor the stench from eight years of corruption thievery and influence peddling in the department of housing and Urban development has provoked Many people to ask if anything be worse. The answer is yes. The sordid reve lations about the pals and cronies of Ronald Reagan and former Hud Secre tary Samuel Pierce or. Gobbling up Bil Lions of dollars intended for poor people could become the excuse Lor heaping More neglect upon those in desperate need of decent housing. The almost incredible stories of mis management malfeasance and outright fraud could Lead americans to believe that poor people Don t need Federal help in getting affordable shelter that cities Don t need Money from Washington to help in their development that people drinking from contaminated Wells in suburbs or Rural areas Don t need Hud to help them get Safe water. Already self styled opponents of big government arc in full cry arguing that the solution to the Hud mess is to get the Federal government out of housing. Almost All of these Anli Hud demagogues arc living in subsidized hous ing benefiting because Federal and state governments permit them to deduct from taxable income the interest paid on Home mortgages. The internal Revenue service tells me that in 1987, latest year for figures Are available there were 27,886,000 itemized tax returns with mortgage interest deductions totalling $134,621,000,000. A Treasury department official said that if these mortgage deductions were disallowed the Treasury would have $32.180,000,000 More in fiscal 1989 and $35,110,000,000 More in fiscal 1990. Some subsidy do the people who live in Nice houses really want to get the Federal government out of the housing business hell no the Hud mess has highlighted some Anthony Lewis thing of the hypocrisy of Reagan Pierce it at. Reagan delighted in going around telling stories about welfare Queens poor women who supposedly were cheat ing on food Stamps or other programs for the indigent. While he was ridiculing the needy who he thought were stealing a pittance every month Reagan s former Campaign advisers and top aides were mugging Uncle Sam for millions. There is a Rule of political life in Washington. No program designed to help Only the poor can come to  a school lunch program must in clude some Gravy for Middle and upper Middle class families. When fat cats fail to get their Ripoff sanctioned in the language of legislation the greedy find other ways to cheat the needy. The myriad abuses of medicaid by laboratories clinics doctors and others illustrate this Point. So Hud is losing a part of its constituency that is the real estate agents and speculators the lobbyists and influence paddlers the developers Consul Tants and formers of dubious partnerships who have had to take their Long arms out of the Hud Cash vault and May soon be vaulted into prison. Congressmen like Henry b. Gonzalez , chairman of the House banking committee know that these people Are saying if there s no moola for me to hell with  that is Why he is right in Tell ing Hud Secretary Jack Kemp that the scandals May not be used As an excuse to wipe put housing programs that republicans like Reagan and Pierce never liked. Kemp has suspended restricted or re Vised several programs in some cases prob ably without Legal authority. But Kemp has never been a Basher of the needy and there is no reason to believe that he will make the victims of Hud crookedness become the victims of the revelations. But a lot of us Are watching. North american Syndicate Jethon Kissinger can f relate to Power of american ideas a one still interested in the views of Henry As so often in chinese history the rhythm of calling attention to their brutalities. Niter who once exercised much Power in this chinese life and of chinese common sense is Likely to Reno Xian nine similarly now.  China Artic Anyon Kissinger country should look at a recent article of his in the los Angeles times. The subject was China but the More interesting subtext was the mind of the author his attitude on issues of authority and Freedom. Kissinger bitterly denounced the . House and Senate for voting to impose economic sanctions on China after the massacre in Tiana men Square. China remains too important for America s nation Al Security he wrote to risk the relationship on the emotions of the  massacre was entirely a Domestic matter Kissinger said. Us brutality was  but no government in the world would have tolerated having the main Square of its capital occupied for eight weeks by tens of thou Sands of  moreover a demonstration of impotence in Beij ing would have encouraged regionalism in China. So a crackdown was  americans who observed the events in Beijing reporters China scholars agreed that a crackdown was precisely not inevitable. The protest could have been settled Early on by modest official concessions. At the end the demonstrators were so exhausted and reduced in rank that they could easily have been dispersed without the use of guns and tanks. Chinese leaders Kissinger said if left to themselves will learn someday that economic Reform is impossible without the educated groups that demonstrate for democracy in Beijing and the workers who sup ported them. A Chines produce some practical  but the whole thrust of recent chinese history is to the contrary tragically so. Generation after generation of the scientists and teachers and writers so desperately needed to bring that huge country into the Stream of modern life has been slaughtered. Docs the United states help China if it sees that pattern of repression and terror repeated and docs no More than murmur Tut Tut the chinese who Are the Hope of their country the Brave campaigners for democracy do not think so. The very foundations of their thinking arc the ideals of american Freedom and they want the . Govern ment to speak out for those ideals. In the world we have it is necessary to Deal with governments that we do not like. The United states Only injured itself and helped to involve itself in terrible wars by pretending for decades that the people s Republic of China was not there. But it does not follow that the United states must close its eyes to horrors going on in countries with which it maintains relations. That View runs counter to the movement of history that has made human rights an important Force in . Diplomacy and a concern for people and govern ments around the world in office Kissinger never was an enthusiast for pub Lic american expressions on human rights. He resented and resisted congressional action on the subject. He liked to Deal with the holders of Power with Leonid Brezhnev say and not risk ruffling them by Callin Deng Xiaoping. Article Kissinger said the caricature of Deng. As a Tyran despoiling chinese youth is  it will take some explaining to the families of those killed in Tiana men Square or those executed since As to Why that is unfair. It will take even More explain ing if Deng s performance leads As seems increasingly Likely to military Rule in China. Kissinger objected to . Sanctions against any major country for events entirely within its Domestic  this terrible Century has shown us the Price that Domestic savagery May exact and not just from the offending government s own citizens. That is one reason Why the human rights movement has gained such strength. When America Speaks for human rights it matters. President Carter helped Andrei Sakharov and the con sequences arc still being Felt in the soviet Union. The Jackson Vanik amendment had its problems but american concern for soviet jews was effective in the Long run. Henry Kissinger has never understood the Power of american ideas. At the end in Vietnam he bewailed the loss of Amer ican influence but that influence has in fact grow since we gave up a wrongful use of Force. He has always worried about loss of authority. That is Why he could write with such misplaced sympathy that the chinese government had to act or display Impo.