European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 27, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 columns William Safire the stars and stripes War on drugs is beginning to show results in the past month the . Govern ment s War on drugs won two Victo Ries. In Panama the dictator accused of facilitating inc International movement of narcotics was overturned cornered arrested and is in jail. In Washington the mayor Long suspected of being the nation s most Cylc Bratrud crack smoker was entrapped arrested and will enter treatment and Agnew slyly plea bargaining. Both victories followed invasions one of a nation. Inc other of individual rights. In Manuel Noriega s Case the inva Sion was justified by his declaration of War and threat to . Lives. In Marion Barry s Case the in ability of a prosecutor to get a grand jury to indict was no justification for the slea zest kind of . A former Girlfriend of the target was induced or coerced to set him up inc nil i slates for the first Lime became a party to inc sexual seduction of an elected official creating the circumstances for the commission of a crime. In an act More familiar to Kab Black mailers than Fri agents the mis Demea nor was recorded by cameras hidden in the bedroom. The publicity grubbing . Attorney goes on television to characterize the charge As  As if it were a Federal offence to be a poor role Model. Good prosecutors persuade grand juries to make charges in an indictment and then shut up until trial or plea with that proc tutorial misfeasance noted and where is the Acle the fact remains that Marion Barry has been an embarrassment to drug fighters. In this cily the widespread Assumption has been that the mayor was a drug user the message was thai you could do drugs deny it. Handle it and gel away with it. Now thai is reversed every would be drug big shot on the streets knows that the fuzz busts big shots too. The same convincing message has been sent by inc colombian government to inc my Dullin Cartel. Drug lords who declared War on the government Only six months ago arc William f. Buckley now suing for peace offering to Stop their killings if the government will protect them from extradition to the Stern United slates. Evidently the Cartel believes it is losing the Barco government is making no deals. All this is unmistakable Progress in the  a year ago. Some liberals predicted de feat because the emphasis was on Law enforcement rather than addict treatment. Some conservative economists joined in the defeatism waving the White Flag of legalization a route that would put cheap mind destroying chemicals in millions of school Knapsacks. Drug Czar William Bennett denounces the defeatists is counter denounced by academics but plugs ahead on All fronts. How do you measure Progress or Lack of it in a War the casual use of cocaine has been declining but the addictive use of the cheaper crack rages on. You could deduce from this that the Rich gel cleaner and the poor get More addicted but tolerated casual use has often been the Bridge to addiction. Blowing Coke May be Down but crack caused violence is up. Murders Are increasing on the streets of Washington we Call our Hometown Intifada West. Lawmen suggest this Gangland turf warfare is caused by a lightening of the Market but put this area Down As no Progress. Anti drug spending is rising. Last year we upped it by 50 percent this year Bill Bennett asked for 24 per cent More and will get half that in inc coming budget. Is the Money going in the right direction the strategy As i see it is to spend the most on enforcement and prisons limiting availability raising prices and scaring addicts into treatment. This increased demand for treatment should create pressure for its Supply and greater local response. Meanwhile the War on drugs is not a metaphor As the president told the de sense Secretary. Despite the Flap about our warships off Colombia we will Sec More of our military stopping drug runners especially at our Southwest Border formerly known As the mexican Border. That escalation of the use of the Mili tary will be part of the second phase of the drug War strategy to be announced at the end of this month. A computerized Law enforcement intelligence Center will be proposed to disseminate information that can be used in court which the Cia cannot do. The headline will be the death penalty for murderous Kingpins. Never put the Story in the Lead the War is far from won and a lust for testing is a danger but our doggedly optimistic drug Czar has earned a vote of  Early victories put us at the end of the  Moynihan better off pushing deficit spending ban q if sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan says that it is hic very to do vial income collected through social Security taxes to help cover the budget deficit Why As a member of inc commission that wrote the current social Security Law did he vote for it a the Only excuse he can come up with is that he assumed that by 1990, when the supplementary social Security lax was scheduled the budget would be balanced so that inc Revenue raised could go Inlo a fund reserved for social Security payments. After All. Ron Ald Reagan did Campaign on a Promise to balance the budget which goal he did not accomplish. Q but by 1988. Sen. Moynihan certainly knew we weren t going to have a balanced budget by 1990. Why did he As recently As Ihnn speak favourably of the social Security system a presumably it was Only after 1988 that he began to reflect on the ethical implications of what we arc doing. Q is what we arc doing unequivocally unethical a yes. As regards terminology. That is we have no right to raise lacs and to say thai we arc doing so in order to buttress the social Security fund when in fact the Money thus raised is going elsewhere. Q Why do you say that Hal is a Mailer of Irmino logy a because Uherc is no incr Cal reason Why social Security revenues and disbursements should be thought of As a discrete part of inc National budget. Defenders of Franklin Delano Roosevelt simply laughed out loud when the charge was made in the late 30s, that social Security payments were being up Cal routinely. The new dealers poin cd Oul Hal inc social Security funds existed in the form of Lous by the Federal government which practice has continued Ever since. Anyway they consoled us remember that we owe it All to ourselves. It s True Hal the government s income and expenditures move into and out of the same vat irrespective of How you designate them. Q then does t it follow thai the current Rise in social Security taxes which is Worth about $50 billion per year is in fact a new tax in Defiance of the promises of president Bush not to raise taxes a yes. It is a new tax. But it is not one written under his administration. It Dales Back seven years. Q critics of current social Security arrangements Point Oul that the existing tax Structure is highly regressive. For instance if you earn $51,300 per year which is the highest figure for which you get nipped by social Security you Are going to be paying into social Security exactly As much As if you were earning $500,000 per year. In t that unfair a no nor is it regressive. Social Security buys disbursements. The Man who pays social Security taxes on $50,000 is going to gel a return of x. The Man who is earning $500,000 is also going to get a return of x. If he were gelling returns greater than a then the lax would be regressive. It is in fact proportional. Q what Ihnn is inc clamor All about a if sen. Moynihan had his Way the resulting decrease in revenues would make it impossible to meet the demands of the Gramm Rudman act which pre scribe reduced budget deficits Forward until the budget is balanced. To clip $50 billion of scheduled Revenue off our books Means that inc budget deficit goes up by exactly Hal much. A unless the equivalent sum of Money is raised by other Means surely for instance. Sen. Ernest Rollings has suggested a 5 percent Federal sales  yes of course. But inc idea would affront presi Dent Bush because unlike a continuation in inc social Security tax pattern agreed upon in 1983, a sales tax would be a fresh tax in violation of his covenant. And by the Way sales taxes to inc Cal enl that they arc levied on goods for which the demand is relatively in classic bread and aspirin for instance Are regressive. Poor people Cal As much bread As Rich people and need to do  what is Likely to happen a or. Bush is on weak ground to the Cal enl that he declines to admit that the Rise in social Security taxes going in to lower the budget deficit is anything less than a terminological hoax. He would be but scr off saying that it was an anticipated tax Wentlen into Law seven years ago thai the revenues Are needed and that the obligation of the government to pay social Security to inc baby Boomers is undiluted by proceeding with the lax. And Hal those who worry about the deficit ought to do something about lowering it. Maybe sen. Moynihan could be persuaded to support the con Lilu Lional Amend Mcnol to prohibit deficit spending cum Vermyl press Syndicate