European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 23, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10the stars and stripes Friday March 23,1990 columns James j. Kilpatrick will Rostenkowski budget plan Fly Fot Chance on paper where it is Likely to remain Dan Rostenkowski a plan to eliminate the Federal deficit is altogether admirable. It would require some sacrifice from almost everybody but it would not demand great sacrifice from anybody and it would work. Why then the pessimism it is because the gentleman from Illinois would revise not Only the Laws that now govern taxing and spending. He also would repeal the Laws of human nature and these arc not subject to Roll Call vote. If nothing significant is done toward getting the nations financial House in order the government will Roll up deficits estimated at $648 billion Over the next five fiscal years. Rostenkowski a combination of increased taxes and diminished spending would Cut this to $137 billion. He predicts an actual surplus in 1994 and 1995. How would he accomplish this Miracle let us count the ways. For reasons that never were clearly explained the income tax rate on individuals begins at 15 percent. At a certain Point it goes to 28 percent. Then it is 33 percent for a while and then it Falls Back to 28 percent. This schedule says Rostenkowski is a absolutely  he would dissolve the Bubble and keep the top rate at 33 percent. This would hit the Rich folks. Americans the gentleman notes currently enjoy the lowest gasoline tax in the free Industrial world. Federal and state taxes combined amount to about 30 cents a gallon. The Gas lax in France is $2.42 per gallon in Japan $1.64, in great Britain $1.75, in Italy $3.97 and in Germany $1.58. Under the Rostenkowski plan the Federal tax would Rise from 9 cents to 24 cents a gallon. This would produce additional revenues of about $11 billion a year and it would make truckers shippers and cab Drivers very unhappy. The congressman has other Revenue enhancements in mind. He would double the Federal lax on Beer and wine. He also would double the tax on tobacco products lifting it from 16 to 32 cents a pack. He would impose unspecified taxes on a pollutants a a Anthony Lewis w a a a a Well you might jew my and i have a grew. Idea and these increases would make smokers and polluters extremely sad. Manifestly these enhancements would Fly in the Teeth of president Bush s pledge of a no new taxes a but a hint developed last week that perhaps it is time to read Between the presidents lips. Budget director Dick Darman testifying on the Hill was asked How Long the pledge was intended to last. Darmand a reply was a classic formulation of political reality. A for the time being  All told the Rostenkowski plan would produce $195 billion in new revenues Over the five year period. On the spending Side of the Ledger the plan proposes a one year freeze on All non defense outlays except those that Benefit the very poor. The freeze would permit no increase next year in expenditures for education drug control nation Al Parks farm subsidies foreign Aid Grants for pornographic Art congressional staff and you name it. Of greater political interest Rostenkowski would freeze spending on medicare and he would deny a Cost of living increase for one year to retirees on social Security. It is relevant at this Point to note that the gentleman from Illinois has no opposition for re election this year. He is positioned to retire from Congress in 1992 with More than a million dollars in accumulated but unspent Campaign contributions. The one year freeze would greatly displease educators Farmers environmentalists drug enforcement officers and the makers of filthy photos. It would arouse the american association of retired people to new peaks of forensic fury. Finally the plan envisions not merely a freeze on defense expenditures but an actual Cut of 3 percent a year. This would bring howls of dismay from the Pentagon from defense contractors from military personnel and from Many Chambers of Commerce. All told the plan would produce savings of $255 billion Over the five years. An additional $62 billion would be saved in the Cost of interest on government Bonds. Deficits would end interest rates would drop inflation would stabilize and we would All be Happy hereafter. It says Here. The great hinge word of life is  everything turns upon it. If every affected interest including the White House would go along with Rostenkowski. We could climb out of the pit. Will it happen. Hope says it could. Reality says fat Chance. C Universal press Syndicate zealots Are protecting fetuses at Cost of living Nancy Klein of Long Island 10 weeks pregnant was severely injured in a car crash on dec. 13, 1988. For two months she was in a coma. Doctors had Little Hope that she would come out of it but they thought she might have a better Chance if she had an abortion. Her husband Martin told them to go ahead. At that Point two men who did not know the Klein family members of Long Island right to life went to court to Stop the abortion. Klein had to fight them through three slate courts and the supreme court of the United states before the Case was finally  had the abortion. It allowed her to have new medication and intensive rehabilitation therapy. She responded amazingly Well. She came out of the coma. Now she can talk dress herself express her love for her family. Her doctors say she is still making Progress. That Story tells us something about the extremist opponents of abortion. In their concern for a fetus they were prepared to condemn Nancy Klein to exist in a coma without end. In their Zeal for potential life they wrote off a living woman. The belief that abortion is wrong is a View that deserves respect. But in this country some people in the anti abortion movement have carried opposition Long past the Bounds of reason. Item. Scientists for the first time have Hope of reversing the course of Parkinson a disease. The Hope lies with experiments in which they have alleviated the symptoms by implanting fetal cells in the brains of Parkinson a patients. But the Reagan and now the Bush administration have forbidden use of Federal funds to implant fetal tissue in patients. Seven states have enacted Laws against fetal cell implants. Half a million americans suffer from Parkinson a a progressive and debilitating disease. A cure would lift them and their families out of misery and fear. But the anti abortion lobbyists Are not moved by that great humane interest. Once again Zeal writes off the living. Item. The National right to life committee urges its supporters to cancel their memberships in or drop their contributions to 11 environmental and wildlife groups. Among those targeted Are the National Audubon society friends of the Earth the natural resources defense Council the Sierra club. Why because the environmental and wildlife organizations worried about world population growth support . Aid to family planning groups abroad. They Back legislation to reverse Reagan Bush rules to forbid Aid to any such group that also provides information about abortion. The rapid increase in human numbers especially in the third world is destroying the habitats on which Birds and animals a and humans a depend. But the obsession with abortion overrides concern about a profound threat to the future of the Earth. Item. Anti abortion groups pressured the state of California to Stop funding family planning clinics. Some of the states 500 clinics have been closed. Lobbyists Are starting to work against clinics in other states. The clinics give advice on contraception Inai course would seem to reduce the likelihood of abortions Why then would the anti abortion lobby want to close the clinics. A Wall Street journal Story on the California events quoted one anti abortion Leader As saying that the clinics promoted the idea of a sex for fun a and trial women who became pregnant then had abortions. Judie Brown president of the american lire league which was Active in the Campaign said must return to respect for  other Western countries there Are Many up who Are conscientiously opposed to abortion. Bunny is nothing like the fanaticism of some elements in american anti abortion movement and not the political result in suppressing not Only Legal tons but family planning and medical research. The country that May have come closest to thu _ a of the american anti abortion extremists was to under its dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. He pr0�?T, contraceptives and made abortion a crime Pum. By up to five years in prison. When Ceausescu was overthrown one of n is leg most shocking to the first Western visitors w. Misery caused by the policy against abortion a trac Eption. In the words of the economist to f est infant mortality rate in Europe overflowing \ 1 Nages and the deaths of Many pregnant wom5nv 0f to Ceausescu As to the zealots Here the lius u women did not matter. New York times