European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 12, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and Stopes column Walter r. Mears Cheney Dod Point Man As budget Battle heats up a As a hut new with a we. Of to. Manf -j-jt___.1_____ i it was onh a joke Bat oae with a Nowy when Secretary of defense Richard b. Cheney heard the Berlin Wail had been torn Down he wanted h rebuilt. A the said it was the Only thing of Ruifang Between of and the russians Quot speaker of the House Thomas s. Foley kidded Cheney at a formal dinner last month. Cheney is the administration s ranking budget Hawk these Days. He a being needled and challenged on a fronts. He makes a logical tightly reasoned Case for a slow and cautious reduction in defense spending but the pressure is intense to Cut More faster. The cutback Case is made with Matching logic and with the advantage of representing change in a time of dramatic a Odd change. A the minute Dick Cheney walked through the Pentagon door he ordered ail the docks set Back 10 years a joked Foley a Friend and a House colleague before Cheney joined the Cabinet. A no matter what you be heard. In a not a relic of the cold war., a Cheney joked Back. A but. Somebody in this town has to worry about what we re going to do when Stalin there Are serious numbers behind All that beginning with the $295 billion defense budget the administration seeks for the year beginning next oct. 1. That a More dollars than this year but it represents a 2.6 percent reduction in inflation adjusted spending. Cheney recommends 2 percent cuts in each Ellen Goodman of the following four budget years. Democratic leaders and now two Republican members of the Senate armed services committee say those reductions done to go deep enough. Sens. William s. Cohen of Maine and John Mccain of Arizona have aimed that the defense budget can be Cut by twice As much As the administration is proposing a savings of at least $50 billion More Over the next five years. Foley said their proposal will not pre empt democratic demands for sharper defense budget cuts. He said it shows the administration does not have wide support for the spending Levels Cheney is advocating. A the administration is really quite isolated in this a the speaker said. Cheney has been arguing his Side of the Case in congressional testimony speeches and Pentagon statements. He put it All together in an address to the american society of newspaper editors saying that the administration a has moved aggressively to change defense proposals so As to fit changing times. A but As Secretary of defense. I have to focus on soviet capabilities a he said. A intentions can change overnight. Capabilities take much longer to Cheney said those capabilities induce the worlds largest standing army and a strategic nuclear Force even now being modernized. So he said the administration is proceeding cautiously and prudently with a 5-year defense plan that would Cut spending by some s231 billion putting the defense share of the budget and the Gross a Siam product at the lowest Levels since before world War m even in the Best of International Ciro stares. Cheney said if the United states is to rain Reading world Power it must maintain offence and defensive strategic forces a system of Iii tar a ances troops deployed abroad a fewer in number but stub there a naval superiority flexible forces o react to varying contingencies and an Industrial base to or Duce High technology weapons. Detente Cheney said people who talk about cutting spending by half Over the next 10 Vears a would ave ult the defense budget of a second class Power a Bud get of an America in decline. A a far from becoming less of a Force in the world America is going to be taking on greater global responsibilities in the years ahead Quot Chenev said. Quot in other nation will be capable of our kind of global reach. A Security threats wore not invented by the communist party of the soviet Union and threats Vii remain Long after that party s gone out of re said a was a result the world will still be a dangerous Oliace a place that will continue to Benefit from a and indeed require a the stabilizing influence of the american that in Brief is the Case advanced by the administrations Point Man on the defense budget. The counter arguments Are being sounded in Congress. The Battle Over defense spending is just beginning Assa Stec pres lunch a not clothes a now makes the Man of Tzou a6a1n? before the great Broccoli Brouhaha is thrown into the compost Heap of overgrown news events a Brief word about boys and Broccoli Macho and menus he men and health. When George Bush put his foot Down and banned the offending vegetable from his plate a great collective sigh of happiness went up among my colleagues. At last Bush had formed a simple sentence and a declarative thought a i do not like today Broccoli tomorrow the world. It was a beginning across America citizens who have stronger feelings about Brussels spouts than Lithuania also applauded the Man in the White House. Poor George hemmed in by Congress on the one Side and lip readers on the other had exercised his authority a a in a president of the United states and in a not going to eat any More but i am afraid that the message in this vegetable madness is More Complex than that. Our boy Isnit just braking for Broccoli. In latter Day America food is a matter of taste. But not just the kind you test on the Tongue. It has become loaded Down with symbolism and sociology. The notion that a you Are what you eat has a meaning Well beyond nutrition. Food has become a lifestyle accessory important to the image As Well the innards. Goths once made the Man or woman. Now it is lunch. A woman being interviewed for a business partnership would no More order a Gibson or a grinder than Wear a Low Cut Blouse. A Man going out with the boys after baseball is unlikely to belly up to the bar and order a Kir and a cottage cheese. Utter the words a a Perrier and a a quiche and a a sushi and entire professions Spring to mind. The demography of dining subdivides americans More accurately than the census Bureau. So when Bush banned Broccoli it was the flip Side of boasting about his passion for pork rinds. A second bulletin from the i am no wimp Larder real men done to eat Broccoli. Of course in Georges Case you done to have to be a freudian to Analyse in this declaration of Independence a belated cutting of the apron strings. A and i Haven to liked it since i was a Little kid and my Mother made me eat but i am afraid that this sort of backlash dining or should i say backbiting is going around. When you see ads for the healthy foods a the Low cholesterol and the High bran a they almost invariably Star wives read Mommy persuading their husbands read Sonny to eat right. In the food As Medicine Era women Are the administrators of menus health regimens. Indeed among the posts the Kelloggs and assorted Folk women Are held responsible for feeding their husbands out of the cardiac unit and the cancer Ward. This institutionalized pressure on women to pressure men not Only gives wives another Job another subject to be responsible for but another verb of their own. It is called a a nagging How Many women have become cholesterol cops and nutritional nags in their own Homes let me give you a starter Barbara likes Broccoli. So it is not surprising that any backlash against the constraints of health foods and their purveyors wives signals not Only the Banning of Broccoli but a return to Macho menus. Have you seen the beef ads that tout High cholesterol slabs of cow As a real food real food for guess who. Nobody Calls Yogurt real food. No body Calls turnips Tough stuff. Salads Are for sissies. The presidential revolt against the greens that Mommy made him eat May be nothing More than the Harbinger of this rebellion. Will men follow his Lead on to High risk adventures in death defying diets will they go inward bound armed with Salt shakers and pats of butter will the boys night out be an occasion for furtive and ceremonial Bacon burgers and somewhere along the line will gift Eastwood reappear As the is Jarl a amp Star of a cheese commercial make my Day melt some velveeta right on Thos old pork rinds. Washington Post writers Gro a
