European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 7, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes column James j. Kilpatrick pm Ltd sgt  should heed horatius and hold the line sixty years ago when Little boys took lessons in elocution the custom was to memorize great chunks of heroic poetry. It fell to one Little boy to declaim with appropriate gestures the Ballad of horatius from Macaulay so plays of ancient  the boy fell to thinking of horatius the other Day. Actually the lad now old and Gray was thinking of George Bush. The president seemed to be retreating from his Promise to approve a no new  pressures upon him were mounting from every Quarter. Without a substantial increase in taxes the president was told deficits would soar interest rates would climb and disaster would be close at hand. So it was when ruin threatened Rome. A then out spake Brave horatius the Captain of the Gate to every Man upon this Earth death cometh soon or late. And How can Man die better than facing fearful Odds for the ashes of his fathers and the temples of his gods a the Story turned out happily a with weeping and with laughter still is the Story told How Well horatius kept the Bridge in the Brave Days of  or. President stand like horatius hold firm to your convictions done to yield now if a tax increase can be averted for the next three years and if Congress will restrain its impulse to spend the dividends of peace natural growth in the Economy will bring the budget close to balance. We Are now on what some economists Call a a Glide path a As the rate of increase in revenues approaches the rate of increase in spending. Hold to a steady course political considerations clearly support a policy of firmness. If Bush made one position Clear during his Campaign it was his position on taxes. A read my lips a he made it a Litany. A read my lips no new taxes a this was a pledge of Honor and Bush is an honorable Man. His steadfast opposition to a tax increase was the most important Al w1s lips. Amp his Elmp ement in his successful run for the White House. To be sure if some overwhelming situation should develop the trusting voters would forgive him a Retreat. No such calamity is in sight. The bailout of savings and loan depositors can be paid for Over the next 30 to 40 years. The same thing is True of the obligation to rebuild Bridges and to fight the War against drugs and crime. Continued Large deficits Are a problem but they Are not a desperate problem. Let us keep key figures in perspective. The size of the deficit whether quoted in current dollars or constant dollars is not the figure that matters. What matters is the deficit As a percent of our Gross National product. A homely analogy May be found in personal debt. The family with a $20,000 income and a $100,000 mortgage is in trouble the family with the same mortgage and an income of $100,000 is relatively secure. This year the deficit will amount to Only 2.3 percent of Gnu. This is the lowest figure in 20 years. Do not think the unthinkable or. President be like horatius or be like Ulysses who ordered sailors to bind him to the mainmast lest he succumb to the sirens song. Take your Model from the boy who stood on the burning deck whence All but he had fled. The old heroic ballads speak to us through the Ages. This is a time for leadership. It is what presidents Are expected to provide. The budget that Bush sent to Capitol Hill in february constituted no leadership at All. If the president were now to Call simply for a freeze on outlays at the current level the country would rally to his support. He would enlist such powerful allies As rep. Dan Rostenkowski of Illinois and sen. Fritz Hollings of South Carolina. To enforce such an Overall freeze at a level of $1.2 trillion would impose no intolerable hardships. Life would go on. The National Security would be maintained criminal Laws would be enforced the improving environment would be stable. By reducing some heavy expenses such As farm subsidies Money could be found for such newly mandated entitlements As child care. The goal is the goal of horatius hold the line enough of these exhortations. The problem at Bottom As Bush Well knows is not that revenues Are too Small but that outlays Are too Large. The answer therefore a an answer much easier to proclaim than to achieve a is to Cut spending until the country is prepared to pay As we go. That time will come within a few years if Only Congress and the president will act responsibly. But if Congress is Given new billions of dollars to play with the Day of a fairly balanced budget May never come at All. C Universal press Syndicate William f. Buckley . Republicans scrape the top of the barrel due attempted draft of Henry Kissinger by the Republican party of new York recently received scant attention perhaps because reporters who got wind of it thought it inherently implausible. Henry Kissinger former Secretary of state Nobel prize winning Loreign policy analyst run for governor of new York against Mario Cuomo but the Effort was actually made. And hear this a Henry listened. For a Brief moment. Mario Cuomo is a very powerful political figure. As one wades deeper and deeper in the decay of the state Over which he has presided for the past eight years one wonders naturally who will give the voters of new York an Opportunity to replace that brooding presence in Albany. There is no Long line of candidates clamouring for the Republican nomination. There Are the conventional reasons for such a reluctance new York is heavily democratic Cuomo has a lot of Money banked to finance his Campaign and Cuomo tends to frighten people with the Thunder of his oratory which lights fires under his opponents leaving them with bleached Bones revealing the hard Structure of their misanthropy. Normal politicians done to like to Challenge populist dreadnoughts. What glory is to be found in being blown out of the water there was a Brief interval there when it looked As though Evan Galbraith a banker lawyer who served As president Reagan a ambassador to France might do the Job. Head have been a splendid candidate in that he is a deeply convinced fiscal conservative greatly informed on the causes of new York states decline under or. Cuomo. That and a Fine wit which would have served him As a great deflator in any encounter with Cuomo. But Galbraith ran into a residency technicality and had to withdraw leaving the Republican party with we know not who. Why not Kissinger the French have a phrase for it a Faux Idie Claire a which one struggles to translate and manages to come up with something like a terrific idea that wont work. The trouble with asking Henry Kissinger to run for governor of new York state is that he is not associated in the Public Eye with Strong views patiently articulated Over the years on such questions As Public schools taxation policies or drug enforcement let alone the delicate careful minuet Between metropolitan new York and upstate new York that people spend lifetimes trying to master. Henry Kissinger has a very special gift for penetrating geopolitical inter relationships. I said once about him that in one sense he puts one in mind of Henry Ford. Walter Chrysler when he designed his new engines in the Early �?T20s, went to great pains to shield them in carapace that deliberately misrepresented their new engineering. Why because he knew that his great competitor Henry Ford with his a Ray vision on merely seeing the engine covers in Magazine or newspaper ads would instantly deduce what advancements Chrysler had made which Ford might then wish to duplicate. Kissinger has comparable skills in foreign policy. I know of no one who would More quickly More intuitively deduce the bearing of a left Wing coup in Basutoland on the politics of the Tyrol. But George Kennan is a historian and for eign policy analyst who has pronounced views on Domestic policy. No one though would Ever think to ask him to run for new Jersey governor. It requires More imagination than some of us have to see Henry Kissinger up there debating Mario Cuomo on prudent depreciation policies for Industry or residual difficulties raised by the Wagner act. This is not to say that Henry Kissinger could not master these subjects. He would need Only to apply his formidable intelligence to them and his instincts could be trusted to come up with innovative approaches. But the making of an opponent for Mario Cuomo in the next few months would not give him the necessary time. And his entry into the Field would have dissipated a great National resource As senior Counselor on foreign policy. Kissinger is a Public spirited Man and for that reason permitted himself to consider the question. But that hold on reality which has guided him in Public life brought him up Short. New York happily is left with the Prospect of a gifted academician Herbert London a Dean of new York University. His problem he is broke unknown a conservative and a Republican. Thus new York will almost certainly inter itself deeper into the grave gov. Cuomo has been so industriously digging in his Effort to take us Back to the world of tobacco Road. It is there that his restlessly evangelical self feels so much at Home. C Universal press Syndicate the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page represent those of the authors and Are in no Way to be considered As representing the views of the stars and stripes or the United states government