European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 7, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 a the stars and stripes sunday october 7,1990 columns Jim Fain a sordid a amp a debacle will rot away in time Vav Ashington the persian Gulf and budget crises have a Side Benefit for president Bush they take voters minds off savings and Loans. Not that Bush perpetrated this guinness record swindle though he led the cheers for the deregulation frenzy that made it possible. Congressmen of both parties pitched in to facilitate the heist. The Reagan Rajas Overall reverence for greed was its most important ingredient. A sitting president is blamed for whatever to nes wrong on his watch however and the Thrift Debach t i. Of a ii to lit i h s tenon Kab. Cd Lott. E t Vimb ii be with us As the seamy c -.er-1merit w a so. Sow a Tor balled o v the r tar a Ney in farce part arc Slob Nuj Acci units peddled by brokers not the mites of widows and orphans. One third of the accounts As of 1989 were for $80,000 or More. The sick a amp is had fewer single family House Loans than did healthy ones erasing the fiction that at least the mess cased the housing shortage. In truth it had no redeeming features. Just a Bald hot Muncy rip off to enrich fast Buck Crooks at the expense of the rest of us. The Thrift scams a poster boy a As someone labelled Neil Bush exemplifies the problem. His defenders claim he a been unfairly singled out because his daddy is in the White House. That a True. Its also True that his Rise to the Silverado Board was not due to his financial Genius. Even the Loans fone actually a gift and investment Booty lavished on him by his associates who bilked Silverado owed much to the fact his father was then vice president. If Neil Bush was a victim he was a pan tingly eager one. The Loose Way he profited from his family Fame says a Good bit about the Price inflation of political influence under Reagan. All of which heightens the perception that we have a government of unfair privilege with the gop in particular at the Beck of the wealthy. The budget fiasco contributes by worsening the tax in George f. Will balance that favors upper and punishes Middle income brackets. Congressional democrats have been willing accomplices. Indeed in the a amp a stink they were out front. As the Cost of electioneering soared Many mortgaged themselves to big Money interests. Most voted with Reagan to slash tax rates on the Rich and shift the Burden to social Security levies falling mainly on those who make less than $50,000. As a result working people feel quite drive in window correctly that they Are not represented in Washington. Passionately cynical about the process they Call Down a plague on both houses. Republicans will find it impossible to break out of this stereotype. The Rich Are their logical constituency. You can to conjure a More authentic trustee of the country club set than Bush himself. A populist Democrat if there a one hiding out there somewhere could tap this political lode. Its sitting in Plain View ready to explode. Is the party capable of seizing such an Opportunity or is it so atrophied that the nation will linger in a political wasteland until some catastrophe wakes it stay tuned. Meanwhile the a amp a mess will rot away through years of sordid revelations and new rip offs. Whatever else a nagging reminder making the political systems Overall bankruptcy somewhat harder to ignore. C Cox news service taxes no foxes dominate Illinois politics Chicago a the Campaign for the governorship of Lincoln a state is proceeding in the modern manner each candidate explaining that the other fellow is a Marble hearted fiend and a fiscal dips maniac. The interesting wrinkle is that at first glance anyway the Democrat seems to be running to the right of the Republican. First glances can be deceiving but first glances Are the most that Many voters give candidates. That May be what the Democrat Neil Hartigan the states attorney general is counting on. The Republican Illinois Secretary of state Jim Edgar May be counting on the truth of an axiom expressed by a democratic president. Harry Truman disgusted by tepid democratic candidates said a give people a Choice Between a Republican and a Republican and they will pick the Republican every the heart of the matter indeed the Only thing that seems to matter is taxes. In june 1989, a temporary two year state income tax surcharge of 20 percent went into effect with half the revenues for education. Hartigan promises to let it expire next june without any cuts in education. Edgar favors keeping it and talks instead of property tax Relief. Hartigan a red haired product of the Irish portion of this City a ethnic Stew currently sounds like another Man of Irish descent a Down Stater from Dixon. Like former president Reagan Hartigan promises to Cut taxes and balance lost revenues by cutting government. Sceptics Are thick on the ground thanks to among other things $2 trillion of debt Reagan piled up. But Hartigan sounding like Herbert Hoover promises Businesslike government based on his business principles. It will he says be a snap to Cut the budget by 2 percent $573 million from $26 billion trim 2,500 from the payroll of 86,000 and Cut administrative costs 10 percent. The achievement is perhaps conceivable. The idea is certainly political. Hartigan says with commendable bluntness that he is a not letting the republicans define define him that is on the wrong Side of today a tax phobia. Edgar is betting that voters will not believe Hartigan a promises. Edgar is counting on doubts about Hartigan so character a doubts nourished by scepticism about his promises. Edgar thinks the voters of Illinois have been made sceptical by he does not stress this Reagan George Bush and incumbent Republican gov. Jim Thompson. Thompson has been governor for 14 years. Twice he ran vowing not to raise taxes then raised them. But Hartigan is overreaching when he says Thompson raised taxes 29 times. To take just one example Hartigan counts As four tax increases an increase m the annual vehicle licensing fee that covers four categories of vehicles the truth reveals How hard it is to make sense of today a politics of tax phobia. Thompson presided Over Many tax increases but also has reduced or eliminated 20 taxes. Before the 1989 surcharge the growth of state revenues was below the inflation rate. Real Revenue each year did not exceed what it was when Thompson took office in 1977. Furthermore state Revenue has grown More slowly than personal income in Illinois. State taxes take about $57.40 of every $1,000 of income which is $9.50 less than in 1978. However what counts is what voters feel and there is no accounting for that. Hartigan has done Well with an advertisement depicting Illinois pounded Flat by the word both candidates Are better More interesting men than their taxation fixation makes them appear. Hartigan 51, with his coat and his caution off has honest passions about Illinois ranking 44th among the states in infant mortality and about the mothers of his childhood neighbourhood now living a in two room Flats with a hot plate for watch it Hartigan you Are sounding like a Democrat. Edgar 44, is trying to become the first Down Stater to reelected governor in 60 years. This year All six democratic candidates for state offices Are from Cook county he is admirably determined to walk on the risky Side of the surcharge Issue rather than risk winning in a Way that might later add to the tide of cynicism. Both candidates Are stressing As is the democratic nominee for governor of Massachusetts John Silber what deserves to be the principal Domestic Issue of the 1990s Early intervention in the lives of poor children. The Public s concern about All sorts of education is almost As Strong As its tax phobia. Almost. No Democrat has won the governorship since 1972. With Illinois listed among the 16 states already in recession this might be the democrats year. But the Democrat who won in 1972, Dan Walker later went to jail. Both candidates Are moving gingerly among voters whose attitude toward politicians is go directly to jail do not collect taxes. C Washington Post writers group
