European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 20, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 a the stars and stripes saturday october 20,1990 columns William Safir budget crisis cause for Joy a not sorrow these Are glory Days for american democracy. Congress is in an uproar the wavering White House is acquiring a new sense of direction and the american voter May soon be treated to a real Campaign. The democrats Are acting like old fashioned democrats. A soak the Rich Quot a a phrase born in 1934 to blast of dry a embrace of Huey Long populism a is the new Battle cry of suddenly unabashed liberals. Having suck Rcd president Bush into abandoning his no tax firewall democrats have shifted the focus of the budget debate away from spending and onto the source of More taxes. They Call this a the fairness  a Central Tenet of liberalism is governments guarantee that everyone working or not needy or not is entitled to what politicians decide is a fair share of what the nation produces. Republicans traditionally grumble that this classic straightforward demagoguery encourages a class warfare Quot turning Rich against poor. They get defensive when charged with standing for vested property interests by opponents who claim to belong to Quot the party of the  but these self conscious conservatives miss the Point of politics in an age of affluence. The fairness Issue has been turned on its head. Most people think of themselves As closer to being Rich than to being poor and consider it unfair to carry All those unproductive others on their backs. When these More Rich than poor americans utter such sentiments old fashioned liberals deride them not Only for being selfish but racist to Boot. This swells the ranks of conservatives because most voters Are not so motivated and resent politicians who make them feel guilty therefore republicans should not fear class warfare the almost Rich far outnumber the almost poor and most of the people in the Middle tend to identify with the almost Rich whom they want to become. Moreover most people now know that the target of taxes has to be the Middle class pocket squeezing the Richie May be egalitarian fun but is not where the . Rosenthal Money is. What happens if you surtax millionaire incomes by 10 percent and add a 10 percent tax on furs boats and jewelry As the House liberals suggested the budget deficit might be reduced by 2 percent not counting the losses to the Treasury of taxes from people prevented from Selling fat and easy target will never reach his desk Senate democrats Are taking a slightly More sober route of taxing booze and Gas. But whatever budget the democratic Congress passes its philosophical Apul be new proach to the luxury items the hidden tax increase in that Liberal budget proposal is to reinstate a tax bracket creep a using inflation to automatically increase tax rates. That a $36 billion out of Middle class pockets for one years creep prevent indexing for five years As would surely follow and you achieve the Liberal dream of a fairness a a redistributing income in a grand scale. The Republican president chastened by a whopping drop in support after waffling on the Central Promise of his Campaign says he would veto that Bill. That. In deficit will be new taxes in this a a in year and pious promises of reduced rates of spending in the a a out years. Tax now Cut spending later. This Liberal approach will pass Over the objections of most of the Republican minority in Congress. Such dissent is healthy if it Means that the government shuts nonessential services for a while that will dramatize the depth of disagreement and bring the voters to the polls. The Only Way the minority will become a majority is to draw an Issue of principle. Within the administration Bush a Stoly in Jack Kemp soldiers on in Loyal is ence but in Congress the Republican minority must hold the Bob Packwood line on tax rates and align itself with the majority opinion in the nation. Where will it All end Isnit Compromise the name of the game the games name is political purpose. Compromise should be struck after the will of the people has been expressed. Let Bush veto the taxation budget let the republicans uphold the veto and let us use this election As a referendum on taxing is. Spending. The current impasse is no cause for National embarrassment on the contrary it is the overdue surfacing of Basic political difference. A closed Down government on election Day would bring out anti incumbent voters in Force. Candidates take your positions tax and service reductions is. Tax and service increases. Duck that in your spots and feel the voter heat. Quot c new York Tumea Nobel panel overlooked deserving soviets s certainly was the year for the Nobel people to course the Iris non full of this certainly was the year for the Nobel people to Honor the peace hero of the soviet Union a but they picked the wrong russian. Here is a Little list of some soviet citizens who deserved it Ruslan Kenten Chilev Bohdan Klimchak Leonid Lubman Aleksandr Goldovich Mikhail Kazachkova Arsen lol Shvili Valery Smirnov Vladimir Anishchenko. Each spent years in the cruel prisons of the soviet communist system. That was in the years Mikhail Gorbachev was rising in its ranks doing his Best to make it stronger. It turned out that the system was so evil so corrupt so hated that neither he nor All his fellow members of the politburo could save it a not with their army their police their Kab. No and not with All the Laws that sent the prisoners listed above and millions More to the political prisons of the gulag. So Gorbachev opened the windows to let in fresh air a a Wise act that helped change history. But instead of a Breeze a Gale he had never anticipated swept through rattling the whole communist Structure at Home and in the captive nations of Eastern Europe until it collapsed around his head. Gorbachev certainly is an important figure in soviet history though he stands far higher with foreigners than among his own hungry countrymen. But this is not meant to be an argument against recognition of Gorbachev As much As a sad protest against not first honouring the True heroes of peace. They Are of course the prisons full of soviet citizens who were part of the revolution against the very system that Gorbachev tries so futilely to maintain. In 1975, the famous soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov won the peace prize. The bitter struggle for Freedom continued in the soviet Union. This would have been the perfect year for the Nobel people to follow through with collective recognition of the millions who sacrificed their years and lives and whose names Are known Only to their families and their jailers. Foreigners like to say a my How swiftly changes came to the soviet Union under  the prisoners of the gulag helped make Gorbachev a ascent possible by showing the soviet Union and the rest of the world the truth about communism. But their revolt was not swiftly won it took More than half a Century to succeed. For a personal reason i chose the names above to symbolize the millions known to have suffered in the gulag or the other million s dead in unknown Graves. One night in december 1988, in a hotel in the russian City of Perm in the urals i saw Gorbachev speaking on to from the United nations. He said that there were no longer any political prisoners in the soviet Union. But the next morning i visited Perm 35, a prison Camp four hours by car from Perm. The men named above were still in the Camp As were other political prisoners. Now almost All the old political prisoners Are out some new ones have been taken from republics trying to break free of the soviet Union. Most of the former prisoners still fight Gorbachev a some from seats in tilt parliaments of the departing republics. Mikhail Kazachkova remains imprisoned. I think of infuriated somebody in the Kab by trying to talk to it from the window of a a Hospital Ward where he ant other militant prisoners were locked away during or visit. Gorbachev deserves credit for speeding the enc of the gulag a after communism began to collapse no before. But every released prisoner to whom i have spoken says yes of course Happy to be out but grateful to Gorbachev or any other builder of the system no never. No prizes. The prisoners fought the system and paid with thu years of their lives. Gorbachev for All his achievement still struggles to save its remnants. Parliamentarians from the russian Republic have been visiting the United states Tiey want to an americans to the full Gravity of the food emerged c a fronting their people. Help us the visitors say bul Send food directly to the cities of the separating re pub i or sae our Peoples Freedom do not Channel through Gorbachev Ana his dying Center. A Nobel prize to All the fighters against the communist system would have been More than a medal and a purse. It might have made the new Day come More quickly and perhaps with less hunger. So to the prisoners of Perm 35 and thousands cd other cold Camps where men and women died a a Toast with song. They won the prize of Freedom. C Newyork Kolmes