European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 27, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 columns the stars and stripes saturday october 27,1990walter Mear Federal tax system defies final solution Democrat Jimmy Carter used to Call the income tax system a disgrace to the human race. Republican Ronald Reagan said it was so Complex frustrating and unfair As to be in american. Then the system was overhauled and when Reagan signed a tax Reform Bill the democrats helped fashion he said equity and certainty had been restored. Not for Long. Four years later the fairness Issue is Back sharply drawn by democratic insistence that the Rich Haven to been paying their share. The sole surviving certainty about the reformed tax system is that there will be More pressure for changes meaning increases next time the government faces a budget crisis. That next time is almost inevitable and in fewer than the five years the 1990 deficit Deal was designed to cover. The $500 billion in deficit reduction it is supposed to produce is based on economic forecasts so optimistic As to be almost euphoric. That includes a forecast of sharply declining interest rates especially after 1991. Economic growth would have to surge Over the same period to meet its Revenue estimates and inflation would have to decrease steadily. Budget negotiators insisted the numbers Are not phony even though they May not prove Correct. By now that a the pattern. Deficit forecasts have been far from results during the past five years. Those estimates were computed one year at a time not five and the major reason they missed was that economic estimates were Overly optimistic. Sen. George j. Mitchell a Maine the majority Leader said nobody could look people in the Eye and claim to know what a going to happen Over the five year Span. Nor he said could there be any guarantee that the government wont have to address the same problem again. Its safer to guarantee that it will be Back for another round Over taxes spending and the Federal deficit. The Economy is slumping not surging. In the Best of circumstances the projected five year plan would Only reduce the rate of increase in the National debt not the debt itself. Explaining his grudging agreement to accept tax increases Bush said tuesday that Reagan had to Compromise too because he also had to Deal with democrats in Congress. A president Reagan found same thing 1982, go Back and look at the record the rhetoric was about the same a Bush said during a Campaign Stop in Manchester . A that in spite of his aversion to taxes the Only Way to govern was to accept a Compromise. A but Reagan swallowed hard and the Economy moved and interest rates came Down. When he did what he had to do a Bush said. His own administration James Kilpatrick had struggled to avoid compromising on tax rates trying to hold one of the lines Reagan left a 28 percent top bracket set in the 1986 tax Reform Law. Instead of raising the rate republicans wanted to restrict deductions a disguised and More Complex Way of imposing More taxes. Both a higher rate and deduction limits on the wealthy wound up on the table. Governors in both parties complained about restrictions on Federal income tax deductions saying that would restrict their ability to raise state revenues and would set a precedent that could Lead ultimately to eliminating the deductibility of state and local taxes. Senators and House members from states that Levy High income taxes said the Impact would be uneven and unfair. The counter argument Congress took away the deduction for state and local sales taxes in the 1986 Law and that had a disproportionate Impact on states that rely most heavily on sales taxes instead of income taxes. That a the Way one seasons reforms become fodder for the next seasons tax debate. Fairness is always in the Eye of the political beholder. The tax code and tax rates will be at Issue As Long As there Are politicians to talk about them and congresses to change them. Before this round the top tax rate had been changed 10 times in 30 years. C associated press limit spending to what Constitution allows n Nina o i. In Florida a jury has acquitted members of 2 live Crew. In Cincinnati a jury in effect has acquitted the late Robert Mapplethorpe. The people have addressed the conflict Between Public morals and artistic Freedom and Freedom has won. Permit me a faint and barely audible Hooray. The rap group known As 2 live Crew is a band of smart Lecky children who have just discovered dirty words. Beyond the rhyming of cat and Bat they have no discernible Talent. Forget them. As for Mapplethorpe not even sen. Jesse Helms challenged his right to produce photographs of perverted sexual acts. What infuriated Helms and me and Many others was that our tax funds were being spent on junk. These individual controversies have become a bore. They obscure much More important issues involving the role of the Federal government in subsidizing the disputes stir up so much dust that larger questions of Public policy rarely Are seen at All. Let me Advance two postulates 1 the Federal government has no business in the arts business 2 the government has no business in a Hundred other things either. In its annual report for 1988, the National endowment for the arts routinely listed the Grants it had made during that fiscal year. In the Field of music this is where our tax Money went to Sarina b. Bachleitner new York $2,500 to support intensive one on one study with pianist Joanne Bracken to Zachary b. Brown Brooklyn n.y., $5,000 to support intensive one on one study with percussionist Warren Smith to Ira n. Coleman new York $5,400 to support intensive one on one study with bassist Dave Holland. The Nea made 10 Grants ranging from $12,500 to $17,500 to would be playwrights. Teri j. Edelstein South Hadley mass., received $10,830 a to support travel to London to Complete a study of the paintings of Edward Judi h. Freeman of los Angeles won $8,550 a to support travel to France to study museum and gallery Susan t. Goodman of new York received $10,000 a to support travel to Israel in order to gain greater knowledge of israeli a Grant of $20,000 went to Edmund l. Keeley of Princeton n.j., a to support the translation from greek of a selection of Yannis Ritsos poems based on ancient greek sources. And so on. In the name of the founding fathers How did such outlays get to be the business of the Federal government Congress has no authority to spend our Money in this arbitrary and capricious fashion. The individual Grants Bear no relationship whatever to the general welfare. It is the old problem of not being Able to see the Forest for the Trees. By wasting too much attention on a handful of Nea Grants we lose sight of the constitutional principle that is being violated. In a trillion Dollar budget the Nea Grants Are Nickels and dimes. The outlaws Are Small. The principle is Large. How can Congress justify Grants to individual towns for construction of sewerage surely the building of local sewers is a local response of quire a tothe constitutional authority for the endless time wasting seminars and conferences sponsored by the department of education. The Federal no wifi a rems appropriations that rest upon a Flimsy basis or on no basis at All. It is this failure to recognize constitutional restraints that leads directly to the fiscal mess we Are in. Congress operates on the airy Assumption that its Powers Are a thug 806s in the closing study of a srssl0n�?T ingress voted for a a a jazz for study of acadian culture in the state of Maine for the Protection of fish in the Conejos River of Colorado and for the establishment of a japanese american museum. Bills were flying to enactment faster than reporters could keep up with them. And in the midst of this blizzard of activity members were still arguing Over ways to prevent the Nea from subsidizing dirty pictures. Sometimes one despairs. The dirty pictures matter and the dirty a a rape sessions matter for they contribute to the steady erosion of old values of modesty taste and sheer decency but they done to matter greatly. No one has to listen to 2 live Crew or look at Mapplethorpe a photographs. What matters and matters deeply is the casual irresponsibility of Congress in spending our Money on programs not sanctioned by our Constitution. If today a topic is obscenity look no farther than Capitol Hill. Now that a obscene. 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
