European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 13, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 a the stars and stripes sunday january 13,1991 Rev   l a a a Jray-,.j a Quot la i Sei a. A Ellen Goodman scope of failure extends beyond Bank Issue t not Long ago i came upon a sidewalk economics seminar Between a Moth or and her 4-Ycar-old son. The boy in question was lobbying for an ice Cream Cone. The Mother said no. The boy asked Why the Mother explained i done to have enough Money. And at that Point the boy asked plaintively but logically. A Why done to you get some Money from the Wall a a a at the time i chalked this up to Kutch things kids say to an entire generation of children Money does no to grow on Trees. It comes out of Walls on the Street Corner. You merely walk up to one stick your card in punch some buttons and put comes the. Dough in Crisp $20 Bills. Off of go for a scoop of Vanilla with Choco ate sprinkles. But lately in a not so sure that preschool economics is All that different from adult economics. We Deposit withdraw Cash checks write checks without having to think much about the business minds behind the machines. We Are More Likely to pick a Bank for its location and services than its Good sense. A a a a /. A a a. A. With due apologies to Jimmy Stewart americans done to know their Bankers anymore. They just know their passwords. I bring this up because the economic flavor of the moment in the Northeast is Rocky Road. This week the giant Bank of new England 450 branches Strong won the All Bank Competition for bad Loans and big losses. It collapsed swooning into the arms of the government. The feds then pumped $750 million into the Bank and promised to make Good every Penny of every Deposit even if it was above the $100,000 insurance Cap. Out of this debacle we Learned a Basic Rule of economics in the 1990s. In the words of the experts this Bank was a too big to fail.�?�. V .7 this is what you want to be these Days too big to fail. Which depositors Are in trouble now those who banked at the modest sized Freedom National Bank in Harlem a the churches businesses charities with More than $100,0q0 a Are Only going to get 50 cents on their uninsured dollars. Which state is in the deepest banking weeds itty bitty Rhode Island. It closed its Banks and is issuing scrip to the citizens. A. A a a a a a the advantages of being too big to fail Are obvious. Once you get enough people dependent on you once whole economies hinge on your very existence you have nothing to worry about. The government has to save you. The theory is that if the biggies fail so does the Economy. So the Little Guys a taxpayers a have to Ante up to save the big Guys in order to save themselves. Fine. But How do we figure out a Way to apply this to social policy for a Long time the government has also been the purse of last resort for the poor. Its safety inet is supposedly the communal Catchall for those who tend to fail Small one by one. But Over the past decade we have become More stringent toward people who make serious financial misjudgments on their own. People who have become parents for example or lost their jobs gotten sick. 77 -. A 7. Now the Bank of new England goes belly up on some Rotten real estate investments and is nevertheless covered. But the homeless Arentt As Lucky. The Odic shores up the Economy by shelling out millions to uninsured depositors. But the same idea does no to apply to the 37 million whose health is uninsured. The notion that a Bank has to be bailed out for the Sake of its dependents just does no to seem to extend to a family in trouble. In a Rosalie goes shopping a a Mother parlays her family a debt into a secure multinational corporation. That option is available Only in the movies. In real life it seems at times that americans have More Security As depositors than As citizens. The government has a greater sense of urgency in preventing a Bank from failing than a City. But when 20 percent of our children live in poverty some Cost accounting needs to be done some reckoning to show that when the Bottom drops out of society one by one we eventually All slide Down. So As the feds take Over the Bank i am wondering when we get the next economics lesson of the 1990s the one that transfers the sense of connection from the Bank account to the human Side of the Ledger. When in Short will we see people As too big to fail c Washington Post writers group James. Kilpatric House democrats renege on budget policy when the 101st Congress at last adjourned in october members left town to the tune of jeers Boos and catcalls. Two polls of Public opinion found that Only 20 percent to 23 percent of the people give Congress a favourable rating. The image of the legislative Branch rarely has been poorer. Now the 102nd Congress has convened. To judge from a vote taken in the House on Jan. 3, this years image promises to be worse. The session begins with a stain of Dishonour. The vote came on a motion to Amend the rules of the House. Such a motion is made at the Start of every Congress and ordinarily the vote is of interest Only to students of the parliamentary Art. This past thursdays vote was an exception. It was one More exercise by the ruling democrats of raw political Power. House democrats have no shame. This is what happened. Back in october after months of wrangling the Hill and the White House finally agreed upon a legislative package. This was the omnibus a a reconciliation Bill. It purported to balance the budget by 1995 by raising taxes and restraining spending. Quot a a a buried in the Summit agreement was an important provision every Bill affecting income or outgo would ave to be accompanied by an estimate of its Impact upon the budget. Under the pact these score keeping estimates were to be made by the office of management and budget. This was part of the bipartisan Deal on which the participants Shook hands. On this under standing the reconciliation Bill limped to passage and Congress adjourned. But behold the Ink scarcely had dried before the House democratic caucus voted to Welsh on the agreement. On the opening Day of the new Congress Missouri a Dick Gephardt introduced a thick package of amendments to the House rules. Amendment no. 10 affecting the reconciliation act was a Tricker. It provided that the required estimates shall be provided not by the bomb but by the congressional budget office. Outraged republicans led by Gerald Solomon of new York charged the democrats with bad Faith. By displacing the bomb and bringing on the co a you have turned this whole budget process Back to play As you go the same old system that got us into the irresponsible fiscal mess we Are in  Solomon a Point was that by minimizing the Cost of a new or expanded social program Congress could evade the whole enforcement process. Ostensible spending a a cuts could be so rigged that Thev became no cuts at All minority Leader Bob Michel ordinarily a voice of moderation called the turnabout  Jan Meyers of Kansas termed the amendment a  Republican whip Newt Gingrich spoke briefly but bluntly. An agreement that was intended to last for five years was being violated on the first Day. The amended Rule a will have democratic controlled staffs estimate new spending and the result will be higher  democrats sat in bored amusement while the re pub Hans had their say. Leon Panetta chairman of the Bud get committee reminded his colleagues that a we democrats control the  therefore the House would operate during the 102nd Congress under rules imposed by the democratic majority. Dick Gephardt for his part said that if republicans did no to like co estimates they could always move to Amend the estimates. At 3 20 thursday afternoon after an hour of remonstrance on the one hand and arrogance on the other the House voted 250-162 to adopt the amended rules Democrat Andy Jacobs of Indiana was the Only Democrat to Honor the pledge his party had made in october. The 250 votes to adopt were cast by 249 reneging democrats and new Comer Bernard Sanders of Vermont a socialist. If the  amendment were to be judged solely on its merits few experienced observers would strongly object. Both the co and the bomb have made reasonably accurate budget projections in the past. Both offices have made projections that turned out to be howlers. Professional economists rank with other wizards seers soothsayers Palm readers phrenology its and Madame boso Stris the famous clairvoyant. They All guess. In general co s guesses have hit closer to reality than the Rosy scenarios of bomb. La Pant an agreement is an agreement is Bob Michel said. In last years prolonged negotiations democratic bar gainers gave their word on the matter of score keeping. With the first Roll Call their word turns out to be worthless. C Universal press Syndicate