European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 16, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Thursday May 16, 1991 the stars and stripes Page 13 commentary Walter r. Mears i by the strange standards set for Federal travellers a wife a use of frequent flier mileage can stir More trouble than jetting off aboard a government air plane for charter service at coach rates the rules vary widely depending on who is travelling and on the Agency involved. Congress makes its own and the system there is so fragmented As to defy meaningful estimates  Overall Cost. That helps explain the relative quiet at the Capitol during the Flap Over White House chief of staff John Sununu and his travels on military air planes. Democrats did complain about a air Sununu and his frequent flight habits but they Haven to been pushing the subject. As chief of staff Sununu was required to travel on military aircraft under White House rules instituted by Ronald Reagan. And Sununu decided himself which of his nearly 80 trips were official and which were personal to be reimbursed at coach fare plus one Dollar. The same Rule governed the travels of the National Security adviser. Cabinet practices vary within government wide guidelines one of which requires that Federal employees turn Over to their agencies the frequent flier mileage they get from airlines while travelling on government business. The former Secretary of education Lauro f. Cavazos reportedly is under investigation for breaching that Rule by using frequent flier credits to get free tickets so that his wife Peggy could travel with him. New Day reported that the Justice department was Condi acting a criminal investigation of Cavazos travel practices. An administration source told the associated press that the education department s inspector general has begun a similar probe. President Bush defended Sununu a conduct and ordered a review of the policy. Bush later changed the system so the office of the White House counsel no David s. Broder at . Government s expense decides which trips Are official which Are political and which Are personal. When he was writing jus own ticket Sununu counted seven of 76 trips As personal travel reimbursing the government with $892 in personal funds and $8,274 from a political fund dating from his Days As governor of new Hampshire. Republican organizations campaigns and other trip sponsors also paid some travel Bills. Those travel payments totalled about $47,000 for flights that Cost the government at least 10 times that much. The Cost of flying the 12-passenger air Force plane used on most of the Sununu trips is $3,945 an hour. As Sununu said when the new Rule was instituted the old policy a made it Clear that i had to Fly on government  under the new one the White House announcement said a the president believes that the National Security related reasons behind the former policy remain sound and make commercial air travel an unacceptable alternative for the chief of staff and National Security adviser in Many  Given that guidance from the president trip by trip clearance probably is not going to ground Many flights. Sununu says he must have constant Access to communication with the White House so there May be times when he can to travel under the new policy. The chief of staff and National Security adviser were added to the list of top officials who travel on government aircraft in 1987, primarily it was said to keep them in communications reach when they Are on the Road. The Bush order rules out political travel on military aircraft unless there also is official business involved and it is predominant. That a not a major obstacle government officials up to and including presidents Are adept at blending business with politics or pleasure. The order does make provision for personal trips in cases of family emergency. It would permit a travel on military aircraft to attend to the serious illness of a close relative when Security communications or scheduling needs would prevent travel on commercial  there Are other ways to maintain communication with Headquarters but none to match the convenience of Access to an air plane. C Tho associated pros Bush too Busy to see perilous state of Economy it has taken an uncommonly Long time for official Washington to Wake up to the fact that the american Economy is in Rotten shape. But finally that uncomfortable truth is beginning to Dawn even on this  the Al Cio has been tapping on the shoulders of its democratic friends in Congress for months telling them that unemployment is continuing to Rise and More and More people each month Are exhausting their jobless benefits. Now big business is tugging on the coattails of its pals in the Bush administration warning that the president s Rosy scenario of a Short shallow dip followed by a sustained recovery May not be coming True. When the business Council recently met in hot Springs va., the chief executives of the biggest corporations expressed Hie easing doubt that the recession would end in this Calendar year let alone the current Quarter. 1 see no pickup in the Economy a said general Elee tics Jack Welch speaking for Many others. 1 he big shots judgment is confirmed by every bit of anecdotal evidence 1 have heard on my recent travels to California Arizona Kentucky Michigan and Ohio. And goodness knows the newspaper business has been hit harder by this slump than earlier ones and is not yet seeing Daylight. Officially the folks who measure these cycles say the Sui rent recession began in july of 1990. That Means we Are now in the 11th month of a downturn a exactly the average for postwar recessions. And yet the recession is Only now becoming Washington a main concern. Why has it taken so Long for something so obvious in main Street to be recognized on Pennsylvania Avenue you can blame much of the inattention on the persian Gulf crisis which erupted a month Atter what be now recognize As the Onset of the recession. Kuwait and Saddam Hussein became the preoccupation of the president and his top advisers the Congress and the mass Media consuming time and Energy that would otherwise have been spent on the slump at Home. The Boom on Wall Street also masked the urgency that might otherwise have been Felt about the drop in retail sales and manufacturing. But the greatest irony is the Way in which the belated decision to Deal with the budget deficit impaired Washington s capacity to Cope with the recession. The Long and arduous budget negotiations last summer and fall preoccupied the major economic policymakers in Congress and the administration just when they should have been paying attention to the recession. The Deal that was negotiated made for inaction by codifying a bipartisan agreement which meant that Standard recession remedies were out of Bounds. It raised taxes just at the time in the business Cycle when a stimulative tax Cut would normally be recommended. Further it provided that any new spending a say a pump priming Public works or jobs program a would have to be financed either by cuts in other government spending or by additional taxes thus reducing any stimulative effect. The budget negotiators gave themselves an escape Batch by say ing that the spending constraints could be removed if the Economy slipped into recession. But this Winter when it was obvious to everyone that the recession was real both sides quickly agreed to Honor the original Deal a rather than abandon the agreement for which they had Laboured so Long and paid so High a political Price. Implicitly they were saying the recession would have to cure itself. Democrats Are paying a Price for that decision. Labor is angry that Congress has done nothing to repair the damaged unemployment insurance system. Democratic voters see payroll taxes continue to Rise. Defense cutbacks Cost jobs. Struggling state and local governments slash their payrolls and social spending because they cannot gel Aid from Washington. And despite the acknowledgement of the problem by people like Senate majority Leader George Mitchell the democratic Congress continues to act As if gun control or foreign Aid were More important than working people s livelihoods. But the Bush administration is in greater jeopardy. Having signed a budget agreement that bars deliberate use of a stimulative fiscal policy it can Only beg Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan to 1 owe r in Terest rates As a Way of encouraging private spending. Greenspan and his colleagues have responded in a slow almost grudging fashion. The fact that they were dealing with a huge borrowing need for the bailout of the savings and Loans and a liquidity crisis in Many Large Banks dragged Down by bad real estate Loans did not make their task any easier. All this poses a far greater political risk to Bush than the growing second thoughts about his persian Gulf policy. Rightly or wrongly presidents Are held accountable for the Overall health of the Economy. An election year recession is the worst Nightmare any Republican president can lace. The consensus of economists remains that this recession will be history Well before election Day. But As Greenspan has noted in private comments the fact that the economists Are nearly unanimous does not mean they Are right. Meantime real people Are being Hurt by this slump a and the government to which they legitimately look for help is too distracted to respond. A Washington Post