European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 20, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Saturday february wjk1993 commentary u. The stars and stripes Page is Clinton will find teaching a learning experience George f. Will teachers Are described As people who never say anything once. Bill Clinton True to the modern no Tion of the president As National Tutor has embarked on a sustained seminar to teach the nation that the change it voted for Means and that deficit reduction entails substantial tax increases. Millions in the electronic classroom May be sceptical. If scepticism is the chastity of the intellect such chastity is proper regarding the  we Are get Ting the stimulus precisely because it is not needed on the Connecticut Yankee Prin Ciple. Mark Twain s Yankee knew an eclipse was due so he commanded it to happen and King Arthur s court pronounced him a wizard. Today a recovery is occurring so Clinton s stimulus will command it to occur. Last week Clinton denounced those who see the tax code As a table game to be  but his program will fuel the frenzy of the game by continuing what George Bush began with the 1990 budget agreement the unravelling of the 1986 tax Reform. The principles of that Reform were few brackets few loopholes Low rates. Clinton wants today s three brackets 15, 28 and 31 percent increased to five adding 36, and 36 plus a surcharge for millionaires. Time will Tell whether this will bring loopholes seep ing Back like a Hydraulic phenomenon sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan s phrase. Clinton s increases in the top rates will be the second and third in four years Bush produced the 31 percent bracket. Who believe they will be the last loopholes get opened to save the Economy from the consequences of tax code moralist. The rates of the Rich get raised in the name of  but in conveniently Many of the Rich Are Rich because they Are especially industrious and productive. Loopholes often Are backdoor ways of keeping these people s energies and assets fully involved in the Economy by compensating for the disincentives of High rates. The proposed increase of the top personal rate to 36 percent is already having a perverse effect in the form of the planned increase of the corporate tax rate from 34 percent to 36 percent. The reason Given for this in crease is that if the individual rate is higher than the corporate rate individuals will incorporate. So Clinton s plan to increase Job creation and International competitiveness begins by burdening Busi Ness with an extra $6 billion tax Bill. As Harold Fleck Man writes in business week a higher tax rate combined with an investment tax credit tells business add equipment not labor. And the $6 billion tax bite dilutes the stimulus because corporations do not pay taxes they collect them from customers in increased prices moves him Cias of products or from employees by reducing funds for compensation or from shareholders by reducing dividends or from the future by reducing research development and investment. But Vou say the future is served by tax increases that reduce the deficit. But Daniel Mitchell of the heritage foundation notes that taxes were raised four times in nine years 1982, 1984, 1987, 1990 explicitly for deficit reduction and in the year following each in crease the deficit increased. Will Congress seriously Cut spending when Clinton addressed Congress on wednesday night he addressed 535 legislators most of whom were Here be fore he was and intend to be Here when he is gone. Clinton having been a professional politician since he was old enough to leave the Amateur ranks surely understands the primary motive in Washington careerism. Are the 110 new House members different hardly. Seventy percent were legislators at the state or local level. For them coming to Congress is not a new Ca reer it is a move within a career. They Are profession ally risk averse As will become Clear when they flinch from substantial cuts of anything other than the Par amount Federal government responsibility defense. Aside from taxpayers and legislators other trouble some members of the National seminar can be found around Clinton s Cabinet table and across his break fast table. Four items account for the lion s share of recent increases in Federal spending interest on the Federal debt which must be paid and three entitlement pro Grams social Security medicare and medicaid. Clin ton s Secretary of health and human services Donna Shalala who also is first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton s Boon companion says the entitlement programs arc the pillars of the american  will the administration seriously push Congress or incite the Public to push Congress to weaken those pillars at the end of this seminar the taught will Grade the teacher. He s a 1960s Guy no doubt very respectful of students opinions and the  of dissent. So fellow students today s seminar topic is when our teacher equates cheerfulness about mid dle class tax increases with patriotism is he not stigmatizing dissent including belief in his abandoned Campaign promises As unpatriotic c Tho Washington Post equal employment cloak hides a vicious Racket defense Secretary los Aspin has retired the two Man Honor guard who conventionally stood outside the Secre tary of defense s office a contribution to the cause of Federal husbandry. And president Clinton has dismissed a few chauffeurs who used to take Cabinet members of a certain rank to their of  promised reduction of White House personnel by 25 percent will be accomplished largely by attrition. It will be interesting to see How this program is reconciled with the Federal act that for bids dismissal on the grounds of Superman  economies that might be made Are of course ignored. First among these is the indexation of social Security. To permit in 1993, retirement at age 62 with 70 percent of social Security payments rising to 100 percent at 65, is to stick out one s Tongue at the advances of geriatric Medicine Over the 50 years since social Security began. The subsidies to the Farmers for overproducing continue. But overlooked because they appear so Small Are the High costs of regulation and min regulation and Minimi Regula Tion. An extraordinary expose of the extravagance and incidentally the sheer futility of the equal employment Racket is done in the current Issue of Forbes Magazine by Peter Brimelow and Leslie Spencer. The article is so Rich in anecdote and analysis that one can t doubt that it will catalyse volumes of re search furthering the authors insights and discoveries. It is called when quo tas replace Merit everybody  a serious Effort is made to quantify the Cost of our affirmative action and equal Opportunity programs. A graph depicts the quota ice  first there Are the direct costs. These Mea sure the Cost of regulation and the compliance  in the first column Are the equal employment Opportunity commis Sion the office of Federal contract compliance the department of education other Federal agencies and state and local  in the second column we have the direct costs of the governments of schools and Colkes and of the private sector. The figure comes to $17 billion to $20 billion. Indirect costs for government amount to $1 billion while private sector indirect costs come to $95 billion. By far the largest sum comes under Opportunity costs measuring bad hiring effects William f. Buckley on morale and misallocation of financial resources. These Are estimated at $236 billion. The total represents 4 percent of the Gross National product. The Rule of thumb developed by regu lation watchers from the Center for the study of american business at washing ton University in St. Louis is every Dol Lar spent on regulatory enforcement inflicts about $20 in compliance costs. By Forbes count the Federal government spent some $425 million on civil rights oversight in 1991, of which about $303 million appears to be directed at the Pri vate sector. Implied private sector compliance Cost $6  the authors quote the formidable Gor Don Tullock professor of economics at the University of Arizona whose special insight is that affirmative action is a fairly pure form of  it Isth Means by which special interests use political Power to extract subsidies for themselves from the Economy. There simply in t any other economic  a picture Here is Worth a thou Sand words. Here is one a letter i Forbes from Thomas Maggiore who is the owner of two restaurants in Phoenix in 1987, Leoc s local Field office wrote me a letter saving they had reason to believe i did t Nave enough women food servers and users no woman had complained against me. So the Leoc advertised in the local paper to Tell women whose Job applications we had rejected or even women who had just thought of applying that they could be entitled to damages. Twenty seven women became plaintiffs in a Law suit against me. The Leoc interviewed me for hours to find out what kind of person i was. I told them in Sicily where i came from i Learned to respect women. I supplied them with hundreds of pounds of paper. I had to hire someone full time for a year just to respond to Leoc demands. Six months ago i finally settled. I agreed to pay $150,000 damages and As jobs open up to hire the women on the Leoc s list. Even if they Don t know what Spaghetti looks like. I have to Adver Tise twice a year even if i have no open Ings just to add possible female employees to my files. I also had to hire an a Etc approved person to teach my staff How not to discriminate. I employ 12 food servers in these two restaurants. Gross sales around $2 Mil lion. How much did it All Cost me Cash outlay about $400,000. What the govern ment s done to me devastating. I would t wish it on my worst  the Federal agencies should be Jetti soned. Re Syndicate