European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 27, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse Saturdays february 27, 1993 commentary the stars and stripes Page 15 Abc s deceitful report lets pm off the Hook general motors must have instructed its Public relations staff to study the work of tobacco company spokesmen the masters of mind games. The nicotine pushers have had decades to perfect the Artof dissembling. They search for flaws in animal tests and us those findings to insist the evidence against tobacco i unclear. The tactic i wit works pretty companies Are Geewax Able to create jus enough controversy to divert Atten Tion from All the dead bodies. Now pm is spinning an elaborate web of confusion about the safety of it pickup trucks with sidesaddle gasoline tanks. Unfortunately the irresponsible producers of dateline Abc have Given pm just the tools needed for this dirty Job. The news Magazine show did a hard hitting Story last november about the safety of pm trucks. Abc accurately re ported that the 4.7 million full size pick pm made Between 1973 and 1987 feature gasoline tanks protected Only by thin Sheet Metal. Pm installed the dual tanks outside the truck s Frame. That ave the vehicles More fuel capacity a Nice Selling Point. But could sidesaddle tanks be As Safe As those tucked inside of a truck s heavy Metal Frame. For years the Center for Auto. Safety a private consumer watchdog group has railed against the pm design. The Center says about 300 people have burned to death after their pm gasoline tanks does t deny that fatalities caused by fire in Side Impact collisions Are measurably higher in its trucks compared with similar vehicles. Indeed the company quietly has settled More than 100 such crash this month a jury in Atlanta awarded $105.2 million to the family of Shannon Moseley a teen Ager who died Light gamer roast in a burning pm pickup in 1989. During the trial Ronald Elwell a former pm Engineer who had previously defended the company offered startling testimony. Lie said he had been kept in the dark about crash tests pm had conducted secretly. The in House tests showed the tanks opened up dramatically like a split Melon Elwell said. His testimony and the other compel Ling evidence in the Moseley Case amounted to a Public relations disaster luckily for pm executives Abc s unethical dateline producers were on hand to help create a smoke screen. The show aired footage of a pm pick up getting hit. Flames erupted apparently after a headlight filament generated a , Abc failed to inform View ers that the people staging the test had attached toy rocket engines to the truck to help create Sparks. They wanted to be sure the Accident footage included a dra Matic s the kind of cheap trick that makes an ethical journalist seriously con Sider opening a dry cleaning shop or pizza stand. Because of Abc s irresponsible report ing pm can divert attention away from the grave of Shannon Moseley. The few seconds of Abc footage were All pm needed to create confusion in the minds of Many Consumers. So now pm can boast of its Victory in Stead of saying folks please bring your trucks to a pm Dealership and we u put liners inside those Gas what a shame for Consumers that Abc in its Zeal to uncover a real prob Lem May have Given pm just enough wig Gle room to escape its responsibilities. C coi Newi Swik Clinto ism expands democracy s coercive Side the Chicago politician who proudly said he was not one to cast asparagus at opponents should be Here now. Three kinds of aspersions Are being cast at president Clinton s economic plan that it is no candid or coherent or rooted in american traditions. The first two Are True. The third is not Republican study committee of rep. Dan Bur ton Rind notes that Clinton promises five year Sav Ings of $32 million by freezing spending by the Appala Chian regional commission approximately 70 percent of which supports Highway construction. But Clinton says the increase in Federal Aid Highway funding Willmore than compensate for the reductions necessitated by this proclaims a $1.7 billion five year saving from elimination of the Community investment program. But he says the new crime initiative proposed by the administration provides substantially increased funding for the social service and anti crime programs supported by the Community investment program making this program cites a five year saving of $240 million from termination of the Tennessee Valley authority Community development program. But other much larger pro Grams with similar purposes have been put into place and Are slated to receive substantial increases from the administration s stimulus and investment read spend ing and spending proposes a five year saving of $142 million from elimination of the agriculture department s co operative state research Grants. However another source of funds for projects. Is the National re search initiative. Which is proposed at higher fund ing Levels in 1994."searching for coherence in Clinton s pro Gram is Akin to seeking geometry in a plate of tuesday the Lead headline Page one column six in the new York times was Clinton propose changes in policy to Aid Cheek by jowl with that headline was this one in column five Linton to fight foreign further melding of America s Public and private sectors in the name of Industrial policy will be applauded by those business people who practice a pragmatism notable for its emancipation from any Prin Ciple other than Short term self interest. Some business leaders who having no principled opposition to collectivism and resembling bureaucrats More than entrepreneurs seek profits and Security in the genteel socialism of a cooperative relationship with government. In the unending argument about what in american life should be Public permeated by politics and the state and what should be private determined by Market Force conservatives Are predisposed to protect the Market s allo cation of resources and opportunities. Liberals Are pre disposed to expand government s scope. In second thoughts myths and morals of . Eco nomic history essays published by Oxford University press for the Manhattan Institute the late Jonathan Hughes a Northwestern University economist wrote do americans want big government assuming that in America people get Over time pretty much what they want the evidence is that they want lots of government. Since 1929 government expenditures Federal state and local have grown four times As fast As the Gross Domestic product Federal expenditures seven times As George f. Will fast. In 1929 private investment was five times larger than the Federal budget in 1991 it was about half As Large. Total expenditures by All governments in 1929 were 12 percent of Gap in 1991, 45 percent. In Addi Tion there is the vast regulatory apparatus. Some one wrote Hughes wants or once wanted each regulatory activity in order to escape from the results of Market big government was born during an Era of Republican domination 1870-1932, before there was a Federal welfare state other than pensions for civil War Veter ans. In just 26 years 1687-1913 there came the inter state Commerce commission the Sherman antitrust act the food and drug administration the Federal Trade commission the Federal Reserve system the Federal income tax. American individualism wrote Hughes has always coexisted uneasily with institutions and habits of non Market control a willingness to use govern ment s coercive Powers for redistribution St purposes. The ease with which we slipped into the modern Wel fare state after All can Only be due to something fundamental in our institutional legacy and have had a certain precocity in the use of institutions of democratic coercion from colonial times Onward tariffs subsidies monopoly Grants to canals and Railroad companies 10 percent of the Public do main was Given in land Grants to finance the transcontinental Railroad Clinto ism interventionist and government government acting As venture capitalist cannot be called novel. But neither can it candidly be called anything other than an expansion of democracy s coercive Side. C the Washington to
