European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 24, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Friday december 24, 1993 commentary 1 the stars and stripes Page 13with russian elections Over Yeltsin can gloat William Safire Moscow a the referendum and elections worked out As i had planned i Boris Yeltsin am now the most powerful Kremlin Leader since Yuri Andropov and a at the same time a. I am the Only Hope of the Western world not an easy combination to bring about. First 1 had to show my democratic reformers a mostly intellectuals who think me a Brave Simpleton a How dependent on me they Are. That was Why i refused to endorse any of them speaking out Only for the Constitution that elves me the whip hand Over Par Diament. In the final week with unpublished polls showing reformers losing they begged me to denounce Vladimir a Mirinovsky. But that would not have served my purpose. A Mirinovsky was the Only one campaigning for my new Constitution because he wants Central Power too without his support we would never have reached 50 percent. He also helped me humiliate my democratic opposition. Grigory Zavlinsky is now my Only respectable opponent for president in 1996. That a Why the Man i put in charge of television sabotaged his Campaign. First the group picture i took with All the candidates showed a Mirinovsky i prominently at my right hand and Yav Insky half hidden a and russians know from the old May Day parades How to read a picture. Then when Zavlinsky tried to buy prime time on television in the final week my Man told him it had All been sold to a Mirinovsky. For even the worst time Zavlinsky had to pay Cash in Advance a while a Mirinovsky was allowed to buy on credit. Finally we aired a documentary about a Mirinovsky on election eve a free. The Osta Kino Board thinks its a scandal so i fired my director after the election to sever any link to me. So much for the reformers Yegor Gai Bor s a Rubim oust keeps 60ih6amp 60 we amp is hit darts Russia s Choice party leaders must remain silent because most of them work for me. Zavlinsky will cry foul but it will sound like sour grapes. And now to my real Triumph the creation of the anti Yeltsin a the foil i need to keep the russian people and the West behind me. I have always been at my Best in confrontation. Lenin had a saying to a Koto a who against whom. First i was against Mikhail Gorbachev then against the communist parliament. Now i will have a new villain Vladimir a Adolf Ovich a a Mirinovsky. I do not Call him fas Cist of course. 1 am like the american president Eisenhower with senator Mccarthy never engaging in personalities. Let others attack him i say nothing. Notice How in return my new villain says nothing disrespectful about me. Instead he frightens everybody into my embrace. 1 want to run against a Mirinovsky just As president Kennedy wanted to run against Barry Goldwater. I want the Revan Chist to keep making headlines until 1996 then 1 will crush him with a Zhi Vinovsky Means  go Lushko a Kab dossier on him a jewish bisexual mental patient for two years a will do the rest. In the meantime the unpopular reformers and the if Bankers must become a sensitive to the social Impact of Reform a a More therapy less Shock. But my abandonment of the reformers worked. I have taken off the Western pressure to privatize our Economy and can move to the popular Middle 1 have concentrated constitutional Power in my own hands i have helped create a beatable bogeyman to make me indispensable. This was a very Good election. C Tom now York Olmos a looking at the deficit from different angles deficit analysts Peter Peterson of new York is an example with his new Book facing up a talk eloquently about the immorality of our growing National deficit. This indictment is quite apart from the pain they feel Over the deficits economic consequences. The condemnation usually Speaks of the imposition on the Young of debt incurred by the old. The complaint is certainly Worth thinking about and Prima Facie is certainly incriminating. _ suppose we personalize the National deficit. Or. And mrs. Jones have four children. As they grow older they become More and More self indulgent. Whereas in the a rents younger Days they saved and invested in their ouse now they travel around the world on luxury liners and just last year they took out a fresh mortgage. Their joint income is up around $200,000, but they owe Money to the batiks and to their broker. These Are of course debts that will need to be paid off by their four children who will inherit an estate greatly diminished in value. What should we concentrate on the extravagance of the Joneses in their old age or should we focus o i this that after All that Money is paid Back or after the heirs sign on to continue to make payments due to the Banks and other creditors there is still something left Over a which will go to the heirs Peterson reminds us that the government is spending one sixth As much on children As it is spend Ingon the aged. This Datum does not in fact Surprise Given that the expenses of retirement Homes let alone of hospitals greatly exceed the Cost of schooling. Apart from that there Arentt Many expenses of children that Are paid for by government except when one runs into dependent children. But the moral Point is made More complicated by what it is that the upcoming generation will need to shoulder. A huge debt yes. But it will also inherit a formidable capital Plant. We have jobs for 118 million people and the capitalization per Job is More than $200,000. It is one thing to ask whether the outgoing generation has been indefensible extravagant a it has. But it is a different question whether the incoming generation will face on balance a country More remarkable for its wealth than for its debt. Late in the �?T30s, As year after year went by with deficits generated by the new Deal it suddenly occurred to a brain Truster for president Franklin a Roosevelt that there was a splendid Way to defuse criticism. Every deficit Dollar at the end of the year converts to a Bond bought by somebody. Although there has been substantial purchasing of . Bonds by foreign countries most of the debt is owned by americans so the great Epiphany was born a a we owe it to ourselves a William of Buckley that was the morally emancipating slogan of new Deal a assists who Felt that now they could go Home and sleep having established that a country can hardly be damaged by going into debt that merely transfers assets from one set of american hands to another. This was the final ornament on the great Rococo Structure built by economist John Maynard Keynes with his theories about the value of government spending to feed the Economy. But it is morally spurious. Whether the Money brought in from the taxpayer goes to an american or a dutchman does no to affect the pain experienced by the taxpayer. Peterson is More persuasive in dramatizing the nation s problems than in solving them lie is a Man much concerned with morals and he wants his personal magnanimity to become corporate. If husband and wife Are making $35,000 per year when they reach 65, including payments for social Security and medicare the Peterson plan would begin to phase Down receipts from government until payments reduced to 15 percent. On top of this he would impose a 5 percent sales tax and a 50-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax. The heritage pm foundation has a More appealing program which would Cap entitlements to an annual growth of 2 percent. Congress has Many arguments to weigh. Those who confront the deficit Are by no Means unanimous in their opinion that to reduce it is the first order of business. Economist David Levy of the Jerome Levy economics Institute sees the deficit As Quot a great Stabilizer of the. Economy offsetting the weakness in private investment by providing a huge  the deficit is morally wrong to the extent that it disguises the motives of Public policy makers. If it is used As a keynesian instrument it needs  Analysed with reference to different criteria from those that conservatives Deal in. C i divers do Ruiu s/rn3i Iio