European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 12, 1995, Darmstadt, Hesse Tuesday september 12,1995 commentary the stars and stripes Page 15 the Georgia politician was in High gear and High dudgeon t our government in Washington now is a horrible bureaucratic mess. It is disorganized wasteful has no purpose and its policies when they exist Are in comprehensible or devised by special interest groups with Little or no regard for the welfare of the average american be developed in recent years a welfare govern ment. We be seen evolved a bloated confused bureaucratic mess. The american people be Lieve that we ought to control our government. On the other hand we be seen government More and More controlling lyrics by speaker Gingrich no the georgian who unleashed those anti Washington salvos was Jimmy Carter campaigning successfully in 1976. The political archaeologist who unearthed these shards of rhetoric Pat Moynihan did so to demonstrate that the 1994 elections were important not As the beginning of something but As the intensification of a familiar theme. today s president says to reporter. Richard Reeves in the current Issue of Washington monthly share a lot of this sort of populist scepticism about Washington which is one of the things that is frustrating to me when i identify with it just because i can t Cut through the fog that often surrounds us Row arid touch the american speaking of fog the pres George will ident who used the word but 62 times in this year s state of the Union address should not be surprised that people wonder where he stands however he is not the Only one in Washington whose words do not seem to. Suit his aspirations. V Wayne Gretzky asked the secret of his Success in hockey said i always skate to where the puck ingoing not to where it s been. The continuity of Politi Cal rhetoric since Carter contrasts sharply with the Dis continuity of e cents which suggests that the political class is to some extent skating to who reach political puck has been. During. Carter s years there was much talk about democracies being the principal cause of this was inflation the government s failure to preserve the currency As a store of value. Inflation the great radicalized of the Middle class prepared the. Ground for conservatism s .jcrit.ique. Of government s moral standing rather than just government s performance. " Vav. " ". Lawrence b. Lindsey a Federal Reserve Board governor recently spoke of the great Fervour at times a r preaching a religious conviction of argue that Money represents a. Covenant Between govern ment and people. In this View destroying the value of a currency takes on a deep significance verging Ori immorality with respect to government policy. To adherents of this View inflation is a form of in the 1970s, inflation then called Public enemy no. 1," was considered democracy s systemic disease. The. Fear was that democracy causes inflation politicians con stantly respond to the Public s demands for benefits and never have to respond to demands for taxes to fun them and democracy cannot fight inflation because. Fighting it involves inflicting Short term pain for Long term gain and democracy cannot do that. So democracies would pile up debts and then devalue the debts with inflation a form of slow motion repudiation. Two decades later the record suggests that Amer ican democracy is better than that. It is because the pub. Lie is not. Ruinous by foolish and because the govern inc in is stronger than pessimists assumed. Yes stronger. Which brings us to the deficit. Politicians treat it As Public enemy no. 1," which May be another instance of the political class skating to where the puck used to be. The congressional budget office projects a deficit this year of $161 billion the smallest deficit As a percentage of Gross Domestic product 2,3 percent since 1979, when the deficit was 1.7 percent of reason it was so Low in 1979 was that the income tax system had not yet been indexed so raging inflation gave government a Windfall through bracket creep a constant silent tax increase. Economic growth is better and Public spending is slower the former perhaps partly because of the latter than had been expected. Granted the deficit is projected to begin rising sharply in a unless and retirement programs arc restrained. Hut per haps they will be. Such programs Are referred to As they were in 1979 As government May now. Have sufficient strength meaning moral author Lyv a inflict the pains necessary for it to become smaller than it might otherwise become. Which suggests an inter Esting incoherence in contemporary conservatism s complaint that government is too big and too soon we shall see whether the. Government is Strong enough to Deal with the no longer deniable crisis in medicare. ""."". ". C Washington Post writers group Hurd women s m Marilyn Geewax it s not that they Aren t trying in their own Waythe chinese hosts United nations fourth world conference on women Are attempting to make the International Gath ering a pleasant experience. Normally drab sidewalks have been enlivened by seas of red Salvias in pots Traffie has been limited to make Way for pedestrians. Polite Young women distribute free purified water and huge signs admonish locals to be worthy v still the chinese government is taking heat from Many of the. Groups meeting in Beijing Here this week to discuss women s issues. Participants complain that Many women can t get to meet Ings because the facilities Are inaccessible to the disabled. In a few cases the meeting places were in such sorry shape that no one could get in we heard a swoosh ing sound an the tent collapsed with several women in Side said or Luella Klein director of the department of gynaecology and obstetrics at Atlanta s Emory University. Klein said last week that she had been attending a family planning meeting in a group of plastic tents filled with air. One of the Flimsy structures sprung a leak and air rushed out allowing the roof to fall. That was kind of an exciting moment she said. Students and faculty representing Georgia tech were frustrated by the poorly drawn maps that do not clearly show the University s Booth promoting Ca Reers for women in science. Only a deter mined bloodhound could find it tucked away on the second floor of an unfinished ran into a woman from Georgia tech who came to China with another group and she said of i have been looking for you for 2 /2 hours " said Anne Balsamo a tech faculty member staffing the Booth. She could t figure out what the map Many people Are visiting the tech Dis play but it s really random they just stumble upon us Balsamo said. Oth a women Are angry about Ina Ccu. Rate schedules for meetings said Nancy Booth of the Atlanta feminist women s network. You finally find where you want to be and you la see a sign that says can celeb and you Don t Ever get an explanation of what happened Booth said. The meetings have been spread Over Many acres in this Small City located 35 Miles from Beijing. Some Booths and classes have been assigned to buildings but Many Are in Canvas or plastic tents or Sim ply tables with umbrellas. Because of repeated rainfall the tents arc surrounded by Muddy Ponds and Are connected Only by crumbling Concrete papers. While most of the 23,500 women Here face Only logistical struggles some say they Are facing repression from the chinese government which was supposed to allow a free flow of ideas at the Confer ence. For example women trying to rep resent Tibet say they have been photo graphed and harassed by chinese officials. A group of lesbians conducted a press conference last week to Call attention to the chinese organizing committee s heavy handed tactics. The group said that one Day men wearing Coc badges confiscated All lesbian oriented literature printed in chinese. Though the chinese government in t winning friends among conference participants Many chinese citizens Are making fairly Good impressions. Workers in hotels and restaurants struggle to understand the Many languages they Are hearing. They re very attentive Balsamo said. They really try to Imire out what you need. Natiw y Timos n .-3
