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Show ( r.iz s CAPITOL ; ISM WATCHDOG V J By Bill HendrU Wage and price controls: Defeatest talk It seems apparent now that the economic policies of the current occupant occu-pant of the White House are an abject failure. If you've been to your bank lately and faced 18 percent interest rates for a car or refrigerator, or if you've thought about buying a new-house new-house at 13 to percent interest for 30 years then you know the problem. There are other signs of this failure too. Nearly every manufactured product, pro-duct, every food item, motor and heating fuel, home and auto repairs, local taxes, water and sewer service, etc., have all increased at triple digit inflation in-flation rates in the last decade, with most of that coming since 1976. The question now being asked, did the Carter Administration ever have the capability to turn back what has become our economic chaos? When the President was a candidate he told reporters prior to the Pennsylvania Penn-sylvania Primary, April 22, 1976, "W hile I oppose across-the-board permanent per-manent wage and price controls, I favor standby controls which the President Presi-dent can apply selectively." Amazingly that statement in Jimmy Carter's "An Economic Position Paper for Now and Tomorrow" sei-med to signal indecisiveness with a declared need for authority to impose wage and price controls. This defeatest ecr : policy, which failed so misers the Nixon administration whe ; tion w as only 4 8 percent, and repeal became a shinning rm-e. the Ford administration, is ana" signal of economic failure. Wte White House suggests it needs 8 and price controls as part i economic strategy its occupi:5 saying, inflation is out of cor.ri this the only w ay of stopping it Instead of cutting taxes and redJ over-regulation of the ecoav? private enterprise can overcofflJ tion and expand to meet the supp demand of the natjon. the Carsr ministration wants to bare do". economy forcing us into a rw compounding our financial woes fostering talk of wage and prtfi trols. There are bills pending in Cxf which will give the Presides authority he has asked for. Forr-1 ly. to date, they've not gone vff! Neither have selective attempt'-' pose controls on private indus!"! may be sure, how ever, if the FnS' is re-elected, talk of w age mi ? controls w ill grow louder for I F dent who won't have to face s pointed voters in another elvti. |