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Show At1i8 yyEeport by wor 0 Compassion and Reaganomics You'd think compassion was the exclusive right of those who oppose the President's economic program. President Reagan's critics certainly don't list it as one of his prime virtues. The numerous politicians who followed the President's State of the Union address Jan. 26 were quick to point out the Reagan administration's cruelty and heartlessness. The politicos spoke in moral terms, using platitudes like "fair" and "just" and "right" and "wrong." It made great film footage, especially thrown in with shots of the poor, the elderly, and the underprivileged. I appreciated the concerns of those who-fear the impacts of the budget cuts. I hear from similar people every week, and many of their complaints are legitimate. But I cannot brand the President as heartless. I don't think he lacks compassion. I think he's out to protect the people who support those in our society who can't support themselves. I'm not talking about compassionate congressmen I'm talking about i American taxpayers. They're the ones who buy food stamps, write out welfare checks, subsidize educations and ! support day care centers. Most of the time, they shoulder the burden silentlythey silen-tlythey realize the responsibility of helping those who cannot help themselves. them-selves. But for years and years, these people i have Reen more and more people leaving the ranks of the suppliers and Joining the ranks of the recipients. They have seen billions of their dollars spent on meaningless research and well-meaning well-meaning but unproductive programs that, despite their costs, leave society no better off. Deficit spending and a huge national debt, meanwhile, dry up credit markets and drive up interest rates, while the entire economy falters and shakes loose those whose grasp on it is tenuous. Is that compassionate? President Reagan and those who support him, myself included, say it's time to show compassion on those who foot the bill. It's time to cut the number of failing programs they support, it's time to reduce the spending they subsidize, it's time to cut their taxes, shore up their businesses, and motivate more of their fellows to join them in self-sufficiency. The growing, thriving, investment-rich investment-rich economy that would result is the best hope of America's poor. Recreating Re-creating such an economy is the purpose pur-pose of President Reagan's economic program, and while his opponents ix'little it with all the virtuous and compassionate indignation they can muster, they fail to offer any alternatives alter-natives besides more of the same irresponsibility that was so hard on America in the first place. The President's program is not perfect it won't immediately address all the problems that beset us. Hut to say it lacks compassion and is morally wrong is to say that the American taxpayers who have supported our nation for so long are not, themselves, worthy of compassion. |