Show THE THE VOICE OF BUSINESS Whatever happened to the Reagan riots By Richard L Lesher President Chamber of Commerce of the United States Last summer an outbreak of urban violence in Great Britain prompted a number or of commentators in the United States to suggest that the same fate would bythe likely visit American cities by the summer of 1982 thanks to Reagan administration economic policies and budget cuts w Washington St Post columnist William William Raspberry was one of them On July 15 1981 he wrote The British unrest has hasto hasto to be considered fair warning In fairness Ra Raspberry qualified his statements by explaining It would be foolish to make the outright prediction that there will be riots in the streets of America when the Reagan budget cuts cutsin cutsin in social programs finally hit home But he The people who lose those benefits however are not likely to wait quietly for the long haul What seems far Car more likely is what is happening in the streets of England I responded to these suggestions some ot of which were far more extreme than Raspberry's in my own column on Aug 3 1981 I 1 described the parallel between British riots and future American unrest as foolish at best and at worst a prime example of irresponsible journalism I pointed out the relative insignificance of the budget cuts in social programs and the fact that the worst wave of urban violence this country has experienced occurred at the height of Lyndon Johnsons Johnson's Great Society spending binge in the Well here we are closing out the summer of 1982 and despite desperate economic conditions in many of our inner cities thankfully there have been een no riots But have we seen any statements by the riot forecasters acknowledging their past misjudgments Not a chance Instead on July 16 1982 exactly a year and a aday aday day after his 19 1981 1 article on the subject a Raspberry column appeared in the Washington Post under the headline Chilling Forecast Riots in 83 The column centered On n a study by a based Swiss business co consulting firm that predicts riots next summer worse than those of the both in property damage and in personal injury This loose talk about riots and is not only irresponsible but it is founded on gross inaccuracies The impression conveyed is that the federal government has essentially packed up and moved out of the inner cities folding social programs and throwing whole segments of the population off the entitlement rolls In fact a brief glance at the fate of major social programs under Ronald Reagan puts this charge to rest Overall federal spending is now running percent ahead of last year year-that's about double the rate of inflation Uncle Sam will spend billion of food stamps this fiscal year and billion in fiscal 1983 The medicaid budget will Increase as well from billion this year to billion next year Aid to Families with Dep Dependent hUdren wilL experience a a slight cut from 76 16 billion in fiscal 1982 to 68 billion in 1983 Meanwhile the granddaddy of all entitlement Social Security continues its wild expansion expansion- from billion this year to billion next year There is no question that eligibility rules for Cor many programs have been tightened tightened-as well they shot should d be But Butin Butin in nearly every case the budgets of these programs will still grow If you are looking for the reason why we face big deficits look no further There is still plenty of budget cutting that can and must be done And to raise the spectre of riots as a consequence of the minor eligibility changes made so far is isa isa a crass crase diversionary tactic designed to scare Congress and the American people from exercising needed budget control |