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Show 2 Vernal Express Wednesday, July 28, 1993 what's the TO MANY , , PAR APES V MATTER OF JACK-STRAWS YER ttORSE.' by Jack Wallls 1 1 Reducing the national debt Despite much rhetoric about deficit reductions, nearly four out of five bills before Congress would increase spending, according to data released by the National Taxpayers Union Foundation. Spending would rise by $14.37 for every dollar of spending cuts if every spending bill became law. These were among the findings of NTUF's first Congressional Budget Tracking System survey on the new Congress. "The big spending congressional agenda continues to rule," said NTUF Chairman James D. Davidson. "While more members are showing greater fiscal restraint, re-straint, most legislators want to push spending to record levels." The study found Congress more sharply divided than ever over the budget issues that dominated the 1992 elections, with the large freshman class reflecting reflect-ing even greater polarization than returning incumbents. incum-bents. A record number of members are supporting legislation legis-lation that would, on balance, reduce federal spending. spend-ing. Almost one-third of all House and Senate members, mem-bers, 167, had legislative agendas that called for more spending cuts than spending increases. That is a 240 percent increase over the 49 members who had sponsored spon-sored net spending cuts at the end of the last Congress. Advocacy for new spending was highly concentrated, concentrat-ed, according to the NTUF study. Just 15 percent of legislators proposed 90 percent of new spending. After just four months in the last (102) Congress, 46 percent of members accounted for 90 percent of spending increases. The passage of every bill before the House, excluding exclud-ing overlapping proposals, would cause federal spending to soar by $785 billion. Senate-introduced bills would boost spending by a new $579 billion. "Most congressional effort is spent on legislation to spend more money," said NTUF vice president Paul S. Hewitt, the report's principal author. "Unless this stops, we'll never get a handle on the deficit" Some important findings of the study show the following fol-lowing problems: Health care legislation comprised 12 percent of the bills measured in the study, but accounted for 58 percent per-cent of the net spending increases proposed in the House, and 86 percent of those in the Senate. The most spending-prone caucus was the Congressional Black Caucus, whose members proposed pro-posed an average of $339.3 billion in higher spending, spend-ing, Porkbusters Coalition members came in the lowest, low-est, proposing an average of $15.8 billion in spending cuts. Female legislators proposed an average of $133 billion bil-lion in new spending, compared to $60 billion for male legislators. Roughly, one out of five legislators, 63 representatives representa-tives and 33 senators, failed to sponsor a single spending cut. When only specific spending reductions are tallied, the ratio of proposed increases to cuts rises to 32 to 1. Fifty-five percent of the proposed spending cuts were across-the-board measures that failed to single out programs for reduction. The five non-voting House delegates sponsored bills that would increase spending an average of $139.2 billion. The highest agenda total for the entire Congress, $563.2 billion, belonged to the District of Columbia's delegate. Hawaii's delegation had the highest average agenda cost in the Senate, at $266.2 billion, and the second highest in the House, averaging $516.6 billion. Delegates from the South were the most fiscally conservative in Congress. The 26 southern senators, as a group, proposed more spending reductions than increases. From this study it appears that a few congressional leaders are not responding to the message of their constituents to "cut spending." Everyone talks about reducing the national deficit and balancing the budget but little is being done to actually bring federal spending in line with its income. in-come. It only takes a few free-spenders and taxers to put the budget into a tail-spin that will cost the public billions for just the debt interest. PUBLIC FORUM LETTERS TO THE EDITOR What Is your opinion? The Express welcomes letters from its readers concerning any subject pertinent to the Uintah Basin. There are no restrictions re-strictions as to contents, if not libelous or vindictive vin-dictive and of reasonable length. Letters must be submitted exclusively to the Express and bear the writer's full name, signature, phone number and address. The name or name of those submitting letters must appear on all published letters. All letters are subject to condensation. con-densation. Letters express the opinion of the writer and are not necessarily the opinion of the Express Editor. Wildlife improvements Dear Editor, I was very pleased to read about the proposed improvement to Hwy. 191 from Vernal to Flaming Gorge. Perhaps some of the $787,000 cost will be used to protect the wildlife to be viewed from motorists who refuse to drive at a reasonable speed and use caution when deer and elk are in the area. Permanent signs would be great, but temporary Hashing lights in conjunction with a sign when a herd is in the area would do a lot to reduce carnage that occurs up there each week. I was returning from Wyoming last Sunday night and saw two dead elk cows and one calf in the Cart Creek areas and the balance of the herd milling around the carcasses. Was this the daily toll? TOM KIMBALL Vernal Exp (ISSN 0892-1091) Published every Wednesday for $17.50 per year in shopping area and $28 per year out of shopping area within state and $31 per year out of state within USA by the Vernal Express Publishing Company, 54 North Vernal Avenue, Vernal, Utah 84078. Second class postage paid at Vernal, Utah 84078. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to VERNAL EXPRESS, P.O. Box 1000, Vernal Utah 84078. JackR. Walli8 Publisher Steven R. Wallis Editor Melanie Morrison Staff Writer Kathleen Irving Staff Writer Eric F. Pye Sports Writer Janet D. Wallis Advertising Marcia Henry. Advertising Judy McCarley Circulation ft Classified Ads Colleen Noble Legal Notices Phone 789-3511 - FAX 789-8690 Member of Utah Press Association and National Newspaper Association Area correspondents Tridell loma McKee, 247-2350 Lapoint Marten McClure, 247-2552 Whiterocks Virginia Ferguson, 353-4584 Manila Clara Robinson, 784-3438 Deadline News Monday 5 p.m. Display Advertising Tuesday 11 .m. Classified Advertising Tuesday 11 a.m. Rodeo letter Dear Editor, I am responding to the letter to the Editor in the last issue of the Vernal Express entitles "Rodeo Jokes." I am appalled that John Evans was so offended by the jokes that were told at the rodeo. I felt there was nothing offensive about the jokes. For example: ex-ample: in one instance the clown put his arm around the African-American African-American who was a participant at the rodeo, and said, "This is my brother." The rodeo announcer then said something to the effect of how can that be? The clown said I was born in the day and he was born in the night, and the man laughed with him. The way to insure greatness in our country, is to be able to laugh a little, and by the way we were laughing with others, not about others. oth-ers. The jokes portraying fat women were about the clown's wife, and she probably helped him write the jokes. I'm fat, and I wasn't offended. offend-ed. I'm not sure what joke or jokes about the mentally challenged the letter was referring to, but we are all mentally challenged if we are using our brains. As far as jokes about gay people; well they are a joke. Even mosquitoes know who to mate with. It was nice to go to a rodeo, laugh and have a good time. I felt it was worth the price of a ticket just to hear the announcer and the rodeo clowns. It is sad that in today's society, soci-ety, nothing can be said without someone being offended, even when it is not meant maliciously toward anyone. GREG SNOW Jensen Unemployment continued from page 1 mineral and wildlife conservation was one area of expansion as was social and manpower programs. The mining sector recorded 30 more positions po-sitions in this year's first quarter than last year, with oil field activities activi-ties the source of growth. The service ser-vice sector showed approximately 20 additional year-over jobs in motels, mo-tels, equipment rental and auto repair re-pair shops. The total value of permit-authorized construction fell by 70 percent during the first quarter as compared with a year ago. Total permit valuations valua-tions for the quarter equaled $288,500, down from $1.1 million a year ago. The three components constituting total values, residential, nonresidential and repairs, all contributed con-tributed to the decline. Residential permit values fell by 32 percent as only six dwelling units were authorized. autho-rized. These include two homes in Vernal and two homes and two mobile mo-bile homes in the county's unincorporated unincor-porated area. Nonresidential values fell from $98,000 a year ago to $5,000 this quarter. Permit values for repairs dropped from $622,000 last year to only $50,000 this quarter. quar-ter. Total third quarter gross taxable sales and revenues increased by 26 percent compared with sales recorded record-ed a year ago. Total sales for the third quarter equaled $62 million. Sales excluded from this total attributed at-tributed to the prior quarter, places the third quarter only sales at $61.2 million, a 26 percent increase. fa y o - film- jysi2ff-' v fib,- fei vv Jin "-lilr' - ' 'V i- , 1 photo by Steven Wallis CAVE RESCUE team evaluates drill at the mouth of Little Brush Creek Cave. Participants from across the country are participating in the 7-day National Cave Rescue Association seminar. Cave continued from page 1 of caves," said Dave Shurtz, facilities facili-ties coordinator. "The main difference differ-ence between caves in the East and caves in the Uintas is these are cold and are mainly river caves." The sport of caving is growing in popularity, particularly in the East A piece of advice to all cave explorers ex-plorers is to be property equipped. During the seminar individuals can obtain Level 1 through 5 training. train-ing. Each level of trainins is more advanced until the student obtains level 5 or that of an instructor. The group will be camped at the Uintah High School until Saturday, when the seminar will end. "We came to Vernal because of its accessibility to caves and their beautiful surroundings," Shurtz said. The area was recommended by the Utah Cave Rescue Association. THE VOICE OF BUSINESS FAILURE TO COMMI JNTCATF. by Dr. Richard L. Lesher, President US. Chamber of Commerce "'Of- WATER truck applies "Soil Sement" to the dirt road south of Ouray. The liquid dries to a clear hard road base, a process used extensively in mining operations. WASHINGTON "What we have here," said actor Strother Martin in the famous line from Cool Hand Luke just after he knocked Paul Newman for a loop, "is a failure to communicate." The Environmental Protection Agency and Amoco Corporation recently concluded a rare and unprecedented collaborative col-laborative study of plant pollution that underscores an incredible potential for cost savings and improved efficiency in environmental compliance if only government and business can learn to communicate with each other. Though the federal government has taken the lead on environmental protection protec-tion for almost a quarter of a century, it seems incredibly ignorant of much of the real world in which business and industry indus-try operate. That wall of misunderstanding began be-gan to crumble in 1989 with a chance meeting of two old friends, one employed em-ployed by EPA and the other by Amoco. Their conversation soon turned to shared regrets about how much money was squandered on environmental programs without commensurate result Before long, Debora Sparks ofAmcco and James Lounsbury of EPA were nudging their respective employers toward a more open, cooperative approach. Amoco offered its refinery in Yorktown, Virginia, Vir-ginia, to serve as a test case to determine if a more efficient, sensible regulatory approach could be found. There were many-layered walls of distrust to be overcome, and more than a few setbacks along the way. Amoco feared EPA would use access to the company's propriety information as a basis for punitive legal action. EPA feared its regulatory mission would be compromised. As one EPA official noted, many agency employees perceive themselves as good guys going after bad guys. Various agency divisions seemed to be conspiring against what became known as The Yorktown Project Fortunately, then-EPA administrator administra-tor William Reilly weighed in at a crucial cru-cial moment to keep the project on track. The results of the study were shocking. For example, it was determined that Amoco would be required by EPA regulations regu-lations to spend $54 million to reduce hydrocarbon emissions from its Yorktown refinery over the next four years, though the firm could achieve the same emission reduction in other ways for only $10 million. The company would be required to spend $41 million to upgrade its waste water treatment plant to control benzene emissions, but it could eliminate four times as much benzene by spending $4.7 million on its barge loading operations. Also, the EPA regulatory machinery encourages short-term short-term fixes at the expense of long-term solutions that may be more cost effective. effec-tive. New EPA chief Carol Browner is cognizant of the Yorktown Project and determined to use the lessons learned to promote more flexibility in meeting environmental en-vironmental goals. "For too long we have paid a dear price for failure to communicate. |