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Show 0 Vemal Express Wednesday, The only solution to the deficit: A constitutional amendment by Orrin Hatch U.S. Senator The national debt now stands above $4.4 trillion. For every man, woman, and child in the state of Utah and all other states, Congress has incurred more than $17,600 of debt. Every child born today will, in a normal lifetime, pay nearly $135,000 of extra taxes just to pay the interest on the present federal debt Only a balanced budget amendment can end this fiscal child abuse. America's per capita debt has increased in-creased $900 since Senator Simon and I introduced a balanced budget amendment last February. The Senate' is expected to debate the amendment in the next few weeks. Because the deficit crisis has steadily steadi-ly escalated, the amendment has a better chance of passing now than ever before. As a constitutional traditionalist, tra-ditionalist, I would rather not amend the Constitution. But we must stop mortgaging our children's future, and we must do it now. It is time to stop the fiscal folly. Washington has an incurable bias THE VOICE OF BUSINESS THE SWEET STING OF JUSTICE by Dr. Richard L. Lesher, President US. Chamber of Commerce I WASHINGTON "In justice is relatively easy to bear, the great curmudg eon H. L. Mencken wrote. "What stings is justice." There is something perversely sweet about the justice being visited upon bureaucrats at the Environmental Environ-mental Protection Agency these days. At issue is the Paperwork Reduction Act, which requires all federal agencies to clear their recordkeeping and reporting report-ing mandates with the Office of Management Man-agement and Budget It recently came to light that EPA has been imposing paperwork on private business without clearing all of its forms with OMB. As a result, certain enforcement actions against private companies were dismissed, dis-missed, costing EPA about $ 1 50,000 in lost penalties. Predictably, new EPA Administrator Administra-tor Carol M. Browner was not amused by this development She ordered a comprehensive review of EPA's activities activi-ties subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act, which entailed detailed analysis of some 1,200 EPA enforcement actions involving reporting requirements. Now the EPA bureaucrats are raising a mighty howl of protest about all the paperwork they are being obliged to process. If the EPA bureaucrats are looking for sympathy, they will find it in the dictionary between sin and syntax. Indeed, In-deed, it is about time EPA's paperwork drones got a taste of their own medicine. In 1989, according to the Uncle Sam's Information Collection Budget, EPA imposed 77,375,000 hours of paperwork pa-perwork on the public. That means it took 4 1 ,000 people working full time an TAKE IT WITH YOU AND SAVE . Bargains galore in the Express Thrifty Shopper 54 N. Vernal Ave. . 789-3511 ffiENVIkO-FUELS S A V ES Made of RECYCLED COAL & PACKAGED FOR CLEAN HANDLING AVAILABLE BY THE PALLET OR IN BULK PALLETS (7524 LB BOXES) $225.00 BULK (U-HAUL 2.000 LB) $160.00 To Order Call 1-800-748-4341 IDEAL FOR HOME STORAGE 72 HOUR KIT Noventer 10, 1993 toward spending that results from the fact that members of Congress do not have to find ways to pay for new spending programs. Instead, deficit spending enables Congress to respond to concentrated pressures of spending interest groups and to enjoy the consequent political benefits without suffering the political costs of reducing other spending programs or raising taxes. Congress has been consuming a free lunch at the expense of future generations. Given the spending bias, temporary tempo-rary fixes inevitable lead to higher taxes but no spending cuts. For example, ex-ample, despite the record-setting tax hikes in the 1990 budget deal, we still ended up with record-setting deficits. The reason was that Congress enacted $1.83 in new spending for every $1 in tax increases. in-creases. Statutory efforts are also inadequate. inade-quate. Any balanced budget statute can be repealed, in whole or in part, by the simple expedient of adopting a new statute. Under the Gramm-Rudman Gramm-Rudman balanced budget act, Congress simply delayed the budget entire year just to meet EPA's paperwork paper-work demands, or roughly the entire working population of Green Bay, Wis. (In fairness, much of this paperwork blizzard is specifically required by laws enacted by Congress, or made necessary to legally enforce those laws, and is not really EPA's fault). EPA's complaints underscore the pressing need for Congress to reauthorize reautho-rize the Paperwork Reduction Act, which has expired. Originally enacted in 1980, it was created to curb the insatiable federal fed-eral appetite for records and reports. Every paperwork requirement must be okayed by OMB, and reviewed periodically. periodi-cally. This process enables OMB watchdogs watch-dogs to filter out frivolous paperwork mandates, and also to inform agencies when the information they seek has already al-ready been collected by another agency, and is available. Of course, this process is regarded as a hindrance in bureaucracies where processing paper is regarded as an end in itself, and every agency wants to collect its own data on its own forms. Also, pro-regulation pro-regulation groups distrust the OMB review re-view process which adds another layer of scrutiny to federal rules and regulations. regula-tions. Thus, there is a shadowy conspiracy con-spiracy afoot try ing to subvert the Paperwork Paper-work Reduction Act, and prevent its reauthorization. The nature of the opposition to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1993 is itself compelling evidence for the importance im-portance of this legislation. It is imperative impera-tive that business get behind the Paperwork Paper-work Reduction Act, and demand speedy action by Congress. M ONEY 30 HOTTER THAN WOOD 75 CLEANER THAN WOOD Lasts Up To 4 Times Longer Ideal For stoves, Fireplaces and Camping! I QbcPCasKV I targets and timetable for reaching a balanced budget whenever it faced the threat of mandatory rescissions. Nor can we attribute the problem to partisan gridlock. With the presidency presi-dency and both houses of the Congress controlled by the same party, President Clinton got everything every-thing he asked for in the budget debate. de-bate. His problem-plagued program called for a four-to-one ratio between be-tween tax increases and spending cuts, with the taxes retroactive and the spending cuts delayed to the nether future. The spending bias is a permanent problem. It demands a permanent, constitutional solution. The virtue of a balanced budget amendment to the constitution is that it establishes a higher rule that can be invoked to overcome the spending bias. The human implications of our mammoth debt are profoundly troubling: trou-bling: we are shackling our children with an insurmountable burden. From 1952 through 1975, the interest inter-est cost on the federal debt consumed con-sumed between 6.7 percent and 8.3 percent of annual revenues. Some estimates suggest that next year the interest will consume 26 percent of revenues and will total $296 billion, a figure that exceeds the total federal feder-al revenues in 1975. Today's unrestrained spending is drastically reducing the future options op-tions of our nation. We will see increased in-creased taxes, reduced government programs, increased interest rates and inflation, and diminished capital capi-tal formation, job creation, and productivity pro-ductivity and wage growth. In terms of paying the costs of profligate borrowing, there is no place to hide. That is why I have continuously proposed a constitutional amendment amend-ment requiring a balanced budget. It does not read any specific level of spending or taxing into the Constitution. Instead, it mandates that spending decisions will once more be constrained by available revenues. In effect, it will level the playing field on which tax-and-spenders and taxpayers compete. There is no time to lose. Congress and the federal government are addicted ad-dicted to deficit spending. Only a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution can force Washington to go cold turkey. 95 S. Vernal Ave. (801)789-2725 Opening Soon in Roosevelt JAMESTOWN a Western Bureau of Reclamation reorganized by Helene C. Monberg Vernal Express Washington, D.C Correspondent Washington With strong backing back-ing by the Clinton Administration, Reclamation Commissioner Daniel P. (Dan) Beard has started a sweeping sweep-ing reorganization of the Bureau of Reclamation (BuRec) which he plans to implement "as quickly as possible in the next few months." The coast is clear for Beard to do so because, unlike the U.S. Corps of Engineers' futile efforts to date at reorganization, there is no viable opposition to BuRec reorganization in Congress or elsewhere. New legislation leg-islation is not needed, Beard said. The corps makes the same claim. It was unable to make it stick because of congressional opposition and refusal re-fusal to provide sufficient funds for reorganization. The BuRec reorganization announcement an-nouncement on Nov. 1 will change the direction for the BuRec entirely from that primarily of an irrigation water agency to one serving urban water needs in the West Beard obviously is counting on the environmental movement to stand aside as the BuRec gears up for water diversions and transfers to urban areas in the future. In the past, environmentalists have fought water transfers and major water diversions that were primarily for irrigation projects because they affect the environment, en-vironment, some profoundly. BuRec's reorganization was announced an-nounced only three days before Southern Nevada plans to hold a major water conference in Las Vegas on Nov. 4-5 to discuss growing grow-ing water needs of the booming Las Vegas area. Western Resources Wrap-up (WRW) received notes from sources in the Upper Colorado River Basin indicating concern about possible loss of Upper Basin water to the Lower-Basin fast growing Southern Nevada and Southern California prior to the Southern Nevada water "summit" meeting. Here are the key points announced by Beard on BuRec reorganization at his press conference here on Nov. 1 supplemented by later comments that he made to WRW: Federally owned irrigation water supply projects will not be initiated If You Don't Have A Gas Log Fireplace, You Must Have Money Vlb Burn. m ii. 4$ IMS w 1 t ... Utah Gas Service Company THE STOVE SHOPPE Jamestown Fireplace Xtrordinair Lopi Heritage Blaze King Empire Martin AIR WRAP-UP in the future. BuRec will continue to service those that it already has built, but it will resist new ones proposed pro-posed in congress. Congress won't authorize new ones in any event, Beard predicted, and most agree. "Reclamation (BuRec) needs to place a greater importance on the needs of Western urban communities communi-ties and Native Americans. "Many Western urban communities communi-ties face near-imminent water supply sup-ply problems. It is essential that Reclamation play an active role in solving their problems. There is also much that can be done to promote water conservation and environmental environmen-tal restoration efforts in urban ar-' eas," the written reorganization document doc-ument stated. Beard later told WRW that more emphasis will be made on increasing in-stream flows for fish and wildlife and recreation. These needs will clash with water transfers and diversions where originating streams are involved. But that problem prob-lem will be left to the political process pro-cess to work out. "Water resource needs of Native Americans will be an important new program area for Reclamation. This will include undertaking water resource re-source management and development develop-ment activities, working to improve the technical expertise of tribes, and continuing our assistance to the Secretary (of Interior) in resolving Indian water rights disputes," the reorganization re-organization document said. BuRec has been working on Indian water claims settlement negotiations ne-gotiations for the past four years. Beard will step up this effort and other BuRec aid including more technical assistance to Indian tribes. Since he became Commissioner in mid-year, Beard has already provided provid-ed grants to two Arizona Indian tribes for water supply. Apparently new Indian irrigation projects could still be built by BuRec in the future if they were included in Indian water wa-ter right settlements, but only if they are small and relatively inexpensive to build. Research will be limited to that supporting BuRec programs. Research on weather modification will be phased out; that for desalting will be limited. Funding for the Yuma, Ariz., desalting plant will continue after it goes back on line because of our Colorado River SIMPER SUPPLY 981 S. 1500E. (801)789-2052 Jrffcj2 Stoves 1$ 11 .-a - t s treaty obligation to Mexico. The Grand Valley desalting project near Grand Junction in Colorado may have to be reauthorized, Beard told WRW. The safety of dams program will be limited to dams where there are safety problems, and structural work will be done on dams only where there is no other alternative. The rehabilitation re-habilitation and betterment program and the distribution system loan programs will be phased out as the BuRec de-emphasizes irrigation. Major changes will be made in the structure of the BuRec. The posts of deputy commissioner and assistant commissioners will be abolished. Policy and other major decisions will be made here by Beard as Commissioner and by Edward R. Osann, another political appointee who recently came to the BuRec from the National Wildlife Federation. Osann will serve as Beard's de facto deputy as well as top lobbyist. The heavy-lifting program-wise will be done by the five existing regional re-gional offices and by about 20 new area offices to be created by the reorganization re-organization because program work of the Bureau will be decentralized, and most program decisions will be made at the regional and area levels outside of Washington. A major gripe of BuRec field offices of-fices has been the slow response of the Denver BuRec office. One regional re-gional director earlier this year said, "Denver is a black hole." He told WRW requests referred to Denver for decision making under the current cur-rent system were only responded to belatedly after repeated prodding. The directors of the five regional offices of-fices at Billings, Mont., Boise, Idaho, Boulder City, Nev., Sacramento and Salt Lake City have been given the opportunity by Beard to recommend where their new area offices should be opened. WRW asked Beard whether reorganization reor-ganization will affect one of the BuRec's most serious outstanding problems that he inherited; how to provide an outlet for drainage water in the big Central Valley Project (CVP) in California, the Crown Jewel of BuRec irrigation projects? He thought about it for a bit, then replied, "I don't know." Buck Stove Mendota Nordic Newport Heat & Clow Empire MendotaHearth CD MtMRtR, RKKV MOUNTAIN tiAH ASSOCIATION X |