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Show T till "JJntilled ground, however rich, will bring forth thistles atxj thorns; so also the mind ofman. ' ' ' St. Teresa ofA vila, Spanish nun ( 1515-158- t I I 1 r-- 1 O s r i r!i O n r-- " 1 1 .1 f n vl 2) i The Daily Herald ii li Friday, December 3, 1993 SI III f GefWSBMC6 sf Life is hard for the family man or woman toiling for $4,25 an hour, the federal minimum wage. Even working full-tim- e, year-roun- this breadwin- d, ner does not bring home enough income to place a family of three above the poverty line. The simple solution, at least to the minds of folks like Labor Secretary Robert Reich and Vermont Rep. Bernard Sanders, is to raise the minimum wage and index it to inflation. That would go a long way, they would argue, toward fulfilling President Clinton's expressed goal of "making work single parents with children. but As with most public policy, a higher minimum wage will produce unintended consequences. Let us say that an employer can afford 100 workers at the present minimum wage. With a 10 percent hike (which the Clinton administration favors) he can only afford 90. That means 10 workers are in jeopardy of losing their jobs. So what is the best way to help working poor families without hurting them by raising the federal minimum tax wage? Through the earned-incom- e credit. It amounts to a cash rebate to families. By 1995, the credit will be sufficient to push the well-meani- pay." We beg to differ. The weight of evidence argues against a higher minimum wage. It is an inefficient way to help the working poor. And it actually may leave some in a worse economic position. Here's why: Some 80 percent of those working for minimum wages are households. And members of 2$ percent of those are in households boasting yearly incomes of more than $50,000. Only 5 percent are among the most needful category of working poor non-po- low-inco- e minimum wage income of workers above poverty level. tax credit The higher earned-incom- e will do far more good for America's working poor than a higher minimum wage. The Clinton administration and Congress should leave well enough full-tim- or alone. Don't stop the music Editor: The School Fees Task Force of the Utah Legislature has been meeting on a monthly basis for most of the year in an attempt to develop policies concerning fees and fee waivers in Utah's public schools. Its chief source of imput has been a similar task force oul of the state office of education, which has provided the legislative committee with a number of recommendations. We feel that the public should be made aware of some of these recommendations which, if implemented, could drastically change the quality of education in our school system. The first recommendation would remove band and orchestra programs from the regu- lar school day in all state elementary schools because participation may require a band instrument rental. This is being proposed in response to an interpretation of section of the Utah Code, which states that a fee may not be required for school activities during school hours. The second recommendation states that by the 1995-9- 6 school year no fees may be charged for any program such as choir, debate, band and orchestra, academic teams, drill teams, and athletic teams. If these programs are to continue, then funds must be found within the school system or raised through taxation. While the goal of a free education for all is admirable, our experience shows us that the above recommendations are highly impractical and, ultimately, detrimental. Having lived in the state long enough, we know that the schools do not have the financial ability to provide for all of these program. Their only choice will be to curtail these program! Citizens will not raise taxes to cover the additional financial burdens, and students will be discriminated against if their 53A-12-1- programs are dropped or seriously 03 cur- tailed. '. The movement to limit school music programs or moving elementary programs out of the daily curriculum flies in the face of current studies. A Rockefeller Foundation study found that music majors have the highest rate of admittance to medical school, music students score significantly higher on students the ACT test than school music stuand 1989), high dents hold a higher GPA than students (HORNE.1983). In addition, studies have shown that learning to play a musical instrument helps students develop . ing in the eye of the storm and on the edge. We applaud their efforts to continue living their high profile lives, filled with chaotic republicity and much public discussion garding their character, value system, and level of dignity. An associate member package is being sent to them, along withour utmost respect. We hope that it will help relieve a little of the hysterical amount of pressure they are subjected to on a daily basis. Our new honorary members are: President William Clinton (can't believe he took the job). Howard Stern (we love all his private parts). Roseanne Arnold (in honor of her "new" look). Rush Limbaugh (on loan from God?) Susan Powter (we hope she stops the insanity!) David Letterman (we just love the guy). Kathie Lee Gifford (keep saying it live!) Michael Jackson (we feel he should face the music). Shannon Doherty (and happily ever after?) Mary Jo Butafuoco (for standing by her man. . .) Our general membership is open to anyone who has experienced or understands hysterical behavior in any degree, and wants to share in our common goal of acknowledging this human condition, which we feel is created by the everyday stress of living in the 1990s. Join us! If you or your readers would like further information about our organization please write to: National Hysterical Society, Drawer 417, Oceanside, Ca 92049 or call us at (619) 966-110-0. Thank you for allowing us to let people in your area know about our new members, we appreciate it. RandiLazar Executive Director Oceanside, CA No Christmas cards Editor: I have noticed the last few years that when I look for Christmas cards I can't find any. I find holiday cards. Since 1962, when the Supreme Court, for the first time, struck down school prayer, it st took years before the minority people found a way to take Christ out of the government. I have been watching the court methodically expelling other religious principles; the effects have been evident. S.A.T. scores have declined over 400 percent. Teen pregnancies, divorce, and violent crimes, like faster physically, mentally, emotionally, gangs and drive by shootings have risen and socially; improves listening skills, read- over 450 percent. and intellectual deI believe we are being slowly moved ing, skills, velopment. away from our Christian heritage. I don't - The legislative task force will have one believe it's the store owners fault. I do think more meeting on Monday, Dec. 13, at 3:30 the companies that used to print the traditional Christmas cards are purposely leaving p.m. in room 305 of the state capitol building. We would encourage all parents to Christ out of Christmas cards, for whatever contact their state legislators and encourage reason. them not to abolish band and orchestra proMy suggestion is, when you are shopping for your Christmas cards this year, and you grams from the school day in elementary schools and to seek for solutions to keep can only find holiday cards, ask to speak to music programs strong in our secondary the owner or the manager of the store. schools. Inform him or her of your findings and let Larry Chandler him or her know of your feelings. Don't buy Salt Lake City holiday cards. Tell them that you might Leanna Willmore come back next year and spend your money Salt Lake City at this store if they will sell Christmas John Turner cards. Kearns Go to another store that does sell real Gordon Steed Christmas cards. You might pay a little Orem more but whose birthday are we celebrating anyway? Vernon Baugh non-mus- ic (AS-MU- ylQcJfu hss I qvq awair wiin - s !ssS "WHO CARES IF THEY PASS A TOUGH NEW TAX ON AMMO? ... WE CAN ALWAYS WRITE OFF OUR BULLETS AS A BUSINESS EXPENSE!" anti-Chri- S, WASHINGTON Red Smith, best sports columnist of the century, liked to chuckle about the bellicose rage of his sports editor, Stanley Woodward, over one of Smith's columns. "Dammit, Red," bellowed Woodward, "stop godding up these two-b- it ball play- ers!" thought of Woodward's complaint during the furor over Ed Rollins' shenanigans in the New Jersey governor's race. Maybe it's time we stopped "godding up" these two-b- it political hired guns. Face it, these overpuffed gurus with their macho gamesmanship, blather and media spinning have become stars who outglitter the candidates. But their stardom is as phony as that of third-rat- e Elvis imitators in fake I talk-sho- w gold-and-whi- te suits. And now? "They've become celebrities," says political scientist Larry Sabato. "It's totally out of hand. Their egos, and the media's willingness to feed them, overshadow issues, candidates full-fledg- f; Sandy x SfEfSy KRT News Service kicked your ,'" Rollins testified. "That was my motivation. That was my game. " It's all a game, see. A chess match of egos between Masters of the Universe. No surprise that the burly, bearded Rolfrom his Reagan lins, on a roller-coastglory years to an aborted takeoff with Ross Perot, should see Carville as a nemesis to shoot down. James Carville is the King Big Daddy of hired guns. Star of a movie about the a-- er Poor, naive voters in New Jersey, who dumbly thought the governor's contest was between Republican Christine Whitman and Democrat Jim Florio. Smart Washington insiders saw it as a heavyweight war of Big Guns Ed Rollins vs. James Carville. Rollins "won," then in blaze of hubris before a breakfast table of reporters talked himself into huge trouble. "I spun myself out of control," he later confessed. Now, I have no idea about the veracity of Rollins' brag (and later retraction) that he doled out $500,000 to black preachers to suppress the black vote. State and federal investigators are still probing . But anyone who knows anything about street money usually around $50,000 has to guffaw at Rollins' fantasy. If Rollins handed out a bucks on the street, he was Santa Claus with a Brinks truck. I can Rollins, though, when He blames his outburst on "two min" in a contest utes of unadulterated bull of "idiotic game playing" to put down archrival Carville. "I expected that two or three reporters would call Carville, get him out of his fetal position, and say, 'Here is how Rollins half-milli- semi-belie- ve Clinton campaign, "The War Room." Speeches at $15,000 a pop. A milion-dolla book with contract to d moll Mary Matalin. Last week's nuptials of James and Mary drew such a media swoon, you'd think Fabio had wedded Madonna. "I can't go out in public," grumbles Carville. He couldn't even campaign with his boss in New Jersey because he'd up- ar co-wri- te Bush-hire- Hysterical group Editor: At the recent annual board of directors meeting of the National Hysterical Society, the official list of new honorary associate members was named for 1993. - The following people have been recognized for their various achievements in maintaining a politial correctness while liv Orem Utters policy Address letters to PO Box 717, Provo. UT84603. They must Ix signed and include writer's address, and dhytime phone number for verification. and parties." ed : Hyping hired guns into celebrity-hoo- d neuhas turned into a wacky, power-ma-d rosis. One reason is the enormous clout of negative TV ads. Down in the polls, a candidate says, "Get me Carville!" (Or one of 100 Carville wannabes.) But the fault, dear Brutus, is not in the stars but in ourselves meaning reporters like this one who can't resist treating poli' tics as an insider's game. When I confess. discovered I'll OK, James Carville in his blue jeans and runI ning shoes, firing Cajun thought he was more intriguing than winner Harris Wofford in his Pennsylvania Senate race. That's the rub. We love characters. Wfe like inside dope. The candidates operate behind a screen of rhetoric; So we feast oh Rollins' gutsy candor. We dig Carville because he's funny, up front. Trying t)a zap interest into issues and the contest, we magnify offbeat gurus. books, la 1960s' trend begun by Theodore White and continued by Jack Germond and Jules Witcover, keep up the guru glorification . one-liner- s, Inside-the-ga- post-electi- Sure, Clark Clifford scripted Harry Truman's 1948 comeback; no one dared claim that he made Truman. Maybe things changed when Hamilton Jordan plotted Jimmy Carter's 1976 victory. Or when the late Lee Atwater was extolled as Reagan's Re"This Rollins business," has Deardourff John consultant publican said, "is the inevitable end of lionizing political consultants. It's a sickness wih the democratic process. ' ' f was who perRollins, like Roger Ailes, Hor-to- n haps unfairly tainted by 1988 Willie ads, is a pariah. Maybe he'll be back. But Rollins' braggadocio blew a whistle on n consultants and their slick arrothat turns politics into a cynic's gance poker game. The rest of us should listen to Stanley Woodward: Stop godding up these hired hit man. guns. stage him. How did we reach this absurdity of Hired-Gu- n Mania? Hard to believe that candidates once got along without top-doll- high-profi- le "consultants." The campaign manager was a backroom Who was Lincoln's guru? cigar-chewin- g, non-entit- y. old-ha- nd j. top-gu- v Panetta addresses Social Security's ills - With the Social SeWASHINGTON curity Administration buried under an avalanche of disability claims, Office of Management and Budget Director Leon Panetta told us he is vexed by the following non-mus- ic self-estee- nsi question: "How do you try to correct that system without looking like you're kicking the crutches out from under people who deserve to be on disability?" Panetta predicts that reining in runaway disability programs will be politically perilous. It will have to be undertaken without greatly expanding the agency's manpower, without moral support from Congress and without making war with SSA's politically potent constituency of disability claimants. Panetta is skeptical that the Clinton ministration can even push disability adre- forms through the constituent-minde- d Congress. "I saw this as a congressman... but from this position now I can see the consequences of it," Panetta told us. "If you're on the Hill, you have to be the champion of these cases. There's no question about that," The current crisis has been sparked by a dramatic surge of disability applicants. To qualify for Social Security disability payments people must have a medical problem that will prevent them from working for one year or is expected to result in death. Since 1989, one year after Congress began appropriating up to $6 million per year for SSA for advertising its benefits, the number of disability applicants has leaped by 40 percent from 2.5 million per year to 3.5 million per year. Panena has rare praise for the Clinton administration's Republican predecessors. He sympathizes with the Reagan adminis- - Syndicated Columnist tration's failed effort to increase funding to uncover disability claim fraud. "Even that created some problems on the Hill," Panetta says. (Disability reform) is a very sensitive political area.... In the early 1980s Reagan started to try to do some" thing about it. . . and it blew up. At this moment, 700,000 disability applicants, some "severely disabled," are waiting for a response from SSA. The reaverage waiting time for an initial 100 is Apfrom the days. agency sponse pealing an SSA decision can take another year to 18 months. Processing new claims takes precedence over policing old ones for fraud. A General Accounting Office report concludes that SSA has lost $1.4 billion by reducing the number of reviews it has conducted since 1 990. "You have a double problem here," said Panetta. "People who legitimately in qualify for disability are being held up time. of some instances for a long period Meanwhile, there are other people who may have been put in the disability programs for no good reason and you can't get to those people because you don't have the capacity to review." Agency officials say they are concerned that many people are suffering while waiting for bureaucrats to sift through a paperwork maze. "When you've got 700,000 people on the waiting list, there's no question you've got some hardship cases," one SSA official told our associate Andrew Conte. "We handle over a million cases a year. Even if we are able to help 99 percent of the people, one percent of a million is still a lot of people." In the small-tow- n Social Security offices, breaking the bad news is heartbreaking. "That's tough on everybody," one field office employee tolims. "People in this line of work like helping other people, so you have to steel yourself. You can't wear your heart on your sleeve because" it certainly has an effect. ' ' Case workers have pleaded with Congress and OMB for more funds and increased personnel and Congress has but Panetta doubts stepped up spending it's that simple. "You have a perfect example of what I think is a bureaucratic nightmare," said Panetta. "How do you deal with it? Part of the answer is another part is technology. But even right now when we talk to (Health and Human Services) they say even if we gave them more resources and a few more people, (Social Security disability pro; grams) would still have a backlog." Failing to face up to reality, says Panetta, reminds him of how Washington has whitewashed other disasters such as the savings and loan crisis. "This is one!of those issues that I saw so often when I was on the Hill and now I see it here," warned Panetta. "The danger is that the only way that you can ultimately deal with it is if Miiiie scandal breaks cut.... But at that point you've already gone off the edge. " J. es, |