OCR Text |
Show Friday. Opinions: Herald in Washington Pendulum Swings Back By LEE RODERICK may have another wave ot ac- Herald Washington Bureau celerating inflation, but, if so, that WASHINGTON — The cynicalin- will be the last one. Government vasion of Afghanistan by Soviet policy is turning in an antidirection...1 think we Union is an ominous, though fitting. inflati preludeto the decade of the 80's — a will take the hard medicine.” On the other hand, while a tax cut decade bristling with challenges for inay be precisely the wrong the world United States. _ Those yore diehards who in- medicine, that may well be what sisted throughout the 70s that the Congress gives the nation in this Russians changed their spots — 1980 election year. Some political despite all the evidence to the con- analysts here believe the pressures trary — have been proved wrong to do so will becomeirresistible, given the current horrendousinflaond any doubt. SALTtreaty with Russia is as tion rate of 13 percent and the good as dead. And that's only the likelihood of a serious recession this start of a new and more dangerous year. There will be few complaints from relationship between East and West. Defense experts agree that the most hard-pressed Americans if a tax cut dangerous period for the West will is in the offing. Middle-income comeearly in the 1980s, when the citizens especially have taken it on landbased portion of America’s the chin. Thehugesocialsecurity increases nucleararsenalwill be vulnerable to a knockout blow from increasingly hit these workers hardest. And the basic tax brackets themselves have accurate Soviet missiles. It is unlikely that any such become weighted against middlecataclysmic eventwill happen. Why income workers. For example, in should the Soviets take such grave 1963 a taxable income of $8,000 risks whenthe forcesof change have $12,000 was subject to a marginal been so clearly on their side in re- tax rate of 26 percent. In 1979 that centyears? Yetthe possibility alone income was equivalent to $18,853 $28,279 and subjectto a marginal tax casts a pall over the new decade. Atthe sametime,there are seeds rate of 28 to 37 percent. Whatelse can be expected in the of optimism sprouting from Afghanistan, as well as from the 80's? “In education,” writes Jeane continuingcrisis in Iran. As a nation we seem to be joining in a consensus Kirkpatrick, ncted author and at last that it is high time for professor of government at America to shake off its Vietnam Georgetown University, ‘‘one sees complex and flex some muscle in the ‘back to basics’ movement,after the faces of those who have kicked a period of delight with open clasus and our allies around with such srooms. There is in fact a marked swing back toward discipline in impunity. Inflation and the economy education. “Something of the same sort is generallywill continueto be of overriding concern to Americans in the evident concerning women’s roles, 1980’s. Yet here, too, there is long- The extremes of women’sliberation term optimism after near-term dif- fervor, it seems to me, have begun to recede. Instead there is reaffirficutly. = ««Assuming that we have had no mation of the importance of choice international catastrophe in the in- and the importance of family.” Michael Novak, resident scholar terval, I think in 1989 we will be feeling pretty optimistic about the in religion and public policy at the economy,” writes noted economist American Enterprise Institute, and a syndicated columnist, says that in Herbert Stein. ‘‘We will have experienced a fairly uncomfortable the 80’s the nation urgently needs and grinding period, but by 1989 we “somepublic policy idea that aims us into the future...There is a should have comeoutofit. “During the early 80s, we are go- tremendous (world) need for housing to go through a period of slow ing, clothing,a stable supply offood, growth, farily high unemployment clinics, schools. “Tt is irresponsible to talk about and very restrictive fiscal and monetary policies that will over a an end to the era of growth. The period, say, of five years or so, get world simply must expand its the inflation rate down very much materialbase. I am appalled by the Prince and Princess of Darkness, below whereit is now. v2 “There's going to be a lot of un- Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden, who happiness and strife during this wantto turn off the lights justat this intermediate period, but when it’s point.” over, we'll come out into a more “For us, adds Novak,“liberty is satisfactory economy, operating at a means and an end. It's a a high level of employment, with both means to material abundance. more stable prices and probably Material abundance for what? For with the resumption of more rapid the exercise of liberty. We must growth in productivity.” Stein, former chairman of the regain that idea in our foreign President's Council of Economic policy,in our foreign aid programs’ advisers, addsthat ‘‘I don’t see any we've got to subvert the world with great depression” coming. ‘We this idea of liberty.”” Berry's World January 11, 1980. THE HERALD, Provo, Utah—Page 29 What the Herald thinks, what the columnists say and what our readers think /TT\ The Herald Comments BureaucracyStill Growing President Carter promised to cut back the burgeoning federal bureaucracy — but he hasn’t earned thetitle of giant killer yet. Proxmire was quoted as saying. ‘The added staff is then used to justify new buildings, more restaurants, added parking spaces...”” Proxmire has support for Neither has Congress. his view. ‘‘Staff runs Indeed, Sen. William ProxCongress,” the Journal mire of Wisconsin, who quoted Sen. Barry delights in calling attention Goldwater of Arizona as to ridiculous federal saying. ‘You get off the spending programs, chose elevator to vote and you ongress for his ‘‘Golden Fleece’ award a few have to beat your way through 50 or 60 of them months ago. He called attention to a 270 percent standing around. “eruption’’ of congressional staff and payroll in Another Arizonan, Morris Udall, chairman of the House Interior Committee. said: ‘‘You can become a prisoner of your staff .. Congress ought to focus on the big issues. But I spend about half my time in fights that my staff or somebody else's staff gets me into.” Both houses of Congress beefed up staffs in the late 1960s and early 70s because they felt ‘‘outgunned’’ by bureaucrats the White House could mobilize to bs its own projects. ‘ommittees and subcommittes grew also. The House now has168 standing committes and subcommittes whose staff needs must be supplied. Chairman Richard Bolling of the House Rules Committee noted that the legislative process was being ‘‘fragmented’’ by proliferation of committees plus repeated scheduling and personnelconflicts. Rep. Thomas Ashley of Ohio headed a special committee in the last Congress to coordinate some 83 House committees with a hand in energy policy. And to study the over-all committee expansion, the Housecreated still another agency last March, the Committee on Committees. The new panel has suggested scrapping nearly two dozen subcommittees. It appears there is considerable congressional agreement, in principle, that streamlining is necessary. Congress should move with dispatch to accomplish this goal and otherwise trim its own bureaucracy. You WANTED KENNEDV. You BEGGED FoR KENNEDY. You JOINED A DRAFT KENNEDY GROUP. G0 KENNEDY'S RUNNING. $0 NOW WHAT’S the last decade. Claimed the Wisconsin legislator: ‘Senators and staff are stumbling over themselves.” A recent issue of Wall Street Journal, which cited committee as well as staff expansion, said the Senate now averages 68 staffers per senator, double the ratio of a decade ago. The combined House and Senate staff has grown tm18,400 from 11,700 since 1968, and the combined annual payroll has jumped to $550 million from $150 million. “Additional staff generates additional bills and additional work,”’ THE MATTER? Letters to The Daily Herald Editor Amento Editorial on Taxes Being Too High Editor, Herald: Josephine Zimmerman wasright on the beat in her Jan. 4 editorial when she stated that taxes are too high, If anything is a pain the neck it’s got to be taxes. Our English word “tax” was actually adopted, by use, from the old French word ‘‘taxe,” which means “taxer,” or “to tax.” The French stateman Jean Baptiste (1619-1683) once stated: ‘The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest amount of feathers with the least amount of issing The French word ‘‘taxe’’ actually was adopted from the old Roman (or Latin) word ‘‘taxare,”” meaning ‘to appraise, tax, or censure.’ The economic principle of taxation apparently originated as far back as about 600 B.C., in Latinium, in the proximity of ancient Rome. That taxation was used may be one of the reasons why Roman civilization reached such a high level of rosperity. When the “‘taxares”” ame to excessive, however, and the ruling class indulgedtoo greatly in wild gladiatorial stadium sports, and when the persecutions of the downtrodden becametoo great, the prosperity of Romewentinto sharp decline. While the economic principle of ‘taxation,’ per se, has been used actively throughout history by the Romans, French, English and Americans. and others, there is no evidence that taxes are a universal law of nature. A principle that can best be described as ‘negativetaxation’ has often been used, for example, where citizens (like mercenaries and scientists) have been paic to be brought into a overnment’sparticular circle ofinfiaea The old adage that: “Only two thingsinlife are sure — taxes and death,’’ is ridiculously simplistic and absurd and can no longer be trusted forits validity. The dictionary gives one modern definition of tax as ‘‘an assessment, rate, tribute, or toll.’’ Another meaningoftax says: ‘To load with a burden or burdens; to make demandson; to put to a certainstrain; as, to tax the memory.” The Latin “taxare’ probably was derived from ‘tag,’ root of ‘tangere,’ to touch. Are taxes in America too high? Longago, the American oculist and writer Austin O'Malley (1858-1932) complained: ‘In levying taxes and in shearing sheep it is well to stop when you get downto the skin.’” Mark Twain apparently thought differently. He once asked: ‘‘Whatis the difference between a taxidermist and a tax collector?” His answer: ‘‘The taxidermist takes only your skin.’’ More true now than when hesaid it is a statement by Will Rogers: ‘The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than gold has.”’ In myopinion, tax collectors are now too powerful. Atthis position in history thetaxcollectors are all too similar to vampires, or huge mosquitoes, and I think it’s time everyone acknowledge that their fangs are embedded so deeply into our necksthat we, as a nation, have become too numb andbloodless to resist them. Our nation might well go into a swift decline because taxes are now too high and socially destructive. The federal IRS taxes, along with the states’ manylittle bloodsucker taxes, have pushed the American peopleto the edgeof total disgust. A recent poll conducted by the Tribuneindicates that Utahcitizens hate the property tax more than any of the taxes that are attached to us. Too often, I think, all of us forget about the little parasite payments that go with food,gasoline, and upon hidden levels we don’t ordinarily recognize. The bureacratic government system is too big, football is too popular, and the future is forcefully being made unsure of itself. The sales, income, and property taxes (among others) are all involuntary taxes. These involuntary taxes are in total contradiction to the traditional, or original constitutional American vaiues of freedom and liberty. The American nation was founded and revived upon a lively tax revolt. Today we have cometo the a position sree any person, by speaking out publicly agueat the sopo-fashioned IRS bureaucratic system, likely brings an audit upon his head. I hope all local citizens, and all lovers of freedom,give total moral supportto the valiant BYU officials who are struggling against the corrupt IRS attorneys and auditors. Our founding fathers often voiced the hope that the revolt they started would perpetuate itself peacefully into future history. The writer Bernard Berenson once wrote: ‘‘Governments last as long as the under-taxed can defend themselvesagainstthe over-taxed.”” One of the richest men in US. history, J. Pierpont Morgan, said: “Anybodyhasa right to evade if he can gei awaywith it. No cit has a moral obligation to assist in maintaining the government.”’ Will Rogers stated: “People want just taxes more than they want lower taxes.” I, as one overtaxed citizen, am encouraged by the Utah Legislature's property tax rebate program this year. As a symbolism I believe the rebate program is historically important. It is true that the rebate amounts were a merepittance as a payback, and the money shouldn't have been extracted from us involuntarily like it was in the first place, but at least the tax moneyis now pointed in a new direction. I think any perfect government should payits citizens if it wants them to be members of it’s society. Any government that involuntarily taxes its citizens, or steals large moneycuts from them,is only proving that it is being run in bankruptcy, and shows howlargely inefficient, unprofitable, crooked, and rotten it is. The future holds much promise if only our citizens will wake up to what is happening. Howard Jarvis, advocate of California’s Proposition 13 and author of I’m Mad as Hell, and a former Utahn, recently stated in Family Week: ‘I think the people will finally get controlof the government again in the 80's. They'll kick the clowns out, reduce government’s size, reduce taxes. A whole new breed ofpoliticians will appear — younger, inexperienced, sincere — to take the placeof the old-school crooksthat are there now. And when they do, we can start to save this country and makeit whatit should be.” To inaugurate a new road towards taxation consciousness, I think the private sector should start funding, taking over, and contracting normal bureaucratic governmentfunctions. Direct paymentfor direct use would perhaps help the most. I think parents should pay for their children's educations per allotment per head, and the establishmentof more private schools would help. Also helpful, I think, would be the establishment of toll gates ‘perpay/per-use’ on major public road artery systems.I think all of us can encourage a new beginning towards making this country whatit should Sincerely, Leon Frazier 486 S. 1450 E Provo Trip Abroad Rekindles Their Love of Country “Frankly, Homer, there's just too dern much electioneerin' going onin otherstates than New Hampshire these days. T'ain't healthy!” ee ee hm Editor, Herald: L have just returned from visitinag Russia, Italy, and Egypt withred sponso delegation of geologists by the People-to-Peoplecitizen ,ambassador program. — d When weleft Russia and arrive in Italy there was a tremendous ody (a feeling of relief felt by everybAs we group of about 45 people). that talked about it we realized had while we were in Russia there tendeveloped a strong feeling of what sion, suspicion, and fear of conmight happen. A significant fact the tributing cause of this was gs that we sensed that these feelin existed among the Russians themselves. We also noticed the person limited extent of what each was allowed to do in their jobs, they werelike robots programmed to do only so much and no more. The contrast with the people and their freedomsas seen in Italy and Egypt wasso striking that it made the situation in Russia stand out even morevividly. ‘As I have thought about this and other experiences I have hadin Russia, I have had a greaturgeto ride throughthestreets like Paul Revere shouting ‘To arms! To arms!" All that we have in our country that accepts and develops the dignity of man and encourages love, and not hate or fear, needs our support and protection constantly. — I am far more concerned with developinents in our own country ‘that undermine and destroy our strangth as a nation than lam over the crises in Iran or Afghanistan that so trouble us at present. We need to overcome our fear, and lack of responsibility as citizens, and stand up for what we feel is right, and to expose people for what they are who hide behind the banner of freedom of speech to discredit our government and our laws and institutions. Recently Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden received major newspaper and TV coverage and support in their campaign across the country trying to discredit big business — particularly those involved in nuclear power plants. I wonder, would you support someone(Jane Fonda) whois quoted, in the Detroit Free Press of November 22, 1970, astelling a student audience at Michigan State University: “1 would think that if you understood what Communism was you would hope, you would pray on your knees, that we would someday become com- munists.”* I submitthatthere has never been an ideology or government more destructive to humanlife, freedom and the dignity of man than coin- munism. If you cherish your freedom and all things that have made America great you will do your part to make sure that communism never comes to this country and support whatever can be doneto prevent any country from fallingintoits control Jess R. Bushman 1135 E. 700 N Provo |