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Summer Session Kansan Friday, July 20. 1962
Politics and Medicare
The saga of the New Frontier took a severe setback this week when Republicans and renegade Southern Democrats defeated Kennedy's Medicare bill 52-48.
Kennedy, to say the least, was disappointed. He promises to get even on the campaign trail this fall. A chorus of other Democrats join him.
this fall. A chorus of Republicans gleefully counter that 21 Democrats voted against the President, that this gives Kennedy the comeuppance he needs for his efforts at centralizing government, and that the defeat will certainly not hurt, even possibly help, at the polls in the fall.
HE NOTES the 21 Democrats who voted against Medicare and asks: "Is the President planning a purge of his own party?"
William E. Miller, national chairman of the Republican party says he's "amused and shocked" that Kennedy and the Democratic chairman, John M. Bailey, blame the Republicans for the defeat.
The arguments over Medicare that can be looked forward to this fall have already been previewed this week. For example, one of the Republicans who voted against the bill, Sen. Wallace F. Bennett, Utah, said: "My vote was politically right—on balance I think it can only help me win." Another, Sen. Homer Capehart, Indiana, said: "I'm thoroughly convinced that the great majority of people in Indiana are opposed to handling health insurance the way the administration wanted it."
He fails to note, however, that the Democrats who voted against Medicare were largely Southern, who have often been at odds with the rest of the Democratic party. Kennedy can probably ignore this faction in his campaign trail without a lessening of party solidarity resulting.
IN RETURN, Kennedy urged voters to register their protest by returning in November "a Congress that will support a program like medical care for the aged."
Thus the battle lines are drawn. Undoubtedly they will consist of the same vague generalities that have surrounded Medicare since its conception. Thanks to the almost omnipotent American Medical Association, the Medicare bill has turned into whatever you want it to be. The AMA says the bill will cause this; Kennedy says it won't; and John Doe says he doesn't care.
No one knows who is right. Medicare has turned into an ogre that hangs around the back
of the public mind without ever being seen clearly.
IT STARTED out as a panacea for the health problems of the aged in the United States. It would eliminate the worry that someday all their savings might be wiped out by an unforseen illness. It would be a follow up to Social Security in protecting the aged.
Immediately, legislators proceeded against the bill. The Republicans said it was an unwanted, dangerous step toward further centralization of the already too-powerful national government. The Kerr-Mills bill employing state option was satisfactory they said.
It would increase the tax burden and protect those who didn't need the protection, they added.
Quickly, the AMA was on the bandwagon: It would create havoc by encouraging people to use hospitals who didn't need them. It would set up government control over the medical profession and lower quality of service. Every AMA publication carried at least one tirade against the bill. A group of New Jersey doctors said they wouldn't treat anyone under the provisions of Medicare and created a controversy that still hasn't died completely. The bill was a step toward socialized medicine, they said.
IN REPLY, Kennedy said the attacks were baseless. The country needs Medicare, he said: Those who are against it must have ulterior motives. Groups of elderly citizens conspired to aid Kennedy's work for the bill. Opponents charged that Kennedy had set up the groups himself to impress opponents of the desire for the bill.
AND SO IT continued until Tuesday when the Senate slapped him down, 52-48. The House has the bill deadlocked in committee and to all appearances will keep it there. Now the fall campaigns are to be the scene of the argument.
Kennedy took to the air and broadcast pleas for support. Opponents charged him with cheap theatrics unworthy of a president.
They will be the same ones voters have been hearing. It's an optimist indeed who thinks he can make political hay out of the Medicare bill. It's surrounded by confusion and complexity, neither of which makes for gaining or losing many votes. There will be a lot said, but little listened to in the Medicare fight this fall.
-Karl Koch
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By Betty Laird
RIMBAUD, introduction and verse translation by Oliver Bernard (Penguin Books, $1.65).
The French poet, Arthur Rimbaud, has not been well known in this country until recently when Enid Starkie's revised biography stirred popular interest. This growing recognition will be further encouraged by Oliver Bernard's new French-English collection of nearly all of Rimbaud's writings. It is by far the most extensive collection using English translations.
Arthur Rimbaud, a precocious juvenile delinquent who stopped writing at 18, is generally recognized as a great or nearly great poet, and indeed is credited with unintentionally becoming the inspiration for the symbolist movement in France. His poetry ranges from the graceful, carefree style of his early work, through the bitter scatology of his middle period, to his powerful and vivid introspective prose poem, "Une Saison En Enfer," probably his last.
Bernard provides his readers with letters and a biographical sketch based largely on Starkie's book, which, incidentally, he should reread to correct some of his references. He then devotes the major portion of his book to the collection of poems in French using the lower third of each page for English prose translations in smaller type. This has the effect of emphasizing the original and at the same time providing a literal translation for those who read French poorly or not at all. He unblushingly includes all the four-letter words for which Rimbaud was famous in his middle period and makes no attempt to gloss over the vulgarity as have most previous translators.
Although prose translators naturally neglect the interpretation and style offered by the less literal translators whose works would probably be more profitable for the beginner, Bernard's book is enthusiastically recommended for anyone who likes poetry and reads some French or who already has an interest in Arthur Rimbaud.
By Clarke Keys
* *
THE MOUSE THAT ROARED, by Leonard Wibberley (Bantam, 40 cents).
Few literary efforts at delightful farce succeed as well as Wibberley's "The Mouse That Roared." And yet the farce has a serious ring of truth as the 20 longbowmen from the Duchy of Grand Fenwick invade—and capture—New York City in an effort to obtain financial aid from the United States.
It is refreshing to read a truly funny book that also contains a message. It is like an oasis among the diatribes of sex, passions and evil that flood today's bookstands.
SUMMER SESSION KANSAN
NEWS DEPARTMENT
Steve Clark and Karl Koch Co-Editors
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Bonnie McCullough and Bill Woodburn ... Co-Business Mgrs.
An Analysis
Urbanization - Problems of Suburbia
Modern suburbia is at the same time the butt of many jokes, the object of biting satire, the recipient of searing criticism and the dreamed-of paradise of the city-dweller.
EDITOR'S NOTE: The following article was written by Walter Blackledge, managing editor of alumni publications, during graduate school. Journalism this spring at KU. He has been a minister in Presbyterian churches at Oakley and Pasadena frequently in the awarenes Presbyterian church during the past year.
Following World War II, returning veterans with the benefits of special home loan programs led the mass march to the booming housing developments fringing the large cities of the country. An American dream of green lawns, tidy flowerbeds, room for the children to play and a can of beer on the patio Saturday afternoon seemed to capture the imagination of the middle class masses.
PEOPLE WANTED to get away from the crowded streets of the cities and into the open. They wanted (for some strange reason) to be able to mow lawns, plant flowers and breed large numbers of roping children. David Riesman, of the department of social relations of Harvard University, says of the migration "to the country":
The growth of the suburbs, whatever people sought in them, brought many significant problems. The problems varied somewhat according to types of suburban development:
"Sometimes it seems to me . that what people are seeking in the suburbs is a kind of pre-industrial incompetence and inefficiency."
- The lack of adequate facilities. Recreation facilities, in particular, are examples of what is meant here. In the rush to build houses and to make as much profit as possible from available land, some developers have neglected to set aside recreation space in their housing developments. This is particularly true in the unincorporated tracts where there is no governmental unit with adequate jurisdiction over the development to ensure adequate planning for parks, playgrounds, golf courses, etc.
1. Housing developments in the fringe area around the cities. These developments are not incorporated. They are outside the city limits, but do not have municipal governments of their own. Separate developments are usually scattered around the cities and are interspersed with commercial and industrial development.
SOME OF the main problems of these extra-urban areas are listed by the editors of Fortune magazine in their book, "The Exploding Metropolis." Among the larger problems are:
THE NEW AREAS have to be furnished with new schools, streets, sewers, water lines, power, garbage disposal services, and all the other services of the city. In many instances, the tax burden has proved to be greater in the suburbs than in the main city. Robert C. Wood, in his book "Suburbia: Its People and their Politics," writes:
- What the editors of Fortune call "urban sprawl." With the varied types of development taking place around cities — some development controlled by planning and other development not controlled — growth is hodgepodge. Often, vacant areas are left which are too small to be of practical use for development and become "wastelands" scattered amongst suburban developments. Undesirable commercial developments are often located near housing areas, unsightly billboards clutter the landscape, and potentially pleasant areas are ruined by a variety of poorly planned and aesthetically ruinous eyesores.
- The costs of living in suburban developments. Much of the movement to the suburbs was accompanied by the belief that in the area beyond the corporate limits of the large city a family could escape the high taxes of the city. The editors of Fortune comment that young married couples in the $7,000-$8,000 income group were seeking an economic impossibility—a high level of municipal services combined with low taxes.
2. Incorporated communities within the metropolitan area. Sometimes there are little towns which were, at one time, some distance from the main city. Housing developments and commercial building have reached out from the city and surrounded the town. These incorporated villages also may be new development areas which have their own municipal government, services, zoning laws, etc.
"The burdens of initial investments required to subdue the hinterland, the large number of school children, the provision of basic public utilities, make suburban governments potentially the most expensive of all local governments in the next twenty-five years."
Wood gives three aspects of the problem of suburban expenses:
"The pressures on the suburb are essentially three; it faces sizable new responsibilities of modern positive government; it has an apparent shortage of financial resources, made all the more severe by an antiquated tax system; and it is experiencing increasing difficulty in obtaining the natural resources on which the existence of its inhabitants depends."
P S
KG
The California study suggests several ways that have been or are being tried in metropolitan areas to deal with the most wasteful aspect of suburban growth: confusion of jurisdiction or overlapping of jurisdiction or lack of it, so that the lack of planning multiplies the costly problems.
A study made in California, however, indicates that governmental and service costs are not necessarily higher in the suburbs than in the large cities. Careful planning and coordination in the metropolitan area can avoid many of the difficulties which raise suburban costs. There is, however, a considerable lack of such planning and coordination in most metropolitan areas.
These ways of dealing with metropolitan growth, involving governmental reorganization, are:
- Large-scale annexation of fringe areas by the central city.
- City-county structural consolidation, so that one governmental unit covers the entire city-county area.
- Reallocation of functions between city and county governments (sometimes called functional consolidation) so that, even though the governmental units remain separate, they do not duplicate efforts, but complement each other.
- Utilization of single or multiple purpose metropolitan districts or authorities, providing services not limited by the city limits.
- City-county contracts for the exchange of services so that communities in the ambiguous fringe areas receive adequate services without confusion about who is to furnish those services.
- Development of some kind of two-level system involving federation or the borough plan, so that different governmental units in the metropolitan area are bound together to cooperate and to delegate certain authority to the level with wider jurisdiction.
Whatever the problems of the suburbs, Wood seems to have a considerable amount of confidence in the ability of suburbanites to find solutions. He says:
"The longer the public problems of suburbia are studied, the more impressive become the qualities of suburban tenacity and inventiveness which preserve the grassroots in the face of the continuing challenges of modern life."