Wednesday, Feb. 5, 1986
University Daily Kansan
Nation/World
11
Democrats stress need for change
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Democratic leaders, never able to crack President Reagan's personal popularity, responded to his State of the Union speech last night by blaming him for many of the nation's ills. They also stressed that changes were needed now to win the "contest for the future."
Sen. George Mitchell of Maine, the head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, opened and closed the Democratic response to the president's speech with warnings that the prosperity of the future depended on the difficult decisions of today concerning items such as the budget and trade deficits.
"The issue is not the outcome of old debates, or of the last election." Mitchell said.
"History won't wait for us to
quarrel about the past. We're already engaged as a country, as a people, in a contest for the future."
In addition to pushing the theme of the future, the televised response to Reagan, after the president's prime-time address, spoke of Thomas Jefferson and Harry Truman and normal Americans trying to improve their lives.
Also participating in the response were Reps. Thomas Daschel of South Dakota and William Gray of Pennsylvania, chairman of the House Budget Committee. Also, former Virginia Gov. Charles Robb and Missouri Lt. Gov. Harriett Woods, a Senate candidate.
Robb, a Marine Corps veteran, warned that military spending alone "won't make us strong. It's time to focus on what we get for our money."
Head of shelter delivers State of Homeless speech
WASHINGTON — Hours before President Reagan's State of the Union address to the nation yesterday, homeless advocate Mitch Snyder delivered a State of the Homeless speech at his downtown Washington shelter.
United Press International
Snyder, head of the Community for Creative Non-Violence, said his view of the nation differs greatly from the president's.
"We see a government, irresponsible and inefficient, cheerfully spending $600 for toilet seats and $8,000 for hammers for an already-blaeted military, while, at the same time, mercilessly slashing housing, food
and jobs programs," Snyder told a small gathering of shelter residents.
Standing on the steps of the shelter, Snyder delivered a personal message to Reagan.
"Mr. President, it does not matter how smoothly you deliver your speech tonight," he said. "One fifth of our nation is ill-housed, ill-clad and ill-nourished. That, Mr. President, is the state of our union."
Following speeches by Snyder and Robert Hayes, attorney for the New York-based National Coalition for the Homeless, six homeless children gave their own views on what it's like to live in a federally subsidized hotel for displaced families.
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Reagan says 1987 budget will meet cut
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United Press International
Overland Park, KS / 913-345-1400
WASHINGTON — President Reagan said yesterday his 1987 budget, expected to total near $1 trillion, would meet the Gramm-Rudman spending cut target without cutting Social Security or raising taxes, while continuing his military buildup.
Though Reagan did not list specifics in his upbeat State of the Union address, his budget, which comes to Congress today, is expected to include severe cuts in health programs, housing and other middle class social spending, and Democrats said yesterday that they weren't going to let Americans forget what Reagan was proposing.
Reagan said passage of the Gramm-Rudman balanced budget law "gives us the historic opportunity to achieve what has eluded our national leadership for decades — forcing the federal government to live within its means."
But Reagan disagreed with members of Congress who say taxes must be raised to meet the Gramm-Rudman deficit reduction plan without devastating budget cuts in many programs. Almost no one has suggested a general tax increase but many are looking to an oil import fee or a minimum tax on businesses as a way to raise revenue.
"It's time we reduced the federal budget and left the family budget alone," Reagan said. "We do not face large deficits because American families are undertaxed. We face those deficits because the federal government overspend."
The Mortgage Bankers Association blasted Reagan's plan to push for higher fees on government guaranteed home mortgage loans through the Veterans Administration and the Federal Housing Authority.
Reagan also said the United States "will meet our commitment to national defense" while pledging to hold the defense spending increase to the "bare minimum." Pentagon officials say that "minimum" increase will total 3 percent.
While backing Gramm-Rudman, Reagan said it was not enough and called again for a constitutional amendment to balance the budget and the power to veto individual items in appropriations bills.
Some on Capitol Hill have declared Reagan's budget "dead on arrival" but O'Neil and House Budget Committee Chairman William Gray, D.Pa., are planning to resuscitate it — at least for a while.
Earlier yesterday, House Speaker Thomas O'Neill said the White House had led Congress to believe last week that there would be 30 eliminations of departments, agencies and 'bureaus in Reagan's budget, which would show a deficit of just under the Gramm-Rudman target of $144 billion for fiscal 1987.
O'Neill pledged to bring Reagan's budget up for a vote in the House, and charged that the president's pollster had warned Republicans not to talk about the administration's budget cuts.
Rep. Mary Rose Oakar, D-Ohio,
called that approach to budget cutting
"hynocrisy."
Reports have indicated that Medicare and Medicaid will face cuts and recipients will be asked to pay higher premiums, though Reagan has pledged not to cut Social Security. The military will get a 3 percent hike, up to $311.6 billion, according to House Armed Services Committee chairman Les Aspin, D-Wis.
"He wants to cut Medicare and Medicaid over a five-year period by $50 billion, at the same time increasing Pentagon spending," she said.
"It's devastating. It shows his priorities are to clobber the elderly and poor. He may have said Social Security is not on the table, but Ronald Reagan has found another way to devastate older people."
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