NATION/WORLD UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday, December 7, 1995
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
7A
Clinton presents seven-year budget plan
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The White House began unveiling its new seven-year budget-balancing proposal to congressional Democrats yesterday. Meanwhile, President Clinton delivered his long-premised coup de grace to a Republican plan he said bore wrong-headed cuts and misplaced priorities.
Clinton dispatched Chief of Staff Leon Penetta to the Capitol to brief House and Senate Democrats about the package, which the administration plans to present to Republicans today.
Compiled with a proposal Clinton made in June, the new plan is
expected to contain deeper cuts in welfare and many domestic programs, additional limits on business tax breaks and perhaps a smaller tax cut for families. But it will call for the same savings of $124 billion from Medicare and $54 billion from Medicaid that he had sought earlier.
The new proposal was a concession to GOP demands that the president propose a detailed seven-year package.
"At least we've got a document we can negotiate from," said Rep. David Hobson, R-Ohio, a senior member of the House Budget Committee. "In the
The plan, drafted chiefly by administration officials, left some congressional Democrats skeptical about the size of its tax cuts and its savings in Medicare and Medicaid.
past, they had nothing but a news release and platitudes."
Meanwhile, Clinton vetoed the seven-year budget-balancing package that Republicans pushed through Congress last month, which capped their drive to shrink government.
Clinton criticized the GOP plan, saying it would slash harshly that program and Medicaid, education, environment and welfare while shrinking
tax breaks for millions of the working poor.
The GOP measure would have pared taxes for many families and businesses by $245 billion, an amount the administration wants to reduce by more than half. The bill also would have dramatically reworked healthcare programs for the elderly and poor, forcing savings of $270 billion from Medicare and $163 billion from Medicare. For technical reasons, the amounts of savings Clinton and the Republicans have proposed are not directly comparable.
According to administration and
congressional sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, Clinton's new plan was expected to:
Save $49 billion from welfare, about $15 billion more than he proposed in June but well below GOP plans.
Eliminate the $57 billion increase Clinton had proposed for annually approved domestic programs.
Save about $20 billion by changing the government's yearly calculation of the inflation rate. This change would slow increases in Social Security benefits and push more people into higher tax brackets.
Judges debate sides of military's gay policy
The Associated Press
RICHIOND, Va. — Judges of a federal appeals court spent more than an hour asking pointed questions of both sides in an appeal of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy in homosexuality.
"We hope it works out sooner than later," Allan B. Moore, an attorney for former Navy Lt. Paul Thomisson, said Tuesday after arguments before the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The appeals court usually takes a few months to decide cases, and any ruling is likely to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Thomason was dismissed in June after telling his commander he was gay, and a federal judge found the policy constitutional.
A three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit hear his appeal in September and took the highly unusual step of sending he case directly to the full 13-judge court for review. In most cases, die of the parties in an
appeal must ask for the full-court hearing. Some judges seemed reluctant to interfere with the authority of Congress and the president to run the military.
"Isn't it rash for us to jump in and say discharges reached under this statute are unconstitutional?" asked Judge J. Harwil Wilkinson III.
A few judges questioned whether a service member would be dismissed for making other statements that could be linked to illegal acts. For example, Judge Diana Motz asked if someone who described himself as an old-fashioned Mormon could be assumed to engage in bigamy.
Some judges questioned whether Thomasson's acknowledgment should have been sufficient to end his career.
"What harm has Mr. Thomasson done to the military?" Judge K.K. Hall asked Deputy Solicitor General Ed Kneedler.
Kneedler said the military had the right to discharge an openly homosexual member to protect unit cohesion.
"It is not prejudice. It is prudence," he said.
Moore argued that the policy violated the right to free speech.
"If you admit being gay, then you are subject to dismissal. If you're otherwise the same person and you don't speak, you're not subject to discharge," Moore said.
But Judge Paul Niemeyer suggested it was rational to assume Thomasson would engage in homosexual conduct.
The policy states that gays may serve in the military but cannot publicly disclose their homosexuality. The military cannot ask recruits about their sexual orientation or purge gays from service unless they announce their homosexuality.
Outside court, Thomasson argued for support of gay military members who "go in harm's way for their country" but serve by a policy "inimical to the Constitution they swore to defend."
Man convicted of killing father
The Associated Press
NEWTON — Christopher Zook was convicted yesterday of second-degree murder in the shotgun slaying of his adoptive father, who defense attorneys alleged had sexually abused him.
The jury got the case around 3 p.m. Tuesday and stayed until 11 p.m., then resumed about 10 a.m. yesterday. The verdict came shortly before noon.
Zook, 26, was on trial in Harvey County District Court on the charge of first-degree murder. He admitted shooting Thomas Zook inside a grocery store in Newton Sept. 8, 1994.
But the defense argued that he should be convicted of the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter on the ground that the killing was the result of years of sexual abuse by Thomas Zook.
Jurors asked State District Judge Richard Walker for a definition of premeditation and requested segments of Christopher Zook's testimony be read to them.
Pat Petors Assistant Attorney General
In his closing argument, Assistant Attorney General Pat Peters reviewed the evidence, including Zook's purchase of a gun and ammunition shortly before the slaying.
Peters painted an image of Zook as a cold-blooded murderer and liar who falsified claims of sexual abuse against the only adult who had cared for him.
Peters said there was no evidence to support allegations of
abuse.
"If he was sodomized 10 years ago, if he was sodomized a week before he blew Tom Zook's head off, he is still guilty of first-degree murder," Peters told jurors.
Christopher Zook's attorney, Pedro Irigonegaray, said his client's mental capacity was diminished because of sexual abuse and a personality disorder.
Irigonegaray portrayed his client as a troubled man who came from a dysfunctional family background and who, after trying to put a stop to what he thought was child abuse, snapped and killed Thomas Zook in the heat of passion.
Christopher Zook is accused of buying a shotgun at a Wichita police supply store and then looking for Thomas Zook and following him to a grocery store.
There, he beat Thomas Zook with the butt of the shotgun, followed him into the store, then placed the weapon to the back of Thomas Zook's head, told onlookers to "kiss him good-bye" and pulled the trigger.
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