ustxtxb_obs_1984_04_20_50_00012-00000_000.pdf

The final assembly of all U.S. nuclear weapons takes place in the Texas Panhandle. Houston has more oil company headquarters than any other city in the world. The whole state reeks of Sunbelt boosters, strident antiunionists, political hucksters, and new industry and money. THIS IS THE LOOK OF TEXAS TODAY and the Texas Observer has its independent eye on all of it. We offer the latest in corporate scams and political scandals as well as articles on those who have other, and more humane, visions of what our state can be. Become an Observer subscriber today, order a gift for a friend, or instruct us to enter a library subscription under your patronage. Send the Observer to name address city state zip this subscription is for myself gift subscription; send card in my name $20 enclosed for a one-year subscription bill me for $20 name address city state zip THE TEXAS OBSERVER 600 W. 7th, Austin, Texas 78701 Carter’s administration, and we know what Reagan will say about that. Deciding the truth of the matter, however, we should remember that Mondale opposed the MX missile in private and that according to Stuart Eizenstat, Carter’s White House domestic adviser, Mondale “was more liberal than Carter.” Eizenstat says Mondale “tended to favor more money for domestic spending rather than defense, though he was for real defense increases. He was for more money for education, job training, and jobs programs. He was against fighting inflation with austerity, especially the budget cuts of 1980.” This spring, unfazed by the trendy current consensus against compassionate government, Mondale stated: “Anybody that says we have $110 billion now for a [national] health insurance program is saying something that just isn’t so .. . As revenues develop, we need to move toward the long-term objective, national health insurance. I would begin with early childhood health care, screening, preventive care in the early years of life. . . . And we should move toward something that covers the 30 million or 40 million people who live in the gray zone of America; they really can’t afford insurance, they’re out of it and they fall between the cracks.” As Mondale said on another occasion: “I won’t blame government. I’ll use it. ” Last October, in a speech to the National Organization of Women, Mondale said: “I am a feminist. . . . I am a feminist because I am an American. The cause of America’s women is the cause of America itself. . . . I have always been pro-choice . . . I wrote and steered the passage of major day-care legislation, vetoed by Richard Nixon. I cosponsored Title IX. I wrote the Women’s Educational Equity Act. I cosponsored Title I, Title XX, handicapped education, Head Start, WIC, food stamps, and every form of student assistance. I cosponsored legislation to combat the crime of rape and to prevent pornography from invading our homes. I was an original sponsor of the Voting Rights Act, and I’ve supported every extension.” Hart has a good domestic record, but there are some problems about it. Like Reagan, Hart is for a “subminimum wage” for teenage workers. Coming from oil-state Colorado, Hart opposed the windfall profits tax on oil companies. Hart was one of only two Democrats who voted against a $5 billion plan to provide below-market interest rates to buyers of new homes. He opposes handgun controls, although he is waffling on this now. On April 2, 1981, Hart voted for the Reagan budget resolution which Mondale charges “called for cuts in a domestic budget of $37 billion, called for massive cuts in Medicaid, called for massive cuts in food stamps, called for massive cuts in child nutrition, called for cuts in Medicare, called for cuts in Social Security. ” Hart now says he will veto cuts in Medicare or Social Security. “If you fight for civil rights, that’s a special interest. But if you buckle to the hospital lobby, that’s a new idea. . . . I don’t accept it.” Walter Mondale Reagan favors a flat tax that would fall heaviest on those least able to pay. According to the New York Times of Sept. 29, 1982, reporting on a hearing in the Senate on new tax proposals, “Senator Gary Hart, Democrat of Colorado, another witness, outlined his proposal for shifting from taxing income to taxing consumption. ‘The amount to be taxed would be income minus the net amount saved or productively invested that year,’ he said.” Hart seems to have drawn back from his initial plan, but what was he doing in 1982 joining Reagan’s drive against the progressive income tax? There is much to be said for Hart’s record: he is infinitely preferable to Reagan. But what does Hart mean when he says, “the New Deal has run its course” and what does he mean calling labor unions, teachers’ unions, women’s organizations, and black and Hispanic organizations “special interests”? As Mondale says, “you don’t serve the public interest without listening to the people who represent people in this country and gaining their trust.” Although they are anything but bold and exciting, I have no quarrel with some of the ideas Hart advances for industrial modernization; I quarrel rather with his implied opposition to the traditional social values of the Democratic Party, the values of compassion, social welfare legislation, and an activist government that helps people and fights overreaching corporate power. Mondale is trying to gather together a modern version of Roosevelt’s great New Deal coalition, and that is precisely what he should be doing. In adopting Reagan’s trick of calling labor and minorities “special interests,” Hart has done the progressive 12 APRIL 20, 1984