ustxtxb_obs_1986_04_18_50_00003-00000_000.pdf

schools. On April 7, Hance attacked Austin Mayor Frank Cooksey for the fact that the Austin City Council was considering a proposal to designate Austin a sanctuary for refugees. In a state staggering through a major petroleum economy crisis, a farm crisis, and a social services crisis, symbolic sanctuary gestures and relief for the late Lester Roloff do not seem to be the issues of overriding importance. BUT THAT is exactly the Republican strategy. Oh, they’ll talk about the economic crisis and the state budget, and they’ll hem and haw about taxes, but the Republicans have no real advantage over Mark White on those issues. Rather, they’ll try to catalyze voter support by trading on what amounts to little more than prejudice and fear. It’s a Kent Hance-Phil Gramm trademark. It’s a lesson learned by the LaRouchites. Before this election is over, no doubt we will be calling for quarantines for AIDS victims all over the state and for sealing off the border with the National Guard. And the reason the real, hard economic issues will not be discussed is the complicity of the Republican candidates in the current economic crisis. Bill Clements, for example, helped set the tone for the Reagan years with his patent disregard for the interests of anyone outside the country club set. He called the world’s biggest oil spill that cost the U.S. government $75,000 a day to clean up and ruined miles of Texas beach for months “a big to-do about nothing.” He showed contempt for consumers by refusing to heed citizen protest of a Public Utility Commission that allowed the highest rates of profit for utilities in the nation. His imperious attitude and apparent disdain for the interests of the common people resulted in ridiculous state water plan boondoggles and provided no expansion of social services to accommodate the growing number of victims of the Reagan recession, helping prepare this part of the nation for the social penury of Reaganomics, the results of which are just beginning to be felt in this state. Kent Hance, of course, is responsible for what House Majority Leader Jim Wright calls “the Hance-Conable tax cut for the wealthy,” a cornerstone of the Reaganomic program. As a leading Boll Weevil, Hance helped engineer a bill that diminished corporate taxes to such a degree that the 1987 budget cuts under the Gramm-Rudman bill would be paid for twice over by the annual income now lost through the Hance-Conable corporate tax cuts. When Hance campaigns as an officeholder who cut taxes, just remember whose taxes he cut and what that has meant and will mean for Texas. The same goes for Torn Loeffler. As a Republican whip in Congress he was instrumental in the passage of the GrammRudman budget-balancing act. Gramm-Rudman is the second phase of the so-called Reagan Revolution. The Gramm-Latta Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981 cut money for farm loans,student loans, small business, Medicaid, Medicare, food stamps and Aid to Families with Dependent Children. The Gramm-Rudman bill mandates further cuts from low income social service programs, but it will also hit such middleclass interests as colleges, the construction industry, Superfund environmental cleanup, health-care programs, and agricultural research and loan programs. It will particularly devastate block grant programs, upon which the state and municipalities depend, especially in times of sagging state revenues and greater unemployment. \(You don’t, by the way, see Phil Gramm showing his face around the state at too many popular gatherings this year. He’s appeared before Republican fundraisers and at intimate meetings, but his opposition to an oil import tariff coupled with the cuts imposed by GrammRudman have made him a possible political liability for the Why is Mark White smiling? If the economy becomes the Pho to by Je ff Ruo f f major issue of the campaign, as it should, his Republican opponent is just as likely to suffer as to benefit. There are, of course, Republican efforts to nurture such things as teacher discontent and no pass-no play as campaign issues, but it will be difficult to mount an entire campaign based on opposition to efforts to attain educational improvement in the state. Mark White is vulnerable. There is no hard core of Mark White lovers out there. He is not a leader of great principle who inspires voter identification and confidence. But, if he is able to steer the campaign away from the kinds of fringe issues Kent Hance relies upon, he stands a good chance against either an old, blustery rival or a new adversary without a broad base of support. G.R. CONTENTS FEATURES 1 The Gloves Come Off Geoffrey Rips 4 Endorsements: Geoffrey Rips Statewide & Dave Denison Congressional Texas Senate Texas House 10 On the “Liberal Primary” Dave Denison 12 Extremism by Any Other Name . . . Geoffrey Rips 14 The LaRouche Phenomenon James Ridgeway 16 An All-American Battle Robert Elder 18 Police “Hoodlums” Josh Rappaport DEPARTMENTS 13 Dialogue 19 Political Intelligence 21 Social Cause Calendar Books and the Culture: 20 El Paso and Points West Louis Dubose Afterword: 22 Olof Palme and the Democratic Ideal Arturo Arias Cover: Torn Ballenger THE TEXAS OBSERVER 3