ustxtxb_obs_1993_09_03_50_00018-00000_000.pdf

PEOPLE Make a world of difference ! We’re proud of our employees and their contributions to your success and ours. Call us for quality printing, binding, mailing and data processing services. Get to know the people at Futura. FUTUM P.O. Box 17427 Austin, TX 78760-7427 389-1500 COMMUNICATIONS, INC. Civil Rights Project Benefit Join Dolores Huerta, co-founder and vice president of the United Farm Workers, as well as singer/songwriters Tish Hinojosa, Thomas Hughes and Pamela Hart at the third annual Bill of Rights Dinner September 18 at the Driskill Hotel, Austin. Also featured will be an exhibition by photographer Alan Pogue and a silent auction. Reception will start at 6:30 p.m. with dinner at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $25 by advance sale only and are tax deductible. Call 474-5073 for details. Continued from pg. 24 a dime in private matching funds, would have no government oversight or controls, and would not be subject to competitive bidding.” John Duetch, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, opposed the provision as “non-competitive,” “unfair” and “unneeded,” but the metalcasting entitlement, whose main sponsors are Sen. Richard Shelby, D-Ala., and Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., passed 10-9 onto the $262 billion defense reauthorization bill. PAC ATTACK. Despite her campaign pledge to limit contributions from political action committees and out-of-state interests, Kay B. Hutchison received $1.1 million from industry and special-interest groups across the nation, Bennett Roth reported in the Aug. 19 Houston Chronicle. She got contributions of at least $5,000 from PACs representing large oil companies, banks, utilities and associations representing insurance underwriters, restaurants, convenience stores and free-trade advocates, the newspaper reported. Drug companies and tobacco companies, which have a vested interest in health-care reform, gave generously to Hutchison’s campaign. The American Pharmaceutical Association PAC gave Hutchison $1,000 while RJR PAC, representing one of the nation’s largest tobacco companies, gave her $9,500. She also received $9,900 from the National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund. RADICAL STEPS. Organized labor, too long on the defensive, should “take to the streets” if necessary to gain passage of the legislation preventing employers from hiring permanent replacements for strikers, United Auto Workers Secretary-Treasurer recently advised leaders of the AFL-CIO and affiliated unions. The bill has passed the House and now goes to the Senate, where Republicans have threatened to filibuster under gentlemanly rules that allow overnight recesses. According to David Moberg of In These Times, Casstevens, who is not known for radicalism, argued that Senate supporters of the proposal should force the filibuster to run aroundthe-clock; if that fails, unions should get supporters to attach the proposal to every other available bill; if that doesn’t succeed,. Casstevens wrote, labor should propose to “ask all people who believe in fairness and the democratic process to take to the streets in support of fairness and democracy, and remain there until it’s achieved.” Casstevens warned that a defeat of the bill will lead more people to conclude “the labor movement has lost its clout and is no longer needed.” TO AIR IS HIGHTOWER. Jim Hightower, who hardly gets a chance to clear his throat on his two-minute radio commentaries, tried a three-hour talk-show format on WBAP the week of Aug. 16-20 and “did pretty fair” in filling in for a regular host, according to Tyler Cox, program and operations manager at the Fort Worth station. “We run Jim’s commentary during the week and he was agreeable to the idea of filling in, so we did it,” Cox said. Hightower’s phone-in guests included the likes of Ralph Nader, Jesse Jackson, Jerry Brown and Willie Nelson, who helped the former Observer editor and agriculture commissioner field calls. Spokesperson Eleanor Thompson said Hightower was considering the possibility of expanding his short commentaries and at least one national network has shown some interest. The only glitch was when Hightower was denied admittance to the dining room at the Worthington hotel, where he was staying, because his blue jeans were unacceptable attire. “I was just wondering,” Hightower told the Fort Worth StarTelegram after the dress-code flap, “am I in Dallas or Fort Worth?” V PATCHING HEALTH CARE. President Clinton is supposed to unveil his health-care reform plan later this month, but the monied interests physicians, hospitals, insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies already have put major resources into framing the debate, so now is the time for all good Texans to contact their Congressional representatives to urge passage of a single-payer plan, modeled after Canada’s national healthcare plan. The bill to accomplish that is H.R. 1200, the American Health Security Act, sponsored by Representative Jim McDermott, a Washington Democrat, with more than 80 co-sponsors in the House, but the only Texans who have signed on are Craig Washington of Houston and Eddie Bernice Johnson of Dallas. Others reportedly are waiting to see Clinton’s proposal, which is expected to rely on “managed competition” of insurance companies and health-maintenance organizations. Public input will be important, said John Hildreth of Consumers Union, which is part of a national coalition seeking ‘universal access to health care, cost containment through “global” budgets, fair financing, choice of providers and public accountability. “Only the public can demand that Congress and the president remain focused on their concerns,” Hildreth said. “It is the most colossal public policy challenge of a generation and every time the country has tried to step up to it, the special interests have won in the ’30s, the ’40s, the ’50s and when compromises were reached in the ’60s and ’70s. The American people will have to fight to make sure the special interests don’t win again.” Call your Congressperson at 202-2253121 or write c/o the U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515 or the U.S. Senate, same town, 20510. 18 SEPTEMBER 3, 1993