Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 17, 1990, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press january Page 7 politicians fear tax earthquake Washington a Low pitched Thun Der and a gentle shaking of the Earth Are being perceived by politicians Here who believe that a political earthquake is on the if it its cause will be a modest proposal for compelling the government to Start telling the truth about its Federal spending senator Pat a new York Democrat and witty Intel has lobbed a political hand Gre Nade into the Republican held White president George Bush has scarcely noticed it lying on the carpet of his Oval As the seconds tick away before it astute senior members of his party Are trying to Waken him from his self satisfied busily Reading opinion polls that Tell him that his citizens think he is doing a great Job by doing virtually give or take an has one excuse for torpor on the it passed him As it passed by most be cause it surfaced on the last Friday of on that As Moynihan was telling a few Capitol Hill reporters that the time had come to Cut the social Security payroll tax to Stop soldiers were creating a Nasty Diplo Matic incident in when it became Clear that troops had forced their Way into the nicaraguan ambassadors residence at Moynihan skilfully timed cry of fiscal rage vanished in the louder cries of International rage about a violation of diplomatic As the nicaraguan residence incident has faded in political proves Republican and democratic have become increasingly uneasy about the Moynihan their fear a Prairie fire of popular support in the country once voters grasp How much they would Bene Moynihan wants to Cut the amount paid by employees and employers to finance social which is roughly equivalent to the Canada pension he wants to do this because americans currently pay More than is necessary to fund current obligations to that surplus is being used by creative Federal government accountants to mask the True David Macdonald Washington editor scale of the Federal the Way that they do it is by using the social Security surplus to buy Treasury Bonds and the Cash raised is used to finance the budget the effect can be seen by examining the Bush administration claim that the deficit for fiscal which ended last september was in that fiscal social Security payroll taxes gathered enough to create a surplus of the real was an even More genuine figure is if other government Trust fund surpluses Are one of these is a fund for maintaining collected from airline passengers so not used to fill a single pothole in a single in each the Trust fund surplus helps to lower the Federal deficit accounting policy the congressional budget office has projected future fiscal year results based on current accounting considering Only the social Security in the current fiscal for the Bush administration claims that the Federal budget deficit will drop to in it will Rise to billion because the social Security surplus will be by the deficit provided for Public consumption will drop to it really will be billion because that years social Security surplus will be by the year that years presi Dent will be Able to claim that the deficit has been wrestled Down to it actually will be thanks to a billion social Security How did such a growing surplus come about the reason is an Early 1980s scare that social Security would go bankrupt when the baby Boom generation began to focus cof Arbir n Catoo Coffi Moynihan social Security plan has politicians trembling retire Early next former president Ronald Reagan set up the Greenspan commission to seek a named for Alan today chairman of the Federal the equivalent of the Bank of the commission proposed stiff payroll Deduc Tion increases to build a surplus to avoid future Moynihan was on that commission and favored the neither he nor other members foresaw How such sur pluses would be used because they did not in that reaganomics was going to double the National cutting taxes and boosting Pentagon spending created an economic Boom exactly like the one that occurs when a Winnipeg Ger goes hog wild with a credit at the end of the a real debt the Reagan method was to leave a trillion National debt for the next generation to the social Security Trust fund surplus was used to buy government creating the illusion of a shrinking budget what did this policy mean for the average wage one result was a 25percent jump in social Security pay Roll deductions in the americans already paid far More for social Security than canadians pay for their this canadians Are paying a maximum through pay Roll deductions for the americans Are paying a maximum if Moynihan social Security payroll deduction becomes employers and employees together will pay less an including the employers 74 per cent of working people now pay More in social Security taxes than income when the most recent increase kicked in on new years employees and employ ers began to pay per cent of pay for their future social Security pension and per cent for medicare Means a partial health insurance program covering the retired and the in the total payroll deduction was per cent of the first it is per cent of the first regressive system Moynihan argues that corporate presi dents earning million Dollar incomes con tribute no More towards their pensions than Middle income government he says this is As regressive As the reaganomics income tax to Prate Cut to 28 per cent from 70 per Moynihan plan is unpopular with Politi Cal republicans dislike it because they think his motive is to Force Bush to raise taxes to make up for the billions that would no longer be available to mask the real scale of the democrats dislike it because the idea of yet another tax Cut makes them they think Bush would keep saying read my lips no new forc ing cuts in social Republican leaders say privately that such a Bush reaction would be politically that Bush would begin to look like Marie Antoinette if he kept uttering that line while program cuts created a wave of social the unknown Factor is whether this Issue will catch fire among the horrible precedent in every Washington politicians mind is last years Cata strophic health care that bipartisan Deal to protect elderly americans from being bankrupted by medical costs in cases of serious illness blew up in everyone face when a lobby ing Effort by a wealthy minority of re furious at having to pay mar Ket Price for the forced Congress to repeal the the Thunder and earthshaking being imagined by nervous Washington politicians is a Stampede of voter support for Moynihan scheme that May hit town just after they have All gone on record As denouncing him for fiscal rising tide of nationalism spells end for the soviet Union by Ilya Gerol special to the free press the entity which has been known since december As the Union of soviet socialist republics exists no we still Deal with the As if nothing has although Moscow is still its it is rapidly falling apart Mikhail Gorbachev visit to Lithuania last week had some elements of greek he pleaded with lithuanian communist leaders not to leave the soviet Union and the he stopped in the streets trying to convince average lithuanians that they could be Independent and Well off in the future entity which he was ready to Call conf Der federation or his were in three years when the Peoples front of and similar organizations in Estonia and insisted on the urgent trans formation of the soviet Empire into a federation where each of the republics could have economic sovereignty within a reformed soviet Gorbachev and his Circle ignored these they could not afford a Radical National Reform at that time because of the stiff conservative resistance in the Kremlin upper today the baits dont want to be part of any the sudden development of events in Eastern Europe has proved that there Are other total and has become a slogan of the we rather too Dainis the chairman of the Peoples front of said to me during our recent meeting in that we Are an integral part of Eastern something that we had already been from 1919 to 1940 when our Independence was not in we just want our Independence the Baltic republics Are rapidly moving ahead in their quest for they Are introducing their own currencies the lat in the lit in Lithuania and the Crona in Estonia while pronouncing that All Industrial enterprises and Mineral resources in their Terri tory Are being taken out of Moscow they Are planning to open foreign bureaus in major Western countries and Deal directly with the european All this will undoubtedly boost their aspirations for inde yet it also could become the main obstacle to achieving they went too far and too said a top Moscow political thinker close to Mikhail Gorbachev when i asked him to comment on the Situa Tion in the Baltic republics after Gorbachev visit to we cant simply pronounce them inde pendent As if nothing there Are political and National interests which Gorbachev has to take into Hes under tremendous pressure not Only from the conservative elements but from everyone in the political establishment Here in Moscow and in the republics who ask whether we Are losing our country for after All the country has existed for hundreds of and we dont want it to become like another Austro Hungar Ian Empire that fell to pieces in this pressure could Force Gorba Chev to proclaim a state of emergency in the Baltic republics More in the whole it will not be the use of Force but a real and plausible threat of the develop ments in Georgia and Armenia could become a pretext for such an the nationalist uprising in Azer Baijan could easily be quelled since the majority of the population there Doest want to be swallowed by the fanatical regime of Iran the Only outcome of the possible Independence of soviet the majority of the azerbaijanis live in Iran and the unification of the shiite moslem under the Rule of the islamic Republic has always been the goal of the regime in the Independence of Armenia and Georgia is no More than an emotion Al both Small republics can not exist on their own historically they always were attacked by Iran and the Baltic republics Independence is a real threat to the very existence of the soviet while not consultations Between soviet diplomats and their counterparts in Ottawa and Western european capitals Are taking Moscow tries to deliver a message to the political establish ments of the West it is easier and better to Deal with the liberalized and democratized soviet Union on the issues of strategic balance and peace than with 20 Small countries permanently in conflict with each other the logical result of the pro Cess that could starting with Baltic the soviet plea does get a sym Pathic ear in the the Prospect of a civil War in the being finally won by the army and orthodox party apparatus frightens the the recent visit of the lithuanian and estonian groups to the United nations during which the most extremist demands were presented was an additional support for those in the Western political establishments and in the United nations administration who believed that the message of moderation should be sent to nationalist leaders in the Baltic Gorbachev recent assurances that talk of introducing a multiparty sys tem in the soviet Union and of transforming it into a Commonwealth of Sovereign republics were though slightly he has to be Given a it is not Only in the soviet interest but very much in the interest of the whole manness consistency offers Only cold Comfort Federal finance minister Michael Wilson is the Manitoba finance minister Clay ton manness is the exception which proves the Rule is that a politicians perspective always changes when he moves from opposition to Wilson opposed Federal cutbacks for health and pos secondary education in he accelerated them in manness sympathized with Ottawa fiscal situation in he is still sympathizing in Wilson was one of Many Federal conserva Tives who expressed rage Over the Trudeau governments 1982 decision to Cap Ottawa contributions to health and pos secondary the liberals wanted to tie growth in established programs financing to the annual increase in the Gross National prod when the provinces Ottawa went ahead said Wilson March the Only sign the Federal government shows of cutting spending is by shifting the Burden of the established programs funding on to the provincial the provinces Are now moving into a deficit a position which will make it More difficult for them to finance this shift in spending that is not cooperative that is predatory federalism and it will not and cannot work in this the conservatives made the restoration of cooperative federalism reconcile prime minister Brian Mulroney Calls it and the revitalization of medicare a top in then opposition said his government would give the provinces More Money to ensure Universal Access to medical National health care is not a political Frances Russell youre entitled to the same kind of Quality services irrespective of place of that May mean in certain cases a higher percentage than 50 per in with Mulroney decided health and pos secondary Educa whose costs Are rising by Over 10 per cent could manage with yearly increases pegged at two per cent below the rate of economic not Only was the move Ottawa jettisoned even the formality of provincial last Mays Federal budget tightened the screws setting the contribution ceiling at three per cent below Gnu once the move was lacking even the reduction is after five the loss totals 15 per cent by 10 30 per the Quebec government has projected that Ottawa compound cuts will mean it will receive its last Federal Dollar for health and pos secondary education in the remaining nine provinces will drop off by that unless Ottawa chops health and education funding once if the prime ministers threats Are to be next months budget May contain the most severe cutbacks to sharply advancing the year at which Federal dollars cease for health once Ottawa sole contribution to health care becomes the tax room 13 Points of personal income tax and one Point of corporate tax it transferred to the provinces in the Canada health act Banning deter rent fees and extra Billing by doctors will become a dead Ottawa enforced the ban by withholding Cash from delinquent no Cash transfers to withhold Means no Federal Here in Clayton manness has not altered his position despite moving from finance critic to finance minis asked last Friday about Ottawa health dollars declining to manness sympathized with Ottawa fiscal he is on the verge of they Are in dire manness agreed that Zero Cash from Ottawa was a distinct possibility if you look at the but he admitted that he haunt asked his department for calculations be cause he imagine that Ottawa would Ever completely opt out of in while the former nip government was fighting Wilsons initial two per cent opposition Leader now pre Mier Gary Filmon and health critic now health minister Don fought the the tories refused to join the Dps coalition they the government want telling the truth and because Ottawa had a deficit the conservatives insisted that Ottawa want cutting it was merely slowing their growth i do not want to be part of the mass Effort to work and speak out against the Federal manness said on july he also objected to the government talking about needs for health care without considering the an awful lot of emphasis is Given to the whole area of As if it was a As if its something that we have to assume exists regardless of the sources to fund those manness on june manness had criticized the nip for asking Ottawa for More yet we Are Well aware that 30 per cent of Ottawa revenues Are directed towards servicing the rather than fighting it was time to assess the wealth of the to assess the ability and desirability of All canadians to want to produce additional Manitoba finance minister at least has the virtue of consistency lacking in his Federal but it is cold Comfort to Manitoban concerned about the future of doonesbury by Garry Trudeau As panamas flub Zupito you to a a cwt we of Chi Lect to 5mula1z we you have a cons Titu you have How about in aft Jion of ;