Lubbock Evening Journal from Lubbock, Texas • Page 19

JOURNAL, Lubbock, March 23, 1984 offer fiew plan to 1 £ut deficit 'KWASHINGTON (UPI) Senate Pcmbcrats have upped the deficit- jilting ante with a package they say the debt $200 billion over jtjiree years, topping President Reagan's GOP compromise of $150 bil- Utinj and House Democrats' $185 bil- lionplan. Sen. Lawton Chiles, said Thursday the plan is modeled on the GOP-Heagan compromise hut would defense spending increases lo 4 and delay tax indexing to (jprrtpensaic for inflation, scheduled .10 start next year, for two years, OOP-Reagan plan sets de- spending growth at 7.5 percent. House Democrats' "pay-as-you- go" plan puts the defense increase at percent, bul only if offsetting tax- ijs are raised. "The president said he wanted a plan," Chiles told report- fers.

"This plan is an attempt to make (the GOP) plan do something." Chiles said the Democratic alter- Via live would be proposed as a substitute for the Reagan-GOP plan that Senate leaders hope lo move quickly jo.the Senate perhaps by next M'eck. The Democratic plan joined sev- pral other alternatives, some endorsed by.Republicans, brought out Thursday. Senate Budget Committee chair- rrtflrKPe'le Domenici, predicted Reagan's plan will be ulti- jhaiely adopted. The Reagan plan would slash the iteficit, now at $200 billion, to $181 billion in 1985, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Mark Andrews, R-N joined Sens.

Ernest Hollings, and James Exon, in offering a "spending plan to slash the deficit lo $150 billion in 1985. their plan allows a 3 percent growth in defense spending, much jqwer than the 7.5 percent hike in the Hcagan-GOP plan. It docs not louch Security or similar benefit programs bul delays tax indexing for Inflation for five years. Consumer 1 Price Index Inflation measured by percent of change in consumer prices from month to month Seasonally Adjusted MAMJ JASOND 1983 1984 Source U.S. Labor Department Consumer prices rise sligh dy in February WASHINGTON (AP) Consumer prices rose a modest 0.4 percent in February, the government reported today, as a moderation in food price increases gave economists' fresh support for their predictions that inflation this year will be in the range of 5 percent.

Food prices rose 0.6 percent, well under the sharp 1.6 percent gain of January, as damage from several months of severe weather began to ease. Energy prices were also up. Fuel oil prices rose G.9 percent, their biggest jump in three years, while gasoline costs, off for the fifth straight month, fell 1.5 percent. But the overall gain in the Consumer Price Index was less than January's 0.6 percent. At the White House, Martin Feldstein, chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, said the February advance is "right in line with the administration's forecast" and provided "further evidence that the economy is not overheating." Excluding the "volatile" food and energy components, he said, the price report would have shown an "even better 0.3 percent rise." Reflecting the fresh moderation in food prices, cost increases slowed for such staples as meat, eggs, fruits and vegetables.

Beef and veal prices rose i.7 percent after a 3.5 percent jump in January. Pork prices edged up 0.4 percent after soaring 5.2 percent. Egg prices advanced 2.2 percent, down dramatically from the 21.3 percent gain in the previous month. Fresh fruit prices rose just 0.3 percent following a sharp 7.8 percent gain in January. Vegetable prices, which shot up 7 percent in the previous month, rose 3.3 percent" Local telephone service, which posted its sharpest-ever gain in January, 8.5 percent, still rose substantially last month with a gain of 3.0 percent.

But the cost of all phone service moderated, rising 1.9 percent, down from the previous month's record 5.2 percent gaini The increases generally are attributable to regulatory changes accompanying the breakup of the American Telephone Telegraph Co. Medical care costs jumped 0.8 percent, up from the 0.7 percent gain of January and above the average monthly increase of 0.5 percent last year. Physicians' fees soared 1.2 percent svhile hospital room charges rose 0.7 percent. Last month's increases had been expected by analysts who are carefully watching the Labor Department's index for any that inflation may. be heating up again.

In advance of today's report, David Wyss, economist at the consulting firm of Data Resources Inc. in Lexington, said, "Inflation looks under control." French president urges West to help reduce world 'misery' WASHINGTON (AP) President Reagan and French President Francois Mitterrand, concluding two clays of talks, agreed today the Soviet Union would be welcome back at nuclear arms control talks, but the West should not make any concessions to lure them back, a senior U.S. official said. Reagan and Mitterand talked over breakfast in the Blue Room after ti State Dinner and earlier talks on Thursday. At their concluding meeting, Reagan offered to send a French astronaut on a U.S.

space shuttle flight next year, and Mitterrand accepted the invitation in principle. The official, who briefed reporters on the condition that he not be identified, said the Reagan-Mitterrand sessions "were pretty well characterized by an absence of disagreement" and that there was a sense that "these are two men at ease with one another." He said Mitterrand did not raise complaints about high U.S. interest rates or currency problems. Nor did the French leader discuss his planned trip to Moscow. At a press conference after the meeting, Mitterrand said, "I think it's probable I wili go on such a visit (to Moscow) by the end of the year." The French president also said he did not share the Reagan administration's views on the situation in Central America, and he continues to believe more must be done to improve economic conditions in the region.

The U.S. official, in unusually blunt language, portrayed the Soviet Union as being unable to make up its mind about arms control because of the recent changes in leadership after the deaths of Leonid Brezhnev and Yuri Andropov. in-iuic Uproar intensifies over Meese finances ASHINGTON fAP) President sent a letter to tho wnnlH (ilo tix- nr AD Rfjngan's nominee for attorney eHal could be under a cloud for while a special prosecutor (jntnngles his finances and Demo- gr'ats raise a cry over what Walter F. Mondale is calling 'the sleaze factor" in the administration. -V New disclosures arose even as Ed- III was said to be ready to t.iko the offense with a public po'int- ty-fxjint reply to every allegation against him.

Benefactor Edwin Thomas, whose $15,060 loaii to Mrs. Mccsc caused an Uproar at confirmation hearings. sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee detailing two other loans to the Meese family. Thomas said they were repaid but said nothing about whether the $15,000 loan remains outstanding. Thomas, his wife, Gretchen, and his son, Tad, 22, all got federal posts after the Meescs moved to Washington.

As for charging interest on the 515,000, Thomas said he didn't "as I have never charged my family interest and I consider them (the Mcesc family) that close." Larry Speakes, the president's spokesman, said he presumed Meese would file amended tax returns for 1981 and 1982 to reflect several hundred dollars of interest earned by his White House Federal Credit Union account that he had neglected to declare. Attorney General William French Smith was silent on Mccsc's request for the appointment of a special prosector, a step which Meese said would "demonstrate the absence of any impropriety on my part." The actual appointment must be made by a three-judge panel selected by Chief Justice Warren E. Burger. That could happen soon. Harvard law professor Archibald Cox, who served as the special Watergate prosecutor who investigated President Richard Nixon, said Meese ought to step aside even if there us not enough evidence of wrongdoing to prosecute him for a'' crime.

Solon allegedly aware wife's money deals IN SUNDAYS 1-5 March 18th July 1st (AP) Rep. George V. Hansen, R-Idaho, was Aware of commodity market transactions his wife, Connie, made with the help of Texas oilman Nelson linker Hunt in 1977 and 1978, a federal jury has been (old. charged by the govern- tti'cnt with filing false financial dis- cjosure documents with Congress, also was aware of loans to his wife by Hjint or co-signed by him, prose- On Thursday, the fourth day of Hanson's trial in U.S. District Court, brokers and a Dallas bjink6r related how they bought and sold soybean and silver futures on be- of Mrs.

Hansen at the behest of Hunt; tf Owen Nichols, an agent for Mitchell, Hutchins Inc. in Chicago, said he bought and sold soybean futures in April 1977 for Mrs. Hansen without her knowledge. He said he did so on instructions of Hunt. He said the only time he called her was to obtain information to open an office account.

"I never talked to Congressman Hansen." he said. "I talked to Mrs. Hansen one time. I didn't know she was married to a congressman." Nichols said Mrs. Hansen lost 533.855 in the three transactions he made for her.

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