The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • Page 98

The Orlando Sentinel jf Political tidbits from Washington to Central Florida Sunday Insider, G-4 SUNDAY, June 21 1992 A A A 0 of citiei on Any rescue 1 1 'I ('T Business tax breaks: No panacea By Max Friedman SPECIAL TO THE SENTINEL Mr X' Of IT Jam WASHINGTON Eager to offer a remedy to the nation's urban ills, Democratic and Republican politicians alike are jumping aboard the latest bandwagon to roll through the nation's capital: the enterprise zone. Leading the parade is George Bush. Awakened by the Los Angeles riots to the need to rescue inner-cities, the president has made enterprise zones the core of his long-term urban policy. The idea is to offer incentives to businesses willing to set up shop in poor city neighborhoods. Today, there are some 600 zones in 36 states, including Florida.

But the paltry results of many of these projects suggest that even with an expanded federal commitment, enterprise zones alone will not be enough to revive the nation's decaying inner cities. Last week, Congress passed a $1.3 billion compromise package to help riot-torn LA and the flooded business district of Chicago and to put inner-city teens to work this summer. The next phase of negotiations on urban aid looks at bigger-picture, bigger-ticket items possibly as much as $5 billion to be spent over five years. Bush wants $2.5 billion to create the first federal enterprise zones. Enterprise zones are government-designated areas of severe poverty and high unemployment to which businesses are encouraged to relocate through tax breaks and other incentives.

Where once there were vacant lots and boarded-up buildings, the theory goes, new companies attracted by the tax breaks would provide badly needed jobs, and the newly employed residents would spend their earnings on other local businesses, creating a ripple Max Friedman, a Washington free-lance writer, is an assistant producer at National Public Radio. Please see CITIES, G-5 DANA A. FASANOSENTINEL Bush: How I would help rebuild urban America By George Bush SPECIAL TO THE LOS ANGELES TIMES Los Angeles residents begin to rebuild riot-torn A neighborhoods, all Ameri cuts their aid. If they make too much money but not enough to escape the pull of the inner city the government cuts their aid. If they marry and work, the government cuts their aid.

At the same time, the system rewards single mothers who have children and enables some people to "make" more by staying on welfare than by holding a steady, low-paying job. For three years, I have asked Congress to pass measures that encourage virtuous behavior, punish cans must begin rebuilding young lives. The downward spiral in our cities begins the moment someone believes that he or she doesn't matter. Over the years, some government policies have sent this message, seizing responsibility and respect from low-income Americans and handing power to bureaucrats, contractors and others who administer social programs. Perverse incentives embedded in our policies insidiously hurt our poor.

Today, welfare recipients may live in publicly owned apartments, but cannot own them. If they save too much money, the government the horrible toll of rioters' violence. I have seen the failures of old urban policies in the windows of tidy houses where iron bars try to hold a hostile world at bay. But I also have seen people reach out and begin rebuilding a city rebuilding lives. Most observers agree that urban decay stems from several sources: the disintegration of the family; a breakdown of fundamental moral values; disrespect for institutions such as police, churches and schools; increased drug use; and widespread cynicism about the future.

In some cities, the gang has become the focal point of many America's social policies. Detailed, one-size-fits-all "solutions" crafted in the 1960s obviously can't cope with the challenges of the 1990s. In Los Angeles, we all have seen President Bush visited Los Angeles after the riots. 1 W. Please see REBUILD, G-5 George Bush a4 i In this 3-way contest, 2 victories to be won Voters turn disgust on the media Right or wrong, Americans target the news media as part of the problem with the U.S.

political system. By Jon Margolis The Orlando Sentinel SOUND OFF i vhfc -vr-v-C lw Ji Pip JS--- iVi 'l" I '1 1. U'-fi" nBHH 8 i 11. VI CHICAGO TRIBUNE to 1 ASSOCIATED PRESS NBC Today' show host Katie Couric questioned presidential hopeful Ross Perot on issues ranging from gays in the Cabinet to taxes. 1824, because representatives vote as state delegations for only one purpose choosing a president under the 12th Amendment to the Constitution if there is no Electoral College majority.

The magic numbers are 25 and 26 states. With 26 or more, the Democrats can elect Clinton. With 25, they can stop the House from choosing anyone else. They might not have that many. Florida's delegation to the U.S.

House now has nine Democrats and 10 Republicans. But next January, Florida will have more House freshmen than any state. Reapportionment gave Florida four new seats, and with six Florida representatives retiring, 10 congressional seats are open in this fall's elections. Filing to run in those races closes at noon on July 10. House Democrats have been decimated this year, and it is already certain that 49 of the 272 will not be in the new House in January.

Seven have already lost primaries to challengers, more than in the last four elections combined. Three others lost primaries to fellow incumbent Democrats they Edward Roeder is Washington editor of Sunshine Press, a news service specializing in coverage of money in elections. John C. Armor has served as legal counsel to the independent presidential campaigns of Eugene McCarthy and John Anderson. fiease see HOUSE, 1 The presidency may hinge on the Electoral College and the new House delegations, of which Democrats hold the edge for now.

By Edward Roeder and John C. Armor SPECIAL TO THE SENTINEL WASHINGTON Adjusting their strategies to fight a three-way race, George Bush, Bill Clinton and Ross Perot now know they can win the presidency with a minority of voters. They must now try to win two campaigns: one for a majority in the Electoral College, the other for state delegations in the newly elected U.S. House in January 1993. If no one wins an electoral majority, this fall's House races none more than Florida's may figure decisively and surprisingly in the presidential campaign.

Common wisdom is that Democrats will have a majority of the representatives in the new House come January. So they will. But to choose the next president, they will need state delegations, not raw numbers of members. Each state casts one vote. Democrats now control 31 states.

Republicans have nine, with nine tied and Vermont held by independent Bernie Sanders. Control of states hasn't mattered since Should prayer be allowed in public schools? The debate over God and country is as old as this nation. One part of this is the question of prayer in public schools. The issue surrounds the interpretation of what the Founding Fathers meant by saying that Congress and the states "shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Within a month, the Supreme Court is expected to rule on a case involving a prayer service at a high school graduation. What do you think? Should prayer be allowed in public schools? Calls will be taken through noon Monday.

Read the results in Tuesday's Sentinel Yes: (407) 420-5325 No: (407) 420-5604 If you're calling long distance, these aref'tot toll-free numbers, Attacking the news business is a revered American political pastime. Until now, its most prominent recent practitioner was Spiro Ag-new, the former vice president. Agnew's rhetoric was often harsh, but he wasn't personally discourteous. He was usually polite when talking to reporters, even if he was ridiculing their profession. Not Ross Perot, the first major candidate to risk being personally scornful toward journalists.

He snarled at interviewers on a CNN program when pressed about his policies, and if he wasn't exactly nasty to Katie Couric on NBC's Today show, he was pretty close to it. So far this behavior doesn't seem to have cost Perot a vote. And no wonder. Reporters may see themselves as gadflies who maintain an "adversary relationship" with public officials. Voters disagree.

"The press has become a kind of co-conspirator with politicians This is not because political reporters are evil, stupid or ignorant, though a few may be. It's because they are all in America in 1992, in which every pursuit has become more isolated, more concerned with itself and less connected with the whole, which is getting hard to find. Consider the world of business. Increasingly, corporate leaders are not experts in the supposed function of their company making steel, selling securities, processing information but experts in sales, finance or public relations. To take one typical example, only one of the three major networks is headed by someone whose exper- Peose see PRESS, G-6 in the minds of many people," said Robert Johnstone, a political science professor at Earlham College in Indiana.

This attitude is anti-establishment, not ideological. People increasingly regard the "Washington Establishment" as a sealed-off world that has lost touch with the public, and that world includes consultants, reporters and commentators along with officeholders. It's all the people who appear together on those Sunday morning television shows. As is so often the case, the voters may not be entirely right, but neither are they entirely wrong. Like the political world in general, the world of political journalism more removed from the Hay-to-day life of the citizenry..