The Kansas City Times from Kansas City, Missouri • 15

Friday August 21 i98i i he Kansas City Times A-15 Opinions Columns War on crime fails to focus on the causes WIo CATCHY ml L)MM WASHINGTON I have "good for the 1559000 US teenagers who are without jobs without much hope and terribly vulnerable to the temptations of the nation's criminal element: Your public service job and your family's food stamps may have been snatched away but you can be sure of food and shelter because the same tightfisted people who took your job are now talking about spending $2 billion to help the states build new prisons for you Those frugal souls who are going to deny a lot of kids loans that would enable them to sleep in a college dorm are now talking about spending $50000 to $70000 per prison bed so they can more people at an annual cost of $10000 to $15000 per person America's prisons already overflow (Alabama and Michigan have had to release inmates early) with a record number of prisoners but crime rates go higher still the new in town insist that locking up more offenders for longer periods in more prisons is the answer to the crime problem intend to ensure that more criminals go to said Attorney General William French Smith So he named a Task Force on Violent Crime which this week issued a report saying that new prison construction is the most urgent need of this country 's criminal justice system It is significant that Smith's task force deliberately avoided the question of what causes the rise in violent crimes in America crimes committed in high proportion by teenagers and young adults it admittedly succumbed to what it called the increasingly conservative mood of Congress this administration and the public and embraced the simplistic notion that crime can be reduced by further filling penitentiaries and by overriding the supposed provisions of the Bill of Rights For six straight years we have been CARL ROWAN locking up more people for longer periods swelling our prison population by 61 percent since 1969 Has this caused a reduction in violent crimes No! Just the opposite has been the case Part of the increase in crime may be attributable to the fact that we have overcrowded some 85 percent of our prisons forcing the double- and triple-celling of lawbreakers of modest proportions exposing them to psychopathic rapists murderers and the like We have been so eager to lock up so many that we have created scores of of priSOhs whose "graduates" now prey upon society We have dehumanized a lot of people who might have paid a surer debt to benefit if they had been forced to pay restitution rather than go to prison The problem in wrestling with violent crime is the same as our dilemma in coping with the Soviet Union: Fear becomes the overriding factor This administration establishes a climate in which people are deemed either as willing to "stand up to the or to be "soft on they either want to war on crime" or they are coddlers of criminals Set up the issues in those misleading terms and millions of Americans will squander a lot of money in the foolish belief that they are and are corralling commies and collaring criminals I am not so naive as to think that any number of nutrition food stamp job training or other social programs will soon cause sharp reductions in violent crimes in America The social malaise is too deep too complex for that But I am absolutely convinced that building more prisons and adopting police state tactics will be tragically counterproductive Social change written into tax code Not millions or billions but a trillion-dollar debt By Jay Angoff Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service In his State of the Union address last February President Reagan said that "the taxing power of government must be used to provide revenues for legitimate government purposes It must not be used to regulate the economy or bring about social But the just-passed Reagan tax bill is designed to do precisely that By means of dozens of new exclusions exemptions deductions and credits some people call them loopholes it seeks to encourage everything from contributing to charities to rehabilitating old buildings from investing in utilities to opening a new bank account from hiring Americans overseas to drilling for oil For example under the Reagan tax bill if a taxpayer invests in utilities he is eligible for a special tax break of $750 if he invests in steel or cars or anything else he receives no such tax break If an individual spends $10000 to fix up an old building he can reduce his tax liability by $2000 if he decides to live in the building he does not get this reduction If he buys a $5000 savings certificate the interest that he earns is tax exempt: if he buys a $5000 money-market certificate the interest is fully taxable The Reagan tax bill also seeks to regulate corporate behavior By allowing corporations to deduct more than a dollar for each dollar they spend on new machinery but less than a dollar for each dollar they spend on new buildings it encourages them to invest in machinery rather than buildings And by providing much greater tax advantages for buying machinery than for hiring added personnel it encourages corporations to buy a machine rather than hire a Jay Angoff is a lawyer with Public Citizen Congress Watch a public-interest lobbying group in that dollar to the government in taxes A taxpayer in the 20 percent bracket saves only 20 cents on each dollar The taxpayer in the 50 percent bracket thus gets two and a half times as much benefit per dollar deducted as the 20 percent taxpayer gets Finally tax provisions designed to induce certain behavior are really government spending programs in disguise For example the Reagan tax bill allows corporations to reduce their tax liability by 25 percent of their new research-and-development expenses The same result would be achieved if all corporations paid the government their full tax liability and the government then sent each corporation a check for 25 percent of its new research-and-development expenses Government spending in the form of special tax relief to encourage certain behavior therefore although not as obvious as direct-spending programs is spending nonetheless The new tax bill does cut the tax rates slightly for all Americans regardless of what they do with their money But it also contains an average of about $35 billion annually over the next five years in special tax breaks available only to taxpayers who do with their money what the government would like them to do So although Reagan claims to be getting the government off our backs and to be cutting spending this year by $35 billion he is really doing neither He has simply taken money that the government used to hand out through the front door in the form bf direct-spending programs and has redistributed it repackaged it and whisked it out through the back door of the tax code He is using the tax code more than it has ever been used before to both regulate the economy and bring about social change And by using the tax code rather than direct-spending programs to regulate behavior he is making regulation both more inefficient and more unfair worker if both would cost the same amount and could do the same job On the other hand if a corporation hires a worker belonging to one of nine minority groups including welfare recipients ex-convicts or l8-to-24-year-olds it can reduce its taxes by up to $3000 for each such worker hired A corporation hiring an equally disadvantaged 25-year-old who has never been on welfare or in jail does not get this tax break What is wrong with trying to regulate social and economic behavior through the tax code? To begin with it is inefficient In addition some taxpayers are likely to have done what a tax break is designed to encourage them to do anyway Moreover the Reagan behavior-modifying provisions often conflict with each other and with existing tax provisions For example the new bill contains a provision meant to encourage corporations to buy new buildings and another to induce them to rehabilitate old buildings It allows for certain kinds of tax-free savings accounts to encourage people to save although the existing tax provision that allows people to deduct their interest payments on credit purchases encour ages them to spend It would be more efficient to eliminate the conflicting provisions and instead reduce everyone's tax rate whether they invest in new or old buildings or save or spend their money Trying to regulate behavior through the tax code is also unfair because the higher a taxpayer's tax bracket the more a deduction is worth to him A provision in the Reagan tax bill allows taxpayers to deduct up to $2000 a year in contributions to savings accounts that they cannot draw on until they retire For each dollar that a taxpayer in the 50 percent bracket deducts he saves 50 cents be cause he would have paid 50 cents of not so rosy 1901 New York Times News Service LONDON Lancelot Brown was the great English landscape architect of the 18th century rescuing English gardening from the hedged-in formality of French estates This believer in the freedom of long term growth created lakes and planted trees to set nature on its cen-turies-long course and earned his nickname from his frequent expostulation to royal clients "This place has great This week the British government announced it had at last found a private buyer for Heveningham (pro- WILLIAM SAFIRE nounced Heninghamj Hall a rundown Georgian mansion in Suffolk renowned for the gardens laid down over more than two centuries ago by Capability Brown The symbolism is striking: both in England and in America conservative governments have come to power that reject the fine-tuned formalism of Keynesian economics replacing its inflation-prone planning with a system designed to encourage long-term natural growth through enlightened greed In America where Ronald budget and tax cuts have just been put in place supply-side eyes are nervously fixed on Mrs similar policy in England which has been in effect for two years If all were going well in England the leaders of the noble experiment in America would be right to exude confidence However the English have discovered that decades of decadence cannot be set right in a hurry Unemployment in Britain always low by US standards has now shot up to nearly double the American rate the value of the pound has been dropping after six consecutive quarters of sinking national output businessmen and politicians denounced as by the dry-eyed Mrs Thatcher are demanding that austerity end and reflation begin Proof that the slump is pro found can be found in statements by the chancellor of the exchequer to the effect that prosperity is just around the corner In the United States the Reaga-nauts are eager to dissociate themselves from such bad news Our sup-ply-siders have promised a painless transition from inflation to stable prosperity pooh-poohing predictions of a real recession needed to end stagflation That is why economists have been passing the word that what is happening in England happen here Mrs Thatcher say our Pollyannas did not really cut the British budget and did not really lower total taxes as the Americans did Her hardline monetarism our economists point out was not countered by the leavening of genuine tax reduction over a long period consequently the anguish being felt by English workers is not likely to be felt by American workers in the Reagan revolution I wonder It could be that the Reaganauts are misled about what is happening in Britain and are misleading themselves about what might happen in America Despite the fears Britain has probably seen the worst of its hard times The unemployment is painful but the deep recession lowered the de bilitating inflation Many flabby companies folded but the survivors are leaner and more competitive than before Workers who have learned that work is an opportunity and not a right have responded with fewer strikes and higher productivity As a result Mrs Thatcher is more likely to fire her Cabinet whimperers than to cave in to them A few concessions are expected where the belt meets the backbone but the prime minister two full years before her next campaign is unlikely to abandon the chance of a genuine turnaround for which she has already paid dearly Halfway across the river it makes more sense to keep going than to turn back What about conservatives in the United States who are saying she did it all wrong and who insist that America's tax cuts will save us from a recession while our budget cuts tamp down inflation? They may be overlooking the obvious: There may be no wringing-out of inflation without going through something of a wringer There is likely to be no turning-down without a downturn The economic pain that surprised England may be a forerunner of surprises Americans have in store As some resolute Britons know the belttightening was in a good cause even if some mistakes were made along the way At least the British people were warned of some hard times when Mrs Thatcher started out two years ago where the Reagan experimenters differ sharply from their British cousins Our rising-tide sup-ply-siders have been foreseeing higher revenues through tax cuts while more traditional Republicans have been forecasting soft landings through budget and monetary restraint If that does not work out each will blame the other Preparing the American people for a rough time ahead is not part of anybody 's master plan But men who know that politics beanbags should know that economics painless dentistry If American deficits grow money will stay tight and budgets will be cut further: That is hardly a prescription for boom times If Mrs Thatcher sees England through to a more stable prosperity then her painful experiment will need to be cited not slight ed by conservatives in Washingtorj By Michael Conlan Newriouse News Service WASHINGTON Get ready for a trillion-dollar public debt right trillion $1000000000000 The Treasury Department must ask Congress next month to raise the current statutory ceiling of $985 billion which expires Sept 30 The debt now stands at $972 billion Although administration officials are mum on what new figure they will propose Congress several months ago predicted the limit would have to climb to $108 trillion in fiscal 1982 which begins Oct 1 looking forward to it least of all observes one House GOP staffer Because of the political symbolism involved in topping a trillion dollars Congress is expected to approve the higher debt ceiling with as little fanfare as possible It probably will be included as part of the second budget resolution which sets binding spending totals for every government program And more than likely it will be insulated from a separate recorded vote at least in the House Not that Democrats wouldn't like to embarrass both an administration trumpeting its budget-cutting achievements as well as congressional Republicans who for years have voted against raising the ceiling and made political hay out of what many concede is really an administrative function Republicans traditionally do not vote for that observes a congressional aide "They just en bloc vote against raising the public debt limit" Last February when the House was considering legislation to increase the debt limit from $935 billion to $985 billion Democrats stood by smugly watching Republicans squirm and agonize before they too voted for it That represented the first time in 22 consecutive votes during the past eight years that a majority of House Republicans cast their ballots in favor of raising the ceiling Not since 1953 the first years of Dwight presidency had so many Republicans supported the increase The vote was 150 Republicans and 155 Democrats in favor with 36 Republicans and 68 Democrats opposed White House Budget Director David A Stockman voted against raising the debt limit every time it came up when he served in the House between 1977 and 1981 but now he favors its increase voted against those debt ceiling bills because I had no confidence anybody was developing a plan to control Stockman says have confidence such a plan is being developed now because I am writing Despite the budget-cutting efforts which really amount to reducing the growth in the rate of spending congressional estimates say the debt will hit $118 trillion by 1984 when the president has promised a balanced budget Big names aren applying for job MISSOURI NOTEBOOK By Mark Schlinkmann Missouri Correspondent George Lehr Mike White Joe Teasdale In politics name recognition is like money in the bank and each of these guys has had it in Kansas City for years prominent Democrats who have held high-visibility elective posts and are well-known among average voters not just people who follow politics on a day-by-day basis Yet barring major changes of mind between now and 1982 these big names be trying for the prize sought by others with less ready-made drawing power the retiring Dick congressional seat The lack of interest in the race by this trio any of whom could be a clear favorite over the Republicans probably means the Democrats can take the 5th District seat for granted not to say the party be able to field a somewhat lesser-known nominee An exception of course to this theory is the one household name that says he is interested in running former Mayor Charles Wheeler But the Teasdale-Lehr-White stance makes it a reasonable possibility that the eventual Democratic nominee be much more of a household word before the campaign begins than the Republican candidate is Thus the traditional Democratic advantage in this Democratic-leaning city could be mitigated In each case reluctance by the Big Three to move on the Bolling seat is due mainly to personal reasons Teasdale still smarting from his loss of the governorship to Republican Kit Bond in November says devoted now full-time to his re-established law practice and to maintaining a more normal family life Friends note that the former governor a wealthy man and can't afford to derail his legal career so soon after the 1980 campaign doesn't make sense for me as a former governor to go through the wrenching experience of fund-raising and campaigning and (disrupting) my family says Teasdale also a former Jackson County prosecutor He added that he sees serving as one of 435 House members a step down from being one of only 50 governors Teasdale is holding a fund-raising reception here next week but stresses just to help pay off the fat campaign debt left over from 1980 Mike White made the decision to get out of elective politics in 1978 when he passed up running for a second term as Jackson County executive White had enjoyed a meteoric rise in politics here He started humbly in 1972 becoming a member of the county legislature with a one-vote victory over Republican Paul Kartsonis Two years later he was elected executive a job he filled with commendable reviews from many observers Unlike Teasdale White left office on top Yet he too now prefers his private law practice and occasional dabbling in political campaigns to the seven-day-a-week grind of the campaigner and public servant Lehr theformer county collector county executive and state audited is in a third category He left on top too but even Wait until his tenure was out resigning the state post midway through his four-year term in 1977 for family reasons He left the state capital to return to Kansas City to establish himself in the banking business Now at the helm of Traders Bank here Lehr is by all accounts dedicated to his new career no is the way he answers questions about a Lehr-for-Congress push Change is constant politicians change just like everyone else life But whenever speculation about an open office develops Lehr White and Teasdale inevitably are mentioned Some time will pass before that changes come you feel a draft and I REMEMBER WHEN? bing on exams but he specified that none could compete in varsity athletics at Notre Dame Force Base for the annual open house attracted by the aerobatic show put on by the Air Force Thunderbirds team Cholera struck fear to millions of Asians raging out of Southeast China and into the refugee-packed British colony of Hong Kong 30 years ago 1951 President Truman asked Congress for $400 million to assist sufferers of the flood-ravaged Middle West and set up a system of flood disaster insurance asking that the money be provided the greatest possible An anonymous benefactor offered to pay the way at the University of Notre Dame of any of the 90 cadets dismissed from West Point far crib By Karl Peterson A Member ot the Staff From The Star and Times of Aug 21 10 years ago 1971 The Justice Department said it will file suit next week in Austin Texas for an injunction against pay increases being given state employees by Gov Preston Smith in defiance of President Nixon's wage-price freeze The chief official of the University of Kansas Medical Center banned until further notice all abortions performed at the hospital's facilities in Kansas City Kansas 20 years ago 1 961 More than 70000 spectators jammed the Richards-Gebatr Air 40 years ago 1941 William Knudsen OPM director admitted the defense program was behind schedule and echoed President Roosevelt's appeal for America to awaken to the imminence of danger Three youths from the Mission district in Johnson County went exploring in a storm sewer tunnel off Brush Creek at the Paseo and were rescued two hours later through a manhole cover at 59th and Paseo They were David Dunn and Richard Tarbell both 14 and Jerry I arson )3.