The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois • Page 7

ffl(o (Q)pnfflQu1) Wednesday, June 19, 1991 The Pantagraph A7 WILLIAM PROXMIRE SHOE GRAB BAG to-J aft GUEST COMMENTARY crats tiptoe, losing their chance to win big on abor- Democrats blind to issues Bush keeps handing them its sins of commission (see: Dukakis, Michael the Democratic Party is busily attaching a considerable rap sheet of sins of omission. Does Congress realize our banks are in jeopardy? Congress should listen to the General Accounting Office's warning that commercial bank failures threaten another taxpayer disaster. But will it? The costs could be even higher than the $500 billion stunner from the savings and loan fiasco. The GAO has a superb record of honest and thorough investigation of our immensely complicated government and the institutions it regulates. It warned Congress well in advance of the collapse.

Two months ago the GAO told Congress to impose a substantially larger increase on the deposit insurance premiums the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. requires from commercial banks that carry $2.7 trillion in deposits (which is three times greater than deposits). property held by banks, and now the Reconciliation Trust Corporation, the taxpayer-financed bailout operation. The longer the RTC holds its real estate, the more massive the interest cost burden builds on the taxpayer and the overhead will continue to depress the real estate market But the sooner the RTC dumps the property, the quicker the pain of falling real estate values will smack the economy, especially our financial institutions. Whatever course the RTC pursues, both banks and will have more trouble ahead.

The GAO's prescription of a hike in the FDIC premiums on insured deposits is bitter medicine for commercial banks, because it means commercial banks that are just recovering from the recession will suffer a reduction in their already thin profits. BUT IT IS essential in fairness for the taxpayer. That's not all the grief. A sharply higher deposit insurance premium will force banks to reduce the interest they pay on savings deposits. That means some savers will invest their money elsewhere.

Banks will pass on billions of dollars in higher interest on their loans to borrowers. It's not hard to see why both Congress and the administration resist the GAO's responsible recommendation to take the burden of bank failures off the back of the taxpayer. The GAO wants to put the burden exactly where it belongs: on the depositor who is insured and on the bank that benefits by offering government-guaranteed safety for deposits. As usual it will be easier for Congress to postpone any further increase in deposit insurance premiums in the hope that the economy, generally, and the real estate market especially, will enjoy swift recoveries. But have we learned nothing from the fiasco? Congress should act now, in the next 30 days.

This is the least we should do for taxpayers. By LM. BOYD A spider has eight eyes and can't see worth a hoot Raggedy folk scoured the world's beaches for flotsam and jetsam, long ago. In the old classes, beachcombers were the lowest, just about Examples: Builders on Brazil's coasts faced their houses inland, so servants in outback quarters overlooked the junked shore. In Bali to this day, natives think the beaches are for oddballs.

Q. Which is the fiercest fighter, the female tiger or the male? A. Female, evidently. When she has a litter, the male oftentimes tries to kill the cubs. But can't Not with her there.

The old Romans thought a person's health changed every seven years. They also thought a mirror reflected a person's health, good or bad. It was a twist on this combination that gave us the superstition a broken mirror foretold seven years of bad luck. Statistical odds suggest you are living within 320 miles of where you were born. In the matter of former students: "alumnus" is a male, "alumni" are males, "alumna" is a female and "alumnae" are females.

"Alumni" is also OK when referring to a group of males and females. To police college exams for cheating, the checker-uppers compare wrong answers, not right answers. Two or more students are less likely to give the same wrong answers. Some of Florida is more westerly than some of Wisconsin. Fifteenth century printer William Caxton set up shop in the precincts of Westminster Abbey.

Printing unions allude to that church environment when they refer to their branches as "chapels" and branch leaders as "father." Remarkable man, Caxton. He didn't take up printing until after retiring from a career as a merchant Then he turned out the first book printed in English. tion's side. Taxes The GOP has raised taxes on working-and middle-class families especially Social Security taxes while handing the rich huge tax breaks. There has been a massive transfer of wealth from the middle to the top.

Sen. Albert Gore Jr. has proposed a bill that would give the middle class some of its money back and make the Mercedes set sweat just a teensy bit Gore's party is running from him as if he were a bomb-thrower. Scandal The giveaway to the run-amok savings and loan banks is going to cost taxpayers and their children and their children's children several zillion billion megadollars. The bill is still climbing and, to boot, the cleanup has been bollixed.

Congress went along, but this is mainly a Republican show and it can be hung around the president's neck. (Bush's son is one of the culprits. That's dirty pool, but as Dooley said, politics ain't beanbag.) CONSUMER PROTECTION The Reagan rip, only a little gentled by Bush, stripped key regulatory agencies of the means to do their jobs. As a result, all too often we are being served dangerous food in misleading packages. Money-saving generic drugs are sickening us rather than curing us.

Corporate safety violators are fined as little as $2 for fatal negligence. the The administration opposed advice and Congress ignored it With 1992 nearing, the party has yet to heave up even one major figure willing to declare against George Bush. The president cavorts toward re-election in what may be the first presidential race ever won by default It would be one thing if Bush were both so wise and so commanding that he had left potential opponents no running room; if he had pre-empted every appealing position and had done so with such easy elan that anyone caring to differ would seem in equal parts stupid and cloddish. On the contrary, the incumbent has handed Democrats several juicy issues. They would be meat to lions, but the Democrats have escalated pussycats as their leaders in the Congress.

House Speaker Thomas Foley and Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell are men of intelligence, responsibility and, alas, great decorum. It doesn't appear to have occurred to either that he might wish to engage with the president or his party any way but civilly. Even their dissents are couched in such politesse that they could be uttered in a sewing circle without causing a stitch to fall. HERE ARE FOUR CLUBS with which Bush could be beaten over the head, if the Democrats had not given up politics: Abortion Bush is calling for legislation that would take it away from women, and most women want to keep it Meanwhile, the president is appointing judges who will withdraw the rights women now have to control their bodies. (( Afraid to lose a few votes from one side, the Demo Just a few days ago, the GAO told the Senate Banking Committee that their detailed examination of both the and commercial bank situations indicated that on top of a $500 billion taxpayer disaster from failures, another taxpayer disaster looms from government-insured deposits at commercial banks.

THE EXTENT OF such a disaster will depend largely on what happens to the value of real estate in the next five years. Our financial institutions have invested deeply in commercial, residential and other real estate. The outlook for this segment of the economy is especially bleak because of the billions of dollars worth of No figure has taken up the Democrats only mew. consumers' battle cry. If mad dog Newt Gingrich were a Democrat a ring of political pathologists would be standing around George Bush's body right now, trying to figure out what hit him.

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