monday, april 13, 1981
lincoln, nebraska vol. 106, no. 61
Proxmire awards Golden Fleece to Government
By Beth Headrick
The Reagan administration's budget cuts need to be
more decisive and directed toward different targets,
Senator William Proxmire said. Anti-trust policy, wage
price guidelines and economic discipline provided through
competition currently are weak, and feed rather than
starve the rate of inflation, he said.
Famous for his "Golden Fleece Award" given for
wasteful spending of tax money, the Wisconsin senator's
speech was sponsored by the University Program Council's
Talks and Topics Committee.
Speaking at the Nebraska Union, Sunday night, Prox
mire said he agrees that inflation is the nation's number
one problem, but that it has no single cause. Callinu
the Milton Friedman "simple monetary phenomenon"
solution unrealistic, Proxmire said, it takes more to de
crease inflation than reducing the rate of increase in the
supply of money.
Slowing down the increase of money puts a tremen
dous crunch on the economy when the government is
running on the deficit it is now, he said. It might work
in the long run but in the meantime, the prime lending
rate would probably go up 50 percent, there'd be a para
lysis in the construction industry and unemployment
would go up 15 or 20 percent, he said.
Instead, the American people, with the help of Con
mess, have to learn to fall back on Puritan notions and say
"no."
Pointing to unnecessary Federal spending, Proxmire
said it was a sad mistake to bail out the Chyrslcr Corpor
ation. If they had declared bankruptcy they could have con
tinued with the many plants they have across the country,
most of these plants have a guaranteed market, he said.
"Bailing out New York City was like providing sand for
the Sahara Desert," iie said.
New York banks have $200 billion in assets. They
didn't ncc' ,hc Federal govenvnent to bail them out, they
could have doen it themselves, he said.
Bailing out cities is flagrant waste, he said. The Federal
government spent $85 billion last year, 10 times the cost
of the Marshall Plan, helping cities that should've helped
themselves, he said.
Although U.S. anti-trust laws are among the strongest,
they still aren't strong enough to break up monopolistic
pricing, he said. Using the steel and auto industries as
I : t
7 1
Photo by Mark Billingsley
Senator William Proxmire spoke at the Nebraska
Union Sunday night.
examples, Proxmire said if one oil company increases
its prices the others now match this increase. This contra
dicts one of America's great price regulators competition.
To overcome this problem, Proxmire suggests encour
aging free trade and foreign competition. Japan's auto in
dustry provides U.S. auto manufacturer's with the compe
tition they need too keep prices down and provide a bet
ter automobile, he said.
Generally Proxmire said he agrees with the Reagan
Stockman emphasis on increased military spending.
However, the areas receiving the money are misdirected,
he said.
The Pentagon wastes money on complicated machin
ery when it needs to pay people better, increase the basic
hardware production of planes, tanks and ships and have
a readier military force, including National Guard and
reserve, he said.
"The MX missile system is a complete turkey. It's
complex and expensive, when our sea-launch ballistic
missile system is already very effective," he said.
The Soviet Union has 50 percent more planes, three
times more ships and four times as many tanks as the
United States has, he said.
One Fighter plane now costs $25 million when it should
only be five or six million," he said. These planes are
super fast and armor-plated but with increasing cost rates,
the U.S. will only be able to afford one a year.
"When I watched the space shuttle this morning, all
I could think of is there goes $20 billion," he said.
Proponents of the space shuttle say it will be an im
portant defense to the United States, but Proxmire
said it's not true. He said when he called Defense Secre
tary Caspar Weinberger before the Senate Appropriations
Committee asking why the costs of the project couldn't
have been shifted to the Pentagon, Weinberger said
there was no vay the Pentagon could justify it in its
budget.
Space exploration may be important, but it could
be postponed another two years while inflation wounds
heal, Proxmire said.
Experts: Middle East woven into global web
By Tom Prentiss
Three experts in Soviet relations discussed Soviet in
tentions in the Middle Fast Friday at a forum of the
Middle Fast Symposium.
Di. Vernon Aspaturian, Dr. Alvin Rubenstein and Dr.
Trond Gilberg told the audience what Soviet intentions
are in the Middle East and how they were formulated.
Rubenstein, a professor at the University of Pennsyl
vania, said the Middle Fast should be divided into four
areas when discussing Soviet intentions.
They were the non-Arab Moslem speaking countries of
f i$ ! Iff If i i 11 pV1 f 4
V 2?-Wi U 1 Y I'
Photo by Jon Natvig
Mac Whitney's sculpture, "Tarkio," is on display outside the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery as a part of the
Great Plains Sculpture Exhibition. The circular illusion in this photograph was created by a fish eye lens. For
additional pictures of Tarkio, see Page 6, and for a story on the sculptor, see Page 8.
Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan, and Arab-Israeli area, the
Persian Gulf and Arabian peninsula and the North African
tier.
Rubenstein said interests in these areas have all
developed differently. He said changes the Soviets have
made result from a shift in continental to global policy in
the region.
Aspaturian. of Pennsylvania State University, agreed
and said Soviet moves arc interrelated within a global
framework.
When the Soviets decide to make a foreign policy move
regarding a country, they always consider the effects it
will have throughout the world, he explained.
The best example of Soviet manipulation, said Aspatur
ian, was how they managed to move 40,000 troops from
Cuba to Angola.
Aspaturian said movements into Angola and the Horn
of Africa failed to produce world reaction, but with the
invasion of Afghanistan, everyone suddenly became
worried about Soviet expansion.
It was the Soviet way of showing that "you pick them
(countries) up if they might be useful to you, even though
they may not be useful at the present time," he said.
He blamed much of the Soviet risk-free attitude on the
lax policies of the Carter administration.
Rubenstein said the Soviet leaders are now more
realistic about unpredictability in the region.
He said the Soviet Union has benefited from being a
strong ally. Since 17, the Soviets have never reneged on
any desire to help an ally they thought they could win
benefits from, he said.
They even went as far. he said, as to risk a confronta
tion with the United States in 1973 during the Yom
Kippur War between Fgypt and Israel.
The key to understanding Soviet intent in the area is to
recognize the Soviet goal of undermining the U.S. pre
sence, he said.
Aspaturian said it is easy to characterize the Soviets as
having a "grand design" concept as part of their foreign
policy.
Continued on Page 3
U.
monday
Warning Sign: a political science professor says an Ameri
can military presence in the Middle East would be
a signal to the Soviets to "stay out" Page 2
Whodunit Whiz: Reviewer praises George V. Iliggins'
latest defective fiction work, The Rat on Fire, for its
witty dialogue and character development Page 8
Champions: The UNL women's Softball team won first
place in its own tournament Sunday with a 1 to 0
win against Minnesota Page 10