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Congress comes closer to compromise
WASHINGTON - Congressional leaders
expressed optimism Thursday that a long-sought
budget deal with the Bush administration would
be reached in time to avoid bone-deep cuts in
federal programs on Monday.
The two sides, racing the calendar, swapped
offers that ranged from increasing taxes on
many Social Security recipients to delaying
cost-of-living increases for people who receive
federal benefits.
President Bush continued to assail Demo
crats as the culprits in the months-long budget
standoff, which has brought the government to
the brink of the new fiscal year without any
spending legislation in place.
Increasingly restive rank-and-file lawmak
ers, Democrat and Republican, complained
that the compromise package in the works went
too far to satisfy the opposite party. The dis
gruntlemcnt signaled potential problems for
whatever Congress is finally asked to vote on.
But with both sides hoping to prevent a
staggering blow to government services Mon
day, and Bush softening his demands for a
capital gains tax cut, the prospects for success
among the negotiators seemed to brighten.
“We’re a little bit in the precincts of reach
ing a conclusion, rather than the wrap-up stage,”
said House Speaker Thomas Foley, D-Wash.
“A good deal has been agreed to tentatively.”
“They’re basically there outside of capital
gains,” said Rep. Silvio Conte, R-Mass., a
senior Republican. “Get rid of that darned
thing, we’re home free.”
Bush’s insistence on slashing the capital
gains tax has been the major barrier to a five
year, $500 billion deficit-reduction package.
The levy, which applies to profits from the sale
of property, has the same rates as the income
tax.
But the president has softened his demand,
and is now willing to leave the rates constant if
the increased value of an asset because of
inflation is exempted, officials close to the
talks have said. Bush’s latest proposal would
still amount to a substantial cut.
And as top officials from both sides labored
for a ninth day in search of an agreement,
Democrats said they remained leery of the new
capital gains offer. Their objection remained
the same as it has been for weeks: a belief that
the wealthy would benefit disproportionately
from the reduction.
“What do we get for it?” asked one Demo
crat who demanded anonymity.
One GOP suggestion for finding additional
savings in benefit programs was to delay next
year’s cost-of-living increase for the 39 million
Social Security recipients for three months,
said an of ficial who asked to not be identified.
“There may be senior citizens wondering
why their Social Security checks are late,”
Bush said Thursday at a GOP breakfast in
Minneapolis, citing a federal program that would
bedamagedby Monday’s automatic cuts. “We
can’t afford business as usual. The American
people deserve better.”
Even before his comments became known
in the Capitol, a parade of Democrats took to
the House floor and lambasted the president
taking his Midwest campaign trip in the heat of
a budget crisis.
“George Bush, phone home,” said Rep.
Dennis Eckart, D-Ohio.
It seemed possible that whatever compro
mise Congress was asked to vote on could be
defeated, at least initially. A rare Sunday con
gressional session, to vole on a package if one
was produced, seemed all but certain.
Chairman Rep. Ronald Dclluins of the lib
eral Congressional Black Caucus predicted that
lawmakers would be asked to vote on a budget
deal that “further savages already decimated
programs in housing, health care, education
and job training.” Dcllums, D-Calif., called on
representatives to vote against the package.
Conservative Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., prc-.
dieted that party leaders would have a hard
time finding support.
If GOP leaders believed he would vote for
the measure, Lott said, “They arc smoking
something.”
Gulf crisis enters 8th week
as Iraq threatens diplomats
Western governments reacted with outrage Thursday to Iraq’s threat
to execute diplomats who shelter foreigners, but Baghdad sought to
portray it as a misunderstanding, saying the warning was aimed at its
own citizens.
Eight weeks to the day after Iraq overran Kuw ait, its exiled emir ad
dressed the United Nations General Assembly, decrying the “rape, de
struction and terror’ ’ inflicted by Saddam Hussein’s armies and appeal
ing for a withdrawal of Iraqi troops.
But Iraq tightened its grip on the conquered emirate, ordering
Kuwaiti nationals to apply for Iraqi citizenship.
Oil prices rose again Thursday, briefly breaking the $40-a-barrel
mark, a day after President Bush ordered the sale of a fraction of the oil
from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve to try to dampen soaring
prices. High oil prices helped drive down slocks again, with the Dow
Jones industrial average closing off 32.17 points at 2,427.48.
International finance officials expressed new concerns about long
term financial consequences ofthc Persian Gull crisis. The head of the
World Bank said he might be forced local! on wealthy nations to boost
I their support for the lending institution by early next year.
Britain, in a surprise move, announced the restoration of diplomatic
ties with Iran, which were severed after the Ayatollah Khomeini’sdcath
decree against author Salman Rushdie for his book “The Satanic
Verses.”
Neither side publicly linked the move to the current gulf crisis, but
Iran’s relations with the West have been improving, and it has said it is
cooperating with the U.N.’s economic boycott against Iraq. Iran has a
7(X)-mile-long border with Iraq, and its cooperation with the U.N.
sanctions is seen as crucial.
Enforcement of the embargo led to a flareup of tensions Thursday in
the Red Sea, where the Pentagon said a U.S. frigate fired warning shots
at an Iraqi tanker after it ignored an order to halt. A team from the USS
Elmer Montgomery boarded the tanker Tadmur and inspected it, but it
was empty, and was allowed to proceed.
At the United Nations, the deposed emir of Kuwait, Sheik Jabcr al
Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, spoke emotionally of his homeland, which
he described as the victim of “naked, brutal aggression.”
Underscoring the U.S. view that the emir is still the legitimate ruler
of Kuwait, Bush has invited him to Washington for a visit today.
Also due to visit is Japanese Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu, who was
to travel to the United States today. On Thursday, Kaifu unveiled a plan
to dispatch Japanese military personnel to the gulf region, in what
would be the first such overseas deployment of Japanese forces since
World War II. But Kaifu said they would be unarmed and kept away
from combat.
Committee approves nomination;
full Senate confirmation expected
WASHINGTON - The Senate
Judiciary Committee approved the
nomination of New Hampshire jurist
David H.Soutcr to the Supreme Court
on Thursday with only one dissenting
vote. The full Senate is expected to
confirm him easily, but not before the
court begins its fall term on Monday
Both Democrats and Republicans
on the committee said they saw in
President Bush’s nominee a brilliant
legal scholar and a man of good tem
perament and integrity. In the 13-1
vote, only Edward M. Kennedy, D
Mass., opposed him.
Howell Heflin, a conservative
Alabama Democrat whose opposi
tion helped kill the 1987 Supreme
Court nomination of Robert Bork,
said he liked Souler’s “clearheaded
approach” and lack of an ideological
agenda.
Added Howard Met/cnbaum, D
Ohio: “My sense is that David Soutcr
is a fair and open-minded jurist who
knows well the weight of the respon
sibilities which will be placed upon
him.”
Bush hailed the committee action
and repeated his request that the Senate
4 ‘act as quickly as possible to confirm
this man” so he could be seated when
the court begins its new session.
A vote was unlikely before next
week, however, officials and others
close to thg, situation indicated.
One factor was the Jewish holiday
Yom Kippur which was interrupting
Congress' schedule today. And Bidcn
and other Democrats wouldn’t waive
rules that give senators time before
voting to review' a committee’s find
ings.
Souter, 51, in a statement released
in New Hampshire, thanked commit
tee leaders and members ‘‘for their
courtesy and consideration. I am grati
fied by their action. I await the deci
sion of the full Senate.”
Earlier, Tom Rath, like Souter a
former New Hampshire attorney
general, said Souter heard of the panel’s
action on a radio in Rath’s law office.
‘‘To get this kind of overwhelm
ing support makes us feel very good, ’ ’
Rath said, adding that Souter would
issue his separate statement as soon
as the White House approved it.
“Judge Soutcr is not the sort of
judge I would nominate if I were
president,” said committee chairman
Joseph Biden, D-Del., a supporter of
abortion rights.
Soutcr4 ‘just barely ’ ’ met his crite
ria. Biden said. “But I think that he is
about the best we can expect” from
Bush, who opposes abortion rights,
he said.
“Aspecks of Judge Souter’s testi
mony were of little comfort to legal
conservatives including this senator,”
said Gordon Humphrey, R-N.H., in a
statement released at the committee
session. ‘ But we recognize that the
president is entitled to considerable
deference in his choice for the Su
preme Court.”
“I am troubled that ... he will
solidify a 5-4 anti-civil-rights, anti
privacy majority inclined to turn back
the clock on the historic progress of
recent decades,” Kennedy said.
“1 hope I am wrong. But I fear I
am right,” Kennedy said. “The les
son of the past decade ... is that we
must vote our fears, not our hopes.”
Student guns down eight in bar
BERKELEY, Calif. - A “de
ranged” Iranian gunman with a hatred
of blond Americans died in a burst of
police bullets Thursday, seven hours
after he stormed a bar, killed one
man, wounded seven people and took
33 hostages.
Six officers stormed Henry’s Pub
lick House and Grille in the Durant
Hotel after police negotiators decided
they couldn’t talk the gunman out of
the bar, said Lt. Jim Polk.
“Wc decided there was no other
way,” said Polk.
He said the gunman, identified by
University of California, Berkeley,
spokesman Ray Colvig as Mehrdad
Dashti, gave away his position inside
the bar by using one of the terrorized
hostages as an intermediary in talking
to police by telephone.
“Every time the hostage woufd
have to ask a question of this bad guy,
he would have to tum around and
look at him and this gave us a good
idea of where he was,” said Polk.
Seconds after the burst of police
gunfire around 7:20 a.m., hostages,
some of whom had been forced to sit
in the windows of the bar as shields,
ran from the hotel.
Dashti, 30, a native of Iran, was
naked and bleeding when he was loaded
into an ambulance and taken to High
land Hospital. He was dead on arri
val, according to hospital spokes
women Phyllis Brown.
“He was apparently very con
fused,” said Berkeley Police Capt.
Phil Doran. “Deranged is not a bad
description.”
"For some reason, he had some
thing against blonds, Caucasian women
and blond-haired, blue-eyed men.”
said Douglas Moore, 25, a UC stu
dent and manager of the bar who was
one of the hostages. ‘‘He had some
thing against Americans.”
‘ ‘ He accused the women of show
ing too much leg,” Moore said. “He
accused them of wearing tight skirts,
short skirts ....
“He said it was that kind of trash
that was leading guys like him on and
that they deserved to be punished....
He did a pretty good job of degrading
the women.”
Doran said one of Dashti’s com
plaints was that “he didn’t get a stu
dent loan.”
Gorbachev demonstrates new power
MOSCOW - President Mikhail S.
Gorbachev began using his sweeping
new powers to rescue the collapsing
Soviet economy on Thursday, order
ing businesses to fulfill supply con
tracts and the government to ensure
distribution.
But it was far from clear that people
would comply with his order. Many
are uncertain how they will fit in the
market economy Gorbachev is trying
to establish and they find it more
profitable to trade goods on the black
. market, rather than distribute them in
the established structure.
In his first decree since the Su
preme Soviet legislature on Monday
granted him new powers to shore up
the economy and maintain law and
order, Gorbachev said told govern
ment businesses, “regardless of their
administrative subordination and
location,’ ’ to preserve economic ties.
He said the businesses should meet
all contract obligations for raw mate
rials and other goods in the last quar
ter of this year and throughout 1991.
It is during that period that the
country will be trying to switch from
a centrally planned to a market econ
omy under a plan the Supreme Soviet
is to select after Oct. 15.
Gorbachev’s decree, read on the
nightly TV newscast “Vremya” and
released by the Tass news agency,
was an attempt to preserve the status
quo at a time when many businesses
are trying to bypass Moscow and trade
directly with each other.
Gorbachev said it was “impermis
sible” that managers had disrupted
economic ties and referred to “the
extraordinary nature of the situation.”
In a harkening back to Bolshevik
appeals to the proletariat, Gorbachev
urged workers to join their bosses in
making sure contracts are kept. He
also said the Council of Ministers, the
Soviet Cabinet, should if necessary
“introduce a special regime for the
operation of railways and other all
state life-sustaining systems of the
country.”
Netfraskan
Editor Eric Planner Graphics Editor John Bruce
472-1766 Photo Chief At Schaben
Managing Editor Victoria Ayotta Night News Editors Matt Harak
Assoc News Editors Darcla Wlagart Chuck Oraan
Diana Brayton Art Director Brian Shalllto
Editorial Page Editor Llaa Donovan General Manager Dan Shattll
Wire Editor Jana Pedersen Production Manager Katherine Pollcky
Copy Desk Editor Emily Rosenbaum Advertising Manager Loren Melrose
Sports Editor Darran Fowler Sales Manager Todd Sears
Arts & Entertainment Publications Board
Editor Michael Deeds Chairman Bill Vobe|da
Diversions Editors Lee Rood 436-9993
Amy Edwards Professional Adviser Don Walton
_ R 473-7301
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