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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 16, 1990)
By The Associated Press Edited by Jana Pedersen Democrats’ budget plan draws criticism WASHINGTON - A Democratic deficit-reduction plan under attack from the Bush administration would raise taxes on all but the poorest Americans, socking the richest 1 percent with increases averaging nearly $14,000 a year. The proposal would cut taxes slightly on those with incomes under $20,000 a year, according to an analy sis Monday by the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation. Thoscabove the $200,000 income level would face a 7.4-percent tax increase. For people between those extremes, the legislation would result in tax increases in the 1 percent range. That would result from putting higher consumer taxes on alcohol and to bacco; giving up next year’s income tax adjustment to offset inflation, and raising the amount of wages subject to inflation, and raising the amount of wages subject to the Medicare tax. Economists for the House Ways and Means Committee, which wrote the proposal, estimated its tax changes and cost increases for Medicare bene ficiaries would cost the average fam ily $352 next year. Although other deficit plans are being considered, the House Demo cratic version is getting most of the attention now because of the admini stration’s opposition and because it seems to have support from most of the party’s House members. President Bush, after meeting with the congressional Republican lead ers, Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas and Rep. Bob Michel of Illinois, said Monday that they were “pretty much on the same wavelength” in prefer ring a different tax increase approved by the Senate Finance Committee. Unlike the House Democrats’ plan, the Finance Committee version would avoid changes in income tax rates but would limit itemized deductions for people earning over $ 100,000. The Finance panel’s plan would raise taxes by just under 3 percent for families in the $20,000-to-$50,000 income range; 1.9 percent for those between $50,000 and $75,000 and 3.5 percent for those between $100,000 and $200,000. The $200,000-plus group would pay 3.7 percent more. Because differences between the House Democrats’ tax plan and the Senate Finance Committee version will take some time to resolve, it becomes more likely that Bush will order the government shut down Sat urday morning for the second time this month. More than two weeks into the new budget year, Congress has yet to enact the first of 13 required appropriation bills. A stopgap spending measure expires at midnight Friday and Bush has said he will not agree to another unless Congress has approved a defi cit-reduction plan that the admini stration supports. What the Democrats' plan means to taxpayers f The poorest one-fifth of families, with after-tax in come averaging $7,316, wouid get a $14 tax cut. f The second-poorest one-fifth, averaging $16,917, would pay $114 more. f The middle group, averaging $25,896, would pay $183 more. f The second-richest 20 percent, averaging $36,481, would face a $280 tax increase. ■r The top 20 percent, whose incomes average $81,934. would pay $1,173 more. f Those with incomes averaging over $428,000 — the richest 1 percent — would face a $13,951 tax increase. Source: Budget analysts . . a m • a • I Bush says ‘ghastly atrocities’ I in Kuwait could lead to trials I President Bush said Monday that Iraqi atrocities in Kuwait could 1 lead to trials similar to those held after World War II, and his defense I secretary said U.S. troops will stay in Saudi Arabia as long as needed. ■ Iraq, meanwhile, insisted it would fight rather than withdraw from m Kuwait. ■ “Hitler revisited,” Bush said in Dallas of Iraqi actions in the liny I emirate that Saddam Hussein’s troops seized Aug. 2. « “But remember, when Hitler’s war ended there were the Nuremberg I trials. Every day now, new word filters out about the ghastly atrocities 1 perpetrated by Saddam’s forces,” Bush said. K Earlier Monday, U.S. Defense Secretary Richard Cheney said I Americans would stay “as long as the Saudis want us ... as long as it I takes to gel the job done. No one should underestimate our staying I power.” f “T. _v. i.. .„ l. j. .l. : »» ■ uiiv iiiuvia muiv iiavv/i j iv i/v uu uui aiuv uian ■ i ■ a wi i hid 3iuv, I Cheney said, referring to Saddam and the U.S.-led multinational force. Asked if there was the political will in the United States to maintain troops in Saudi Arabia for years, Cheney said: “There certainly is.” The defense secretary, who spoke in London as part of a 10-day tour that also will take him to Moscow, said economic sanctions were only I just beginning to hurt I raq. He stressed that America hopes to avoid war. Iraq denied it was softening its stance on the gulf crisis. “Kuwait is the 19th province of Iraq and this fact will not be changed whatsoever even if we fight a long war for that,” Information Minister Lafif Nassayif Jassim was quoted as saying. He told reporters in Baghdad on Sunday night that he believes a U.S.-led attack is imminent, but that Iraq would not fire the first shot, the official Iraqi News Agency reported. “We expect the war at any moment, and we are ready to fight against the Americans and those who come with them,” he said. The remarks appeared intended to reassure its citizens and counter reports that Saddam might be wavering in his determination to hold J onto Kuwait. Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat met with Saddam on Sunday and said later that the Iraqi president was showing a “certain flexibility” regarding his claims to Kuwait. Arafat spoke in Tunis after meeting with the French foreign minis | ter. Diplomatic sources in Baghdad said Arafat is trying to persuade the Iraqis to talk with the French, who suggested Iraq’s withdrawal from Kuwait might be linked to an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank I and Gaza Strip. L Saddam said Aug. 12 that he would discuss a withdrawal from Kuwait only if talks also were held on the Palestinian issue. The West Bank and Gaza are home to 1.7 million Palestinians. Net>raskan Editor Eric Planner 472-17®# Managing Editor Victoria Ayotte Assoc News Editors Cards Wiogert Diene Brayton Editorial Page Editor Lisa Donovan W re Editor Jana Padaraan Copy Deck Editor Emily Rosenbaum Sports Editor Darren Fowler Arts & Entertainment Editor Michael Deads Graphics Editor John Bruce Photo Chief Al Sc ha ben Night News Editors Matt Herek Chuck Oreen Art Director Brian ShellIto General Manager Dan Shattll Production Manager Katherine Pollcky Advertising Manager Loren Melrose Sales Manager Todd Sears Professional Adviser Don Walton 473-7301 The Daily Nebraskan(USPS 144 080) is published By the UNI Publications Board, Ne brasna Union 34,1400 R St., Lincoln, NE. Monday through Friday during the academic year; weekly during summer sessions Readers are encouraged to submit story ideas and comments to the Daily Nebraskan by phoning 472-1783 between 9 a m and 5pm Monday through f nday The public also has access to the Publications Board For information, contact Bill Vobejda, 436 9993 Subscription price is $45 for one year Postmaster Send address changes to the Daily Nebraskan, Nebraska Union 34, 1400 R St ,Lincoln, NE 60588 0446 Second class postage paid ai Lincoln, NE ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1990 DAILY NEBRASKAN Israeli leader defends position JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir on Monday accused the world of hypocrisy, ignoring murders of Israelis while condemn ing Israel for killing 19 Palestinians in Jerusalem last week. In a strongly worded warning to Iraq, Shamir also said any interven tion in neighboring Jordan that upset that country’s stability would bring swift Israeli retaliation. Addressing Parliament, Shamir defended his Cabinet’s rejection Sunday of a U.N. Security Council resolution urging a U.N. investiga tion of the deaths on the Temple Mount a week ago. The Cabinet action was criticized Monday by left-wing parties, and the largest opposition faction, the center left Labor Party, said it would join a no-confidence vote against Shamir’s conservative government. Shamir, reacting to the Security Council condemnation, said critics ignored the fact that police charged the Mount only after Palestinians unleashed a barrage of stones at Jew ish worshipers at the adjacent West ern Wall. “The citizens of Israel and all Jews everywhere cannot but be astonished and protest at the voices of criticism . . . in which what stood out was an absence of any mention of the grave attack on the Jewish people’s holiest place,” he said. Shamir complained that the Secu rity Council failed to respond in any way to the murders of 16 Israeli tour ists in two attacks in Egypt, one in 1985 by a deranged Egyptian police man and another last February by unidentified gunmen. “We did not hear similar denun ciations and we did not sec the Secu rity Council being convened when whole families were murdered in Ras Bourka or when buses carrying Israel tourists were attacked.” he said. Shamir did not follow other Israeli politicians in directly criticizing the United Stales, Israel’s chief ally, for joining in the unanimous Security Council vote. But he suggested that backing for the resolution was moti vated by the need to hold together the U.S.-backed force against Iraqi Presi dent Saddam Hussein’s takeover of Kuwait. “The Security Council decision .. . was a one-sided decision,” he said. “One can only conjecture about its motives and the support it received in the present international situation.” In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler expressed disappointment in Israel’s decision not to cooperate with the U.N. investigators. “We think that a failure to cooper ate denies Israel an opportunity to present its case,” she said. At the United Nations, Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar said Monday he was undecided whether to dispatch a team to and would wan to hear the Israeli government’s posi tion. Court upholds obscenity seizures WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court boosted the federal government’s crackdown on obscenity Monday as it let stand the forced closing of three adult bookstores and nine video rental shops in Virginia. The court, over one dissenting vote, rejected arguments by the businesses’ owners, who were convicted of rack eteering and selling obscene materi als, that the subsequent seizures of the businesses violated their frec speech rights. Justice Byron R. White voted to hear arguments in the case, but four votes arc needed to grant such re view. The seizures were carried out under provisions of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO. Those convicted of participating in an enterprise through a pauem of racketeering may be forced to forfeit all assets and proceeds stem ming from the illegal activity. The justices were told that the Virginia case is the first prosecuted under RICO in which the racketeer ing activity charges were based cn 0 In the Supreme jCourt^^ tirely on obscenity crimes. Obscenity was added in 1984 to the long list of underlying crimes on which a RICO prosecution could be based. The court’s determination of the validity of post-judgment forfeiture in this case will have enormous im pact upon the future of RICO obscen ity prosecutions, both state and fed cral,” lawyers for the convicted busi ness owners said. Dennis and Barbara Pryba, owners of the corporations that operated the bookstores and video shops in north ern Virginia, were convicted of sell ing and distributing obscene maga zines and videotapes worth about S105. An employee, Jennifer Williams, also was convicted on obscenity charges. Dennis Pryba was sentenced to three years in prison and five years probation, and was fined $75,000. Barbara Pryba was given a suspended prison sentence and fined $200,000. Williams was given three years pro bation and fined $2,250. After a separate jury trial, a federal judge ordered that all assets — in cluding corporate stock, inventory, bank accounts, automobiles and even office furniture — be forfeited. o. Atrica outlaws facility segregation I JOHANNESBURG. South Africa - A major apartheid law that barred blacks from public facilities for dec ades was formally scrapped Monday, bul right-wing whites planned to exploit loopholes to maintain segregation. In a separate development, police said factional fighting left eight blacks dead as rival groups battled with pis tols and knives at a migrant workers hostel in Kcmpton Park, cast of Johan nesburg. The Sunday night battle was the worst single incident since relative calm was restored to the black town ships around Johannesburg throe weeks ago. The demise of the Separate Amcni ties Act, a pillar of South Africa’s apartheid system, did not have no ticeable effects in major cities, where libraries, parks, buses, swimming pools, toilets and other facilities have been integrated in recent years. But in smaller towns controlled by the right-wing Conservative Party confrontations were expected between blacks and whites opposed to the change. In the town of Middelburg, cast of Johannesburg, white residents voted to close all public facilities rather than open them to all races. Other towns planned to charge exorbitant fees for “non-residents ’’ Most of the people living inside town limits arc while, while blacks arc forced to live outside the town boundaries under remaining apartheid laws that segregate neighborhoods. For example, the town of Bethal planned to charge an annual fee of $200 to non-residents wishing to use ; the public library. Anti-apartheid leaders urged blacks to begin using facilities and threat ened strikes and boycotts against towns trying to maintain segregation. “Entry to public facilities must be unconditional anti free. What these councils are planning is an illegal ad of banditry,” African National Con gress official Joe Nkuna said.
