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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 28, 1992)
Opinion Up in smoke Peace dividend nothing more than pipe dream Hopes that eased superpower tensions would lead to a budgetary “peace dividend” from reduced defense department expenditures have turned out to be little more than a pipe dream this year. When Defense Secretary Dick Cheney in January proposed a defense cut of just $10 billion (of a nearly $300 billion budget) for the next fiscal year, members of Congress were quick to come up with their own plans to increase the size of defense department cuts. But now it looks as if all those politicians were just blowing smoke. When it came right down to it, politicians had too much trouble accepting specific defense department cuts. Jobs were ttl MOKC - IIUI Ulll^ wiuuti the armed services them j selves but also through defense department contrac tors and small business in communities where bases would be closed. In a time of economic uncertainty, such cuts could have led to larger problems. Perhaps most impor tantly, the cuts also could have cost politicians their jobs. In an election year already plagued by economic woes, voters would be more unhappy to sec any cuts come to projects in their areas. So, instead ol doing Brian SheINto/DN ^ propcr painfu, dcC(J Qf cutting defense spending, senators and representatives decided to back off. Now they are showing willingness to accept Cheney’s budget almost intact. The same senators who balked at Ch eney’s proposal when it first was announced now arc advocat ing pushing back more dramatic cuts at least for a year. Of course it’s essential to scrutinize all decisions that could harm the economy, but even Pentagon officials admit exag gerations in early reports that up to 300,000 troops would be laid off if cuts were made. And when talk of other cuts came up, the strongest support for preserving the B-2 Stealth bomber came from California, where the B-2 assembly plant is. Twenty more bombers now are scheduled for production. After complaints from New England that plans to slop pro duction of the Scawolf attack submarine could cause thousands of lost jobs, a House subcommittee restored $2 billion to the program. The Stealth is designed specifically to avoid Soviet radar. The Seawolf is designed specifically to attack Soviet subma rines. When cuts first were proposed in both of these areas earlier in the year, members of Congress weren’t too concerned about the manufacturing planus shutting down. It was painfully apparent that national defense no longer depended on the technology these weapons could provide. But, apparently, the end of the Cold War matters little in an election year when the jobs of members of Congress arc at stake. I I ... I ■ —... ■ I ■ - - ■ ■ ■ ■ ■■ ■ -LETTER POLICY The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief letters to the editor from all read ers and interested others. Letters will be selected for publi cation on the basis of clarity, original ity, timeliness and space available. The Daily Nebraskan retains the right to edit or reject all material submitted. Readers also arc welcome to sub mit material as guest opinions. Whether material should run as a let ter or guest opinion is left to the edi tor’s discretion. f 4 .V Letters and guest opinions sent to the newspaper become the property of the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be returned. Anonymous submissions will not be considered for publication. Let ters should include the author’s name, year in school, major and group affiliation, if any. Requests to withhold names will not be granted. Submit material to the Daily Ne braskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St., Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448. -EDITORIAL POLICY Staff editorials represent the offi cial policy of the Spring 1992 Daily Nebraskan. Policy is set by the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. Its mem bers are: Jana Pedersen, editor; Alan Phelps, opinion page editor; Kara Wells, managing editor; Roger Price, wire editor; Wendy Navratil, copy desk chief; Brian Shellito, cartoon ist; Jeremy Fitzpatrick, senior re porter. Editorials do not necessarily re flect the views of the university, its employees, the students or the NU Board of Regents. Editorial columns represent the opinion of the author. The Daily Nebraskan’s publishers arc the regents, who established the UNL Publications Board to super vise the daily production of the pa per. According to policy set by the re gents, responsibility for the editorial content of the newspaper lies solely in the hands of its students. PfrRUCM BUT X iVCO&KT X SOKE RUN VM V^ERX. NNOV\ <^*AE OB^CEN^,S!tAUT WUJED VAU^VC. . r' VH.. HQ ONE. UVfc. * WCT CCHE. »H % mi BRIAN ALLEN Make room for 3rd party / / ri o, Allen, how arc you going * * to vole this year, Rcpubli can or Democrat?” 1 re cently was asked. Naturally, my mind still is some what open on that issue, but the an swer probably is neither. I really don’t think much of either party, and this year the front-runners from both major parties — draft-dodging Bill and read my-lips George — leave even more than a little to be desired. It’s looking as though I am going to have to vote the way I almost did for the last presidential election and give my support to a third-party can didate, namely the Andre Marrou Nancy Lord combination from the Libertarian party. Actually, I don’t even like our party system. The founding fathers of this country didn’t have any party system in mind when they set up our form of government. It’s simply not needed. All our two-party system does is limit the candidates to those whose ideals and beliefs fit nicely into cither the standardized Republican or j Democratic party ideals. Sure, candidates arc allowed a i certain degree of latitude when it comes to their policies, but you can bet that I i f those policicsdon’tfall pretty close i to the party line, that particular candi date will find a lack of support from i the parent party. This leaves those individuals like i IYIA U/haCA %/IAltJC Han * f Toll «n linn with either the Democrats’ or Repub licans’ ideals, sort of left out, unless \ there happens to be a third party that holds the same views. Luckily, in my case there is. The Libertarian parly is the nation’s third- i largest and fastest-growing political party. While its 200,000 registered ( voters don’t provide much of a threat ( to either the Republicans or Demo- ( crats, that many votes easily could tip i the balance of power between the two major parties. Thus, while it probably will be quite a while before the Libertarian party actually getsa candidate elected to a major position, it does send a message to tnc two major parties that not everyone is happy with their poli cies. This could force them to alter their positions slightly on some issues and to try to limit the defections to the Libertarian party that now are taking place. Basically, the Libertarian party was founded on and continues to believe in the Jeffersonian idea of “That government which governs best is that which governs least.’’ Libertari ans believe that government should be greatly limited and should provide only for national defense and the Libertarians believe that governmental control ol citizens’ liveshasgotten en tirely out of control, and the basic freedoms this country mm founded on are being rapidly eroded. jrotcction of citizens from crime. Libertarians believe that govem ncnial power over citizens’ lives has jotten entirely out of control, and the >asic freedoms this country was ounded on rapidly arc being eroded. 1 think most people today defi litely can sympathize with these ideas, rhe government already tells us we nust wear helmets each time we ride i motorcycle, we must register our personal firearms, we must prove our ige before we buy certain music and vc must wear scat belts in most slates. Governmental control of my life seems to be getting unmistakably ighter, the deficit keeps getting larger ind my taxes keep rising. The Demo crats and Republicans seem quite content to let this sad stale of affairs continue. The Libertarians are the :>nly ones who seem interested in my plight and the plight of this country. One major plank in the Libertari ans’ platform is a drive to eliminate personal income taxes and subse quently abolish the Internal Revenue Service. The streamlined, bare-boncs government envisioned by the Liber tarians would not require nearly the operating funds that our current bloated, bureaucratic behemoth demands. The greatly reduced funding required by the Libertarian government would easily be generated by sales taxes, import taxes, etc. Libertarians don’t believe the United States should play the role of police force to the world. They, and 1, fail to sec any sense in spending bil lions of dollars to ensure the defense of such economic powerhouses as Japan and Germany, who clearly arc more than capable of financing their own defense forces. Why, after all, should we continue at our own expense to ensure the national safety of Japan, thereby free ing its economy of this burden and helping it increase its trade imbal ance over us? Another plank of the Libertarian party is fierce support of the Constitution, particularly the Bill of Rights. It, and I, believe the freedoms of speech and free press are being tested by various moral majority types (such as Omaha for Decency and the 2 Live Crew issue) who have as their goals the censorship of anything they personally don’t agree with or enjoy seeing, reading or hearing. The Libertarian party, and I, also believe that the Second Amendment basically is being ignored on the lo cal, state and federal level, and the rights of citizens to ensure their own safety through the ownership of fire arms should be protected more widely. Perhaps one of the most contro versial ideas shared by the Libertar ian party and myself is the belief in legalized drugs. In a 1991 article of the National Review, Libertarian presidential candidate Marrou said, r,Drugs arc lifeless substances; guns arc inanimate objects. They cannot be evil. The only thing that can be evil is a human being. “According to (former Surgeon _i\ r..._•« -»i a(* uuiuai; l«vuvu i\uupt #* pviw..* drug-related deaths in America arc caused by tobacco. What do Demo crats and Republicans do about to bacco? They subsidize it. “Twenty-eight percent of drug related deaths are caused by alcohol. Bush is spending billions to get rid of 1 percent of the drug problem.” These figures make the war on dnigs seem kind of a foolish waste of money to me — just one of many black holes the current bloated sys tem seems content to keep pouring funds down. In short, the Democrats and Re publicans do not represent my ideals or the ideals of a large percentage of the population. They have shown over and over their incompetence at run ning this country and their desire to control the day-to-day lives of its citizens. Voters are offered little choice outside these parties, but that is chang ing. So if you don’t like the way the two major parties are running things, and if you don’t like either Clinton or Bush, remember you have another choice. Think Libertarian. Allen is a senior mechanical engineering mqjor and a Daily Nebraskan columnist.
