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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 23, 1992)
1st District House race picks up speed Congressional hopefuls debate economic plans By Andy Raun Staff Reporter Both candidates for Nebraska’s 1 st District congressional scat said Thurs day that their top priprity was reduc ing the federal deficit. Doug Bcrcutcr, the seven-term Re publican incumbent, and his chal lenger, Lincoln businessman Gerry Finnegan, agreed that economic growth was the key to solving the nation’s fiscal woes, and that al most nothing in the federal budget could be spared from consideration for budget cuts. Thecandidatcs made their remarks during an hour-long debate sponsored by the League of Women Voters. The debate was at the studios of the Ne braska Educational Television Net work in Lincoln and broadcast live statewide on public television sta tions. Finnegan said he opposed increas ing tax rates because doing so would stifle economic growth. “We need to grow the tax base” to increase federal revenues, he said. A coherent national economic policy and simplification of the fed eral tax code are needed to solve the country’s economic problems, Finnegan said. Bercutcr said Congress needed to “attack directly” the deficit by imple menting a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced federal budget. Bereuter also said the president should be given line-item veto power so that members of Congress would be more accountable for their spend ing choices. Even legislation granting the line item veto for a 10-ycar trial period would be acceptable if that were the only way to get line-item veto power approved, Bercutcr said. In light of changes in the interna tional arena, Congress should not fund new B-2 bombers or Scawolf subma rines, Bercutcr said. Additional cuts of U.S. troop strength in western Eu rope could also be made, he said. “We ought to place our dollars where we can be most effective,” Bercutcr said. Both candidates said Social Secu rity payments should not be subject to cuts. But Finnegan said savings in the Social Security program could be achieved by raising the retirement' age to 70 or 72 over a numberof years. Bercutcr said he opposed such a move because it would not give lower income citizens enough time to make changes in their retirement savings plans. Both candidates said reforming national health care policy would be critical in the next congressional ses sion. And both said they were not ready to accept a nationalized health care system, but changes in the status quo were needed and wanted badly by constituents. Finnegan said he supported fed eral funding of genetic research, and other areas in which the United States was supdrior, to jump-start the economy. Bercuter said he would support speeding up the timetable for paying federal public works development grants. He also said he supported re viving lax credits to spur economic growth. Bercuter said the United States needed to expand domestic uses of agricultural products, aggressively pursue foreign markets for agricul tural goods and make sure foreign import regulations were fair to the United States. Finnegan said the United States needed to change its policy of flood ing the world market with grain in an attempt to gain an upper hand in the export trade. Bercuter said U. S. export policy did not provide for flooding world markets. Bereuter wants election to end Democratic rule By Todd Burger Staff Reporter U.S. Rep. Doug Bereuter said Wednesday that the best change for the country in the upcoming election would be the narrowing of the D6mo cratic majority in TlCongress. I A Republican from Nebraska’s 1st District running for his eighth term, Bereuter spoke to about 250 people at Union College’s Academic Convocation about why the Republican Party would serve the country better than the Democrats would. “This is the most politically ex treme Congress I’ve servcd5 in,” he said. The Democrats in Congress, he said, have deliberately provoked and piled up vetoes to the advantage of Gov. Bill Clinton. Democrats now enjoy a 102-votc advantage in the U.S. House of Rep resentatives and have controlled the House for 38 years. “That’s longer than Castro’s con trol over Cuba. I won’t take that anal ogy any further,” he said, followed by the audience’s laughter. Bercutcr said he hoped for a 25- to 30-seat net gain in the House for the Republicans. In contrast, Republicans have held control of the presidency for 84 years since Abraham Lincoln’s electoral victory, compared to the Democrats’ 48 years of control. Although the media portrays the 1992 Republican platform differently, Bercutcr said he did not find the plat form divisive. Republicans would propose legislation on issues includ ing family values, health care, con gressional staff cuts, the line-item veto and the environment, he said. One of the health care issues Re publicans would like to address is making the intentional transmission of AIDS a criminal act, he said.; Bercutcr said Republicans also were concerned about the environ ment, but that environmental issues should be paired with economic growth. Republicans would require that a proposed recovery act of an endan gered species be worked through and approved by Congress,and not merely “rubber-stamped,” he said. Archeologists, scholars wrangle over Scrolls By Neil Feldman Staff Reporter_ The Dead Sea Scrolls will remain in the spotlight of controversy for decades to come, said Eric Meyers, a Jewish scholar and profes sor of religion at Duke University at Durham, N.C. Meyers, who lectured Wednesday on behalf ,of,the new University of Ncbraska-Lincoln Judaic Studies Program, said the debate over who could rightfully claim and publish the scrolls was a legitimate controversy that would persist into the next century. Scholars and archeologists have engaged in numerous squabbles over the possession of the scrolls since their discovery in 1947, Meyers said, and the debate has intensified as more scholars pursue this dilemma. To further complicate the situation he said, general interest magazines, such as Vanity Fair and Time, recently have published articles on the debate over the scrolls. v Displaying an issue of Time that ran a story on tfic scrolls, Meyers asked how such unknowlcdgcablc journalists could write fea tures on the topic. Meyers said the articles were packed with inaccurate and misleading information. Such deceptive information, he said, signifi cantly damages the process of moving forward in this “highly complex debate.” “It is asinine,” Meyers said, “that such a report could be printed in a news magazine.” The scrolls, which date back to about 200 B.C., were discovered in the late 1940s and early 1950s by archeologists and Bedouins. The scrolls include all of the books from the Old Testament (with the exception of Esther,) some fragments of the Septuagint, the earliest Greek translation of the Old Testament and segments of some books from the Apocryphn, written in Aramaic, Greek and Hebrew, he said. At this point, Meyers said, it looks as if the debate over the scrolls will not be settled for a long time. He added that he was pessimistic that a resolution over whocould lawfully claim and * publish the scrolls would be reached in the future. |—---POLICE REPORT Beginning midnight Wednesday 10:27 a.m. — Two-vehicic, non injury accident, parking lot west of Harpcr-Schramm-Smith complex, $400. 11:34 a.m. — Two-vehicle, non injury accident, meter parking lot west of Memorial Stadium, S100. 1:32 p.m.—Woman twisted ankle, 10th and T streets, transported to University Health Center. , A new prescription for terror. -si - .*V$ 'j5£iPiCL'“f x" _^-‘T r Paved, lit parking lot to open for students By Susie Arth Senior Reporter Starling Monday, some of the pains of parking on campus will be tempo rarily relieved, a UNL official said. Michael Cacak, interim parking admin istrator at the University of Ncbraska-Lin coln, said a new parking lot with 370 parking spaces would open Monday on The lot, which will be used as the parking lotforthe Beadle Center upon the building’s completion, is paved and well lit, Cacak said. The Beadle Center is expected to be completed ‘ early fall of 1994. “We’re looking forward to helping the students out a little bit by casing their parking problems for a while,” he said. Students with 1, 2 and 20 class parking permits will be allowed to park in the lot, Cacak said. These permits arc issued to students who live in the Abcl-Sando/. Complex, the Cather-Pound-Ncihardt Complex, fra ternities, sororities and commuters, - a We’re looking forward to helping the students out a little bit by easing their parking problems for a while. — Cacak, interim parking administrator -ft " he said. The lot, Cacak said, would be es pecially convenient for students who live in the residence halls. Cacak said only students would be allowed to park in the lot for now, but faculty will also be issued permits to to park in it after the Beadle Center is completed. Cacak tfaid he had planned on us ing the Beadle Center lot to relieve parking pains since last year. The original plan, Cacak said, was to have the lot completed before the beginning of the school year, but a rainy summer inhibited construction. He said he was thankful the lot was finally completed for students to use. “This lot will go a long ways to ward solving the parking problem,” he said. Voter Continued from Page 1 Nebraska Wesleyan University, Union College and every grocery store in Lincoln. Hansen, who became election com missioner last year, said not as many locations had offered voter registra tion in previous years. She said the number of registered voters had increased throughout Lancaster County. In 1988, she said, there were 111,320 registered voters by election lime. By Oct. 1 of this year, that number already had been exceeded by almost 9,(XX) people, Hansen said. Hansen said she expected about 124,(XX) people to be registered by today at 6 p.m. — the dead line lo vote in the Nov. 2 elections. \