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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 9, 1994)
NEWS DIGEST By The Associated Press Edited by Kristine Long Clinton defends universal care despite higher cost SHREVEPORT, La. — Taking a slap at corporate chieftains critical of his health care plan, President Clinton Tuesday said “enlightened business leaders” realized the urgent need to provide medical coverage to all Amer icans. doesn’t. Clinton also took several shots at the insurance industry, saying it had creat ed a costly “paper work bureaucracy,” unfairly charged old people more for coverage and has too much power “to decide who’s got insurance and who But in Washington, the Congres sional Budget Office dealt the White House a setback with estimates that Clinton’s health plan would drive the federal deficit up by $74 billion over the next six years, not cut it by $58 billion as the White House forecast. The CBO’s projection makes the Clinton plan more costly on paper, opening the administration to criti cism that it would sharply increase the budget or raise taxes. But Clinton said the CBO’s forecast would not deter him. “We’ll fix that. That’s not a prob lem. That’s a W ashington pol icy wonk deal. No serious person out here in the real world will be too troubled by that,” Clinton told reporters after his speech to workers at a General Motors pickup truck plant in Louisiana. In his speech, Clinton told of a local woman who wrote the White House about how her husband was diagnosed with lung cancer but could not get medical care because he had no insurance. “They wouldn’t even treat him and he died in five weeks,” Clinton said. “Our approach completely outlaws insurance discrimination.... Our plan reduces the control of the insurance companies and gives more input to workers and to business.” Clinton’s remarks were part of a White House effort to counter recent business criticism of his plan, and to try to stall the growing support of a rival program authored by Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn. Cooper and others with alternative health care plans say their programs would provide universal access to health care without the larger gov ernment role envisioned by Clinton. But, pointing to a truck in the plant, Clinton said there was univer sal access to trucks — but only for people who could pay for them. “Don’t fall for all this rhetoric about universal access,” he said. He said the only way to corral health care costs was by providing universal coverage so that everyone gets primary and preventive care, which are less expensive than treating long-festering illnesses. And, short of a huge tax increase, Clinton said the only way he knew to guarantee uni versal coverage was to require em ployers to pay most of the tab. Before shifting to health care. Clinton put in a plug for his new budget, which he said made more than 300 spending cuts so the administra t ion could invest in new education and training programs while also keeping the deficit in check. “The only thing that is increasing in this (federal) budget is the cost of health care,” Clinton said. “Why is it going up so much? Because we don’t have a system in America in which everybody is covered, in which people get primary and preventive care, and in which there is some limit on how much the insurance companies can do to decide who’s got insurance and who doesn’t.” 1984 Winter Olympics venues ravaged by war Source XIV Olympic Winier Games Olliaal guide AP Graphic Sarajevo trades flame for fire SARAJEVO, Bosnia Herzegovina — Ten years after welcoming the world’s finest ath letes to the 1984 Winter Games, Sarajevo marked the anniversary T uesday by burying more of its war dead in the shadow of the wrecked Olympic stadium. The stadium, now a base for French peacekeepers, has been ru ined by shelling in a 22-month war that has killed more than 200,000 Muslims, Serbs and Croats. The Bosnian capital is a shell of its former self, ringed by Serbian gun ners who fire on their enemies be low. One shelling Saturday killed 68 market-goers and injured 200 oth ers. So, it was perhaps no surprise that Sarajevo observed the anniver sary of its Winter Games with more funerals and rage at the Serb gun ners who “have broken the Olym pic record in murder.” In the shadow ofZetra stadium, where the Olympic flame was light ed Feb. 8, 1984, 20 victims of the market massacre were laid in graves hacked from the hardscrabble ground of a former soccer field. The stadium has been struck by Serb shells, many fired from can non and mortar emplacements set up on ski slopes and bobsled runs on the Olympic heights surround ing the city. At a commemorative ceremony in the national theater, “The Snow flakes” — a girl’s choir named for Sarajevo’sOlympic emblem—lip synched to “The Flame is Still Alive,” the city’s Olympic theme song. The mood among the 100 Sarajevans in attendance was de jected but dignified. The building’s facade was battered by shelling, but its baroque gold and velvet interior is intact. “For the riders of the Apoca lypse riding across our former Olym pic fields, we are guilty only be cause we are Bosnians," said May or Muhamed Krcsevljakovic. He bitterly invited mayors of other Olympic cities to visit “the city of love and death.... The big gest Olympic paradox in the world.” Dozens of former Yugoslav Olympic team athletes are now fight ing on the Bosnian Muslim side, said Izudin Filipovic, head of the Bosnian Olympic Committee. Five are fighting with the separatist Serbs, he said. About 10 Bosnian athletes are competing next week in the 1994 Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway. NATO foreign ministers plan to meet Wednesday in Brussels, Bel gium, to develop a strategy to lift the siege of Sarajevo. It could in clude setting a deadline for Bosnian Serbs to remove heavy guns encir cling the city or face air strikes. Committee calls hearing for Harding LILLEHAMMER, Norway — Tonya Harding’s lifelong pursuit of a figure skating gold medal could end next week at an Oslo airport hotel, 110 miles shy of this Olympic town and one week short. The U.S. Olympic Committee, trou bled by Harding’s links to the Nancy Kerrigan assault, called a special hear ing for next Tuesday to decide wheth er to bar the U.S. champion from the Winter Games. If Harding is banned, her only chance of competing in Lillehammer would be through a court order. The USOC’s decision to convene its Games Administrative Board was buttressed by a 400-page volume of evidence from a figure skating feder ation inquiry, and by Harding’s own statements. “It’s not a matter of hearing more, it’s a matter of giving Tonya Harding a chance to respond, which she has not had a chance to do,” USOC president LeRoy Walker said. He said Harding could submit her case in person or in writing, but hoped she would testify. There was no immediate word if she would. In an interview on NBC’s “To day," Walker said the proceeding was similar to an administrative hearing. “But we would like to present her, in person, the charges and grounds for charges that have been leveled by the (figure skating) panel to get her re sponse.” The inquiry will deal more with “sportsmanship and fair play aspects rather than criminal culpability,” he said. Harding will remain on the team until at least the end of the hearing, which opens Feb. 15 at the SAS Park Royal Hotel, across the street from Fomebu Airport. That’s three days after the Winter Games begin and eight days before the start of women’s figure skating. Harding can appear before the pan el with or without her lawyers. The board can appoint people to present evidence, and can examine evidence or testimony by Harding. Before Tuesday’s announcement, Harding was scheduled to arrive in Norway the day of the hearing; it was not known if that plan will change. The USOC panel will be the third to investigate Harding’s role in the attack on Kerrigan, who was clubbed on the right knee Jan. 6 as she left a practice rink at the U.S. Figure Skat ing Championships in Detroit. Last Saturday a panel of the U.S. Figure Skating Association found “reasonable grounds” to believe Harding was involved in the plot. Its investigation won’t be finished until after the Winter Olympics. J apanese government passes economic plan TOKYO — The government an nounced a$ 140 billion econom ic pack age Tuesday to help revive the econo my, just hours after leaders of Japan ’ s ruling coalition reached a face-saving compromise on tax cuts. The announcement comes before Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa meets President Clinton in Washing ton on Friday. Japanese business, struggling with an economy in its worst recession since World War II, had eagerly antic ipated the stimulus package. It includes a cut in income and other taxes, worth 5.85 trillion yen ($54 billion), and 9.4 trillion yen ($86 billion) in new government spending, loans and other aid for the economy. The package had been held up for five days by a dispute over tax cuts. But the ruling coalition agreed ear lier Tuesday to a compromise in which income taxes would be cut for a year. The coalition also agreed to seek a hike in indirect taxes later to offset it, retreating from a proposed increase ir crease in the sales tax. The compromise allowed Hosokawa to announce the stimulus package. But, weakened by a series of political battles, he may see his pres tige diminish as he is forced to back down once again. His coalition has split on most major policy matters. “Please understand that we will have our attempts and our failures,” Hosokawa told a news conference, noting that his government is Japan’s first coalition government in decades. The prime minister had wanted to announce the economic stimulus pack age before his meeting with President Clinton. U.S. officials have called for a tax cut in Japan, believing consumers would use some of the money to buy American products and trim Japan’s huge trade surplus. But the stimulus package alone was unlikely to calm rising trade ten sions. Washington and Tokyo remain stalemated over areas such as cars, auto parts and insurance. Disaster strikes again in Southern California MALIBU, Calif. — Fires level 1,000 homes. An earthquake kills 61 people. Now, Southern Cal ifomia has a new disaster: mudslides. Cars were buried, people were plucked from upper floor windows and houses were swamped as heavy rain unleashed tons of mud and debris from fire-scarred mountains. No inju ries were reported. On Tuesday, bulldozers and dump trucks plowed up to 3 feet of muck from Pacific Coast Highway at Big Rock Canyon, where at least 10 beachfront homes were damaged in Monday’s cloudburst. Storm-tossed waves 8 feet high plowed into home pilings, shaking the structures much like last month’s deadly earthquake. “We have the fire, the earthquake, the mud and now we’re worried about the surf. What could be next?” resi dent Carrie Sutton said. Besides the mudslides, the storm unleashed high wind that toppled trees, shattered windows and downed power lines. At the height of the downpour, about two dozen people were plucked from second-story windows by bull dozers. A five-mile stretch of the coast al highway remained closed Tuesday. “I should have stayed in Illinois. I should have been a farmer,” Larry Myers, a Pepperdine University grad uate student, said as he surveyed his debris-filled horn?. Nearby beachfront homes owned by Janet Jackson, Bruce Willis and Demi Moore escaped damage. About 25 Malibu homes were dam aged, with estimated losses of about $1.6 million, sheriffs Deputy Diane Hecht said. CFA grants campus recreation increase oy Ann stacK Staff Reporter The Committee for Fees Alloca tion granted an increase in the campus recreation budget for the 1994-95 school year on Tuesday night. CFA voted 7-3 to increase the op erating budget $62,174 to $ 1,730,345. This increases fees by $1.27 per stu dent per semester. The committee also unanimously approved to increase the facilities re pair and improvement budget by $49*094, or $ 1 per student per semes ter. “The rec center is showing that they’re expanding," CFA member Brendon Polt said. “This is a valid increase. Students want the service— they show it by using the rec center.” The budget increase would result in the addition of an injury prevention specialist, an increase in club sports and an athletic trainer for the new super circuit. Stan Campbell,director of campus recreation, said the injury prevention specialist would be a professional. He said campus recreation now had one graduate student who, by law, cannot work more than 20 hours a week. Campbell said campus recreation had routinely been approved on the Association of the students of the University of Nebraska Ballot to re ceive an increase. “Students have an opportunity on the ASUN Ballot to approve of an increase or not,” he said. “The rcc center has always had a 75 or 80 percent approval rate for an increase.” In other business, the University Health Center was granted a 0.53 percent increase instead of the 0.87 percent increase it had requested.
