Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 73, No. 183, Ed. 1 Tuesday, March 2, 1976 Page: 4 of 16
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Page 4A
THE DENTON RECORD CHRONICLE
Tuesday, Wirch 2, 1976
Tuesday
viewpoint
Candidate Forum:
First Time Out
Crashing Bore
BEDITM
S70RIE3
By Marianne Means 1 •
W ASHINGTON — The turning point of the 1960
presidential campaign came when Sen John F
Kennedy held his own in a series of nationally
televised debates with the more seasoned vice
president. Richard Nixon
Ever since, the idea of watching presidential
candidates perform face-to-face in a simple public
forum where they can be contrasted against each
A other has ^H 8 popular one Each presidential
campaign there is a clamor for debates
They are not always arranged, however, since
better-known candidates are reluctant to share
attention with lesser-known rivals
The first such forum was held last week in
Boston. It was the biggest bore since Harold
Stassen - - - "
All the major Democratic candidates except
Gov George Wallace participated That is to say.
they took turns repeating their standard campaign
speeches
The forum should have been a major political
event, providing voters with a better un
derstanding of the issues and the qualifications of
the candidates. It did neither
Soviet Strategy
With suave rhetoric unlike their
other pronouncements .in critical
situations, the Soviet Union has gained
attention in the United States with
sentiments of sweetness and light
about the conflict in Angola
It has been sending billions of dollars
worth of military aid and bringing
thousands of Cuban soldiers to fight for
the establishment of., the "Popular
Movement’ for the Liberation of
Angola" (MPLA) as the ruling junta of
the recently independent, former
Portuguese colony. The MPLA is well
known to be Moscow 's pawn
But the Kremlin is now saying it
. "favors a political settlement in
Angola." We are quite convinced that
this was all done for the effect on our
Congress and on other Western and
African countries
"NOW SEE." some observers are
declaring. "The Soviet Union wants
peace there, and is willing to help form
a coalition' Why do we need to worry'’”
Why shouldCongress even
consider sending aid. in cooperation
with other Western nations, to bolster
the nationlist faction which is being
pounded with Soviet weapons
superiority and the Communist Cuban
■ army?
:___Secretary of State Kissinger’s reply
is worth nothing: “It is the first time
. since the aftermath of World War II
that the Soviets have moved militarily
at long distances to impose a regime of
their choice."--—
It is the first time that the United
States has failed to respond to Soviet
military moves outside their im-
mediate orbit. And the first time that
Congress has halted the executive's
action while it was in the process of
meeting that kind of threat Kissinger
strongly feels that the Soviet Union
- must not be given any opportunity to
use military forces for aggressive
purposes without running the risk of
conflict with us
WHAT THE Secretary did not say,
however, is that if the long arm of
Moscow is Cuba, the next place the
Kremlin might place its Cuban
military forces is Latin America, close
at hand to Soviet supplies
We are facing ourselves with an
eventual decision as to whether we will
object to Cuban troops and Soviet arms
being used freely here in any “cooked-
up" rebellion. Angola could be only a
practice ground for Castro-Moscow
operations on our perimeter
Fraud In Medicaid
Wherever money is floating around,
freely, the wrong people are going to
get a lot of it, and some of the proper
but “ill-advised” people are going to
• get too much of it. The Senate Special
Committee on Aging has found that at
least $45 million of the total payout of
$213 million to physicians and owners
of clinics and clinical laboratories for
Medicaid and Medicare is either
fradulent or unnecessary
The Senate investigators of these
programs consider the $45 million a
“conservative estimate " They say
that a good case can be made for
claiming that "50 per cent of current
payments are inappropriate." Their
report goes on to note that the cost of •
fraud and abuse in providing clinical
services alone may exceed $1.2 billion
a year
It is disgusting to learn that many
medical testing laboratories make it a
practice to bill Medicaid "for a patient
the doctor has never seen, for blood
never drawn, tests never performed, at
a rate exceeding four times cost and
twice the prevailing change for
private, paying patients, with the
nearly absolute assurance they will not
be caught and prosecuted."
The clinical laboratories seem to be
the worse offenders but physicians
have practiced frauds too It is to be
hoped steps will be taken to correct
these abuses Your taxes and ours are
making them rich And meanwhile,
those who really need Medicare and
, Medicaid are being cheated
Labor Leaders
Mull Possibility
Of Military Union
It sounds inconceivable that labor organizations
could bo planning to "organize" this country's
military men.
But then a lot of people can remember when it
was Inconceivable that schoolteachers would ever
be unionized. '-■- ■,
THIS YEAR the Democratic party has had a
unique problem because a large number of can-
didates of similar philosophy are running The
voters are having difficulty sorting them out
■ It seeined, therefore, the perfect solution when
the League of Women Voters established a series
of "presidential forums" to coincide with primary
elections in five sections of the country and be
broadcast nationally over the Public Broadcasting
—Service. *
The candidates were not actually to debate each
other but to answer questions from the same
. platform so the audience could compare their
views and their style.
ALL. IT DID was demonstrate that seven ar-
ticulate and personable men who barely disagree
w ith each other are seeking the Democratic -
nomination.
No one of them emerged withmore razzle-dazzle
than the others No one of them appeared to have a
firmer grasp of the issues than the others No one
of them fouled up No one of them said anything
memorable .
Sen Henry Jackson, who is the most ex
perienced of the lot, gained nothing by his ap
pearance because he failed to dominate his
colleagues j _
The same can be said for Jimmy Carter whose
early successes have spooked his rivals The only
candidate who may have gained something is
Businesses
Need Permanent
Mid-East Peace
By Larry Springer
AUSTIN — Only a permanent settlement of the
- Middle Eastern conflict ‘can effectively halt
blacklisting of American businesses who trade
with Israel, according to Under Secretary of
Commerce James A Baker III
Baker who was at the University of Texas Law
School for a conference on Transnational
—Economic Boycotts and Coercion, said that for the
Department of Commerce merely to prohibit U.S.
firms from complying with Arab demands against -
Israel would have a "negligible " effect on
American-Israeli trade, but could do a great deal
of harm to those businesses which trade with Arab
nations
Baker said that Arab actions such as the boycott
do increase tension and threaten world peace, but
the best interests of all the countries involved
would not be served "by precipitous or emotional
reactions by the United States which could
produce a climate of confrontation and impair our
ability to influence a settlement.".
BAKER ALSO stressed that the national
security of the U S would be threatened if the
Arabs were to again cut off oil exports as during
the 1973-74 embargo
"The Arab countries now represent the fastest
growing market area in The world economy
Baker said W hen we consider that each $1 billion
of U.S. exports represents 40,000 to 70,000 jobs for
American workers, the importance of this market
to the nation’s well-being is apparent
"Efforts to expand our commercial relations
with the Arab countries are, therefore, more than
just a cynical chase after the petrodollar," he
said . -..
/
Milton Shapp, w ho is widely dismissed as merely a
Pennsylvania favorite son but who sounded as
knowledgeable as-the others
" Birch Bayh. Morris Wall Fred Harris, Sargent
Shriver Shapp, Carter and Jackson were han
dicapped by the inept way in which the forum was
conducted
The topic was limited to economic subjects,
which are as dull and complicated as they are
important The three economic experts selected to
quiz them asked the sort of insider questions that
put an audience to sleep
AND THE MODER ATOR, Elle Abel, dean of the
Columbia University School of Journalism, failed
to moderate Without any time restrictions, the
candidates rambled on and on
Bay h won perhaps the evening’s biggest ap-
plause by observ ing tartly, after Abel told him he
had talked too long, that, "I answered my question
with the same brevity the other candidates have
. answered theirs ." -
Other forums will tie held March 29 in New York. -
April 2ti in Chicago and May 24 in Los Angeles.
Unless the format is drastically changed,
however it would seem a waste of-time for both
candidates and voters And that’s a shame.
Because nobody has yet had a better idea for
comparison-shopping among the candidates.
E /22 (00-2/E 2. 7/1
/
Baker said the U.S. is entwined in a "secondary
boycott" by the Arab natrons designed to keep
third parties from assisting in Israel's develop-
ment The boycott focuses on such activities as the
establishment of a plant in Israel, partnerships
with Israeli companies, technical advice to Israeli
manufacturing plants, and so on
"It should be emphasized that the boycott is not
intended to discriminate against American firms
or citizens on religious or ethnic grounds," he said
For the most part, It has been used solely as an
instrument for denying certain economic benefits
to Israel " Baker said businessmen should be free to make names reporting compliance with boycott
Baker said it is "unfortunate" that the word 8 choice between two countries when certain requests would have exposed such firms to
- -‘'boycott" has become synonymous with the word - commercial relations with one may result in economic retaliation by certain domestic groups
"discrimination” when discussing this issue The retaliation by the other - said Baker The secretary also claimed that
, Arab boycott is viewed by the Department of The individual businessman, said Baker ‘is the disclosure to a firm s competitors of the ' sensitive
Commerce as a political rather than a moral . best judge of the requirements of his business ' proprietary business information" in the reports
issue. Those exporters who receive boycott related, could seriously injure the reporting firm
that discretionary authority because The ef-
fectiveness of a prohibition as a device to force
boycotting countries to terminate the boycott is
negligible." Baker said
He said that if the Arab nations were unable to
obtain information about an exporter s dealing
with Israel from the exporter himself, then it could
be collected from other sources
. "To the extent that the information was
unreliable," Baker said, "businessmen might be
blacklisted erroneously
Baker said businessmen should be free to make
a choice between two countries when certain
crisis proportions last fall when a Congressional
subcommittee voted to hold Secretary of Com-
merce Rogers Monton in contempt of Congress for
refusing to hand over all reports filed with the
department since Dec 31. 1969
Baker said a. section of the Export
Administration Act expressly forbids disclosure of
those reports unless the setretary."determines
that withholding, such information , would be
contrary to the national interest.” * .
. Morton reasoned that the disclosure of the *
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THE EXPORT Administration Act of 1969, said
Baker, declares that it is U.S policy to oppose
boycotts by any foreign country against another
country friendly to the U.S., and it gives the
President the power to prohibit American firms
from answering Arab boycott questionnaires or the
signing of boycott agreements
That prohibition power has been "delegated to the
Secretary of Commerce who has not chosen to use
requests from Arab countries are encouraged not
to comply, said Baker, but there is noslaw at
present which requires them to do so
BUSINESS OFFICIALS, however, must report
those requests to the Department of Commerce,
and they must tell the department whether they
intend to comply with the Arab requests
The problem of the confidentiality of these
reports to the Department of Commerce reached
Baker said he personally would have liked to see
the report confidentiality issue reviewed by the
courts In the end, Morton agreed to give the
reports to the subcommittee after receiving
written assurance that the information would not
be revealed to the public
"Achieving the right balance between
disclosure of information and the need for con
den a ity is a major problem facing our society
today," Baker concluded
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By Paul Harvey
Three unions • are comtemplating
organizing" our military men
-Three separate labor oganizations are
considering going after our troops:
The American-Federation of Govern-
ment Employes
The Association of Civilian Technicians
The National Maritime Union
It's not inconceivable. Some members of
our armed forces did try to organize a
union during the Vietnamese war Big
Labor's George Meany opposed it then
He’s not opposing it now:
You can remember when it was in-
conceivable that schoolteachers would
ever be unionized And police and firemen
going on strike was beyond imagining
Yet, as surely as these impossibilities
have been realized, unions of military
personnel are increasingly likely
The AFL-CIO has studied the issue for
months,finds no constitutional restraints
which would prohibit military personnel
irom becoming union members in the
Netherlands, Sweden and West Germany
service personnel belong to unions.
American unions, stagnating or
shrinking, are understandably tempted by
the potential for more members, more
power and more dues
The right to strike is denied to federal
government employes but this has not
prevented strikes in the U.S Postal Ser
vice
increasingly, unions — even unions of
. schoolteachers thumb their noses at
federal court orders.
And besides. Big Labor is going to
consider an effort to change those no-
strike laws at this year's September
convention
So far. the Pentagon appears more
amused than anxious L.
• A cartoonist has played with the idea of
an invading army of union members being
turned back by a picket line on the beach
And If you are distressed by the picture
of Mean George Meany negotiating
military pay, living conditions, discipline, \
meals, pension and fighting conditions,
imagine the more ominous situation if a
union leader of lesser conscience — lesser
patriotism than Meany — were in effect
“in command" of our armed forces
in Britain in 74 the Communist leader of
that nation's miners, Mick McGahey, was
able to overthrow the Heath government
The Naval Reserve Association, The
Reserve Officers Association and the
American Legion have said they will fight
this plan to unionize our troops but these
organizations are likely to let all their
steam blow off in the whistle - while the
Association of Civilian Technicians (ACT)
is already preparing to distribute sign-up
cards to 700,000 reservists
And the American Federation of
Government Employes (AFGE) will make
its move in September
Can you imagine how our nation’s
potential adversaries must be responding
to this national hara kirl in the United
States?
We reduce our own nuclear capability in
the hope that they will.
We expose our own spies
and now we contemplate subjecting our
military leaders to the knooperyvision of
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Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 73, No. 183, Ed. 1 Tuesday, March 2, 1976, newspaper, March 2, 1976; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1703169/m1/4/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Denton Public Library.