Banner Graphic, Volume 14, Number 109, Greencastle, Putnam County, 13 January 1984 — Page 2

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The Putnam County Banner-Graphic, January 13,1984

Billions and billions could be saved by cutting waste

By ROBERT D. HERSHEY Jr. c. 1984 N.Y. Times News Service WASHINGTON The government could save $424.4 billion over three years if it adopted nearly 2,500 recommendations to eliminate “waste,” reduce federal retirement benefits and generally put federal operations on a more businesslike footing, a presidential panel said Thursday. The panel, the President’s Private Sector Survey on Cost Control, portrayed the federal establishment, including Congress, as overly responsive to special interests, mired in inefficiency and headed for fiscal disaster if spending is not controlled. “The government is run horribly,” J. Peter Grace, the New York industrialist who led the 18-month study, said at a news conference Thursday. Without drastic action, he said, “we’re heading down the road to deficits of $1 trillion to $2 trillion” by the end of the century. The 1983 deficit was $195 billion. Grace, in a letter to President Reagan, said the savings “can be achieved without raising taxes, without weakening America’s needed defense buildup, and without in any way harming necessary social welfare programs.” He said that if all the recommendations were adopted, the savings would rise to $1,900 billion a year by the year 2000. Most of the panel’s 2,478 recommendations, which included revising the federal pension program to save $58.1 billion over

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Banner-Graphic "It Waves For All" USPS 142-020) Consolidation of The Daily Banner Established 1850 The Herald The Daily Graphic Established 1883 Telephone 653-5151 Published daily except Sundays and holidays by LuMar Newspapers, Inc. at 100 North Jackson St., Greencastle, Indiana 46135. Entered in the Post Office at Greencastle. Indiana, as 2nd class mail matter under Act of March 7, 1878. Subscription Rates Per Week, by carrier ‘I.OO Per Month, by motor route ‘4.55 Man Subscription Kates R.R. in Rest of Rest of Putnam County Indiana U.S.A. 3 Months *13.80 *14.15 ‘17.25 6 Months *27.60 ‘28.30 *34.50 1 Year *55.20 *56.60 *69.00 Mail subscriptions payable in advance . . . not accepted in town and where motor route service is available. Member of the Associated Press The Associated Press is entitled exclusively to the use hr republication of all the local news printed in this newspaper.

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world

U.S. Marines respond to fire in Beirut airport compound

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) U.S. Marines came under heavy fire today at their Beirut airport base and responded with a massive barrage of rockets, missiles and mortars to beat back attacking antigovernment militiamen. Marine spokesman Maj. Dennis Brooks said the southeastern perimeter of the base came “under attack by by a heavy concentration of smallarms fire” at about 10:50 a m. local time (3:50a.m. EST). Brooks said the fire came from a building east of the base of the U.S. Marine contingent serving with the multinational peacekeeping force. He said the Marines responded with small arms, machine gun, mortars, anti-tank missiles and shoulder-

the next three years, would require the approval of Congress. The lawmakers have failed to act in the past on many of these proposals, such as reducing federal pensions, and are unlikely to do so now, especially in an election year. Indeed, one of the commission’s complaints was that Congress has thwarted some attempted economies, such as Pentagon proposals to close military bases. About 27 percent of the $424.4 billion of cost reduction could be achieved through administrative action, the panel said. Reagan is to formally receive the recommendations, some of which have already been adopted by the administration, at a White House ceremony on Monday. The survey was conducted by a committee of 161 members, mostly chief executives of corporations, aided by more than 2,000 private-sector volunteers. Although the group has acknowledged that its mandate was to cut waste, it did venture into many issues of policy, such as in the recommendation to repeal legislation requiring the government to pay the “prevailing wage” on federal construction projects, or to denationalize the federal agencies that market electricity. The Center for Study of Responsive Law, a group affiliated with the consumer activist Ralph Nader, criticized the report Thursday for going beyond cost-effectiveness measures “and right to the heart of sensitive policy issues” where, it said, some

fired rockets. Lebanese army troops stationed adjacent to the Marine compound also responded with machine gun fire and tank cannons. Brooks said. “Numerous secondary explosions were observed,” Brooks said, adding tht “no casualties or damage have been reported’ ’ on the Marine base. The Lebanese army command said its troops repulsed “an infiltration attempt by Druse militiamen” from their stronghold of Shweifat, about one-half mile east of the base. “Infiltrating militiamen opened fire on the Marines, and the army repulsed the attackers,” the communique said.

Nicaraguans call

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) The leftist Sandinista government says the Kissinger Commission report on Central America, which urges more covert U.S. aid to antiSandinista rebels, is a “failure” which advocates a “policy of pressure.” Leftist guerrillas battling the U.S-backed government of El Salvador also condemned the report Thursday, calling it an “insane course” and “genocide against our people.” But Kissinger defended the report in a news conference with Latin American reporters, saying more military aid to El Salvador is consistent with es-

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Military sources said the fire came from a two-story structure known as the York Building, which had pictures of Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini plastered on its sides. The Marine barrage suppressed the incoming fire and knocked down about half of the building, and the Lebanese army “all but leveled it,” said the sources who spoke on condition they would not be named. Shiite Moslem militiamen allied with the Syrian-backed Druse insurgents also maintain positions near the U.S. encampment. It could not immediately be determined if Shiites were involved in the fight.

forts for Central American peace. The report, presented Wednesday to President Reagan, called for $l4O million in military aid to El Salvador and $8 billion in economic aid for Central America over five years, beginning in 1985. It also warned of direct Soviet-Cuban threat to U.S. interests in the region. The commission said continued covert U.S. aid to the an-ti-Sandinista rebels could help produce a negotiated settlement with the Sandinistas, who have ties to Cuba and the Soviet Union. In Managua, junta coor-

task force members have possible conflicts of interest. Grace, addressing this question at the news conference, denied that any member had made improper use of access to government files used in the survey. The presidential panel suggested that significant savings could be made in almost every sector of government, including Defense Department procurement, where it said the Pentagon has been paying s9l for screws “available in any hardware store” for 3 cents. It also uncovered particular deficiencies, such as in data processing, that affected every area of government. The average age of the more than 17,000 federal computers is more than twice that of private industry, the panel said, and half are so old that they are no longer serviced by manufacturers. Upgrading the equipment would save billions of dollars, the panel said. The biggest single savings, nearly S6O billion over the next three years, the panel said, could be made by revising the formulas for federal pensions to bring more into line with those of private industry. “The Civil Service and military retirement systems provide to participants three times and six times the benefits, respectively, of the best private sector plans,” Grace said in a letter to the president. In addition, he said, participants’ benefits are

Admit shooting at U.S. helicopter Leftists deny killing pilot

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) The leftist Sandinista government admits its troops shot down a U.S. Army helicopter but denies they killed the pilot after he landed on the Honduran side of the border. “We cannot accept the version that the pilot was fired at on land,” Daniel Ortega, coordinator of the junta, said Thursday night. He said Sandinista troops fired at the helicopter when it was in Nicaraguan airspace, without knowing it was an American aircraft. The Reagan administration lodged a formal protest and said it was holding the Sandinistas responsible for the pilot’s death. U.S. officials contended that the pilot was killed by Nicaraguan soldiers after he got out of the downed helicopter. Ortega said Nicaragua hoped the United States will not view the incident as a “provocation” but will realize it was a mistake. His comments reinforced a statement issued by the governing junta which said: “The government of Nicaragua ... deplores this incident and ex-

U.S. report 'policy of pressure'

dinator Daniel Ortega said the report “tends to strengthen the policy of pressure on Nicaragua.” Another junta member, Sergio Ramirez, called the report a “failure ... because it does not reflect Central American reality.” In an interview with the official Nueva Nicaragua news agency, Ramirez said the report contradicts the recommendations of the four-nation, peace-seeking Contadora group. The group, composed of Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela and Panama, favors a reduction in arms and foreign military aid and advisers in the

Soviets said in arms violations

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Reagan administration, even while it hopes for a thaw in chilly U.S.-Soviet relations, is preparing a new indictment charging the Soviets with at least three violations of existing arms control treaties. The classified report will be sent to Congress, possibly by the end of next week, according to administration officials who discussed it Thursday on condition they not be identified. They said an unclassified version will be made public. The analysis says the Soviets are constructing a new missile, a major new radar station, and are encoding almost all technical data from missiles being tested, said the officials. All those actions are prohibited by the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaties. SALT I, including an antiballistic missile treaty, was negotiated in 1972 and SALT II was signed in 1979. Although the U.S. Senate has never ratified SALT 11, both superpowers say they are abiding by its provisions.

DANIEL ORTEGA: Nicaraguan leader denies involvement

presses its condolences to the family of the dead pilot.” The U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, said the pilot, Chief Warrant Officer II Jeffry C. Schwab, 27, of Joliet, 111., was killed by “hostile fire” from Nicaragua after his helicopter made a forced landing about 200 yards inside Honduras. Two unidentified U.S. Army engineers aboard the helicopter

region. There are U.S. military advisers in El Salvador and Cuban military advisers in Nicaragua. On Sunday, Nicaragua and four other countries approved a regional peace plan which, although stripped of some Contadora recommendations, urged free elections and removal of foreign military advisers. Joining Nicaragua were El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Costa Rica. In El Salvador, leftist rebels denounced the Kissinger report for recommending what they said is “an intensification of the war and genocide against our people.”

In a United Nations speech on Sept. 26, President Reagan said “a newly discovered radar facility and a new ICBM raise serious concerns about Soviet compliance with agreements already negotiated.” The study has been pushed by conservatives in Congress, who won approval last October for an amendment to the State Department budget bill requiring a report on whether Soviet actions violated the treaties. The report comes as the administration is sending signals that it hopes relations between the two superpowers can improve. President Reagan has scheduled a speech Monday in which he reportedly plans to say he hopes for better U.S.Soviet relations. Secretary of State George P. Shultz, who meets next week with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, said Thursday the United States is “prepared for a thaw” in its dealings with Moscow.

more liberal and are fully indexed for inflation, which Grace said was “a rarity” elsewhere A commission spokesman said the reduction in annuities would be made only for future retirees. “We would take nothing away from those who are retired now,’ ’ a spokesman said The panel cited “congressional encroachment” into administrative matters as a major obstacle to cost reduction and identified $7.8 billion in three-year savings that could be made if members would stop blocking the closing of unneeded military bases or promoting constuction of low-priority dams and other public works projects. It identified in an early draft some 300 members of Congress it regarded as such offenders, but after whittling this list to 100 decided against naming any on the ground that it would be unfair. Although Grace and others insisted that raising taxes was no answer to the deficit problem, the panel did include some revenue-raising measures. One is to increase collection of delinquent taxes, which now total more than SIOO billion. Two others, contained in a list of “bureaucratic absurdities,” are to invest the cash the Justice Department seizes from criminals while cases are being adjudicated and to close 12,469 post offices, one-third of the country’s total, that serve 100 or fewer customers.

were not injured. “This incident is very tragic and, for us, very serious,” John D. Negroponte, U.S. ambassador to Honduras, said. “The pilot was killed in Honduran territory, by Sandinista fire.” President Reagan’s spokesman Larry Speakes denounced the attack on Schwab as “reckless and unprovoked,” and key presiden-

A broadcast by the rebel Radio Farabundo Marti said, “At the same time they talk of peace, the Yankees intend to increase by 200 percent aid to the moribund regime of (Salvadoran President) Alvaro Magana.” Magana called the report “very responsible, serious and comprehensive.” The broadcast also said, “The only difficulties that Kissinger and Reagan have at this time is that the American people and Congress are not supporting this insane course aimed at the submission of poor and small peoples.” The official Soviet news agen-

'No dice/Illinois officials reply to New Jersey casino (c) 1984 Chicago Sun-Times CHICAGO A Chicagoan who rolled the dice and lost $25,000 in a New Jersey casino got revenge Thursday as the casino’s attempt to collect came up snake eyes. U.S. District Judge Marvin E. Aspen ruled the chagrined casino can’t collect from the lucky loser’s bank because Illinois doesn’t recognize gambling. The decision, which could have a major impact on how casinos do business, resulted from a 1981 junket to Atlantic City. Before leaving, Pierre Zonis, a gas station owner, arranged a $15,000 line of credit at the Resorts International casino. When he hit the dice table, he promptly lost the $15,000. He returned the next day, raised his credit line and got another SIO,OOO in chips. Once again, the gas station owner came up empty. Having had his fill of Atlantic City, he returned home. As is normally done, the casino sought to collect the $25,000 in markers from his bank. But the bank said Zonis’ signature was illegible. The seaside dispute rolled into a Chicago Loop courtroom. The lawyer for Resorts, Jean Snyder, argued that the existence of the state lottery, as well as horse racing, amounts to at least the recognition of regulated gambling and, therefore, the need to enforce debts incurred elsewhere. “Gambling contracts are contrary to Illinois public policy,” Aspen ruled. Because Illinois law applies, “we would not enforce Resorts’ claims.”

tial aides met to draft the U.S. response, which sources said could include possible military retaliation. Reagan called Schwab’s death “a great tragedy.” The killing of Schwab was the first such shooting episode since joint U.S.-Honduran military maneuvers began in August as a warning to the Sandinistas against supporting leftist rebels in Central America.

cy Tass today said the report called for U.S. suppression of the revolutionary movement in Central America, and would provide for “the complete domination of the continent.” In a news conference via a satellite television hookup from Brussels, Belgium, to journalists in five Latin American cities, Kissinger defended the report by the commission, formally known as the National Bipartisan Commission on Cen-; tral America. “In our view, if the urgent economic, social and political reform measures are not taken, the internal situation in the countries can only worsen/