Tobacco Documents Online

t 41 ® =`EDITORIAL Ta~kling deficits: where to start Z~_7 ~ F YOU BELIEWE; as we do„ that the greatest single l I domestic challenge before the nation is getting control of exploding federal deficits„you can take heart from last week's bulletins: The slumbering dragons of Washing• ton are stirring-some progress is being made! - Some-bpt not-much. PresidenfReagan and'the Republi- can leaders in Congress are busting their buttons over thee red-ink-reducing plan they' arrived at Thursday. But their r- I pride seemed exaggerated, considering that a) they only have a, proposal-a deal with the Democrats remains a long way off; b)'they're talking about a $150 billion cut over three _ years, which still leaves annual defdcits in the $100 billion- plus range using the most optimistic forecasts. The trouble is that members of both parties are just' chipping at the edges of the problem, like men attacking the i polar cap with ice picks, It's an old story: Close a loophole here, trim a program there„raise a tax everywhere. Almost no one talks about the really big, necessarq job that must be done: cutting the huge federal programs that'slUice billions to middle and upper.income households, Consider some issues that'are being ducked: • Social Security benefits have been rising faster than the rate Qf inflation and are paid without regard to need'-to retired millionaires as well as poor widows., • ~ • Medicare and Medicaid costs are soaring because Washington won't put restraints on medical fees, _ • Federal'pensions; both militaryand civil service, are far too generous, beyond any private program in'the land. • The tax eode is riddled with giveaways. In 1982; Texaco earned $2 billion in worldwide profits-and goV an $88 mil '~ lion federal refund. What's the excuse for inaction? "It's an s!t•ction year- " change is too risky." Baloney!! America can't afford such l political cowardice. By 1990, according to one estimate, the dknuthe national debt will be $200 biliion. There's a tax-reform bill before Congress, co-sponsored by New Jersey's Sem,Bill Bradl'ey;,that would simplify the jumble of brackets and eliminate all but a few of the benefits and loopholes. It's a good place to start-giving the nation a tax system that's plain and'fair. , Y Smoking mad ~. . Some people love cigarets, some hate them. Conflicts between the two-camps are multiplying in the wake of research thaC indicates breathing someone-else's smoke can be harmful' to the nonsmoker: A tough problem-but the solution is not the passage of harsh, unenforceable laws. Unfortunately, such laws are being pushed in Albany- . and hard. One in particular that is progressing through the Assembly flies in the face of all common sense. It would . mandate the creation of smoking,and nonsmoking areas in every "place of work" and ",indoor area-open to the public." The latter category includes just about every place imagin- able-lobbies, restaurant's, classrooms, banks, bowling alleys„etc. The bill permits exceptions for smalllareas, but otherwise it requires segregation, nearly everywhere. Now„obviously the rule might work in some situations, but immost cases the divisioh of people based only on their smoking habits will create nightmarish problems. Even more troubling, who is to enforce this law? Will cops be pulled off crime-fighting? In restaurants, will waiters have to order a nonsmoking wife to sit apart from her husband, the 'smoker? If-che refuses, must the chef appear with cleaver in hand to compel her? The Daily News is no fanot cigarets, and we support all reasonable measures to get addicts to shake the nicotine , habit. Persuasion is one thing, however; a hammerheaded law is another. This bill'should be defeated.

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