Amerikai Magyar Szó, 1984. július-december (38. évfolyam, 27-48. szám)
1984-09-20 / 35. szám
10. AMERIKAI MAGYAR SZÓ Thursday, Sep. 20. 1984. The following Is excerpted from 101 Reasons to Vole Against Ronald Reagan, written by Terence Cannon, illustrated by Peggy Upshutz, with foreword by William W. Winplsinger, president of the Machinists Union. The 57-page book is available for $2 from the National Center for Trade Union Action and Democracy, 76917 S. Exchange, Chicago, IL 60617. DON'T GET SICK, DON'T GET OLD Even for an administration known for its callousness, Reagan’s attack on America’s disabled | people stands out for its brutality. Since 1981, the Reagan administration has systematically cut half a million people from the Social Security disability rolls. SS agents ordered the bedridden and schizophrenic tó go out and get jobs. Reagan’s health officials have ordered administrative law to reject the claims of disabled persons appealing cutoffs. Social Security benefits are the only income to seven million older Americans and the primary income for 15 out of 25 million older Americans. Reagan launched his first attack on the system after one month in office, announcing plans to eliminate the program’s minimum and student benefits. A few months later, he announced a package of cuts that would reduce benefits by $82 billion over five years. Congress refused to go along, but Reagan ; announced that further cuts will be called for if he wins re-election. Meanwhile, cost-of-living increases were cut in half, early retirement benefits decreased, and the age of full-elegibility retirement raised. v Medicare and Medicaid, lifesavers for 28 million elderly, three million disabled and low income people of all ages, has come under relentless attack by Reagan. Medicaid funding has been cut every - year since Reagan took office, and Medicare “sa-; vings” have come out of the pockets of the beneficiaries, not from cutting bills and hospital inflation, i Last year, unpaid medical bills were the number one cause of personal bankruptcy. WOMEN: BATTERED BY THE WHITE HOUSE More than anyone, it is women who have been hurt by Reagan’s spending cuts. „ Reagan killed the minimum Social Security benefit — and 86% of the people who lost money were women. He slashed $556 million from the Work Incentive Program, which helps poor women get jobs. Who went hungry when Reagan cut food stamps by 20%? Mostly families headed by women. When Reagan cut $2.9 billion from the social services block grant, the main victims were working mothers, elderly women and battered women. Seven out of ten clients of the Legal Services Corporation that Reagan wants to shut down are poor women seeking help on Social Security, food s stamps, divorce and AFDC. The cuts in health care for women are even • more threatening, creating what has been called a . “chronic health emergency for American women.” ! Almost one in three community health centers have been forced to close down or reduce their services to women. Half a million women of childbearing age now have no health care insurance, , thanks to Reagan’s cuts. Half of all women who wanted family planning services last year were unable to get those services because of cutbacks. Funding for abortions for poor women has been ended altogether. The Justice Department has halted federal support and enforcement for affirmative action goals and timetables against sexual discrimina-1 tion. Women who are underpaid, and cannot afford to sue individually, no longer will receive “class action” suits on their behalf. In the state of Washington, the Justice Depart-1 ment is fighting a state court decision that would i give nurses, librarians, health care workers and secretaries the pay they deserve —equal to that ofi men with similar skills. Reagan’s opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment and to the constitutional right of abortion, are well-known. Every year he’s in office, Reaganism pushes women deeper and deeper into poverty and dependency. Almost half the families living in poverty are headed by woman. Forty-nine percent more i families headed by women are now in poverty than there were the year before Reagan entered the White House. All in all, 2.5 million women and 2.5 million children have fallen below the poverty line since Reagan took office. -—— REAGAN'S SACRED COW: THE MILITARY BUDGET The Reagan administration is engaged today in the largest peacetime arms buildup in American history. If Reagan’s budget goes through, he will have hiked the military budget from $178.4 billion in Jimmy Carter’s last year to $305 billion next year, a staggering 71% increase. Within three years, the U.S. will be spending one billion dollars a day on the military. Every American family will be required to contribute, on the average, $30,996 to the Pentagon over the next five years. This buildup is so vast and so rapid that the Pentagon can’t even spend it all. The Defense Department has accumulated the largest backlog of unspent funds since the Vietnam War. Unspent funds have increased 67% since Reagan took office. In all other federal agencies they have decreased 22% in the same period. Must we spend this money? A chorus of experts \ says no. When anyone complains, Reagan tells them that we must spend the money to keep the Russians out of our living rooms. But back in 1969, both countries had enough nuclear weapons to destroy each other, no matter who launched the first attack. Today we have three times as many missiles as we did then, on both sides. We have always had more strategic nuclear weapons than the Soviets. We were the first to build multiple warhead missiles, the first with nuclear submarines, the first with long-range cruise missiles. Today we can explode 12,000 nuclear weapons on them, while they can explode 8,000 on us. And yet the Defense Department plans to build 17,000 more nuclear weapons in the next ten years Í Now he wants to send weapons into space, establishing the first Space Command for the military use of space. RONNIE'S EVIL EMPIRE What Reagan doesn’t like, he tends to blame on the Russians: Those who demonstrate against unsafe U.S. nuclear power plants “are the unwitting victims of the Soviet designs.” In “The World Acording to Reagan,” the Soviets are behind the resistance to racial apartheid in South Africa, the civil war in El Salvador, the crisis in Lebanon, and the revolutions in Nicaragua, Angola, Portugal, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Grenada, Namibia, etc. George Kennan, Soviet expert and former U.S. Ambassador to Moscow, charges that the Reagan view of the Soviets is “so extreme, so subjective, so far removed from what any sober scrutiny of external reality would reveal that it is not only ineffective but dangerous as a guide to political action.” Ronald Reagan is one of those who can push the button. Should we trust him? Keep in trim with Hungarian dishes Hungarian cuisine has a reputation for being spicy, juicy and on the heavy side. István Lukács, chef de cuisine at the Atrium Hyatt Hotel in Budapest explained that although Hungary is a landlocked country, his bill of fare always includes some light fish dishes. Pikeperch, carp, weis and pike in various guises make nourishing light dishes. Stuffed pike-perch ("fogas") won't add inches to anyone and is simple to prepare. Fillet the fish, salt it and pepper it, then stuff it with scrambled egg, seasoned with onion, green pepper and tomato. Wrap in foil and boil in water to which the bones and plenty of vegetables-as for soup- been added. Serve the stuffed fish in a white sauce flavoured with dill. Not even goose or duck need be banned from a weightwatcher's diet so long as they are not served in their own fat. Here is a special poultry recipe using young turkey breasts: Slice the breast and mince part of it. Fold in grated raw carrot, celeriac, salt, pepper, nutmeg and some cream. Use this as the filling between the remaining slices, placing them in a buttered baking pan. Grate fresh apple over them, sprinkle them with a little milk and white wine, and braise them. When tender, brown them till crisp. Serve with steamed black plums. You'll keep your shape and not gain an ounce-a la hongroise. East-West border incident not apt to curdle relations Don't look for any international repercussions following a recent incursion across the Hungary-Austria border. The invaders were cows. A 160-strong herd of Hungarian cattle wandered into Austria to graze, before local residents drove them back across the East-West border. Some cows had evidently leaned against a rotten wooden fence, causing it to give way. The border between Austria and Hungary is marked only by wire fencing along much of its 150-mile length. (Christian Sciense Monitor) INT’L ATOMIC CONFERENCE A two-day international conference on questions of atomic collision physics was opened recently at the Debrecen Institute of Nuclear Research (Atomki) of the Academy of Sciences. The latest research findings and research work done in the various countries are surveyed at the meeting of scientists from 10 countries. The atomic collision (impact) physics is of paramount importance, as well as in the examination of fundamental physical phenomena, in numerous fields of applied research-the regulated fusion nuclear energy production, material testing and environmental, radiation biology and therapy, and in astrophysics. ELECTION ISSUES ’84
