Amerikai Magyar Szó, 1988. július-december (42. évfolyam, 27-48. szám)
1988-12-01 / 45. szám
Thursday, Dec. 1. 1988. AMERIKAI MAGYAR SZO 11. Reagan Leaving Many Costly Domestic Problems, G.A.O. Tells Bush Note: The following article is a business like accounting of what the Bush Administration faces. We recommend it. The Editors WASHINGTON. The top Federal auditor told President-elect Bush today that the Government would immediately have to address many domestic problems neglected by the Reagan Administration and that the costs would be staggering. Comptroller General Charles A. Bowsher, the head of the General Accounting Office, said Mr. Bush should rethink the country's worldwide military commitments, strengthen Federal regulation of banks and stockbrokers and provide new Federal incentives for private investment in low-rent housing for poor people. Officials said no comptroller general in the accounting office's 67-year history had volunteered such advice to a Presidentelect or, for that matter, so heavily implied criticism of an outgoing President's management. The comptroller general is a nonpartisan official appointed by the President. Mr. Bowsher was appointed by President Reagan in October 1981 for a 15-year term. "STAGGERING" COSTS The habitually cautious and conservative General Accounting Office spoke repeatedly of "staggering" costs: $100 billion to $130 billion to modernize the nation's nuclear weapon production plants; $20 billion to repair public housing; more than '*'50 billion to rescue savings and loan associations; $5 billion to build Federal prisons; as much as $14 billion to clean up toxic wastes dumped by Defense Department installations. No political motives were evident in the reports. An aide to Mr. Bowsher said his purpose in preparing them was to distill the knowledge and expertise gained by Federal auditors in scores of investigations over a decade. The studies are also addressed to members of the new Congress, which convenes Jan. 3. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT In calling for a re-examination of America's military alliances, the accounting office said, "The rising costs of our worldwide commitments, in the absence of increased burden sharing by our allies, may simply be unaffordable." Over the last 40 years, the United States has made military commitments to 60 other countries through treaties or political agreements. On any day, about one-third of the men and women in the armed forces are outside the United States. That costs $30 billion a year and accounts for 10 percent of the military budget. HOUSING The supply of rental housing for low-income people is shrinking. Housing built with Government subsidies in the 1960's may soon be sold or converted to "upscale condominiums," the report said. Over the next 15 years, more than half the 1.9 million privately owned and Federally subsidized housing units could be withdrawn from the rental market for low-income people, it said. The G.A.O. said the Federal Government would need to provide additional incentives to retain and encourage private investment in rental housing for the poor. To avoid the loss of such housing in some markets, it said, "the Government may have to offer owners very deep Federal subsidies." Perhaps 3 million Americans are homeless, it said, and "most studies agree that the number is growing rapidly." ENVIRONMENT The Reagan Administration has not properly managed public lands, the accounting office said, and has had little measurable success in reducing pollution of the environment. The report on the Interior Department said that the agency "must assume a more effective stewardship role" in protecting public lands. In recent years, it said, the department "has been more concerned with either the immediate needs of special- interest groups or budget reductions" than with protecting natural resources. To halt the deterioration of national parks will cost $1.9 billion, the report said, and another $3 billion is needed to reclaim lands around abandoned coal mines. The accounting office said the Interior Department should stop selling land to miners for token amounts like $5 an acre. The G.A.O. said there was a widespread failure to obey Federal regulations on hazardous waste. Half the 5,000 installations that treat, store or dispose of such waste will have to change their practices to comply with Federal law, it said, and such changes may cost more than $22 billion. Europe Firm On Meat Ban BRUSSELS. - The European Community said today that a ban in imports of meat treated with hormones would take effect as planned Jan. 1, despite threats of retaliation from the United States. "O te must count on a total ban of hormones from the beginning of next year," a spokesman for the European Community's executive commission said. Clayton K. Yeutter, the United States trade representative, and Richard E. Lyng, the United States Agriculture Secretary, arrived in Brussels November 18th to discuss the hormone ban and other trade issues with senior commission officials. The European Community ban on meat treated with growth hormones stems from fears that such meat causes cancer. But the United States contends that there is no scientific justification for a blanket prohibition of hormones in meat and argues that it amounts to an unfair trade practice. The ban was to have taken effect Jan. 1, 1988, but was delayed by a year in the hope a compromise could be negotiated. HUNGARIAN INGENUITY In the modern world where finished products often contain components which are produced all over the world it is some considerable achievement for goods to be manufactured entirely from "home grown" inputs, apart from the question, and perhaps questionable aspect, of national pride. Hungary has some respectable traditions in this regard. On the aesthetic side, Budapest's Museum of Applied Arts was the second in the world to be opened, following the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. It signified an early interest in the appli- cafion of aesthetic principles associated with end-user products. A few years after the opening of that museum Budapest's original Elizabeth Bridge was constructed. It was a feat of Hungarian engineering and for more than twenty years claimed the title of the longest single-span bridge in the world. After that bridge was destroyed along with all the others in Budapest at the end of the last war the reconstruction of the bridges again became a task for Hungarian ingenuity. The new Elizabeth Bridge was the last to be completed and although it was nearly twenty years before it was opened the architectural and engineering design is quite remarkable, particularly considering the difficulties presented by the presence of Gellert Hill immediately on the Buda side. The Bridge Building Company can be congratulated for its efforts in reconstructing Budapest bridges, and also for its involvement in the construction of the capital's modern metro system - no mean task, as the first hurried attempts in the early fifties had to be abandoned due to the difficulties encountered. Other things I have in mind would include such everyday items as door handles and taps. I have been in countless Hungarian flats and have encountered what can only be described as extreme monotony in the variety and style of permanent interior fittings. The sinks, the baths, the frosted glass panneled doors, all look the same. To create your own variety is next to im- possibile because of the limited number of styles of taps, handles, etc. The reason for this is obvious. For postwar Hungary, and for many years afterwards, mass housing construction was a priority. The aesthetic or design aspect of the matter took second place. But now that most people have a roof over their heads albeit with limited space, the time has surely come to apply some of that Hungarian design ingenuity to products of everyday use. B.D. To the Editor EXCERPT FROM MR. JOSEPH VEGH'S LETTER CORPUS CHRISTI, Tex. Perhaps only in America can you find the freedom for individuals like Dr. Borbély to bring us a viewpoint or philosophy citing long dead individuals whose philosophy never did fit the American dream. The fact is that neither Hegel or Marx should be quoted as a fundamental of individual freedoms or expressions. My father and I wanted absolutely nothing from this government in social services insurances or guarantees... just opportunity.
