With the magnitude of problems facing the Reagan administration today, there is no room left for the squabbles that have been producing headline after headline. How can the President hope to devise a successful economic solution if he can’t control the members of his cabinet.
Anyone who is well versed on the issues raised in the newspapers recently would think that Reagan, Allen, Haig and Stockman were on different teams, instead of working for the benefit of one nation.
Whatever happened to the “Three Musketeers” saying, “One for all and all for one.”
The latest disappointment that glared out at the American public was the events surrounding the budget director, David Stockman, and his critical remarks on the economic program. Stockman is quoted in the December issue of the Atlantic Monthly as saying the Kemp-Roth tax plan, upon which the Reagan tax cut proposal is based, is a “Trojan horse.”
According to Stockman’s critique, the tax cut plan would only benefit the wealthy because it is a disguised version of the traditional Republican “trickle-down” economics.
Instead of continuing its White House fights, the current administration should ponder the fight to combat the nation’s ills. There are indications that things are getting worse, rather than better.
The group should spar with the federal deficit, which is projected to soar as high as $145 billion by 1984, making the President’s promise to balance the budget in three years practically impossible.
The administration should wrestle with soaring interest rates which hamper the recovery of the automobile and housing industry. There is a battlefield in the guise of a rising rate of unemployment, which reflects a deepening recession. Unemployment was up from 7.5 percent in September to 8 percent in October. The Labor Department reported that the unemployment index was at its highest level in six years.
The United States is showing signs of the weak internal workings of the administration. Unless the congruency is restored and the dissension is obliterated, history will show a degeneration of integrity involved in the leadership of the United States.
Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the Campus Times Editorial Board.
