The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, September 25, 2000, Page 4, Image 4
GOP calls for debt reduction
■ Republicans
discuss proposal
for surpluses
by Alan Fram
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The two top Re
publicans in Congress appealed to Pres
ident Clinton Saturday to agree to use
90 percent of next year’s federal surplus
for debt reduction, a goal that has be
come the GOP’s top pre-election bud
get theme.
“While we may not agree on all as
pects of the budget, we can, at the very
least, do something on which we can all
agree — reduce the debt and strength
en Social Security and Medicare now
and in the future,” House Speaker Den
nis Hasten of Illinois said in the week
ly Republican radio address, given with
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott of
Mississippi.
They said their proposal would en
sure that the surpluses of Social Securi
ty and Medicare are used only for debt
reduction, while also strengthening the
economy.
The leaders’ remarks spotlighted the
turnaround that the GOP has executed
in its budget goals as the November pres
idential and congressional elections ap
proach.
Clinton “has been committed to debt
relief for seven years now ... (and) we
are pleased to see the Republican lead
ership backing away from their risky tax
scheme for this year,” said White House
adviser Joel Johnson, traveling with Clin
ton in California “What we don’t know
yet is the Republican spending plan for
this year. They haven’t sent the presi
dent their spending bills.”
Johnson challenged Republican lead
ers “to commit to that kind of debt re
duction next year and the year after that
and the year after that.... If you only do
it for one year, it is a political game.”
Appearing on CNN’s “Evans, No
vak, Hunt & Shields,” the minority leader
of the House had a similar reaction. While
saying the Republicans waited too long
to produce the plan, Rep. Dick Gephardt,
D-Mo., said, “I’m not opposed.” But he
added: “I’d like to have 90 percent over
the next five years.”
At a White House meeting with Clin
ton two weeks ago, GOP leaders pro
posed using 90 percent of next year’s
projected $268 billion surplus, $240 bil
lion, to reduce the $3.4 trillion publicly
held debt. The remaining 10 percent,
$28 billion, would be used for tax cuts
and spending increases that congressional
and White House bargainers are negoti
ating.
While Republicans haven’t men
tioned it publicly, their plan would ac
tually provide an additional $13 billion
for extra spending or tax cuts. That is be
cause of a gap between the spending as
sumptions GOP leaders are now mak
ing and the more frugal, initial versions
of Congress’ spending bills.
Hastert said that when Republicans
presented their debt-reduction plan to
Clinton, he replied that “whether we
can do it this year or not depends upon
what the various spending commitments
are.”
“Mr. President, we can do this if we
work together,” said Hastert.
Democrats have noted that Clinton’s
own budget proposed using more than
90 percent of next year’s surplus for debt
reduction.
They also have accused Republicans
of backing big tax cuts that over 10 years
would consume much more than 10 per
cent of projected surpluses. GOP pres
idential nominee Geoige W. Bush has
championed a 10-year tax cut exceed
ing $1.3 trillion.
College’s rank tumbles,
senior official resigns
by Ben Dobbin
Associated Press
GENEVA, N.Y. — Small, private U.S.
colleges that rely on tuition for survival
ignore at their peril the guidebooks and
magazine lists catering to parents and
students zealously seeking the perfect
school.
So when Hobart and William Smith
Colleges, a liberal arts campus on the
leafy slopes above this Finger Lakes
town, took a tumble in this month’s U.S.
News & Vvbrld Report rankings of Amer
ica’s best colleges, retribution was swift.
Sociology professor Sheila Bennett
was ousted as senior vice president of
the men’s and women’s colleges. She
had failed to submit fresh data that the
magazine uses each year in assessing the
academic merits of 1,400-plus schools
nationwide.
“I don’t believe this was intention
al — it probably was just an adminis
trative oversight,” said Professor Jack
Harris, the faculty’s presiding officer.
The episode brings into focus the
enormous competitive pressures uni
versities encounter in luring students
and teachers, particularly private insti
tutions with small endowments that need
to flesh out their budgets with high tu
ition fees.
“In the absence of other measures
of reputation, these rankings and a se
ries of other guidebooks can have con
siderable import,” Harris said. “The U.S.
News survey is one of the most public
demonstrations of our quality and rep
utation, whether you buy into it or not.”
A year’s stay at Hobart and William
Smith costs $25,200, plus $6,800 for
room and board. Hobart, a men’s col
lege, was founded in 1822 and William
Smith was started for women in 1908.
Their 1,800 undergraduates share fac
ulty, classrooms and an 180-acre cam
pus but each has its own dean, admis
sions office and athletic programs and
awards its own degrees.
Only 84 schools failed to return sur
vey data to U.S. News this year, some
for philosophical reasons, the magazine
said. Reed College in Portland, Ore., has
refused to participate since 1995, say
ing it finds the survey too simplistic.
Bennett came to upstate New York
from Emory University in 1990 as
provost and faculty dean. She stepped
down from those posts this spring amid
criticism of her management style, tak
ing a one-year appointment in chaige of
off-campus and international programs.
One of her duties was to supply U.S.
News with such statistics as gradua
tion rates, financial and faculty resources
and alumni donations.
The magazine said it made repeat
ed calls and sent a certified letter but
ended up using data reported in previ
ous years. That ended the school’s long
time inclusion in the magazine’s “sec
ond tier” of liberal arts colleges, dropping
it to a “third tier” of schools ranked
from No. 81 to No. 120.
Bennett, who retained her faculty
job, refused to be interviewed. The
Chronicle of Higher Education said she
resigned her executive post at school
President Mark Gearan’s request soon
after the U.S. News rankings came out.
Gearan would not say if the resig
nation was tied to the magazine poll.
However, he stressed that “but for the
regrettable circumstances of U.S. News
not having received the information,
there would have been no change” in
the school’s ranking.
I
German family survives nine days
adrift on dinghy in Atlantic Ocean
by- Ciaran Giles
Associated Press
MADRID, Spain — Four Germans,
including a toddler, spent nine days
adrift on a dinghy in the Atlantic with
only rainwater to drink before they
were rescued and flown to a Spanish
hospital, news reports said Sunday.
The four — a couple, their 2-year
old daughter and the captain of their
yacht — set sail Sept. 13 from the north
western Spanish port of A Coruna,
bound for the Netherlands. But a day
later, as they headed for the Bay of Bis
cay, an explosion and fire in the ves
sel’s engine forced them to abandon
ship.
Their yacht sank within minutes.
They spent the next nine days afloat
with no food, surviving on rain col
lected in a plastic bucket, Martina Hoff
man told The Associated Press in a tele
phone interview Sunday front her room
at Xeral hospital, in the northwestern
port city of Vigo.
“My little girl Lisa is better now,
she can talk and laugh and eat. She’s a
hardy girl,” said Hoffman, 31.
“Now I feel well, but we were re
ally afraid,” Hoffman said. “Especial
ly as the days went by and nobody '
picked us up.”
Hoffman, who comes from the
small town of Schettorf in northern
Gennany, said 11 boats passed but none
apparently spotted them, although they
fired four flares.
She said she spent most of the tune
hugging her little girl close to keep her
warm and alive.
“We were terribly cold and could
only sit up and hold on,” she said.
A Tunisian cargo vessel plucked .
them from the water Friday, about 70
miles from land. Once aboard the ves
sel, Hoffman said they were treated
as if they were in a hotel and were giv
en plenty of food, drink and clothes.
But the child’s health was worri
some and on Saturday, the Tunisian ship
radioed for help from Spain.
A helicopter was flown out and, at
one moment during the rescue opera
tion, panic spread when the child
slopped breathing and had to be resus
citated in the helicopter.
The two men — the child’s father,
Joig Hoffman and his brother, Jan, the
yacht’s captain, were released from the
hospital Saturday, but the mother and
child were still recovering there Sun
day.
Lazio, Clinton drop soft money ads
by Beth Gardiner
Associated Press
NEW YORK — Rep. Rick Lazio and
Hillary Rodham Clinton appeared to
have reached a deal late Saturday
banning the use of so-called soft
money advertising from the New York
Senate race.
“I think the two sides have come
to a close enough point that we effec
tively have a deal,” said Clinton’s cam
paign manager. Bill de Blasio.
Lazio told reporters, “It appears
that we have an agreement, based on
what I am hearing about what Mrs.
Clinton said.”
Soft money refers to the unlimit
ed funds collected by political par
ties. While hard money contribu
tions, limited to $2,000 per donor, can
be used for ads that advocate voting for
or against a candidate, soft money can
only be used to advocate an issue, boost
a candidate or attack a candidate.
The verbal agreements came after
a day of public back-and-forth, and
about a week and a half after Lazio
sprung his version of a soft money ban
on Clinton during their first televised
debate and demanded she sign it on the
spot. Clinton refused and later called
Lazio’s action a stunt.
Clinton said Saturday that the
Democratic party had agreed to stop
running ads on her behalf if Republi
cans promised to cease paying for com
mercials boosting Lazio. She said she
would urge independent groups who
support her to refrain from running ra
dio and television commercials and
asked that Lazio do the same.
Lazio said he had secured promis
es from Republicans in New York and
Washington to stop spending money on
ads for him. He said he hoped soft mon
ey ads would be off the air by Monday,
Clinton said the Democrats would stop
running their commercials on Wednes
day.
Any violation of the agreement
would result in a proportionate response
— if a group on one side released a
5100,000 ad, the other side could re
spond with a $100,000 ad of their own,
de Blasio said.
The tentative agreement appeared
to cover spending by political parties
but not by outside organizations.
Defense to examine
peacekeeper training
by Robert Burns
Associated Press
WASHINGTON— The Army’s ad
mission that some soldiers on peace
keeping duty in Kosovo used excessive
force against civilians puts a spotlight
on a difficult question for the Penta
gon: Would peacekeeping be more
peaceful if the Army had a separate
force trained specifically for such non
combat missions?
The Defense Department intends
to explore this issue early in the next
administration in reassessing its securi
ty strategy and the shape of the armed
forces.
Some foreign policy experts favor
creating a separate constabulary force,
with special training in crowd control,
civilian searches, interrogation and oth
er skills. Such a force would be pre
pared to go anywhere, for peacekeep
ing as well as humanitarian missions.
Regular Army combat troops would
handle combat missions.
Among those who have aigued this
point, retired Army Col. Richard J.
Dunn says the instincts developed by
warriors — to “be brutal” — are not
needed in peacekeeping, which em
phasizes using minimal force.
The idea of creating a “peace
brigade” within the armed forces does
not play well among today’s military
leaders, although the Kosovo case brings
it back to the fore.
An Anny report released hist week
stud some members of tut 82nd Airborne
Division unit, whose motto was “shoot
’em in the face,” threatened, abused
and beat ethnic Albanian civilians last
winter. The aggression was so egregious
that it violated basic standards of hu
man decency, the report concluded.
Although the misconduct was not
widespread, the Army colonel who
wrote the report said the training these
paratroopers received before going to
Kosovo failed to temper their “com
bat mentality.”
In other words, the warrior mind
set that is essential to success — and
survival — on the battlefield can lead
to trouble in the more ambiguous cir
cumstances a soldier encounters on
peacekeeping duty.
In the case of the unit in Kosovo
—Alpha Company, 3rd Battalion, 504th
Parachute Infantry Regiment — some
soldiers said they were confused about
what peacekeeping meant or were not
prepared for the mission.
“Our train-up for this... was noth
Peacekeeping seepages
Putin bringing stability
to Russian political system
by Angela Charlton
Associated Press
MOSCOW — Despite a fiasco over
a sunken submarine and a feud over
control of the media, President
Vladimir Putin has brought a fragile
political stability to his unwieldy na
tion, replacing the chaos that para
lyzed Russia for much of the 1990s.
Since he was elected six months
ago, the former spy has confounded
critics’ predictions that his adminis
tration would succumb to the cor
ruption that stained Boris Yeltsin’s
tenure or smother Russia’s nascent
democracy.
Yet observers warn that Putin’s
position is precarious. Poverty and
crime remain pervasive. Putin has
stressed the need to tackle the prob
lems that matter most to the majority
of Russians — poverty and unem
ployment.
But the economy remains in deep
trouble and the government has yet to
come up with a strategy to revive the
economy beyond promises to contin
ue market reforms.
“The people believe in Putin. But
they cannot wait forever. He must
show through real actions that wages
will always be paid on time, and that
they will someday grow, and that the
country has become safer than before,”
said Andrei Ryabov of Carnegie En
dowment for International Peace.
Putin has pushed through tax re
forms and nuclear arms control pacts
that snagged under Yeltsin. He has
brought autocratic regional leaders to
heel.
While trying to revive Russia’s in
ternational influence, he has been re
alistic in admitting that Moscow ca^’t
afford to be a superpower and has be
gun to trim the bloated military. He
has charmed foreign leaders and wooed
Western investors — and let a 10-year
old Japanese girl toss him on a judo
mat.
Political stability also has been
boosted by major changes in parlia
ment, where centrist parties recent
ly ended the domination of the Com
munists, who fought Yeltsin and reform
for years, often deadlocking the gov
ernment.
Human rights groups paint a dark
er picture. They say the security ser
vices under Putin have covered up
atrocities in Chechnya and persecut
ed minorities, environmentalists and
journalists.
They are wary of Putin’s KGB
background and note that he rose to
power with the help of the scandal
tinged Yeltsin.
Still, Putin remains Russia’s
most popular politician. His ratings
barely dipped amid criticism of his
bungled reaction to the Kursk sub
marine disaster last month. Clearly
surprised by public anger over the
Kursk, Putin showed himself more
sensitive to public opinion than any
other modem Russian leader.
Support for Putin has come from
broadly differing camps — including
renowned dissident writer Alexander
Solzhenitsyn, persecuted by the So
viet KGB that Putin served for 15
years, and former Soviet President
Mikhail Gorbachev.
Solzhenitsyn said after meeting
with Putin this week, “the president
has an excellent understanding of
the incredible difficulties... which he
has inherited.”
i
News Briefs
■ Cubans in
America after crash
in Gulf of Mexico
MIAMI (AP) - The pilot’s view from
the sputtering, stolen vintage crop-duster
wasn’t encouraging: endless, swelling sea
and gray sky. America was not in sight.
The fuel was almost gone. But the 10
people on the pirate flight out of Cuba
had one thing left: faith. So they prayed
as their plane headed into the water of
the stormy Gulf of Mexico west of their
island homeland. All but one survived
and realized their dream to come to Amer
ica.
While the journey was extraordinary,
it is a trip regularly taken by Cubans try
ing to escape their communist country.
Many don’t survive. Just last year, 11
people drowned when their boat sank off
the coast of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The
only survivors were two adults — and
Elian Gonzalez.
■ Child critically
injured in accident
at Disneyland
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) - A 4-year
old boy was in critical condition Satur
day after he became trapped on Disney
land’s Roger Rabbit Car Toon Spin ride,
police said.
Disneyland authorities and city Fire
Department paramedics freed the child
after he became trapped on the theme
park ride Friday night, Lt. Joe Vargas said.
He remained hospitalized Saturday
at the University of California, Irvine,
Medical Center.
Details about how the boy was in
jured were not immediately available,
but Vargas said the accident did not ap
pear to have been caused by a mechan
ical malfunction.
The Car Toon Spin is a slow-moving,
5-minute ride in which passengers take
a cab through a cartoon world. Calls left
for a park spokesman were not immedi
ately returned.
■ Ford: Increase
pressure of tires
on Explorers
DETROIT (AP) - Ford Motor Co. is
recommending that Explorer owners add
more air to their Firestone tires.
On Friday, Ford released a letter say
ing it’s raising its recommendation to 30
pounds per square inch from 26 psi.
On Thurday, a Bridgestone/Firestone
Inc. executive told Congress that the 26
psi level Ford has been recommending
is lower than what Bridgestone/Firestone
suggests. ,
The Ford letter says the new pres- 1
sure recommendation applies to Explorer
owners with Firestone P235/75R15 tires,
but does not say whether it applies to
other tires installed on the Explorer.
Bridgestone/Firestone last month re
called 6.5 million ATX, ATX II and
Wilderness AT tires, most of which were
original equipment on Explorers.
■ Plan to disband
spy agency seen
as easing crisis r
LIMA, PERU (AP) - President Al
berto Fujimori has sent Congress a plan
to disband Peru’s disgraced spy agency,
a move praised by observers as a step to
ward easing the severe crisis that is cut
ting short his rule.
Beset by a bribery scandal engulf
ing his spy chief, Fujimori last week
promised to deactivate the much
feared National Intelligence Service and
stunned Peru by saying he’d call a new
election, but not run in it.
On Friday afternoon, Fujimori sent
the spy agency proposal to Congress and
promised to confirm by Monday that the
spy chief is out of office.
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