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TI1E p1/4 June 12, 1981 A Journal of Free Voices 75 On a 3-Year Tax Cut Bentsen Joins Reagan's Ten Washington, Austin Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, the Texas Democrat, went over to Pres- ident Reagan's three-year tax cut by appearing at a media event in the Rose Garden as Reagan announced the program by which he means to ride rough-shod over Democratic advocacy of cuts that help low- and moderate-income people. Meanwhile, Rep. Kent Hance, a Democrat from Lubbock, announced he will co-sponsor Reagan's tax bill, much as. Democrat Phil Gramm of College Station co-sponsored Reagan's budget-slashing bill. House Majority Leader Jim Wright of Fort Worth, asked if he was fighting a losing battle as Demodrats announced they would vote for Reagan's tax cut, replied, "Perhaps." Bentsen's defection, compounding his voting with Reagan's budget cuts three times as often as not (see last issue), was especially startling. Former chairman of the Joint Economic Committee of the Congress, 1976 candidate for the Democrats' presidential nomination, Bentsen is up for re-election in 1982. By swinging over to Reagan's tax cut he was taking his basic position before the Texas electorate for next year. Bentsen, Hance, and Sen. David Boren of Oklahoma were the only three Democrats among the ten members of Congress in the Rose Garden showing support for the Reagan bill. Reagan called the ten, including Bentsen, "the leaders of a new biparti- san coalition we are forging. ." In the House, members of the 47-member Conservative Democratic Forum showed signs of going along. Cong. Sam Hall of Marshall said the forum Standing Behind the President "holds the balance of power" on Reagan's tax cut and he's ready to go along. - World Wide Photos The Hance bill, which Reagan and the ten in the Rose Garden Republican President Ronald Reagan, U.S. Democratic endorse, would cut income taxes 5% Jan. 1, 1982, 10% July i, Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas (behind Reagan), and Dem- 1982, and 10% July 1, 1983. Reagan wanted the Kemp-Roth ocratic Congressman Kent Hance of Lubbock, right, grin for plan, 10-10-10, but has settled for the phase-in. Bentsen has the cameras in the Rose Garden at the White House. vehemently opposed Kemp-Roth and says the Reagan bill "sure Bentsen and Hance were among ten legislators, all but three isn't Kemp-Roth." But Cong. Jack Kemp, the New York Re- of them Republicans, who assembled with Reagan in the publican who ought to be an authority on what is and isn't Rose, Garden to show their support for his flat-rate three- Kemp-Roth, said, "It's about 95% of everything we've been year tax cut. Reagan said the ten were "the leaders" in the working for." new bipartisan coalition he is forging. Bentsen said he was supporting Reagan's tax cuts because the plan includes elements he has worked out on the Senate finance committee. "The concessions were better than a pair of cuff links," he said in an allusion to Reagan's gifts of cuff links IN THIS ISSUE to supporters. "I think we got some very major concessions," The Evacuation of the Poor in Dallas p. 3 Bentsen said. "I think the President has gone a long way to try Whazis? The Democrats Redistrict for the GOP? p. 5 to bring about a bipartisan approach. The three-year is all The Legislature Muffs Bilingual Education p. right. You never get all the things you want." 8 The Best and Worst of the 67th Session p. 9 (Continued on Page 17) • • — the enemy party. This is what he was The Observer's Position elected to do? In a cat's eye. IN THE DELEGATION in the House, the Texas Democrats have di- vided about fifty-fifty for and against Flakitis and Locksmile Reagan's brutal programs to soak the Austin But whether Bentsen cares or not, the poor and further enrich the rich. Cong. The Democrats nationally are afflicted nationally-oriented Democrats who gave Phil Gramm of College Station, placed in with flakitis. This is a malady caused by Texas to Harry Truman, John Kennedy, his position of power by Democratic pressures such as Ronald Reagan's elec- Lyndon Johnson, and Hubert Humphrey Majority Leader Jim Wright, betrayed toral college sweep and the conservative are still here. They still care about help- his party by co-sponsoring President tide in the country. The symptoms are ing people through government pro- Reagan's budget-slashing bill. Kent heavy perspiring, dryness of the lips, ir- grams, they believe Reagan's kind of Re- Hance of Lubbock, placed in his position ritability, and phenomenal flaking of the publicanism is the sworn foe of ordinary of power by Jim Wright, betrays his convictions. citizens, and they expect a senator they party now by co-sponsoring the Reagan three-year tax-cut for the rich. Never This might be funny if it didn't result in elected as a Democrat to act like one. again should Gramm and Hance apply to such forced smiles. Psychosomatic Instead, Bentsen first joined Reagan's the Democratic party for offices, honors, specialists we have consulted advise us heartless budget-slashers, and last week or credentials. Where these two are ac- that the frozen toothiness of these smiles he became one of the Rose Garden Ten, cepted as Democrats, there are no Dem- is caused by the energy in the extreme the chosen legislators, three of them ocrats. tension the smiles express. The result is Democrats, whom Reagan has anointed a kind of lockjaw — locksmile, you might as the "leaders" of his new coalition We at the Observer have concluded call it. Readers with a sleuth's instinct against the citizens' interests. Although that flakitis is now so epidemic among will find three examples of Democratic Bentsen vehemently opposed the the Democrats, our task is to monitor it locksmile in this issue. enrich-the-rich Kemp-Roth three-year closely and, toward the end of the year, tax cut heretofore, he journeyed to the record the history of the disease legis- lator by legislator, congressman by con- PPARENTLY LLOYD BENT- Reaganized Rose Garden to array him- A self behind President Reagan and his tax gressman. We welcome the help of our SEN, the Democratic senator from Tex- readers in this health-restoring en- as, thinks his only problem back home is program, which Jack Kemp says is 95% of Kemp-Roth. deavor. We judge that in about eight Republican Congressman Jim Collins of months the reaction against Reagan is Dallas, who is such a right-wing ex- At the very least, Bentsen has flaked. going to be rip-tiding through the body tremist he calls Bentsen a liberal. It is not too much to say that he has politic and a lot of Texans are going to be Bentsen may be opposed by either Col- adopted Reagan's major policies. What so angry about the flakitis, they will see lins or an equally quaint Republican di- might be too much to say, we leave to to it that in many cases it's politically nosaur, State Sen. Walter Mengden of our readers to consider. terminal. Houston. When these two get through fighting over the abolition of the federal In the historic photograph on our So follow along your gutless ways, income tax and the mercy killing of the cover this week, rustled up for us by our Texas Democrats of the legislature and inconveniently poor, the survivor will on-the-ball Washington research direc- the Congress. Some of the people are advance on Bentsen alleging him to be a tor, Katherine Fain, Bentsen stands watching. "The Eyes of Texas" are sure dangerous radical. grinning behind the enemy President of as hell upon you. R.D. A journal of free voices TET.DB sERvER We will serve no group or party but will hew hard to the truth as we find it (ISSN 0040-4519) and the right as we see it. We are dedicated to the whole truth, to human . ° The Texas Observer Publishing Co., 1981 values above all interests, to the rights of humankind as the foundation of democracy; we will take orders from none but our own conscience, and June 12, 1981 never will we overlook or misrepresent the truth to serve the interests of the Vol. 73, No. 12 7.473tp"igt powerful or cater to the ignoble in the human spirit. Writers are responsible for their own work, but not for anything they have Incorporating the State Observer and the East Texas Democrat, not themselves written, and in publishing them we do not necessarily imply which in turn incorporated the Austin Forum-Advocate. that vve agree with them because this is a journal of free voices. 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