Newspapers / The Foothills View (Boiling … / Nov. 25, 1981, edition 1 / Page 6
Part of The Foothills View (Boiling Springs, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
I iL,.-; • • • # • « a- • w ; •: • • ♦ • • • • I • • -• 4 • • • I • • • • • • ' « • • • i • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • i • • • • • • • • B ^ • • B • • « B • • B •' • • • ;• • »' • • • I • • « I • • i » • • *, * • • » • ^ • i • ©■ • • » • • • > • • • > • • • > • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •, • • ; ># ^4 h*pZ^'f*r f' W^. ikfQ The FoothiUs View SHOE by Jeff MacNelly November25,1981 The Foothills View is a community newspaper published each Thursday by the Gardner-Webb College Press, Inc. Dave Robertson Manrging Editor Commentary ocs»Sv.f\r,/!rr3« Washington Report A Column By Rep. Broyhill As we celebrate Thanksgiving 1981, we as Americans should take . the time to reflect on our past, enjoy the present, and consider our future. Thanksgiving traditionally Is a time whoi families gather to eat and to catch up on the latest family news, especially if they are not together very oftem In a period when the stability of the family is not as strong as it used to be, I feel it is very Important that we do all we can to streng then the ties which have bound us together in the past. I sense a reawakening in the Importance and in the priority we attach to family relationships, and I feel that this is a very healthy trend. Some of the very best times many of us have enjoyed in our lives have been at our parents and grandparents' homes. Families provide the very foundation of life in America, and they have played a fundamental role in establishing the values which have made and kept our nation great. Therefore, any weakening in this area would have grave consequence for our future. It is Incumbent upon each of us to make our family commitments even stronger in the future. It is through our families that we learn, develop and practice those attitudes of right and wrong, of fairness, of charity, and of love of our country. In our families we share our joys and our sorrows. "AVe congratulate 'each other on our success and sympathize with each other on our downfalls. Tberefore, it is incumbent upon each of us to strengthen our family commitments, and what better time to do it than at Thanksgiving? In addition, during the Thanksgiving season, 1 believe it is most appropriate for all Americans to express our gratitude' for the many blessings which have been ours during the past year. 1981 has given us both good news and bad news. On the economic front, we have seen progress in some areas and not in others. The double-digit inflation and extra ordinarily high interest rates have started downward, and that is good news. High interest rates are causing problems for so many people because it simply costs too much for the average person to borrow any money for a new home or a new car. That means these industries have been particularly hard hit. So have the many businesses which provide supplies and parts lor the home building and auto in dustries. The Administration has made some progress on reducing federal spending, but the amounts have been very small in comparison to the huge federal budget. Clearly our efforts have just begun in this area, and 1982 will be a crucial year in the drive to change the course of govern ment. We can also be thankful because lor the first time in many years the high tax policy of the government has been reversed. All working people received a live percent tax reduction in October, although the President pushed for 10 percent cut which would have taken effect three months earlier. There are those economic experts who believe we would not now be in a recession if the tax cut had been larger and had taken effect earlier. Taxpayers will receive another 10 percent cut next July and 10 percent more the following July, Efforts to eliminate or delay these tax reductions would be unwise and would be bad news for the taxpayers. Unemployment is too high and may go higher. Ibis is bad news for those who really want to work. I believe the President’s Program wiil create many mliltons of new jobs. This has just not occurred as rapidly as we would have liked. There are many other things to be thankful for. Each individual must make his own list because I am sure it is different for each. I feel a sense of optimism and hope in our nation as we look toward 1982, Solving our many problems will not be easy, and it will take some time. However, I am con vinced that the new leadership in Washington is committed to making a better life for all of people of this nation, and we should be thankful for all our blessings at this time of the year. The editorial page 6f The Foothills View The governor of Puerto Rico, Carlos Romero Barcelo, is having the most fearful time balancing balls. He is a gentleman of acute mind, a devoted American and a devoted Puerto Rican. This double loyalty he would like to fuse, but although the idea of incorporating Puerto Rico as a 51st state appeals to more and more Puerto Ricans, and to 100 percent of the nation’s flag-makers, it is not quite an idea whose time has come. The United States quite properly wishes to bring to the union only those territories that most unambiguously desire annexation. Any doubts must be vestigial, and in Puerto Rico this isn’t, at least not yet, the -case.. There are those who desire for Puerto Rico complete independence and those who desire a continuation of the status quo. The latter, at this writing, are still in rough charge of public sentiment, and this is what is making life intensely difficult for Governor Romero. Mr. Reagan’s economic plan is obviously designed for 'the United States and pays little attention to the effect of it on such anomalies as Puerto Rico. William F. Buckley, Jr.’s “ON THE RIGHT” Consider, for instance, me matter of taxation. It is clearly in the interests of the Puerto Rican economy to maintain a relative advantage for those who do business in Puerto Rico. To this end, over the years, a package evolved. To begin with, Puerto Ricans not being full-fledged Americans, they are not subject to the American income tax. This has not, of course, spared them the pain of paying taxes in Puerto Rico on their incomes, and by comparison with American state taxes these have been extremely high, to support an island in which people are poor and unemployment is 21 percent. block grant would cul down the .total figure-by 25 percent. Finally, a U.S. effort to encourage struggling Caribbean nations proposes lowering the tariff on goods imported from such countries. Well, lowering tariffs is always, repeat always, a good idea; but, the effect on Puerto Rico is that we may be causing Puerto Rican goods to be more expensive to U.S. consumers than, say, the same goods brought in from the Dominican Republic. But the lowering of,_American income tax, however exiguous that cut is for the time being, has the effect of relatively increasing the tax that Puerto Ricans pay. Then tnere is the matter of food stamps. An incredible 60 percent of Puerto Ricans have been getting these stamps. Under the Reagan proposal it has been suggested that the program be done away with entirely, to be re; 'aced by a block grant giving Puerto Rico money with which to attend to its own nutritional problems. But, of course, the Governor Romero is sorely beset by such problems, problems which tend to accumu late when the government attempts to make humanitarian policy by improvisations on the tax code. But before that is all straightened out, officials in the Reagan administration should look at the problem comprehensively. Puerto Rico’s relationship to the United States is the most eloquent existing rebuke of the shibboleths of colonialism, as practiced by the Soviet Union, and universally deplored. We should not abandon, carelessly, the leverage we have here on international good will.
The Foothills View (Boiling Springs, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Nov. 25, 1981, edition 1
6
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75