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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 8, 1984)
Page 10 Section II Portland Obeerver, August 8, 1984 Jesse Jackson's historic speech IContuuttd from Pugt 9} mutt b* M id ic to u n itM t (or potictex that kavt coatrtbuttd io ib t giowing povttty la A m t k i Under President Reagan, ihett we I nulboa more people in poverty—now I } percent of out nation u ta poverty. M million people O f the M million poor people. 21 Bullion are while. 11 million ere Mach. Hitpaiuc. Asian and oihet M o tt aad more of the poor are children By the end of ih ii year, there will be 40 million people in poverty -m o re people than al any lime unce the inadequate War oa Poverty program began in I M l Under Pretident Reagan the misery index hat UKreatad S O C IA L S E C U R IT Y : The I M I budget cute included nine permanent Social Security benefit cuts totalling 520 billion over five yean Now he says we may need more S M A L L B U SIN ESS A p p ro tim a le ly M percent o f a ll b u n a e tte t in A m erica can be contidered " s m a ll" —l e . employing le u than 500 workers Yet under the Reagan taa cult, only 114k o f the total huitneu tat cuti went to them I2 W went to big business H E A L T H C AR E. Reagan iharpty cut funding for tereemng children for lead pmtoning — which can lead to retardation, behavioral d iffic u ltie s and learning disabilities— from 1» I million in I »41 to 15 I million la I M I Ettim atet for 24 states indicate that the number o f children screened dropped from I . I million lo 400.000 EDUC A T IO N H r cut real spending for evaluation by M Nihon. or 25 percent 4 1 million handicapped children are receiving delayed or reduced tervicet 124.(MX) fewer college iiudenti receive Pell Grant atsistan 44. W O M E N There are now 9 7 million female headed families They represent 14 percent of all families, but half of all poor familiet Seventy percent o f all poor children live in a household headed by woman Working women make less than men in every job category at every educational level, yet M t Reagan sees no need for the Equal Right« Amendment E N V IR O N M E N T A L P R O T E C T IO N T h u administration cleaned up only 4 of the 544 priority to tK wane dump« in three yean FA R M ERS In I M I . real net larm income wat only about half ill level tn 1979 and wa> lower than at any lime unce the Great Depression Many u y that the race in November will be decided in the South Pretident Reagan u depending on the conservative South to return him to office But the South n U N N A T U R A L L Y C O N S E R V A T IV E The South u the nations poorest region and. therefore, has the lean to conserve In Ns appeal to the South. Mr Reagan is trying to substitute flags and prayer cloths for jobs, food, clothing, education, health care and housing But. President Reagan is not even familiar with the structure of a prayer He has cut food damps, children's breakfast and lunch programs, the WIC program for pregnant mothers and infants, and then he says, " L e t us pray " In a prayer, you are supposed to thank God for the food you are A B O U T T O REC EIV E , NOT FOR T H E FO OD T H A T JUST LEFT Pom people and working people-black. wNte and A b evMencs of R»v Jackson's charismatic appeal with the Rainbow Coalition th at supported him In hla strong presidential bid. Jackson shares a special moment with supporters from San Francisco's Chinese community. b ro w n -a ll across America, but especially in the South, musi resist the temptation lo go for M r Reagan’s social placebo as a substitute for jobs and economics justice C « to n candy may taste good, il may even go down imoMhIy. but it has no substance and it's not good foe you Under President Reagan, the misery index has increased dramatically for the poor, bul the D AN G ER IN D E X for everyone has escalated The military budget has been doubled lo protect us from the Russians, yet today Soviet missiles are closer, and more accurate The Reagan Administration has failed to achieve any agreed upon nuclear arms reductions whatsoever The Reagan Administration's attempts to regain military superiority, to achieve a first strike capability, its plans and preparations lo launch and win a limited nuclear war. and its commitment to "Star W ars" have left the world a much more unstable and dangerous place in which lo live We are at a nuclear stand o ff in Europe We are mining the harbors of Nicaragua and attempting to covertly overthrow a legitimate gover nment there-actions which have been condemned by many of our allies and by the World Court Under this adm inistration, we have been at war and lost the lives of American boys in Lebanon. Honduras, and Grenada. Under tNs administration, one-thud of America's children have come to believe that they will die in a nuclear war The danger index for everybody is increasing—and it is frightening But it is not enough simply lo react to the effects—a growing mitery and danger indes We must dig deeper and comprehend the underlying cause of the growing misery and danger indes-Reaganomics We must distinguish between M r Reagan’s political appeal and his economic deal Mr Reagan's economic program is a combination of cyanide and Root Aid. jelly beans and poison It may lasic good bul the results are disastrous We must distinguish between Reaganism and Reaganomics While Reaganism is largely subjective, supply side economics is more objective Reaganism was used to impose Reaganomics Reaganism is the perception Reaganomics is the reality We are fatter now. but less secure Many who were once basking in the sun o f Reaganism have now been burned to a crisp with Reaganomics In l»40. many thought they taw a light at the end of the tunnel in Reaganism But in 1944, we now know it was not sunshine, bul a train coming this way In 1940. then candidate (leorge Bush called M r Reagan's economic plan to gel America back on track “ voodoo economics " Third Party candidate John Anderson said that the combination of massive military spending, tax cuts and a balanced budget by 1944 could only be accomplished with blue smoke and mirrors We now know they were both right President Reagan declares that we are having a dynamic economic recovery And we are having a recovery of sorts A fter three and a half years, unemployment has inched just below where it was when he look office in I M I Bul there are still 1. 1 million people officially unemployed, and eleven million working only part time jobs Make no mistake about it. inflation has come down Bul let's examine how and al who's expense that wax achieved—and how long it u likely lo last President Reagan's 1944 economic recovery has come after the deepest and longest recession since the Great Depression President Reagan curbed in flation by cutting consumer demand He cut consumer demand with conscious and callous fiscal and monetary policies He used the federal budget to defaberately induce unemployment and curb social spending He then waged and supported the tight monetary policies of the Federal Reserve Board lo deliberately drive up interest rates—again to curb consumer demand created through borrowing Unemployment reached 10 7 percent, we experienced skyrocketing interest rales, our dollar inflated abroad; there were record bank failures; record farm foreclosures, record business bankruptcies; record budget deficits, record trade defiats and more Thus. President Reagan brought inflation down by destabi lising our economy, disrupting family life, and heaping havoc on the poor Remember. President Reagan's central promise of the I9S0 campaign— to balance the budget by 19447 Instead of balancing the budget, ut I9S4 we are having record budget deficits and looking at record budget defiols fw as far as the eye can see Under President Reagan, the cumulative budget deficits for just his four r7n Detroit, one o f the great cities o f the western world, babies are dying at the same rate as Honduras, the most under developed nation in our hemisphere. ” years in office will be virtually equal to the total budget deficits from George Washington through Jqnmy C arter—equal to all past presidents' budget deficits combined Thus, Reagan's economic recovery is being financed by deficit spending— nearly $200 billion a year Yet, military spending, a major cause of the deficit, is projected over the next five years to be nearly $2 trillion, and will cost about $40,000 for every taxpaying family. When the government borrows $200 billion annually to finance the deficit, this encourages the private sector to make its money o ff of interest rates rather than investing in economic development and growth. Even worse, we don't have enough money domestically to finance the debt, so we are borrowing money abroad, from foreign banks, governments and financial institutions— $40 billion in 1983, $70-80 billion (40 percent of the total) in 1984. and over $100 billion (SO percent of the total) in 1985—and rising. By 1989, it is projected that 50 percent of all individual income taxes will be going just to pay for the interest on the debt The U S . used to be the largest exporter of capital, but under President Reagan we will quite likely shortly become the largest debtor nation About two weeks ago. on July 4th, we celebrated our Declaration of In dependence and our freedom Yet every day. supply side economics is making our nation more economically dependent and less economically free Five to six percent of our Gross National Product is now being eaten up with President Reagan's budget defiats. To depend on foreign military powers to protect our national security would be foolish and make us less secure Yet Reaganomics is increasingly making us more dependent on foreign economic powers to protect ourselves economically By increasing our economic dependency. Reaganomics decreases our ability to con trol our own economic future and destiny; decreases our security; and decreases our self-respect. A great nation must be measured by its ability to produce, not just its ability to consume We are negotiating away our independence Freedom and independence are the result o f self-determination, self-reliance, self discipline and self-respect Under President Reagan, America is less economically free and more dependent President Reagan's consumer-led but deficit-financed recovery is unbalanced, artificial, and will be short-lived President Reagan's recovery is an economic “ quick fix " that is based on foreign borrowing and will end in another recession in 1985 or 1986 The boom o f *84 will become a boomerang in *85. It is no secret I f we continue down the same road of supply side, with a “ Dead E nd " sign in front of us, with no brakes, and a cliff behind the sign, we will deserve our inevitable fate Reaganomics is economic opium that is destroying us from within President Reagan's recovery is like Santa Claus's wish list at Christmas time— buy now and pay later President Reagan's recovery may bring the joy of Christmas morning in 1984, but there will be sadness, sacrifice and suffering when the generation of your children, and your children's children have lo pay for it. Our adult generation should not be so selfish and self-centered as to burden our children with our indulgent and short-lived behavior It is short-term pleasure, but it's leading to long-term pain Yet. an artificial recovery is merely the beginning of our problems The record Reagan budget deficits drive up interest rates High interest rates over value the dollar abroad Because of an over valued dollar, our prices have increased relative to all of our competitors by about 35 percent over the last three years We can not give our competitors a 35 percent subsidy, or give ourselves a 35 percent tax and remain competitive in the world market An over valued dollar is good for the American consumer because it subsidizes imports, but it is bad for American exports (farm products and machinery in particular) because it taxes Americans out of jobs and competition The trade imbalance this year is projected to be close to $120 billion For every $1 billion of trade imbalance, it costs Americans about 25,000 jobs. Thus, President Reagan's record trade imbalance alone will cost Americans nearly 3 million jobs We need a balance of trade, because another four years of Reaganomics will bring on the greatest tide of protectionism in American history Record budget deficits, high interest rates, and an over-valued dollar are contributing to the inter national debt crisis in the Third World The greatest threat to our national security in Central America is not the East-West conflict It is the international debt crisis, created principally by President Reagan's record budget deficits They are threatening to destabilize the world economy, including the U S economy In light of the international debt crisis, the International Monetary Fund and the big multi-national banks are im posing austerity programs on the developing nations Some developing nations cannot even pay interest on their debt These governments are unable to meet the basic needs of their citizens and the people are rebelling The build up of our large interventtonary forces are mainly for the purpose of putting down these economic and social rebellions in the name of slopping communism, but they are largely o f our own making—and heightened under Reaganomics I I I T H E C A N D ID A T E 'S C H A L L E N G E P L A N A W A Y O U T W IT H JOBS. PEACE A N D JUSTICE Democracy guarantees opportunity, it does not guarantee success Democracy guarantees the right to participate, it does not give a license to either a majority or a minority to dominate The victory for the Rain bow Coalition in the platform debates today was not whether we won or lost the vote, but that we raised the right issues We could afford to loae the vote Issues are negotiable We could not afford to avoid raising the right questions Our self-respect and our moral integrity were at stake Our heads are perhaps bloody, but unbowed Our back is straight and our vision is clear And when we think, in this journey from slaveship to championship, that we have gone from the planks of the boardwalk in Atlantic City in 1964 to fighting to help lo write the planks in the Democratic Party platform in San Francisco in 1984. there is a deep and abiding sense of joy in our souls in spite o f the tears in our eyes Though there are missing planks, there is a solid foundation upon which we can build The real challenge to our individual and collective Democratic leadership is to do three things: ( I ) provide hope, which will inspire people to struggle and achieve. (2) provide a plan that shows the people a way out of our dilemma, and (3) courageously lead the way out. There is a way out J U S T IC E The requirement for rebuilding America is justice The lynch pin of
