10—The Daily Collegian Tuesday, Nov. 3, 1981 Baker reported to consider national sales tax plan By DAVID ESPO Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) Senate Republican Leader Howard H. Baker Jr. is considering a plan for a "national sales tax" to finance U.S. military spending and pare ballooning budget deficits, sources said yesterday. One source, however, insisted the plan is "pure ly, purely in a talking stage" and there is no guarantee it will even be proposed. "There has just been some discussion about it, no written proposal," the source said. A spokesman for Baker declined to confirm that such a proposal is under consideration. But the sources, who insisted on remaining anonymous, said Baker, R-Tenn., has discussed the plan with Treasury Secretary Donald T. Regan. The idea would be to provide money for defense spending "entirely from one source of revenue" such as a "sales tax" which would be in effect Lawyer: Taxes sinful By GENE GKABOWSKI Associated Press Writer ' WASHINGTON (AP) A lawyer for an Amish employer who refuses to pay Social Security and unemployment com pensation taxes told the Supreme Court yesterday that forcing him to do so would compel him to sin in the eyes of his religion. • Attorney Francis X. Caiazza said the Amish, if required to pay such taxes, would be demonstrating mistrust in the providence of God to meet community welfare needs. That, in turn, would tempt them to rely on the outside world for help in taking care of their own. "What they are doing by putting mon ey into the Social Security System is denying their belief that the future is determined by God," said Caiazza. "The Amish take care of themselves in their own communities. They are al ready performing for themselves what the state sees as its compelling interest." : But attorneys for the Justice Depart ment, which sued Edwin Lee of New Castle, Pa., in 1978 over his failure to pay the taxes, acknowledged the Amish be lief that all forms of insurance are sinful but argued that Social Security pay ments are taxes and , thus cannot be avoided. ST! 1 ~....l e ,*" )0 ) i .wyx ...---- • SHERRY McCAMLE9'S SWEETSOUNDS 1 7' d i jo b ; 111 1 SNERRyt ENCORE ~~~ Government attorney Lawrence G. Wallace said the Amish are unreason able in asking for special treatment denied other religious groups that desire to withhold tax payments for govern ment activity they find objectionable. "In 1970, the 9th Circuit Court of Ap peals ruled against a group opposed to the Vietnam War that wished not to pay a portion of income tax that went for de fense funds," Wallace said. The Amish controversy arose when the Internal Revenue Service told Lee that he owed about $27,000 in back payments. The IRS said Lee, who employed other Amish at his small farm and carpentry business, had not paid Social Security or federal unemployment taxes from 1970 through 1977. He had also failed to with hold the taxes from his employees' wages, according to the IRS. The U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh ruled in Lee's favor, based on a 1965 law providing a Social Security tax exemp tion for self-employed members of reli gious sects opposed to public insurance. The Justice Department, arguing that the exemption is invalid for those who work for Lee, then took the case to the Supreme Court. The court is taking the case under advisement. LIVF NlGiqrLyi RANDY HUGHES' MILD 4 MELLOW • %'%0m5.)41 NEWIIINES PROM NEW FACES TOM 14ACKAIBEE'S FAVORITES country Tavern 815 ctickluatlYtive toferfirtes 231-049 nationally for "a couple of years," the source said. There was no indication of the level at which such a tax might be imposed or what goods would be covered. Polls show that increased defense spending enjoys widespread public support, and linking a new levy to the military budget might be one way of lessening traditional opposition to higher taxes. Sources said it is not belieVed that such a measure would be enacted next year an elec tion year although the aim would be to provide revenues for 1983 and 1984. The defense budget for 1982 is projected to be more than $lBO billion. The plan for the national sales tax is among numerous plans that congressional Republicans have under study as they search for methods to shrink the budget deficit. Baker himself renewed his call yesterday for faster removal of price controls on natural gas, to Outside the court, Lee told reporters be accompanied by a new "windfall profits" tax. Baker said he favors a "phased and gradual" decontrol of natural gas along with "some kind of tax." An aide said he was referring to a "windfall profits" levy like the one Congress imposed on the oil industry two years ago. The proposal is virtually certain to draw opposi tion from industry, and Baker provided no esti mate of how much money could be generated by such a tax. The Tennessee Republican made his comments as he told reporters GOP senators are still in the "list-building stage" as, they search for new sources of revenue to help shrink budget deficits over the next three years. Separately, one source indicated that a value : . added tax, a type of national sales tax, was among the proposals under discussion. Republicans had been considering relatively small increases in several taxes; such as in creased excise levies on tobacco, alcohol and to Amish that a decision against him could help destroy the Amish community because members of the sect would be jailed rather than defy their religious beliefs. "I do feel they would resist paying Social Security no matter what is ruled," said Lee, who had watched presentation of the arguments. Under protest, Lee has already paid the government $9l his Social Security tax assessment for the first quarter of 1977. Originally, he filed for a refund, but now he says he doesn't expect to recover the money because that would compound the sin he believes he committed by paying under duress. During presentation of the case, seve ral justices suggested hypothetical situa tions similar to the Amish request for exemptions based on religious beliefs. "What if people who oppose abortion resisted paying taxes because , they didn't want their money going toward a prac tice of which they disapprove?" Justice Lewis Powell said. "That could .have a devastating effect on the Social Security tax, wouldn't it?" When Justice William Brennan asked what the position of the Amish would be if general revenue tax funds are used someday to fund Social Security, Caiazza refused to speculate. Czechs leery of contagious Polish unrest By STEPHEN H. MILLER Associated Press Writer OSTRAVA, Czechoslovakia (AP) In this sprawling mine and mill town just minutes from the Polish border, Czech officials clearly are wary about the potential spillov er of unrest from their Warsaw Pact neighbor. ' Western diplomats report being unable to meet officials in this northern border district, where in some villages, contact with. Poland can be as simple as passing something over the backyard fence. Visiting journalists are tailed by carloads of police, apparently to discourage contact with residents. Officials insist, however, that the problems that cropped up when Poland's labor turmoil started 14 months ago are now under control. Unlike Communist borders with the West, the nearby Polish-Czechoslovak border is not tightly sealed. North Moravia has a population of 1.96 million, of whom 68,000 are ethnic Poles with Czechoslovak citizenship. Still more Poles commute to work in the area from Poland itself. Czechoslovakia went through its own period of liberali zation, which was halted by the intervention of Soviet and other Warsaw Pact troops in August 1968. Unconfirmed reports have circulated for months in Czechoslovakia of unrest in the ranks of Polish workers in Czechoslovakia, of isolated work stoppages, of Poles being packed back across the border because of their politics. Regional Vice Chairman Bruno Bazanowski, in an offi cially arranged interview with The Associated Press, did gasoline, in their search for between $5O billion and $7O billion over the next three years. But Baker, echoing a comment made by Fi nance Committee Chairman Bob Dole, R-Kan., said, "I think that when you have a whole bunch of them (tax increases) it's much more difficult." He said it might be easier to pass one larger tax that would generate the same amount of revenue as seteral smaller ones. He also said' that he still expects Congress to pass a tax bill next year. But he said the bill may be limited to actual increases for the 1983 and 1984 fiscal years. Tax increases for the current year are a "di minishing possibility," he said. '.'Three or four billion (dollars) would probably be an upper limit," he said. President Reagan has asked Congress to approve $22 billion in tax increases over the next three years, including $3 billion this year. Baker said he intends to discuss, both economic • FINELY TAILORED OsrapdbiLick,e-Zuare. ALL WOOL SLACKS 49 50 REG..56°° MICHAEL'S CLOTHING CO. FRASER ST. flatten, e ll 238-4050 MINI MALL W I C OPEN DAILY FROM 10-5 issues and natural gas prices at meetings with the president later in the week. Current law provides for price controls to expire gradually on about 60 percent of the nation's natural gas, so-called "new gas," and end on Jan. 1,1985. The balance of the nation's gas supply would remain under controls even after that date. The Reagan administration has been consid ering submitting legislation' to. lift all controls by 1985. Baker has long been an advocate of removing Controls, each time advocating an accompanying tax. A "windfall profits" tax would be levied on the additional income a company would receive for its gastecause of decontrol. Reagan's position on such a tax is unclear. He promised last summer in a handwritten note to . Rep. Glenn English, D-Okla., that he would veto any windfall profits tax bill. not confirm any of the reports. He said some Poles had worked in the area for years and had tried to disassociate themselves from any link to Poland's new politics. But he conceded it "would not be quite truthful" not to admit that some of the Polish workers in Czechoslovakia, especially younger ones, were sympathetic to Solidarity, Poland's huge independent labor union. "Naturally if some actions taken by Polish workers meant violation of our laws, steps must be taken in agreement with those lain," he said without elaboration. Bazanowski denied that any strikes inspired by those in Poland had taken place. "There might have been cases of somebody sitting behind a shed not working, but not a declared strike," he said. The Czech official added that the importing of Solidarity leaflets and other material had been attempted but did not pose a problem in the Ostrava area because authorities "do not tolerate it." The border area also has been affected by the shortages of food and other consumer goods that are the most visible signs of Poland's battered economy. • Bazanowski said that last fall Poles began coming across the border to buy everything they could from Ostrava's stores. "There were large numbers of tourists, laile numbers of buses," he said. "They bought out everything, especially food." Czech officials contend the buying flood was so strong that it could have been met only by doubling the supplies normally provided to Ostrava. 'Red. Omega' a high caliber thriller "Red Omega," by John Kruse, Random House, ;14.50, 372 pages. By CINDY DESKINS Daily Collegian 'Sttiff Writer A novel of intrigue and suspense is again on the markets, and this one could definitely vie with "Day of the Jackal" for popularity. "Red Omega" has everything from the interpersonal relationships of the few U.S. agents working, on Project Sunflower to the international ramifica tions of' that project to kill Soviet leader Josef Stalin. And the plot is good; it's actually plausible, a rarity among 'spy novels in which the entire world is at stake. A purge is sweeping through the Soviet government in 1953, because Stalin has learned of a plot to overthrow him by someone in the close inner governmental circle. The man they're lookigg for . is Omega, a top Soviet official who had been passing key Sovi et doCuments to the United States to ensure himself_ a necessary 'position in at least one Of the governments and a nicely padded bankroll in Switzerland. As the purge of Soviet officials contin ues, Omega gets scared the only way 'to completely stop the purge and allow for Omega to take even more power in the government is to murder Stalin. The murderer the U.S..agency needs to complete Project Sunflower must be someone with a hatred for Stalin and his policies and an outsider who will be expendable to the United States. That is why, at the onset of the book, the reader gets to know . Joaquin Cabe za, the leader of the communist group who tried to defeat Generalisimo Fran sisco Franco in Spain as a result of the deVastating death of his father at the hands of 'a wealthy capitalist coal mine owner. . As history relates, Franco won the struggle and took over . Spain. Cabeza was exiled and went to Russia to join what he thought would be other commu nigts who believed as he did in sharing the land for the good of the people. In Russia, he became disillusioned with Stalin's paranoic way of running the country to benefit the very few elite at the expense of the masses. Through a series of beautifully handled flash backs,' the reader , is slowly allowed a picture' of. the Soviet prison —• the Lu bianka where countless Russian pris oners, including Stalin's first wife, were constantly tortured into confession of anything anti-government then sent off to the coal mines in the frozen Russian wastelands. Cabeza, becomes the author's one downfall as .Kruse gives in too much to the handy device of giving the heroes a sixth r,ense that saves them from every thing. Cabeza lived through his impris onment, torture, coal mine experience, subsequent imprisonment on his return, to Spain looking for his mother who he sensed was still alive and final brainwashing by the devious U.S. agents seeking to use him as their throw-away assassin. , But in spite of this crutch, Cabeza is a good character and a marvelously crafty one who's survival actually be comes increasingly believable as the plot is revealed. The innocent pawn in all this? A young, beautiful U.S. agent, named Gail, who failed on a previous mission by getting romantically involved with her contact, and eventually giving away his position thereby leading the enemy to him. She is called back into ,play by the almost-Vulcan super agent David Kel land known in the agency as "Mr. Wiz" who, aware of her habit of getting too involved, uses her to seduce Cabeza, to keep him from trying to escape before Kelland can deposit them in Moscow to do their job. At one point in a brilliantly written scene, Kelland reveals to Gail why Cabeza has been chosen for the project: " 'General Cabeza is anticapitalist, anti-American hence the very last man the MVD would associate with Uncle Sam. . . . So in the event of his ever getting picked up, the trail 'stops John Kruse smack ' there, in Commieland, no comebacks. . . . We've got to pull him over to our side more. And so far, Gail, all you've done is fart around like a high school virgin, when' he stabbed a finger at her 'right now you should be up there in his bed!' " Gail does keep Cabeza in check through her own loyalty to him and her disloyalty to Kelland; and the love that develops between Gail and Cabeza re sults in a . masterpiece ending. The one 'thing Kelland had not figured on was that love something his finely tuned mechanical mind failed to take into account. Aside from the one sixth-sense pitfall, Kruse does an excellent job of weaving his web by introducing some special U.S. agents and Russian officials who not only do their jobs well in the story but serve their purpose well in the story telling. As for the political filaments of his web, Kruse has done his homework. The Deader is taken through the intrica cies and contradictions of loyalties in both the U.S. and Soviet governments as the story proceeds . form Project Sunflower's conception in Washington, D.C., to its near failure in Stalin's private Kremlin apartment -- because of a seemingly minor detail left out. For anyone who enjoys good suspense spy stories, "Red Omega" tops the list. The emotions arid political implications of Kruse's version of Stalin's fatal stroke in 1953 stay with the reader long after the book is finished. COLLEGIAN AUTOMOTIVE W. C Ile 'e • VVhiteh - II .. Allen's technique key to concert By SCOTT HUNTER McCLEARY Daily Collegian Staff Writer FeW people who attended Friday night's Artists Series concert had probably heard of Gregory Allen be fore, but many, I'm sure, will be looking for him again. Allen, winner of the 1980 Arun& Rubinstein International Master Pi ano Competition, played with energy and sparkle rare even for the Series. Allen opened his program with Smit's "Variations in G" (1949). This strongly contrapuntal neoclassical piece featured a tempo rubato melody over a steady, almost plodding left hand. Allen handled the piece with ease.. His expression was wonderful. The lyric melody was romantic, and its romanticism emerged even more in the hands of such a talented pilinist. The next part of the program was two Chopin works no doubt about it. One floated with a dreamy, cantabile, the other with a more military theme which gathered momentum and fury until it 'reached a tempestual pitch and then slowly released the tension in gentle waves. The first, "Nocturne in E-flat," had a soaring velvet melody over the marching bass. The effect in Allen's case was enchanting. The second, "Polonaise Fantaisie," started slow ly, gathering momentum until it broke like a wave in the middle'of the piece. It subsided gently like waves washing on a beach, then erupted again with a powerful scalar passage at the end played with' great urgency by the skilled pianist. The next piece, Scriabin's "Sonata no. 7," was characterized by a disso nent, almost martial mood in the beginning and a violently thrashing motion in the second half of the piece. Allen handled this technically de manding piece 'as well as any of the others of the evening. This was one of the most exciting pieces on the pro gram. Allen then turned his attention to "Nocturne no. 11 in F-sharp minor" by Gabriel Faure. It was a welcomed change from the crashing, dashing Scriabin. The Faure was delicate and soft, almost lulling the audience to sleep with its fragile melody and harmonies that were in the style of Faure lush but not outrageously so. Allen completed the night with Rachmaninoff lots of Rachmani noff. First there was the "Prelude in A" with its cascading motion and simple melody. This piece was played deftly as Allen brought out the simplicity, quickness and airiness of the selec tion. The "Etude-Tableau in D" was rhythmically diverse. The rhythms involved would be tricky for any pia nist, but Allen made it look easy as the piece reached beautifully to its cli max. The audience's enthusiasm brought Allen back out for several curtain calls and then one encore "Etude- Tableau in E-flat minor." Like the 1981 Datsun 280 ZX $13,200 T-bar roof, five-speed transmission, light alloy wheels, AM/FM cassette stereo, cruise control, regal mist with matching interior. Like new. 1981 Volkswagen LS $7725 Four door, automatic, radio, cloth interior 1979 Honda Accord $5925 Four door sedan, five-speed transmission, AM/FM cassette stereo, new radial tires, power steering, cloth upholstery maroon mist matching with interior These cars covered by our 24/month/unlimited mileage protection plan. 1978 Ford Fiesta Sport Coupe $2895 Four-speed transmission, radial tires, sunroof, burgundy with cloth inupholstery 1978 Datsun 510 Hatchback $4lOO Five-speed transmission, air conditioning, AM/FM stereo radio, rear shade kit, tobacco brown with saddle tan interior 1976 Monza Sports Coupe $2450 Four-speed transmission, maroon with white interior 1976 VW Rabbit $2925 Brown with saddle tan interior, four-speed transmission, AM/FM cassette stereo, radial tires 1973 Volvo Four-door Sedan $1995 Automatic shift, air conditioning, power steering, leather upholstery, medium blue The Daily Collegian Tuesday, Nov. 3, 1981— Gregory Allen other Etude-Tableaux of the evening, this piece was designed for study first and practice second. It ended an en joyable and sometimes unbelievable evening with a pianist who is, if not anything else.'able to please and im press a crowd with technique and style well worth seeing again. Editor's Note: Staff writer Scott MeCleary , interviewed Gregory Allen prior to Friday's performance. Please see tomorrow's Daily Collegian for the interview. C434kAo,emetote liafeeetesl Ca coed ea ful Ask us for details
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