WASHINGTON REPORT: Unequal Treatment of Unequals
Sisyphus
WASHINGTON REPORT UNEQUAL TREATMENT OF UNEQUALS Harold Laski, writer of the "grammar of politics" for use by the British Labor Party, repeatedly pointed dot in his day that governments respond to...
...The toughest bill of several is that whose prime sponsors are Senator Buckley of New York and Representative Michel of Illinois...
...So do members of Congress, including those on the agriculture committees of both the House and Senate which have legislative jurisdiction over the program...
...One is the bribe-and-kickback program of American corporations doing business abroad...
...And, of course, the exiled executives aren't reduced to buying food with the aid of food-stamps...
...The United States government asserts it opposes such goings on...
...The Senate Agriculture Committee has adopted a compromise- basically only households with net incomes lower than the "poverty line," as periodically identified by the federal government...
...Particularly, unusual ones...
...There is expected an effort in the Congress drastically to reduce the scope of the food-stamp program...
...Perhaps, set aside for awhile, but not ended...
...WASHINGTON REPORT UNEQUAL TREATMENT OF UNEQUALS Harold Laski, writer of the "grammar of politics" for use by the British Labor Party, repeatedly pointed dot in his day that governments respond to those private economic groups which know how best to make felt their wishes...
...Corporation executives, summoned to Washington to explain themselves, suggest that the corrupting practice would be dropped if all businesses would stop the wrong-doing...
...sisyphusthority...
...Such a family would pay 27.5 percent of adjusted gross monthly income for stamps-the average is now 24 percent-$110 must be paid to receive $166 worth of stamps...
...Efforts to lessen the severity of this bill will be made by Senators Dole, Humphrey and McGovern, who seldom agree on much else...
...Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, according to one estimate, has distributed bribes and kick-backs of approximately $25 million in several countries, including Italy...
...A Senator heard a variant of this explanation at a hearing last September and said comparably that if his opponent is stuffing the ballot-box, then "I had better damn well" do it, too...
...One wonders...
...Lockheed's actions, of course, raise a question as to whether it and similarly inclined American-based corporations or the United States government is the helmsman of our foreign policy...
...the hungry at-home are about to be placed on shorter rations if a punitive bill, as now written, is approved by the Congress and President Ford...
...As he phrases it, the State is only fully responsive to the wants of those groups upon whom it depends "for the refreshment of its authority...
...Lockheed tried to circumvent our Government's prohibition against providing the Air Force of Indonesia with airplanes, in this case the C-130 cargo craft...
...In my mind, you may have corrupted the system completely...
...sisyphuss...
...A similar effort in Japan by Lockheed has caused all sorts of problems after it was exposed...
...Millions of Americans are, however...
...But, quite correctly, he would have pointed out that, unlike Lockheed and others selling commodities abroad, the consistent exclusion of the poor from power is their exclusion from the benefits of power...
...There is a work-registration requirement for recipients between age 18 and 65, with exceptions such as those caring for dependent children...
...If adopted, it would eliminate about half the recipients now eligible...
...The witness, a corporation official, denied that he had stuffed any ballot boxes...
...At present, eligibility is based not on gross, but on net-income-e.g., $500 monthly in stamps for a family of four...
...But it is not clear that the practice of bribery et at...
...A favorite of editors is that of a 65-year-old widow who has a fur coat, perhaps even a mink one, although it's 40 years old, in tatters and doesn't fit her aged body...
...Newspapers around the country seem to enjoy publishing abuses, which, of course, do exist...
...The second is the food-stamp program for hungry Americans...
...has ended...
...Other aircraft manufacturing firms and petroleum companies are also being investigated on the basis that these, too, do business the same way abroad as does Lockheed...
...Partially because of economic bad times, there were nearly 20-million Americans benefiting in mid-summer of last year from food-stamps...
...The cost of the program was said to be approximately $6.6-billion...
...The illegal actions of corporations doing business abroad make it difficult for us to narrow the gap between promise and performance in our relationships with other countries...
...Even if other governments were inclined to believe our government, it becomes more difficult, if not impossible, because American corporations selling abroad often hired retired American military officers to help make the sale by whatever means necessary...
...However, this is difficult to be believed by many in other countries where there is, in fact, little or no private enterprise...
...For many years, American corporations have been promoting sales by making payments to a variety of foreign nationals who are judged to know the conduits leading to key government officials...
...The Japanese government seeks to subpoena Americans, for example, in connection with the scandal...
...The Senator replied: "You have done a hell of a lot worse than stuff a ballot box...
...Some of the offending firms have sent some of their executive officers packing, as a result of the disclosures...
...Members of the Senate investigating subcommittee were startled to learn last summer that bribes to Italian political parties included the Communist party...
...Laski, quoted at the beginning, would have a good word nor efforts to remedy the committee bill...
...The corrupting overseas activities of our corporations are known to be widespread, as a result of studies made by the Security and Exchange Commission, an Executive Branch agency, as well as a select committee on intelligence activities headed by Senator Church of Idaho...
...A couple of contrasting affairs substantiate his view...
...Lockheed sought to do this by providing the planes to an Indonesia airline, which in turn would . . . This aircraft manufacturing corporation sought to create support in the Philippines for its government to buy C-130s instead of accepting our offer to supply surplus military transport planes of ours...
...The bribing corporations, such as Lockheed, are doing well abroad...
...The Ford administration wants food-stamp families to pay a higher percentage of their incomes for the stamps...
...However, until that golden day, they say, these practices continue...
...Currently, it is $5,500 for a family of four...
...That family of four with its net income of $500 a month pays $95 and receives $166 in food stamps...
Vol. 103 • April 1976 • No. 8
