Act now - there's still time to stop the "revolution."(Republican political agenda in Congress)(Illustration)

It's harvest time for the Republican Congress. The seeds of the "Republican Revolution," planted with the introduction of the Contract With America, have grown from ideas, to proposals, to bills. Now, as Congress approaches the deadline for appropriations, the real business of deciding what will become law has begun. "Our goal is to get everything to the President's desk by October 1," Speaker Newt Gingrich said recently. What follows is a list of Republican proposals that the Monthly considers to be grave threats to the economic and social well-being of the country. Each will be taken up in some form by Congress this fall. One bill would let industry pollute our air. Another would give employers a free pass to endanger the safety of their employees. Republicans would also raiese taxes on the working poor, and lower them on the affluent.

It is not too late, of course. With a strong stand by congressional Democrats (that means no missing votes--see box, page 32) and the aid of the small but pivotal group of moderate Republicans (see list, also on page 32), the most noxious of the Republican proposals can be stopped. Let your congressmen know what you think of the following ideas-before they become laws.

THE BAD IDEA WHO WINS WHO LOSES TAX CUTS the the rest FOR THE wealthy of us RICH

REPEALING affluent future THE SOCIAL elderly generations SECURITY MEANS-TAX

GRAZING western the owners RIGHTS ranchers of federal

lands you

SECURITIES fraudulent small-time REFORM companies investors

and investment

firms

TELECOM telecom smaller DEREGULATION giants, companies,

i.e. Rupert TV watchers,

Murdoch telephone

users REPEALING the wealthy, the working THE EARNED whose tax poor INCOME TAX cut this helps CREDIT finance

CUTTING stingy  sick, poor AND BLOCK- governors people GRANTING MEDICAID

CUTTING unclear poor kids HEAD START

REVIVING the defense the "STAR WARS" industry taxpayer

CONTINUING The defense the THE B-2, F-22, industry, taxpayer AND SEAWOLF districts with SUBMARINE defense

plants

ELIMINATING unclear Americans AMERICORPS with big

hearts but

small wallets

CUTTING prison everybody CRIME builders else PREVENTION PROGRAMS

REPEALING hunters with everyone but THE bad aim, Superman ASSAULT homicidal WEAPON psychos BAN

RESTRICTING businesses who workers OSHA'S don't care INSPECTION about their POWERS workers

MAKING businesses who workers MANY OSHA don't care REGULATIONS about their VOLUNTARY workers

ELIMINATING the mining miners THE MINE industry SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION

REMOVING AIR people who people who QUALITY pollute the air breathe the REGULATIONS air

ELIMINATING no one everyone THE ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY INITIATIVE

REPEALING water anyone CLEAN polluters, whofishes, WATER such as the swims, or STANDARDS chemical drinks

industry water

LOWERING drug sick people FDA companies APPROVAL STANDARDS

SHELVING the meat pack- anyone who THE NEW ing industry, eats meat, MEAT bacteria or cares INSPECTION about someone REGULA- who TIONS does

PRIVATIZING drug drug THE FDA'S companies takers DRUG APPROVAL PROCESS

GUTTING the the MEDICARE wealthy, elderly

whose tax

cut this

funds

THE BAD IDEA THE BOTTOM LINE

TAX CUTS If it weren't for a little thing called "the deficit," tax FOR THE cuts would be fine, as long as they went to those who most RICH need them. But there is a deficit, and over half the benefits

of the GOP tax cut will go to families earning more than

$100,000, while only 5 percent will go to those with incomes

less than $30,000. (Conference Report 104-159)

REPEALING The GOP, so eager to tear into the federal benefits of THE SOCIAL the poor, are ready to rescind President Clinton's tax on SECURITY affluent Social Security recipients. Clinton had ear-marked MEANS-TAX the tax revenue for Medicare. Since everyone

agrees that Medicare is in trouble, why drop some of its

revenue? (104-159)

GRAZING Ranchers have been allowed to graze their cattle on RIGHTS federal lands for below-market rates for years. The

GOP's "Livestock Grazing Act" would broaden the

scam by subsidizing the artificially low rates. (S 852,

HR 1713)

SECURITIES The GOP had an opportunity to address one of the REFORM major scams in the legal system, collusive securities

class action suits, in which defendants are let off easy

and the only ones who clean up are the lawyers, not the

victims. Instead, the Republican proposal merely makes

it harder for any anti-fraud suit to proceed, legitimate or

not. (S 240, HR 1058)

TELECOM The GOP telecommunications bill allows new concentrations DEREGULATION of media power by lifting restrictions on

ownership monopolies in cable and phone service,

guaranteeing higher rates for the average user. (HR

11555, S 652)

REPEALING One of Clinton's strongest initiatives, the EITC lower THE EARNED taxes on those who most deserve a break, the working INCOME TAX poor. While there has been some abuse of the EITC, CREDIT that only means we need to improve it, not slice it to ribbons.

The GOP's budget cuts the EITC by $21 billion

over the next seven years, in effect raising taxes on

those who can least afford it. (104-159)

CUTTING The GOP hopes to save money by slowing Medicaid's AND BLOCK- growth and passing control to the states. The GRANTING block grants are invitations to the states to reduce the MEDICAID quality and scope of th program that offers health care

to the country's poor and disabled. (104-159)

CUTTING The GOP plans to cut $137 million from this program, HEAD which offers preschool education and health START care to the country's poorest children. As a result, fewer

children will be enrolled and those that are will see

reduced benefits. (HR 2127)

REVIVING Not only will completing the program suck up $25 "STAR WARS" to $40 billion, but it puts the United States in violation

of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia.

(S 1026)

CONTINUING Though analysts insist that these expensive toys are THE B-2, F-22, anachronisms in the post-cold War era, each has been AND SEAWOLF given new life by parochial congressmen seeking to SUBMARINE protect the jobs the weapons offer their states and districts.

The House defense appropriations bill at least

cuts the Seawolf, and the Senate doesn't fund the B-2,

but look for both to be included in the final conference

report. (S 1026, HR 2126)

ELIMINATING The Republican budget dismantles the country's AMERICORPS fledgling national service program, through which people

can earn money for college in exchange for much-needed

needed community service. (HR 2099)

CUTTING Not long ago, crime prevention was the darling of CRIME left and right alike. George Bush named a midnight PREVENTION basketball league as one of his 1,000 points of light. PROGRAMS Despite proven results, the GOP's revision of the

crime bill eviscerates Clinton's preemptive strikes

against crime. (HR 2076)

REPEALING True, Clinton's assault weapon ban doesn't purge THE the streets of high-powered rifles, but it does make a ASSAULT dent. Kowtowing to the NRA, a GOP pastime, the WEAPON Republicans want to let the weapons back on the street. BAN (S 3, HR 698)

RESTRICTING This would preclude OSHA from investigating or OSHA'S punishing unsafe workplaces unless a worker dies or is INSPECTION seriously injured. The goal of OSHA is and should be to POWERS prevent workplace injuries. (HR 1834)

MAKING Since OSHA was established in 1970, the worker MANY OSHA death rate has been cut in half, and 140,000 deaths have REGULATIONS been prevented as a result. The Orwellianly named VOLUNTARY "Safety and Health Improvement and Regulatory Reform 

Act" would return us to the days when industry's

only check was its own conscience. (HR 1834)

ELIMINATING Since MS14A was established in 1969, the number of THE MINE on-the-job mineworker deaths per year has been reduced SAFETY AND 80 percent, from 425 to 84. No industry has been HEALTH more exploitive of its workers and none is more deserving ADMINISTRA- of government scrutiny. (HR 1834) TION 

REMOVING AIR In 1982, 100 million Americans lived in areas where QUALITY the air was unhealthy; now, 56 million do. But with the REGULATIONS work of cleaning our air only half finished, the

Republicans see fit to remove most of the restrictions on

major polluters such as oil refineries, cement makers, and

chemical plants. (HR 2099)

ELIMINATING The initiative helps fund research for cheaper and THE ENVI- more effective pollution control technologies. The effort RONMENTAL to make business more enviromnent-friendly and TECHNOLOGY environmentalism more business-friendly should be INITIATIVE applauded by all. (HR 2099)

REPEALING The GOP's appropriation bill for the EPA would CLEAN eliminate restrictions on dumping raw sewage and WATER stormwater runoff, two of the most dangerous causes of STANDARDS pollution. The regulations are relatively inexpensive,

but have dramatically improved the country's water

quality. More than one-half of all U.S. rivers now meet

the Clean Water Act's standards. In 1970, only one-fourth

did. (HR 2099)

LOWERING The proposal would lower approval standards on FDA drugs and medical devices to the levels employed by APPROVAL France, Germany, and England. The U.S. has the highest STANDARDS standards in the world; it also has the fewest

of unsafe drugs of any major Western country.

SHELVING After decades of "look and sniff" meat inspection, THE NEW the USDA had finally devised a more sophisticated MEAT method and new regulations, which would help prevent INSPECTION the spread of the E. coli virus, which kills REGULA- than 500 Americans annually, most of whom are children TIONS or elderly. The GOP would derail the new inspection

methods and standards because of the "burden" it

would place on the meat packing industry, instead

relying on methods that haven't been updated since 1906.

PRIVATIZING True, the FDA could be speedier when it comes to THE FDA'S approving drugs, especially when the drug addresses DRUG an urgent need. But this proposal would turn the APPROVAL hen-house to an industry panel of foxes. Needless to PROCESS 'say. the pharmaceutical industry has much to gain from

rushing drugs onto die market.

GUTTING Two years ago, the GOP scorched the earth claiming, MEDICARE inaccurately, that Clinton's health care plan would

push everyone into HMOs. Now, they hope to cut

Medicare by over $200 billion by doing just that.

(104-159). See "The Medicare Solution," page 33.