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This is not a textual record. This is used as an
administrative marker by the William J. Clinton
Presidential Library Staff.
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Speechwriting
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Folder Title:
1997 BC Ideas
Stack:
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Section:
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91
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2
2
�....
A
sk a group of reporters about journalism's
greatest achievements, and the answers
are likely to sound · like those the police
would' give. We found a problem, and we brought the
culprit in. A free press, many journalists believe,
proves its value through the injustices it uncovers
and helps end. A century ago, the heroes of the 'trade
were muckraking journalists who exposed the power
of the oil and rail monopo- . .
lies, showed the pathos of
immigrant life in slaughterhouse and sweatshop, prepared the way for sweeping
reforms of the Progressive
era. A generation ago, the
standard setters were investigative reporters who
revealed why thalidomide was dangerous, dug for the
.truth about the My Lai massacre, and stood up to the
government in publishing the Pentagon papers and in
discovering the Watergate saga. ·
Recently as well, in. the eyes of many journalists,
. ·the mainstays of the press have proved themselves
and their· trade indispensable with a continuing parade of exposes. Boesky and Packwood. Rostenkowski and Hubbell. Tailhook, redlining and- depending
on your taste- Newt Gingrich's Go-Pac or Bill and
Hillary Clinton's Whitewater.
36
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U.S. NEWS & WORLD I~EPORT. DECEMBER 30. 1996 I jANUARY 6. 1997
�···,,
,
..
The self-image of the
press as a kind of civilian
inspector general is re- ·
vealed in the annual
awards given by journalists for outstanding work
in the field, many of which
go to stories that identify
wrongdoers and lead to
their punishment. It 1s also revealed when journal. ists express their regrets. Ask reporters about the
press's big failureS, and the answers are likely to
involve scandal stories that they missed. They berate themselves: Why were we so slow to catch up
with political moneymen like John Huang?
This part of journalism's function is essential and
was part of what the framers of the Constitution
had in mind when writing a First Amendment that
guaranteed freedom of the press. For all its complaints about an overaggressive press, the public would miss the
revelations, and the
chastening effect that
fear of exposure has on
the powerful, if exposes
were not aired. But the
widespread assumption
997
US NEll'S & WORLD REPORT. DECEMBER 30, 1996/ jANUARY 6, 1997
PHOTOS (TOP.lfn TO RlGHT)_ 0AV10 BURNm- CONTACT: ONE.N FRANKEN- TONY SlONE: RON HAVlV- 5.\BA:
(MIDOl() IMAGE BANK; IllUSTRATION BY MMSU FOR USN≀ (BQn()M) STEVE MCCURRY- MAGNUM
37
�i
--------------------------------------,----
•.
a OUTLOOK 1997
that journalism's function is primarily to root out problems
has left the press unfit for another important part of its job.
When people decide to watch, read or listen to the news
each day, they are not only looking for a summary of what
has gone wrong in the world. Sometimes. they would like an
idea of what might be done to fix a problem. The average
journalist, normally so directed and morally self-confident,
shrinks instinctively from considering "solutions." To the extent reporters have thought about the distinction, they are
.likely to say that only problems-not solutions- are appropriate objects of their attention. Yes, a tough-minded correspondent may report on action plans or "model
programs" that politicians propose: That's
news. But to· assess and speculate about
which solutions would work best, which
might work if applied broadly and which
have been overlooked,-that- is "advocacy,"
not journalism, and must be avoided.
Tougft-mindedness about solutions. There
is something prissy and unrealistic about this
reasoning. Problems have "advocates" promoting them as often as solutions do. No
reporter would ignore incriminating documents about a political candidate simply because they came from an adversary's opposition-research unit. Nor would the reporter
accept the documents at face value. He or
she would study them, interpret them, check
them out, and publish only what seemed
persuasive. In theory the same reporting
standards could be applied to potential solutions. Why is this so rarely done?
Perhaps"joumiilists are reluctant to write,
about solutions because they no
longer believe in them. In the past
half century, most Americans, re. porters among them, have come
to doubt the ability of any large
institution, but especially the government, to select the right goals
or achieve what it sets out to do.
When Americans were asked, in
John F. Kennedy's day, whether
they trusted the federal government to do the right thing,
huge majorities said they did.
Those people had World War II
in mind. Today's Americans,
schooled by the Vietnam War and assorted social mishaps,
reject that notion by equally crushing margins.
Yet this view of the modem age as a blighted period in
which negative ap. praisals are the only honest ones is wrong.
The past half century has also been a time of amazing accomplishment- and not simply in the areas where almost
[ everyone agrees that miracles recur: medical research and
high technology.
Some examples of triumph are familiar, if often ignoredlike the GI Bill (which Robert Maynard Hutchins, president
of the University of Chicago, warned would turn campuses
into "hobo jungles") and the building of the interstate highway system. Others are as impressive but little known. Before World War II, the standard period for home mortgages
was 20 years. At government urging, the 30-year mortgage,
with dramatically lower monthly payments, became the
norm after the war. New home loans more than doubled the
first year that 30-year mortgages were available, and America became a nation of middle-class homeowners. Foreigu·
economists may complain that our country devotes too much
of its wealth to housing, but a policy intended to expand
homeownership clearly worked.
.
The U.S. Public Health Service began experiments 50
"years ago to see whether fluoridated water would protect
teeth against cavities. Since then, the rate of tooth decay has
been cut by more than half, at huge savings in cost. (Each
year, fluoridation costs 50 cents a person, versus about $50
for an average filling.) Seat belt use increased dramatically from the early 1980s to
the mid-1990s because of changes in laws
and public-education campaigns. During
that time, seat belts saved more American ·
lives than were lost in the Vietnam War.
The foster-care systein has greatly expanded
since the 1960s, and every newspaper reader
is aware of its problems. But as the conserovative analyst Douglas Besharov recently repoJ;ted, overall deaths from child abuse have
fallen by at least half in the past 20 years. . .
Even Social Security and Medicare, widely
derided for pressures they put on the current
Understanding -why certain
efforts succeed is as important
as knowing why others fail.
38
PHOTOS {fROM TOP): "LBERTO PtlZOU -S'l'(:.MA; SUSAN MAY T[li- SABA
federal budget, have been hugely successful in their
stated goal: getting old people out of poverty. When the
teenage Bill Clinton shook JFK's hand in the Rose
Garden in 1963, to be old was to be poor. Now those
over 65 are, on average, the richest age group.
The point of remembering these achievements is
not to weigh the 20th century's good against its bad
but· to illustrate the limited curiosity of journalism.
Understanding when and why•public and private efforts succeed should be as important as reporting how
they fail. Today it's not. Reporters will toil around the
clock, and squeeze their sources, and try to find an
analysis that will impress their colleagues when it
comes to explaining a corporate or political failure.
But when they have good news to serve up, they often feel
compelled to do so in a condescending and cutesy way, as if
this were not "real" journalism.
This special issue aims to take the same journalistic tools,
ingenuity, and toughness of mind we routinely apply to failure- and use them in plumbing potential successes. The
"silver bullets" that writers discuss here are ideas with the
potential to cut through difficult problems, as the GI Bill
and Medicare cut through problems in their day. The recommended solutions vary in theme, gravity and the likelihood
of being adopted. Some will strike most readers as persuasive; others may seem merely provocative. But they share a
valuable trait: Each correspondent has applied his or her
talents to considering what might work.
•
BY ]AMES FALLOWS
U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPOI<T, DECEM !lEI< 30, 1996/ jANUARY 6, 1997 .
�,,.
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1997
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floor of the house into a twobedroom "accessory apartment," complete with its
own kitchen and separate
entryway. James and PeggyAnn moved in and pay for
utilities and interest on the
loan. Instead of shelling out
nearly half of James's income for a cramped one-·
bedroom apartment, they
pay a quarter ofhis income
for a two-bedroom spread.
Thanks to the savings, PeggyAnn is a full-time mom,
taking care of the lively and
inquisitive James Jr. And
there's an added bonus: The
2-year-old gets to play with.·
his adorin-g grandparents everyday.·
Dear landlord. Accessory
apartments (sometimes
called "granny flats") could
provide millions of families
with moderately priced
rental hbusing and ease_ the
affordability crisis at viri\.JalJames and f»eggyAnn Powers (and James Jr.) live on the top story of PeggyAnn's folks' home.
ly no cost to the 'taxpayer.
.
They could also offer valuable opportunities to landlords. A recent divorcee struggling to pay the
mortgage solo could solve her financial
problem- and give herself a measure
L__
of personal security- by renting part of
her home· to someone she trusts. An
aspiring young couple eager to buy
their dream house could qualify for a
loan by · adding to their incomes the
rent from an accessory apartment.
Or consider Hilda and Laurence Seibel of Somerset, Md., senior citizens
whose children· have grown up and
ames and PeggyAnn Powers were apartment on James's salary alone moved out.· Suffering health problems
getting by. She was a dental assist- would have meant devoting 45 percent a decade ago, the Seibels did not. want
ant; he was a shipping clerk. To- of his income to housing. (The federal to be alone in their house but did not
-gether they could afford the $825 · government considers shelter "affordwant to move into an apartment or remonthly rent for their one-bedroom able" if rent and utilities do not exceed tirement home either. They got a perapartment on Long Island. Until the 30 percent of income.)
mit for an accessory apartment in their
baby came along. Suddenly, they needFortunately, PeggyAnn's father, basement- over the objections of seved a bigger place- and that caused Richard Schneider, came up with a
eral neighbors- and haven't had a reproblems. How could they afford more wonderful alternative. A retired truck gret. Their current tenant is a classical
for rent and shoulder the costs of rais- driver. Schneider lives with his wife, musician who gets a break in the rent
ing a child- especially if PeggyAnn quit Mary, in a tidy two-story house in North
in exchange for helping with chores
her job to care for the baby? They Babylon, Long Island. With a. $32,000
around
the house. Says Hilda Seibel:
couldn't.
bank loan, Schneider turned the top "It's nice to know that someone is
James and PeggyAnn faced a com~
there, and I do enjoy the income,
mon working-class dilemma of the·
though it's not a lot."
There's only one
1990s. Stagnant wages and rising rents
Granny flats are one of those ideas
. have brought on a new housing crisis.
so obviously sensible that you'd think
small hitch with this
Five million poor families-2 million of
no one could object. But they do, big
them led by full-time wage earnersidea. It is illegal
time. Such apartments are illegal in
pay more than half their pretax income
most parts of the country, because of
for housing, and the number of families
ahnostever~herein
zoning ordinances that prohibit singlein that position is rising rapidly. James
family homes from being "duplexed."
the country.
and PeggyAnn don't consider themAttempts to change these ordinances
selves poor. But staying in their old
usually meet with implacable resistance
-How to make housing
anordable: Let people
.subdivide their homes·:
~
J
U.S. NEWS & WOilLIJ I~EI'OI<T. DECEMilEI< 30. 1996/ jANUARY 6. 1997
51
�from neighborhood associatiOns that
.fear a decline in property values. As a
result, a balm for the country's housing
cdsis- a sort of Swiss Army knife of
multiple benefits for a variety of housing conundrums- has been left on the
shelf, used sparingly.
.
Entrance in back. Yet ihe few communities that do allow accessory apartments, such as North Babylon, do not
seem the worse off for it. Drive the
streets of this working-class suburb,
where the small J.awns are well tended
and American flags flap in the breeze
and basketball backboards stand like
sentinels in the driveways, and you'd
never know that 25 percent of the
homes have accessory apartments. Local zoning rules are written to keep it
rvc
'· Jump~starting the iddle· East
'·-,_peaee, process: Start with a
,, paycheck,
____ _ food on the table
--~'""'-....._
__ ...
How could they afford
to pay more rent and
shoulder the costs of
raising a· newborn?
They couldn't.
that way. Apartment entrances must
not be visible from the street,. and the,
homes must be owner-occupied, which
gives landlords a powerful incentive to
pick tenants of good character. (Worried neighbors often soften their objections once they get to know the new
renters.)
.
In other countries, accessory apartments a.re not just tolerated but encouraged. Britain and Germany, for instance, offer tax breaks to homeowners
who rent out portions of their houses.
In 1991, a federal commission under former Housing Secretary Jack Kemp rec~
ommended removing zoning restrictions on accessory apartments. The
Clinton administration did not carry
through on the recommendation.
But the cresting of the baby boom
may provide the demographic oomph
that's needed to make accessory apartments a national reality. The ·oldest
boomers are turning 50, and their kids
are starting to leave home. Many are
loaded with debt and have college tuition bills to face, as well as elderly parents to help support. "The time is ripe,"
says George Gaberlavage; a senior analyst for the American Association .of
Retired Persons, which is preparing to
launch a lobbying drive for accessory
apartments in 1997. "This is one area
where something could happen without
•
huge amounts of federal money."
BY PETER MAASS
52
~
;
<.
Israel's sophisticated Intelligence system Is good at weeding out security
he Middle East peace process isn't
quite dead. But it's gasping. Since
the terrorist bus bombings inside
Israel in February and March and the
election l~st May ofBinyamin Netanya'
hu,
the United States has tried everything from a White House summit to
shuttle diplomacy in hopes of jump-starting the process. But to little effect. A
U.S.-sponsored (and long-delayed) accord on an Israeli pullout from the West
Bank town of Hebron is still possible. But
Netanyahu's recent decision to reinstate
aid to Jewish settlers in the West Bank
has exacerbated tensions.
If anything, positions seem to be hardening on all sides. That's partially for
economic reasons. Palestinians had expected to see their standard of living rise
after the signing of the Oslo agreements.
Instead, they've seen their average income drop at least 23 percent. This is in
large part because Israel, understandably
fearful of terrorists, has severely limited
risks~
the flow of Palestinian workers across the
border. Tough economic times have the
potential not only to boost cynicism but
also to strengthen Ham as and other radical groups, who argue (with much resonance in the souks of Gaza and the West
Bank) that Yasser Arafat's peace deal
has done nothing for Palestinians. If this
cynicism spreads, it will be that much
harder for Arafat to make concessionsover such vexing issues as water rights
and the future of Jerusalem- that are
the price of peace.
Something similar is happening in Jordan. King Hussein sold the 1994 peace
treaty with Israel to his skeptical public
by claiming there would follow a peace
dividend in the form of higher living
standards. Yet the average Jordanian's
income is stagnant since the signing of
that treaty and unemployment is at least
18 percent. Jordan's economic troubles
are linked to the gulf war. Close to
300,000 Jordanians worked in the gulf
U.S.NEII'S & WORLU I<EI'Of{l", DECE,\IllEI~ JO. !996/ jANUAJ<Y 6, 1997
�...
nomic benefits. If Jordanians and Pales- ·
tinians could return to the gulf at the
levels of the late 1980s, it would mean
an extra $1 billion plus a year to the
economies of Jordan and the Palestinian Authority-significantly more than
the international community's annual
assistance to the Palestinians.
Remittances from the gulf would be
the biggest windfall, but placing more
workers in Israel would also help. Terje
Larsen, former U.N. special coordina- ·
tor for the occupied territories, says
for the first time since Iraq invaded Kuwait, Saudi Arabia's King Fahd agreed to
receive Jordan's King Hussein. SaudiPalestinian ties have also improved in the
wake of the 1993 Oslo agreements. And
Arafat, who is eager for a guest-worker
deal, has also met with Fahd recently.
. Kuwait will be trickier, but the Kuwaiti
foreign minister has recently talked of
the need for closer ties with Jordan. Gulf
state leaders remain understandably bitter about reports that some Palestinians
gave the Iraqis detailed information on
where and how Iraq could
attack oil lines during the ·
gulf war. These leaders will
no doubt put careful screening procedures in place before allowing in additional
Palestinian guest workers. Such screening has
worked surprisingly well
against terrorists in Israel. ·
None of the suicide bombers has been a certified
worker, and Israeli intelligence has become quite sophisticated at weeding out
high security risks, including counterfeiters who attempt to cross over with
daily workers. Moreover, by
. letting in more guest workers, Israel would gain control over a resource of gn~at
value to the Palestinian au- •
thorities-the wages of Palestinian guest workerswhich Israel could turn on
and off depending on how
well Arafat polices areas
Hebron Is simmering. Another assault on Israeli settlers could derail the peace process.
under his controL And Israel would gain in the deal by
Since so much of the drag on the that every 10,000 Gaza workers allowed reducing dependence on about 250,000
peace process . is economic, it makes to work in Israel each year would add foreign workers from Eastern Europe
sense to use · economic . incentives to $20 million to the Palestinian coffers.
and East Asia- more than half of
Saudi Arabia alone already has 6.2 whom are in the country illegally and
spark the talks back to life. Rethinking
the punitive bans on foreign laborers million foreign laborers and dependents are.creating social problems in Israel.
may be the best way to demonstrate from countries such as Pakistan. Some
For this whole package of labor rethat peace is linked- firmly and de- would obviously be displaced if more forms to work, gulf Arabs say Jordanians
monstrably- to the economic prosperi- Jordanians and Palestinians were let in . and Palestinians may have to eat some
.ry· of households and nations.
The loss of those workers' livelihoods is humble pie and publicly apologize for
Pink slips. Consider the numbers. Dur- no small thing. But the potential benefit th-eir leaders' past support of Saddam
ing the 1980s, more than 500,000 Jordani- is a.comprehensive Middle East peace. Hussein. In an open letter to King Husans and Palestinians held jobs in such oil- That's no small thing either.
sein written earlier this year in the newsAnd it is politically feasible. In August, paper Al-Watan, Kuwaiti lawyer Walid
rich gulf states .as Kuwait and Saudi
Arabia. There are half that many today.
Bou Rabba expressed a widely held sentiment when he wrote: "We cannot forAn additional 120,000 Palestinians
Half a million
worked in. Israel. But that number
get what you did. You will never have a
dropped to zero this past spring after a
place in the heart of the ordinary KuPalestinians and
series of suicide bombings in Israel led
waitis. It is the duty of every Jordanian
Israeli authorities to close the checkand everyone who supported the states
Jordanians once
that opposed [Kuwait] to apologize in
points. Netanyahu has since edged up the
worked in the gulf.
number of Palestinian guest workers to
person to every Kuwaiti citizen. Then,
50.000, still well below the historic peak.
perhaps, we can begin to forgive."
•
Half as many do today.
Providing work permits for additional
workers would yield tremendous ceoBY DAVID MAKOVSKY IN jERUSALEM
states before the war. Their remittances
kept Jordan afloat. But during the gulf
crisis, King Hussein made the blunder of
his political life by being seen as rooting
publicly for Saddam Hussein. Saudi Arabia and other gulf states repaid his apostasy by booting out Jordanian guest
workers; they've not been invited back.
The result has been economic turmoil in
Jordan and popular support fpr radical
Islamists in the Jordanian l<!gislature,
who want King Hussein to repudiate the
separate
peace he signed with Israel.
.
.
54
U.S. NEWS & IVORL!J REPORT.
0ECI-~~1BER 30. 1996 I jANUARY 6. 1997
�..:.:·
... ·.
196
lgn~ring
IHf PRESIDENT
H~S SEEN
the solution. ,_,L,_q,
', Jury's in: Needle exchanges
slow the spread of AIDS
,_________
_c---~;.
,·
Critics don't want .to feed a nasty h,ablt. But junkies will shoot up clean or dirty.·
IDS was once the scourge of the
gay community. Soon, it will be
largely a drug addict's disease.
_Scientists believe that 50 percent of all
new HIV infections occur among intravenous drug users, with an additional 20
percent or so occurring among junkies'
sex partners. The syringe is the Typhoid
Mary of the 1990s.
'
Yet what worked best in curtailing the
spread of HIV among homosexualsmass-education campaigns promoting
safe sex- has been ineffective with drug
addicts lurking in society's shadows.
What does seem to work is giving drug
users clean needles. Since 1986, some 100
small needle-exchange programs have
sprouted up around the country, through
which used syringes are traded for new,
sterile ones- no questions asked. Often
run by private groups with limited funds,
these experiments have been the object
of intense scrutiny by major universities
and federal health agencies. The conclu-
A
sian? The programs work. Studies have
shown up to a.sevenfold reduction in all
blood-borne diseases, a 33 percent projected drop in HIV infections and 25
percent fewer cases of dangerous behavior, such as needle sharing.
·
Besides saving lives, these needle exchanges deliver a huge financial payoff.
Consider the case of an HIV-positive
addict who infects eight others in a oneyear period (a very modest estimate). If
each turns to Medicaid to pay his or her
lifetime medical costs (at an average
Critics are purists
when it comes to their
'just say no' message.
Purity of' needles is
less important.
U.S.NEWS & WORLD R~:POI(J', DECEMBER :JO. 1996/ jANUARY 6. 1997
$119,000 plus), that's about a $1 million
burden for taxpayers- money that could
have been saved if the one addict had
been in a needle-exchange program.
Evidence for the effectiveness of needle exchanges is not airtight. Drug users
who participate in needle exchanges
may be more safety conscious and thus
at less risk of contracting HIV in the
first place. But studies also show that ·
those who participate ·improve their
own behavior over time. So evidence
that needle exchanges have at least
some positiv~ effects is strong.
High-level conflict. On balance, the
studies are persuasi~e enough that phy~
sician Scott Hitt, chairman of President
Clinton's Advisory Council on HIV/
AIDS, rebuked his own president for
banning the use of federal AIDS funds
fdr needle exchanges. Hitt is joined in
the endorsement of needle exchangesand the call for more federal involvement- by the National Academy of Sciences, the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention and the General Accounting Office.
The administration worries that needle exchanges might increase drug use.
· It's a reasonable fear but one not borne
out by research,.according to the CDC.
Only a handful of needle-exchange studies have tracked drug use, but their con-·
elusions jibe with anecdotal evidence and
common sense: While addicts prefer
clean needles, they will eagerly· opt· for
the abundant supply of dirty ones in the
face of a monstrous drug craving.
Some worry that needle exchanges are
the classic "Band-Aid" -,dealing with
HIV infection but not the underlying
drug addiction. But needle exchanges
have actually worked as a bridge into real
treatment. One program in Tacoma,
Wash., made nearly 1,000 referrals to
drug treatment programs in two years.
Others worry that needle exchanges,
cheap as they are, will siphon funds from
zero-tolerance treatment efforts. But the
real problem is that all anti-addiction
programs are woefully underfunded.
It's hard to avoid the suspicion that
these concerns have less to do with science or public health than with politics:
specifically, a reluctance to muddy the
"just say no" message.
But there's another message leaders
should heed- that no one has to die
needlessly. Peter Lurie, a leading University of California researcher, estimates that nearly 10,000 lives could have
been saved over the past few years by an
aggressive expansion of needle-exchange
programs. Wasn't the war on drugs supposed to be about saving lives?
•
BY jOSHUA WOLF SHENK
55
�I- 1'-l- '-11
'fHE PRESIOfNT
.
H~S
Sf.EN
?vc
from private fund-raising. In Texas, the
public portion will come from taxes on
amusements, cigarettes, hotel occupancy and gasoline; the private portion,
from fund-raising and merchandising.
,'
l
Entertaining taxes. We should follow
this model of public-private partnership. In her book Art Lessons, Alice
G()ldfarb Marquis suggests a 1/2 percent
federal tax on commercial entertainment and professional sports; even such
,_
a tiny tax, authorized for only three
years; .would bring in $6 billion. A private campaign over those three
years could generate an addition. al half billion from 'foundations,
corporations and individuals. At 6
percent interest, a $6.5 billion endowment would earn $390 million
per year. Plowing $50 million
back into the principal would
leave $340 million a year for
arts funding- nearly double the
NEA's budget in its most benefi. cent years. To maximize growth,
the new endowment should be invested not in government bonds
but in equities, which are riskier
but offer higher returns. The investment should be managed. by
professionals in the private sector.
It will be a political challenge
to· persuade Congress to hand
over $6 billion in tax dollars to a
private organization-with no
federal strings attached. But the ,
strategy is designed to appeal to
a broad range of lawmakers.
There's the obvious appeal of taxing controversial entertainment
like gangsta rap and adult fare
from Hollywood in order to supI don't know art, but I know what I like. And that's the problem with an arts ministry.
. port arts institutions like symphohe National Endowment for the direction. Missouri and Texas have be- nies and theaters. In fact, the tax could
Arts, our federal funding agency gun building $200 million endowments, be structured as a "disincentive" to
for culture, has an anomaly in its which eventually will generate enough "immoral" culture by having it fall
name: the word endowment. Since it was cash to remove arts funding from the heaviest on adult entertainment. The]
founded in 1965, the NEA has never been state budget entirely. Eight other states endowment's· char-ter also could be
· titua true endowment- that is, a huge fund are also creating more-modest endow- structured to allow fu
whose earnings in interest and dividends ments to supplement appropriations.
tJons rather than individual artists. (The
Both Missouri and Texas are building NEA is alreadymoving this way.) Fiscal
are used to support the arts. Rather, it is
(unded like most other government their endowments by combi~ing tax rev- conservatives should also be attracted
agencies, through annual appropriation enues and private donations. In Missou- to the idea of levying one small tax for
by Congress. This affords conservative ri, one quarter of the money will come just three years. And few lawmakers
lawmakers a yearly opportunity to grand- from a state income tax on :visiting art- will resist ending the bitter budget
stand about the occasional bizarre NEA- ists and athletes, and three quarters fights, contentious government ove-rsponsored. work of art as a pretext for
sight and the politicizing of the arts.
So let the government collect a tax,
slashing the agency's funding. ConseWho
could
argue?
Tax
then get out of the way. The creation of a
,,quently, the NEA's budget has plummeted from $176 million in 1992 to under
Snoop Doggy Dogg and true arts endowment can be a real collaboration between the people and their
$100 million today. The only way to stop
government- just once, but forever. II
this death spiral is to abandon.Jhe_Nf;A
Stallone to fund
and..c.r:eate..a..true-endowment funded by
children's theater and
BY jOSEPH WESLEY ZEIGLER
a-Silort term tax on entertainment, inZeigler is an ans consul/an/ and atllhor of
cludi.ng the cultu raJ corner that conservaBeethoven's Ninth.
~ ·in about most: Hollywood.
Arts in Crisis: The National Endowment
Two states have already starte 10 this
for the Arts Versus America.
Portrait of.. the artist as a
young waiter. Feed the muse
fronl.,a real endowment ·_
T
56
U.S.'\'EII'S & WOKLD REI'OKL DrXDIBEII :lO. !Y% I jANUARY 6, 19!!7
�TH( PREStDENT H:tS SEEN
.
.
..
n_ ..;
'-~(.__...
They're ~-u·- kl•ng up for algebra
Clas--s··--.·lieen.agers need
•lnce_, nt•lves··· t'o keep l•t cle··an
-
.
1
·
1-14-ql
who pass get cards entitling them to discounts of 10 to 50 percent at 150 local
businesses. Working with leaders of the
Rotary Club, coordinator Gloria Terrell
is talking to firms about providing college
scholarships for students at the cleanest
schools. Little Rock, Ark., Rotarians
plan their own discount program soon.
At least two incentives are at work,
expertsbelieve:Studentswhoareenticed
by merchandise discounts and help with
college might nudge fence-sitting friends
away from drugs. Similarly, the threat of
····~ ·--··-- ------- ----·--···------- ··----·--------~ --··---~----•
tests might help students fend off peerill today's grade-school stu- American Alliance for Rights and Re- pressure to get high. "Students tell
dents be the potheads and sponsibilities. As he envisions it, schools . friends, 'Our school tests for drugs, so I
coke fiends of the early 21st would require or at least encourage stu- can't try this or I'm going to get caught,' "
century? That's the fear of crime watch- dents to take drug tests. The schools says Raymond Kubacki, whose Bostoners, who see few good new ideas to stop would be scored, and those posting the based Psychemedics Corp. has contracts
the drug abuse numbers from creeping best records would get awards- some- with 21 schools to test hair samples fatupward. A new federal report says drug thing akin t() the hoopla that surrounds drug use. Terrell cites examples of imuse among secondary-school students National Merit Scholarships. The psy- pact in DalliJ.S, such as a high school boy
who once belonged to a youth gang
but who credits DeFY-IT with getting him on track to attend college.
An evaluation should show in a few
years whether D-FY -IT has
brought drug abuse down.
Roadblocks ahead. Costs and civil
liberties concerns may hold back
significant expansion of these pilot
programs. It's not clear right now
who would pay for. the tests- not to
mention the treatment and counseling that would be offered to
those who failed. Hair can be analyzed for drug use patterns for as
little as $40; urine, for as little as $5.
Advocates argue· that the' costs,
paid by Rotarians in Texas, are
modest compared with the damage
that drug addicts do.
The legal concerns about man. datory drug testing await a test
case. It could happen in New Orleans, where District Attorney
.
.
.
More teens are Inhaling, and neither preaching nor J!Unlshment Is dissuading them.
Harry Connick has called for drug
tests in local schools. Students who ·
rose again last year, including a near chology is to emphasize group pride- tested positive would be offered treatdoubling in the total who smoke mari- much the way builders promote safety by ment but would not be prosecuted. Still,
juana daily. While "get tough" advo- calling attention to sites' injury-free educators are balking, afraid that famcates continue to lobby for stiffer penal- streaks. But individuals could profit, too. ilies and civil libertarians will object to
ties- as Bob Dofe did during the
Modest experiments are underway. In the intrusion on students' privacy. But
presidential campaign- supporters of a Dallas program called D-FY-IT (Drug the Supreme Court has approved comprevention efforts emphasize the need Free Youth in Texas), 10,000 students pulsory drug tests for student athletes,
for speedy treatment and preaching have taken drug tests voluntarily. Those and Connick believes the principle could
against the perils of narcotics. Those
be extended. A possible compromise
policies all have merit, but largely missmight be mandatory but anonymous
Drug testing In the
ing from the debate are practical, positests, which would provide schoolwide
tive incentives for teens to take a pass.
incentives without. risking false accusaschools gives fenceOne emerging idea is to use drug tests
tions against individuals. Only more exas the basis for competitions that would
periments will show whether incentives
sitters an excuse to
tied to drug tests can help turn the narrecognize teens who stay clean. "Let's
fend off peer· pressure cotics plague around. When you're losing
generate social pressure in schools to reward non-drug use instead of focusing on
a war, no strategy should go untried. •
to get high.
penalizing abuse," suggests Roger Conncr of the Washington, D.C.-bascd
BY TED GEST
A
W
62
U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPOKT. DECEMBEK :lO. 1996 I jANUARY 6. 1997
Co
spe
nar
roa
rur
WI
safc
shu
hea
lo\1
aur
OW!
a1r
belo
srre
easJ
In;
con
lim
will
or
ln£C
twi<
Clir
mer
two
1mp
ural
teed
($7.
(Ay
�TH£ PRESIDENT
u.;s
1-1'-1-91
SEEN
.
Yet it's hard to see how
special inter<rsts could do
any more damage than
they're already doing in
Washington. And, on the
wisdom scale, the average
state initiative or referendum compares reasonably
well with the average Washington law. In Colorado, for
instance, voters in the 1970s
passed a variety of goodgovernment measures like
sunshine laws to require
open meetings and consumer-rights propositions. And
in November, voters in Arizona and California liberalized the use of marijuana,
defying those 'who disparage- initiatives as a mere
tool of the right.
California provic!es
valuable lesson in how not
to set up rules for a national
initiative process. Lesson
No.1: Avoid voter overload.
To even qualify, a national
More than 15,000 regl~tered lobbyists push their speclai agendas In the halls of Congress.
ballot measure should first
garner petition signatures
of at least 10 percent of eligible voters
.
.
in two thirds of the states. Only the two
issues with the most petition signatures
would be allowed on the ballot. Lesson
- ·1
No. 2: Make sure the propositions are
constitutional. The two most con trover-,
sial recent California initiatives, Prop.
187 (on immigration) and Prop. 209 (on
affirmative action), are now stuck in
court.
Had these initiatives been more
I
soberly written, they might have provid,_'---"--··_· ·-·-~·', . _ . . . - •> -- ·_ :('
ed voters with more effective and less
draconian ways to vent their frustrahe complaint is familiar: Ameri- Special interests in California, for in- tions. The U.S. attorney general should
.
cans have lost faith in government stance, have dominated plebiscites for have the power to throw out any nabecause Washington is dominated years by manipulating the electorate with tional ballot measures that he or she
by special interests and craven politi- expensive ;rv ads. Few voters manage to determines to be unconstitutional. And
cians who avoid tough decisions. The _keep up with the debate over the dozens a supermajority of the popular vote in
cynicism is not unfounded. Whether it's of measures on each ballot- just as the two thirds of the states should be rebudget-shattering entitlement pro- framers feared when they created our quired for passage.
' grams, loopholes in campaign finance representative democracy. The results
A few national politicians- including
laws . or unimpeded immigration, the. are often shoot-yourself-in-the-foot Newt Gingrich- are mulling over the
political establishment has shown a sin· measures like Proposition 13, which idea of a national plebiscite, just as many
gular lack of courage in dealing with forced cuts in property taxes in 1978 and bold leaders have done in the past. Sen.
many of the most vexing public issues.
decimated funding for California mu- Robert La Follette, the progressive who
The answer? As the Sixties radicals nicipalities and public schools.
successfully pushed for state-level initiaused to say, power to the people- in this
tives, initially suggested a national refercase, through a binding system of nationendum process in 1916 on whether the
Californians love
al citizens'· initiatives and measures renation should declare war. La Follette's
ferred directly to voters by Congress.
"war referendum" was never enacted.
referendums. The
This· process of direct democracy would
But his argument, that everyday people
change American politics more than any·
state's a Useful model should "decide whether they shall spill
thing since the advent of television and,
their blood out upon murderous battlefor how not to design a fields," makes just as much sense today
at a minimum, force politicians to address issues they would love to ignore.
as it did 80 years ago.
•
national plebiscite.
True, there are monstrous problems
with the initiative process in some states.
BY KENNETH T. WALSH AND LINDA KULMAN
a
BigfoQti.ng in .Gucci loafers.
1
/ Let',rfi@Y~ tffi;Jipters do more
--lawmaking altfie ballot box
T
64
US NEWS & WOKLD REPORT. DECEMBER 30. 1996 I JANUARY 6, 1997
�il
ing in various incarnations
around the country (box,
Page 74). It was an insurance company, oddly
enough, that brought Rescigno and Miccio together.
Both belong to a health
maintenance organization
called Elderplan, which has
embraced an approach to
care that is as radical as it is
ancient. At this HMO, the
members help take care o _
one another. Passive recipients of expensive medical
services become active providers of help and care.
Soon after Miccio's accident, Elderplan's Member
to Member program dis-patched Rescigno to lend
her a hand. Now, once a
week, he drives her to the
supermarket or .wherever
else she needs to go.
Caring chits. Elderplan
has tapped a vast underused .
resource- the desire of oldVincent Rescigno and Jean Miccio look more like neighbors than members of the same HMO.
er Americans to be useful
and needed- and turned it
into a way to cut the cost of medical care.
I
The program is based on a concept called
care-sharing or service credits. For each
hour that members serve, they get a credit, which they "bank" in Elderplan's computer. The volunteers can "spend" those
credits when they need help themselves.
Before her accident, Miccio used to take
another member shopping. Now Rescigno helps her; and she in turn provides
telephone reassurance to a lonely shutin. One day, Rescigno, too, may be on the
~-receiving end. Elderplan's care bank has
veryone knows someone like Jean tired electrical worker who just turned about 125 participants, who log over 800
Miccio. In her 70s, she lives alone 70, he's trim and spry. He's among the hours per month. They help keep memin a Brooklyn, N.Y., apartment. 60 percent to 80 percent of retirees who bers out of hospitals and nursing homes,
Most of her family is upstate; a couple are basically healthy. In addition, he has and this translates into savings for the
of grandkids live nearby, but they work time on his ~ands and a desire to help. HMO- and better care to boot. Considand are very busy. Several months ago, "There are givers and takers," he says, er the man in his 90s who broke the towel
Jean fell while trying to catch a bus and "and I prefer to give."
bar that he used to get in and out of the
now walks only with great difficulty. She
Hmmmm?
bathtub. The man was beside himself
can't do her own shopping or much of
The obvious solution here is to devise a with worry. He couldn't afford the repair,
anything that requires getting around.
system that links up the Miccios with the and most older people don't like stranSociety has no idea how to help folks Rescignos. Such a system used to exist. It gers in the house anyway.lt was a broken
like Miccio, and their ranks are growing was called neighborhoods and "extended hip waiting to happen until a fellow Elfast. Some 34 million Americans are over fafl1ilies." Now, new versions are evolv- derplan member, a retired contractor,
the age of 65 today, a number that has
fixed the bar. That simple repair became
· doubled in the past 30 years and will
Elderplan's home-repair service, which
double again by the year 2030, when most
is now evolving into a safety inspection
baby boomers will be in retirement. ·
program- all run by volunteers. ·
broken towel bar
Thanks to Social Security, among other
It's difficult to reckon all the savings
things, the vast majority of the elderly
counts as health care. from such simple acts of neighborliness,
today live in their own homes. But many
but evidence from elsewhere is suggesIt was a broken hip
encounter problems like Miccio's; about
tive. At another "social HMO" in Cali20 percent arc substantially disabled.
fornia- which, like Elderplan, supplewaiting to happen.
Fortunately, there arc also more and
ments medical care with some social
support services- members have enmore folks like Vincent Rescigno. Are-
I
Old( and frail and on their
own.~gd ~arter systems
fore!derlf health care
L ---1...---~~
E
72
U.S. NEWS & WORLD RE!'OI(f. DECE.\IIlER 30. 1996 I jANUAAY 6. 1997
..
:.-
w·
�r---Some other ways volunteers
assist "aging in. place"
G
,.
'
rowing numbers of fra~l elderly
people are living longer and
living alone. Nearly 9 out of 10
say they prefer to live in their own
homes. More and more are getting
their wish to "age in place," thanks to
an explosion of community-based programs that rely .largely upon an inexpensive but plentiful resource -volunteers. Here are three examples:
ing assistant-provided by the neighborhood association for $17 a visitarrives every Friday to help her with '
light housework and bathing. Volunteers cleaned rooms that the reclusive
Knight concedes had gotten "dirty
and dusty" and unhealthy to live in
after her surgery. Says Knight, from
the living room of her home of 50
years: "Hopefully I can avoid a ·nursing home for the rest of my life."
Beyond creating community, reliance on volunteers keeps down costs
for the care that, when provided by
private agencies, quickly becomes
very expensive. The 15 neighborhoods
that run the Living at Home/Block
Nurse Program rely on donations
from individuals, (oundations and
even money raised at bake sales. .
• Uving ~~ Home/Block Nurse Program.
This St. Paul, Minn., program recognizes that older
people, like 80year-old Mary
Knight, are more
likely to trust
someone from the
neighborhood than
an ·unfamiliar social worker. Vol7
•.Faith in Action taps into the charity
unteers, like next-door neighbor Ann.
-of church volunCohen, check in daily with Kriight,
teers. Since 1993,
driving her to her suburban doctor or
the Robert Wood
even to the nearby bank (the three
Johnson Foundablocks is too far for Knight to walk
tion has given
since her recent leg surgery). A
$25,000 in start-up
"block nurse," JoAnn Mason, who
grants to neady
lives just three blocks away, visits reg-.
450 churches, synaularly to check Knight's medications
gogues and socialand coordinate her care. And a nursservice agencies to
tered nursing homes at about half the
rate of Medicaid recipients nationally.
And that's without the kind of volunteer
effort Elderplan has mustered. If programs like Elderplan can help keep significant numbers of the elderly at home
and out of nursing homes, the potential
savings could be substantial. America
spends over $75 billion every year on
nursing homes, a tab that's projected at
$180 billion a year by 2005. Yet 10 percent
to 20 percent of current nursing home
occupants have no significant medical
. problem, according to surveys by Brant
Fries of the University of Michigan.
Charity's dividend. Research has shown
that isolated older folks are less· healthy
and use more medical care than those
who are socially engaged. Rescigno can
attest to that. He hasn't had more than a
cold since 1992. "The only reason I am as
healthy as I am," he says, "is that I'm so
busy helping other people."
Among those he helps is a member
74
ILlUSTRATIONS BY JOSEF GAST FOR USN&WR
who was deeply depressed. One day Rescigno accompanied the man to a car repair shop and noticed that his spirits lifted when he got away from the house.
Now they mlet weekly at a diner, and the
man no longer talks about suicide. Too
often today, the medical system treats
the elderly's problems only with drugs,
which often spawn more problems. Some
32,000 hip fractures and "16,000 car acci~
dents each year can be traced to the use
of prescription drugs to treat the elderly.
Expenditure leads to more expendi-
An amputee could have
gone Into a nursing
home at $35,000 a year.
Instead, he became a
telephone counselor.
create volunteer networks that serve
1 million elderly persons.
In Arizona's rural Yavapai County
(roughly as large as Massachusetts but
with only 135,000 residents), Faith in
Action volunteers deliver medications
and groceries to the isolated elderly
Who rriay live 70 miles from the nearest
grocery 'or pharmacy.
• Senior Companion Program, one of
the oldest such programs, is run by the
federal Corporation for National Service. The original idea in 1974 was to
help the poor by hiring them for a small
stipend to do chores for homebound
seniors. But the program quickly grew
into an effective way
to cut down on the
high cost of institutional care. Senior
Companions of Decatur, Ala., estimates that its 25 volunteers save
taxpayers more than
$2 million annually
by keeping 60 seniors out of nursing
homes. The $3,800 stipend paid to each
volunteer is less than a tenth of the cost
of a year of nursing home care. Nationally, some 13,000 Senior Companions
serve 35,000 elders. That kind of math
has led to a proposal, currently under
consideration at the White House, to
substantially expand the unheralded
national service program.
BY JOSEPH P. SHAPIRO
ture. Yet sometimes all people need is a
friend. Indeed, sometimes all they need
is to be a friend. Elderplan Senior Manager Mashi Blech tells the story of a double amputee, partly paralyzed by a
stroke, who spent his days alone in his
apartment. Social workers decided he
needed home visits, but when Blech
called to match him with a volunteer, she
found that he was "full of life and energy
and enthusiasm. Instead of sending him a
volunteer, I asked him to be a team coordinator." So the man, a former real-estate salesman, became leader of a team
of volunteers. He helped with paperwork
in the office and trained to become a
telephone counselor. The man was certified as eligible for a Medicare-paid nursing home, which would have cost the
system some $35,000 per year. Instead,
he spent his final days lighting people up
with his humor and zest.
•
BY jONATHAN ROWE
U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT. DECEMBER 30. 1996 I jANUARY 6, 1997
�
Dublin Core
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Title
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Jonathan Prince
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Office of Speechwriting
Jonathan Prince
Date
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1993-1998
Is Part Of
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<a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/show/36296" target="_blank">Collection Finding Aid</a>
<a href="https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7763293" target="_blank">National Archives Catalog Description</a>
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2006-0466-F
Description
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Jonathan Prince served in various capacities during the two terms of the Administration. He was one of President Clinton’s speechwriters, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, and directed the public relations effort related to the fallout from the bombing of refugees by NATO forces during the war in Kosovo. This collection consists his speechwriting files which contain speech drafts, handwritten notes, memoranda, correspondence, publications, and schedules. Prince wrote most of President Clinton’s radio addresses from 1993-1997. He also specialized in dealing with domestic issues such as crime, gun control, unemployment, urban development, and welfare.
Provenance
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Clinton Presidential Records: White House Staff and Office Files
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William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
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187 folders in 11 boxes
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Paper
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1997 – BC [Bill Clinton] Ideas
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Office of Speechwriting
Jonathan Prince
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2006-0466-F
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Box 9
<a href="http://www.clintonlibrary.gov/assets/Documents/Finding-Aids/2006/2006-0466-F.pdf" target="_blank">Collection Finding Aid</a>
<a href="https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7763293" target="_blank">National Archives Catalog Description</a>
Provenance
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Clinton Presidential Records: White House Staff and Office Files
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William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
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Adobe Acrobat Document
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12/15/2014
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42-t-7763293-20060466F-009-017-2014
7763293