Brown and White Vol. 100 no. 14

              political satirist and rolling stone writer p.j o'rourke criticized democrats and republicans for causing the prob lems facing americans tuesday night in packard laboratory auditorium o'rourke a staunch republican attacked this year's presidential election in a speech sponsored by the lehigh university visiting lecturer's committee in this country you have a choice between democrats who can't learn from the past and republicans who can't stop living in it o'rourke said democrats want to tax us to death and republicans would prefer that we die in a foreign war o'rourke 44 author of the 1991 best-selling book par liament of whores described his book as a humorous attempt to explain the u.s government in the two years i spent working on that book the only by robert dellinger news writer the brown and white lehigh university friday october 30 1 992 candidates economic proposals argued vol 100 no 14 trickle-down economics tax and spend liberal voodoo economics although the banter of economic labels was absent from wednesday's discussion of the republican and democratic economic plans sponsored by the economic society many of the specifics of each plan were addressed before broaden ing the discussion to other issues clinton has a five-year plan to reduce the budget deficit by 50 percent which is not as aggressive as the other plans said colleen callahan assistant professor of economics who advocated gov bill clinton's economic plan clinton is by marc j goldstein managing editor see economics page 7 kingdom because in that system a new prime minister comes into office backed by the majority of parliament in the u.s presidential system a new president must work through a congress with apotentially different agenda for the economy callahan stuck more to the democratic plan discussing clinton's plan to raise money through increasing the tax rate on higher income brackets according to callahan clinton plans to collect these additional taxes for new programs from those with incomes over 200,000 per year a question from the audience of nearly 45 students and faculty in the rauch business center prompted the topic of also concerned with stimulating economic growth and be lieves that a more aggressive deficit reduction package would slow growth anthony o'brien associate professor of economics and proponent of president bush's economic plan chose to stay further away from the specific issues he explained his view that the details of either plan are relatively inconsequential neither plan will be enacted in any form similar to that which was proposed o'brien said we should not be caught up in the details of proposals that mean next to nothing o brien said the details of economic plans are much more important in a parliamentary system like that of the united students faculty will feel cuts aimed to ease debt see debt page 7 by eric kirchberger news writer students will be affected by future cut backs aimed at reducing lehigh's 2.1 mil lion debt for the 1992-93 fiscal year but the faculty and staff will really feel the brunt of the cutbacks according mark erickson di rector of student life lehigh president peter likins and vice president of student affairs marsha duncan will be looking for the next two weeks to pinpoint exactly what areas of lehigh will be held accountable for paying back the deficit james tiefenbrunn director of the budget see mock page 7 by kevin kniffin news writer more than 50 percent of lehigh students polled in a mock election voted for gov bill clinton and sen al gore while 34.5 percent voted for president bush and vice president dan quayle the college democrats said the poll was taken in attempt to learn about who students will be voting for on nov 3 three hundred and one students were clinton wins mock election held by college democrats b&w photo by molly hover the university cut down several blighted trees like this one on the northwest corner of asa packer campus in an effort to improve safety along the dark paths adjacent to packard laboratory timber o'rourke blames politicians see o'rourke page 7 thing that i really learned about the u.s government is that giving tax dollars to uncle sam is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys he said o rourke also criticized voters for present political prob lems we as voters aren't even willing to learn the facts let alone face them o'rourke said we need a government willing and able to give us the bad news including the very bad news that there are lots of problems the government can't fix o'rourke targeted the democrats for wanting the gov ernment to be responsible for too many of america's prob lems democrats want the government to solve every one of america's problems from aids to making sure the kids wipe their feet before they come in the house he said b4w photo by michael yofn p.j o'rourke election 92 in the hands of the voters page 9