home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- THE WEEK, Page 14NATIONEt Cetera
-
-
- DEMOCRACY AT WORK
-
- Forget the balanced-budget amendment. In Breathitt County,
- Ky., if you don't get rid of red ink, you go to jail. After
- failing to obey a court order to balance the budget by July 1,
- three county magistrates were simply thrown in the slammer. The
- three had refused to vote for a 1% payroll tax, which state
- officials claimed would eliminate the $400,000 budget deficit.
- Their suffering coal-mining county could not afford it, argued
- the martyred magistrates, who were released four days later after
- reluctantly agreeing to the tax.
-
- CAUGHT IN THE UNDERTOW
-
-
- During his 13 terms in Congress, Guy Vander Jagt reached the
- highest echelons of the Republican Party. But in a primary last
- week in Michigan, Vander Jagt was toppled by political neophyte
- Peter Hoekstra. Local Republicans complained that Vander Jagt
- had lost touch with his constituents because of his party
- activities. Said Vander Jagt: "There is a ferocious tide against
- incumbents running across the country, and I could not swim
- strongly enough to offset it."
-
-
-
-
-
-