October 22, 1990 – CBS World News Roundup – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
October 22, 1990 – A day of turmoil and wrangling. On Capitol Hill, the battle over the budget was continuing, three weeks into the new fiscal year, Congressional leaders were still trying to come up with a deal, but it was in danger of collapse over the issue of a surtax on millionaires. After a day of optimism that the fiscal budget was seeing light at the end of the tunnel, it all came crashing down. It was all over tax increases for the wealthy – the proposal the Republicans offered was an increase on taxes for the wealthy from 28% to 31%, and increasing the rate even more on millionaires. The sticking point was whether to impose a surtax or limit deductions. At this point, fiscal talks were threatening to scrap the entire proposal, sending everything back to the drawing table. President Bush also vetoed the 1990 Civil Rights bill in the belief it would force businesses to adopt hiring and promotion quotas in order to prevent lawsuits – a battle to override was in the works.
Meanwhile in Iraq, Saddam Hussein agreed to release an unspecified number of elderly and sick American men held as hostages. This, according to a spokesman for the Iraqi-American Friendship Foundation who met the previous night with Hussein.
A high seas confrontation took place between American and Australian Naval vessels and an Iraqi Cargo ship for the second time in three days, trying to get the ship’s Captain to stop running the blockade. The U.S. Destroyer O’Brian fired warning shots over the Cargo Ship’s bow, after its Captain refused to change course. Two days earlier, Allied Naval forces boarded the ship and told the Captain to return to Iraq. The Captain agreed and then went back on his word. The Navy had authority to fire on the ship, but in this case, the authority would have to come from Washington. And so it went.
And in Israel – Two weeks after Jerusalem Police killed 21 Arabs in Old City violence there were Police officers on every East Jerusalem street corner, to prevent Arab expressions of anger. On a traffic artery leading into West Jerusalem from the West Bank, Police were hoping to keep in check the anger of Jews, after three were stabbed to death the previous day by a West Bank Arab. Israelis felt the only way to keep peace in Jerusalem was by keeping people apart.
And that’s just a small slice of what went on, this rather hectic October 22, 1990 as reported by the CBS World News Roundup.
