– February 7, 1982 – The World This Week – CBS Radio – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
February 7, 1982 – A week with rings of familiarity to it. Starting with Capitol Hill and issues over the Reagan 1983 Budget, which hadn’t been released to the public but instead found the particulars leaked to the press and subsequently everyone knew where we were headed. Tax Cuts, of course, slashed aid programs, a massive military Budget.
The plan had been to not release the details of the 1983 Budget until it headed to Congress at the beginning of the coming week. All told, it was revealed the Reagan Budget came out to $757 Billion. For Fiscal conservatives the numbers made grim reading. A proposed deficit of $91.5 billion for 1983. No balanced budget until 1989 at the earliest. Word from the Treasury claimed the Reagan Administration never gave any serious consideration to postponing the Tax Cut to lower the deficit. Budget Director David Stockman rebuffed suggestions that his $43 billion in spending cuts would hurt the old and the poor. And even President Reagan admitted the National Debt would be swelling to over $1.25 Trillion by the end of fiscal ’83.
And with visions of Vietnam dancing in their heads, the Reagan Administration decided on an immediate infusion of $55 million worth of military aid to the Junta in El Salvador, after it was revealed fighting had heated up again with Government forces losing badly in one big raid by Leftist rebels. Most of the money was to go to several military planes and helicopters which were destroyed in an attack by the guerrillas. And Secretary of State Haig once again blamed Cuba for the latest set of troubles in Central America during his testimony to Congress. And to bolster his case against Cuba, Haig confirmed that Havana recently received a new arms shipment compliments of Moscow and Haig reiterated his pledge to do whatever it took to “maintain democracy” in El Salvador. Stay tuned.
And the issue of School Busing was in the news again with the Senate this week approving the strongest legislation yet directed against busing as a means of de-segregation in schools. The lawmakers passed two amendments to a Justice Department appropriations bill. One barred the use of government funding to being busing cases to court, and the other would prohibit busing plans that would have students travel more than five miles or over fifteen minutes from their homes.
And so it went, this week that ended on February 7, 1982 as presented by CBS Radio’s World This Week.
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