EMERSON AGREES WITH PLAN TO HELP MEDICARE AND SOCIAL SECURITY

U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson had something good to say about President Clinton Monday.

She voiced support for Clinton's proposal to put 62 percent of the federal budget surplus or $2.7 trillion over the next five years back into the Social Security program.

She also backed the president's plan to spend 11 percent of the surplus on keeping the Medicare system afloat.

"I think that is a good thing to do," she told about 70 people at a noon meeting of the Cape Girardeau Rotary Club at the Holiday Inn.

But Emerson expressed concern about the president's plan to invest 20 to 25 percent of Social Security Trust Fund money in the stock market. She said that would put the government in the position of investing in some of the nation's businesses, but not others.

The Cape Girardeau Republican predicted education would be a major battleground between Congress and the president this year.

Emerson said the Clinton administration wants to create more federal programs for schools while Republicans want to funnel more money directly to the schools and let the local schools decide how to use it.

"It is very critical that we put more money back into our local schools," she said.

She said she expects to see increased funding for national defense for the first time in six years, and some of the money would go to develop an anti-missile defense system.

Emerson said the military must be upgraded because the United States can't predict what Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and other "wacko people" might do.

Emerson said Clinton's State of the Union speech called for some 43 new programs. She wondered if the president's proposed budget will include many tax increases.

The average American already pays 63 percent more in taxes than he or she did in 1992, Emerson said.

House Republicans want a 10 percent across-the-board tax cut.