CATHEDRAL OFFERS FINE PERFORMANCE

~Correction: OLD ST. VINCENT'S CHURCH IS NOT A CATHEDRAL.

Old St. Vincent's Cathedral was a perfect setting last Wednesday evening for the lovely concert by the Laclede String Quartet of St. Louis. A decent crowd attended, but there should have been even more to hear the delightful tunes of George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Andrew Lloyd Webber and others.

This is the kind of first-rate cultural event that enhances our quality of life. It also reminds us of the many worthwhile programs brought to our community by the Southeast Missouri Council on the Arts, a group most worthy of our support, for all the cultural activities they sponsor the year 'round.

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The Real View On Economy

Did you know that President Clinton and wife Hillary cashed in at the end of last year on 1992's lower tax rates, with knowledge that under their policies, people in their high-income bracket would be paying higher taxes this year?

Recall that after last November's election, Hillary took a six-figure advance on 1993 income, payable in December 1992. The six-figure advance representing income from Hillary's law practice moved 1993 income into 1992 to take advantage of pre-Clinton lower income tax rates.

It's all legal, of course, and many other astute tax planners did the same. Still it makes one wonder.

I was reminded of the Clintons' year-end tax-planning episode this week when I came across some fascinating comments from the man who serves as money manager to Bill and Hillary Clinton.

"It's the same old shell game. Clinton's whole program is very anti-growth." That's Richard T. Weiss talking. He manages the top-performing Strong Opportunity Fund, where the Clintons have invested their IRAs.

"My suspicion is that when President Clinton gets done raising taxes on anything that walks or talks or breathes, and increases the regulatory side of government, we will be looking at a pretty poor economic environment beyond '93. ... Eventually, we are going to be in for a big shock."

The result is that the astute money manager to whom the Clintons have entrusted their retirement money increasingly invests their dollars outside the United States. Which puts them squarely in line with an October 19 Wall Street Journal article headlined "Americans Snap Up Securities Overseas At Record Rates." The article describes what one London money manager called a "huge wall of money from American investors" flowing into overseas markets.

Thus it's clear that the Bush-Clinton policies of high taxes and more regulation are driving money and investors to other shores. Aren't you glad that we've now reversed the Reagan policies of the '80s, when for eight years foreign and American investors poured money into the USA?

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Health care blues

Problems with the Clinton health care bill continue to multiply. Recall that week before last, Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala testified on Capitol Hill that 40 percent of Americans would pay a higher percentage of earnings under the plan. Within days, Hillary and two other administration spokespersons had disputed Shalala, supplying three different figures. Who's in charge? Does anybody know? Do you believe them? Do you trust a bunch of bureaucrats picked by Hillary and Bill to run one-seventh of our economy?

At the time President Clinton announced his health care plan, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the powerful New York Democrat, described the plans proposed financing as a "fantasy." Moynihan appears to be further at odds with a White House that has not sought to hide its anger at him for that remark. Consider the following morsel from a recent column by nationally syndicated columnist Robert Novak:

Warnings From Moynihan

"Senate Finance Committee Chairman Daniel Patrick Moynihan has confided to Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole that he does not want to rush into passing a health care reform bill prior to the November 1994 elections.

"Moynihan whispered that President and Hillary Clinton's health care package is fraught with problems that need months of congressional hearings to resolve. Clinton aides concede that getting the bill through Congress will take more time than they originally intended, but they are not willing to let the schedule slip past next autumn.

"A footnote: Moynihan has another warning in response to threats that the Clinton administration may skirt the Finance Committee by sending its health care bill through the more liberal Senate Labor Committee headed by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. In that event, the New York Democrat says, he would send Republican Sen. John Chafee's competing health care bill to the Senate floor."