RUST COMMENTARY: THINGS NOT ALWAYS WHAT THEY SEEM...

Today ... to many who only read the headlines or hear the one-liners ... things are too often NOT what they appear to be ... but what some say they are.

For example ... if achieved as projected ... the first tax cut in 16 years since the REAGAN $1.45 TRILLION tax cut in 1981 (which helped to revive the economy from the CARTER recession years) is only $94 BILLION over five years in a multitrillion-dollar economy. AND ... it's basically a government directed tax cut to selected beneficiaries instead of an across-the-board tax cut.

And then there is Social Security (though 1.45 percent goes to Medicare and not Social Security) which CARTER "FIXED" in 1977 with automatic tax increases.

Since then the tax has increased nine times for employees and employers from 5.85 percent to 7.65 percent each (a 31 percent increase) ... a combined rate of 15.3 percent (most employees fringes total 23 percent or more of gross pay).

The September LIMBAUGH NEWSLETTER has an excellent discussion about "Getting Educated on Taxes."

I'd like to sit in on a college class that would use his info as the basis for a discussion of 1) the accuracy of the data (I bet most know little of present taxes) and 2) the history, benefits or liabilities of our present tax systems.

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LARGE businesses have learned that the way to growth, profits, innovations and employee satisfaction is DECENTRALIZATION.

This at a time that the U.S. government is trying to solve our problems by the CENTRALIZATION of power and guidelines to the medical, educational, cultural, legal and regulatory areas ... all supported by one of the highest spending levels ever as measured in dollars or as a percentage of the gross national product.

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When I served in the Missouri House 20 years ago, the total state budget was about $3.5 BILLION including capital expenditures.

This year's MISSOURI BUDGET is over $14 BILLION plus a two-year capital spending budget of $552.5 million.

Next year's budget is projected to be in the $15.5 billion range.

JACK STAPLETON JR., one of our columnists and a freelance writer, has been doing an excellent job of analysis writing on the subject.

It's important that the media does a better job of reporting the facts ... but just as important that more people take the responsibility of keeping themselves informed.

Merely reading the headlines or viewing the 20-second sound bites and spin won't keep this country informed as it must be to prevent government agencies, our institutions, politicians and campaign managers from telling you what they want you to hear ... while doing as they please.

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Saw the RAMS vs. 49ers football game last Sunday. PAINFUL! So much effort wasted by so many ... because of too many mistakes by too few.

Incidentally MARQUIS WALKER ... former SEMO defensive back made two key defensive tackles on the kickoff team.

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LA CROIX UNITED METHODIST Church is having a public open house this Sunday featuring its NEW addition.

All involved in children and youth ministry should make a point of visiting the innovative worship areas that have been created.

Yes ... it can not only be educational but fun to go to Sunday school and learn about what's truly IMPORTANT in this short span of life. Proper roots and nourishment are necessary foundations for growth and survival.

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A special thanks to Southeast Missourian coordinator KIM McDOWELL and all of the groups and volunteers who helped make this years YELL campaign a big success ... thanks to your newspaper purchases.

Learning to read through literacy and supplementary programs in our school systems is a necessary aid to independent decision making and survival in today's information society.

ACTION without KNOWLEDGE can create CHAOS ... and KNOWLEDGE without ACTION can jeopardize our freedoms.

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China tops another list: According to a new report from the Office of Naval Intelligence, the People's Republic of China remains the most active supplier of contraband weapons to Iran and Iraq. The Chinese arms and component sales to Iran include materials that are useful to that nation's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs. In the case of Iraq, a Chinese ship, the Asian Senator, was recently caught transporting chemicals to Iraq that could be used to produce missile fuel.

This new report only echoes themes that have emerged over the past year about Chinese arms and technology transfer. Beijing has evaded some criticism in the past by claiming that the government knew nothing about the sales, and the Clinton administration has blandly accepted these assurances. They are wearing thin, however; after all, this is a regime that monitors women's reproductive cycles and individual's religious practices. It is hard to believe that nuclear-serviceable technology is floating out of the country with official ignorance.

A side note: a recent interview with Boeing's CEO, published in the New York Times Magazine, had him openly comparing the human rights situation in the Untied States to that in China. Asked about the massacre in Tiananmen Square, he blithely told the reporter that while he was in China the Rodney King incident had taken place. As I've said in this space before: Our dealings with China are indeed changing a nation; unfortunately, that nation is us, not China. -- Washington Update

~Gary Rust is president of Rust Communications, which owns the Southeast Missourian and other newspapers.