No New Taxes

It's playing out on national, state and local levels, the latest being Minnesota where trying to pass a budget without raising taxes has led to a partial shutdown of services. What does no new taxes, coupled with the mantra of a balanced budget, really mean?

A lower quality of life for all but the richest of our society.

It means cuts in mass transportation subsidies. Cuts in medical benefits and research. Cuts in education. Cuts in park and recreation facilities. Cuts in veterans benefits. Cuts in food safety. Cuts in drug inspections. Cuts in clean air and water control. Cuts in labor safety laws. Cuts in anti-discrimination enforcement. Cuts in law enforcement. Cuts in fire protection services. Cuts in financial regulatory services. Cuts in prison systems.

It means overcrowding on subways and buses. It means higher fees for medical services. More crowded emergency rooms. More students per teacher in the classroom. Fewer opportunities to visit our national heritage monuments, and when you do get the chance, you'll be cheek to jowl with your fellow citizens during the restricted hours of operation. Fewer programs to reward military veterans for their service to the country. More danger and uncertainty each time you swallow a pill or a morsel of food. Each time you drink water or breathe air. More danger that you'll work in an unsafe environment, that your supervisor will be able to discriminate against you. More danger from criminals walking the street because an overcrowded prison system cannot take any more inmates, more danger from fire not being contained fast enough to save lives or structures, from schemers plotting to steal your investment money.

It's a very seductive message, no new taxes and a balanced budget. Hardly anyone likes to pay taxes, though my father used to say he'd welcome the prospect of having to pay $100,000 in taxes because it would mean he'd have had a very successful year.

There's a deeper meaning to the siren call of no new taxes and a balanced budget. By resisting higher taxes on the wealthy, by resisting cutting tax loopholes and subsidies for selective industries, Republicans are saying it's okay if those on Main Street have to pay more for essential services, just don't tax me and my friends on the Gold Coast and Wall Street, we who live in gated communities with private security forces, we who send our children to private schools, we who can afford the best doctors and medical care money can buy.

The most fascinating question in politics today is how mainstream Americans have accepted a political party and ideology counter to their best economic interests. The working and middle classes have latched onto a party committed to their perpetual serfdom. Equally at fault are Democratic leaders who have not embraced the changing values of the electorate for a leaner and more responsive government.

No new taxes. To win back voters, Democrats must forcefully explain the implications of no new taxes and a balanced budget. They must graphically show what a Republican/Tea Party budget would mean to daily life in America. Perhaps a series of 15 second commercials depicting just what would be lost is in order. Fifteen seconds to describe cuts to veterans services. Fifteen seconds to describe cuts to food and drug inspections. Fifteen seconds to describe cuts to Medicare and Social Security programs. Fifteen seconds to describe cuts to mass transit, including air traffic safety. Fifteen seconds to describe cuts to air and water quality. Fifteen seconds to describe cuts to police and fire departments, to the Wall Street and bank regulators, to the prison system.

It's time to go on the offensive.

Retail Stories

Got my Target shopping in Tuesday. No telling how I’ll feel later this week if things don’t go too well for the Yankees at Target Field Wednesday and Thursday nights in their first round playoff games against the Minnesota Twins.

Despite what Gilda might tell you, I’m not a really rabid fan. I don’t get too ballistic when my team loses. I usually get over it in a day or two. There are lots of fans, however, more crazed than I, so I’m wondering, if the Twins beat up on the Yanks, will New York fans take out their frustration and disappointment on Target and boycott its stores? At least until the Twins are eliminated?

Anything’s possible...

As long as we’re on the subject of retailing, some people think the appearance of in-store Christmas decorations signals the arrival of the holiday selling season. To me, the harbinger is the frequency of newspaper, magazine and TV news articles on retailing.

Saturday’s NY Times provided a case in point—a page one article on Macy’s efforts to rev up sales by tailoring assortments to local markets and a front page of the business section story on Toys “R” Us’ plan to revive F.A.O. Schwarz by placing boutiques of the specialty retailer inside the mass market TRU stores.

Macy’s and Toys “R” Us...hmmm. Now, the good people at The Times editorial desk would deny any ulterior motives, but what a coincidence that two of the newspaper’s key advertising clients wound up with mostly flattering articles?

Perhaps I’m being too cynical (it goes with the territory of being a journalist, even a retired journalist). Let’s give The Times the benefit of the doubt that the Chinese wall between editorial and sales still exists with no holes in it and end with a nice retailing story.

The other day I needed a replacement knob for a floor lamp. I walked into a local lighting store, the type that looks and feels like an old hardware store where they are more attuned to repairs than to selling new throwaway lights. Sitting at a table was an elderly gentleman I recognized as the proprietor. He was wearing a travel photographer’s vest, you know, the type with multiple pockets in front and back. I told him what I needed, he said, “OK.” He reached into one of his vest pockets and fished out a knob. When I asked what else he had in there, he said, “Everything. No charge.” Now that’s what I call service. I left the store smiling.

Heads Up; Throw Strikes; Weekdays with Maury

Heads Up: The National Football League, and all other football organizations, are rightfully concerned about the number of concussions sustained by players. Many come from helmet to helmet butts, almost all of which are intentional. The NFL tries to eliminate the head crashes by invoking a 15 yard penalty. But the practice persists.

My solution? For a first offense, a team flagged for a helmet to helmet tackle should be penalized 15 yards. AND, the offending player should be required to sit on the bench until the next change of possession. Furthermore, his name should be added to an ongoing list of transgressors. If he locks helmets with a player again, aside from the mandatory 15 yard penalty, he would receive an immediate suspension for that game and the following game. If he does it again when he returns to the field in two weeks, his suspension would involve four games.

One more proviso—if a helmet to helmet tackle injures an opponent, the offending player would sit out as long as the injured player cannot return to the field, be it that game or subsequent games.

Only through pressure from coaches and teammates will a player stop behaving badly. When a player realizes he is hurting his team’s chances, only then will he control his actions.


Throw Strikes: Baseball playoffs begin Wednesday. At stadiums across the land, in taverns and homes, you can be assured of hearing a common cry: “Throw Strikes!”

It’s one of the most frustrating plays in baseball—the unintentional walk.

How is it a professional pitcher cannot simply throw the ball over the plate. Let ‘em hit it. Statistically, more often than not the batter will make out, so why give a free pass? Make him earn his way on. The Minnesota Twins pitch to this philosophy; they are frequent championship contenders. Indeed, they are hosting the Yankees in the first game as the winners of the American League’s Central Division.

I’m as frustrated as the next fan when I see A.J. Burnett or some other Yankee walk someone. The frustration level rises geometrically when another unintentional walk follows. But as a former pitcher (fast pitch softball league), I’m here to tell you it’s not as easy as you may think.

“Throw strikes,” I’d hear Howard scream from the outfield. What did he think, I wasn’t trying?

Over 25 years on the mound I was pretty good at limiting walks. Occasional bouts of wildness did surface. More often than not, when the count was 3-0, and with a walk seemingly in the offing with the next pitch, under no pressure I’d fire in two quick strikes. The sixth pitch, however, usually wobbled in outside. Or high. Or bounced to the plate. Pressure would get to me. Of course, I wasn’t being paid millions to toss a ball over the plate. Major league pitchers are trained to rise above pressure, to simulate repetitive motions so they are subconsciously controlling their body to perform flawlessly.

The great pitchers can tune out the pressure, the noise of the stadium. For the rest of us (and I include myself in their number), not throwing strikes is as frustrating and bewildering as to those watching.


Weekdays with Maury: Growing up in Brooklyn, mine was a New York Post family. Not the Rupert Murdoch right-wing tabloid screed of today. No, we bought the Post of Dorothy Schiff, the liberal daily led by James Wechsler whose column about The Front Page propelled me toward a career in journalism. It was a NY Post of progressive thinkers, with columnists like Max Lerner, Murray Kempton and Mary McGrory.

Plus, it was a NY Post of outstanding sports writers—Milton Gross, Larry Merchant, Vic Ziegel, and Maury Allen. It was from these canny observers of the playing fields that I, along with countless others, ingested the lore of sports. We learned to appreciate the stories behind the numbers, behind the statistics of each game.

Maury Allen died Sunday. He was 78. He wrote for the Post from 1961 to 1988. I stopped reading the Post after Murdoch bought it in 1976 and changed its bent. But I still managed to get a serving now and then of Maury Allen. He was a contributor to the Journal News, the Westchester, Putnam and Rockland Counties newspaper.