President Arling has put his long awaited economicrestructuring program before the Congress. Itprovides a coordinated program of investmentcredits, research grants, education reforms, and taxchanges designed to make American industry morecompetitive. This is necessary to reverse theeconomic slide into unemployment, lack of growth, and trade deficits that have plagued the economy for the past six years.
The most liberal wing of the President's party has called for stronger and more directaction. They want an incomes policy to check inflation while federal financing helps rebuildindustry behind a wall of protective tariffs.
The Republicans, however, decry even the modest, graduated tax increases in thePresident’s program. They want tax cuts and more open market. They say if federal money hasto be injected into the economy, let it through defence spending.
Both these alternatives ignore the unique nature of the economic problem before us. It isnot simply a matter of markets or financing. The new technology allows vastly increasedproduction for those able to master it. But it also threatens those who fail to adopt it withpermanent second-class citizenship in the world economy. If an industry cannot lever itself upto the leading stage of technological advances, then it will not be able to compete effectively. If it cannot do this, no amount of government protectionism or access to foreign markets cankeep it profitable for long. Without the profits and experience of technological excellence toreinvest, that industry can only fall still further behind its foreign competitors.
So the crux is the technology and that is where the President’s program focused. Thedanger is not that a plan will not be passed, it is that the ideologues of right and left willdistort the bill with amendments that will blur its focus on technology. The economicrestructuring plan should be passed intact. If we fail to restructure our economy now, we maynot get a second chance.
1. The focus of the President's program is on
[A] investment.
[B] economy.
[C] technology.
[D] tax.
2. What is the requirement of the most liberal wing of the Democratic-party?
[A] They want a more direct action.
[B] They want an incomes policy to check inflation.
[C] They want to rebuild industry.
[D] They want a wall of protective tariffs.
3. What is the editor's attitude?
[A] support.
[B] distaste.
[C] Disapproval.
[D] Compromise.
4. The danger to the plan lies in
[A] the two parties' objection.
[B] different idea of the two parties about the plan.
[C] its passage.
[D] distortion.
5. The passage is
[A] a review.
[B] a preface.
[C] a advertisement.
[D] an editorial.
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