It’s a tax cut!
Taxpayers who object to Congress’ plan to beef up military spending and to the U.S.’s rising market share in arms sales (see MoJo’s “USArms,” Sept./Oct. 1994) are joining longtime “war tax” resisters to channel their money to better causes. According to the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee (800-269-7464), the number of folks expressing interest is growing. As of 1994, 39 alternative funds collectively held in escrow nearly $1 million in resisted taxes, loaning out $120,000 to community groups. In 1993, they dispensed $60,000 in grants. Withheld money goes to groups that fight AIDS and hunger and improve rural education, among others.
In April, the California-based New Campaign for Conscience will go to court to gain conscientious objector status for war-tax resisters. In Congress, meanwhile, the push for a Peace Tax Fund has new support: Conservatives now see this as a religious freedom issue.
— Lynn WeissWork your MoJo
Celebrate passage of the
Foley’s fatal folly
We told you how former Speaker of the House Tom Foley would do almost anything to protect Congressional incumbents (“Foley Flexes,” July/Aug. 1993; “Newtiavelli,” Jan./Feb. 1995). Yet another footnote for historians of hubris: in 1989 Foley cut a deal with the GOP leadership not to fund any challenger who attacked an incumbent on the issue of Congressional pay raises. So when David Worley, who was running against Newt Gingrich and lambasting him on pay raises, asked for a Demo party contribution in 1990, Foley refused. Gingrich beat Worley by fewer than 1,000 votes. How did Newt repay Foley? In 1994, he recruited George Nethercutt to run against Foley and helped raise money for him; Nethercutt won with 51 percent of the vote.
Hot rods
“Faulty Rods” (May/June 1994) has stirred some movement at the top. After reading our story, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission agreed to reassess whistle-blower Chris Hall’s concerns that nuclear fuel rod casings made by Teledyne Wah Chang Albany are flawed. The rods are used in reactors worldwide; bad rods could release radioactivity and contribute to meltdowns.
Newtie exposed!
Get yours now, while they’re still available. “What You Need to Know About Newt” includes our revealing 1984 and 1989 profiles, as well as a 1995 look at Speaker Gingrich. Send $2.95 to NewtPack, Mother Jones, 731 Market St., Suite 600, San Francisco, CA 94103. Bulk discounts: 5-24, $2 each; 25-99, $1.75 each; 100 or more, $1.50 each (CA residents add 7.25 percent tax).
