Act now - there's still time to stop the "revolution."(Republican political agenda in Congress) (Illustration)

• Author: Franklin, Daniel

It's harvest time for the Republican Congress. The seeds of the "Republican Revolution," planted with the introduction of the Contract With America, have grown from ideas, to proposals, to bills. Now, as Congress approaches the deadline for appropriations, the real business of deciding what will become law has begun. "Our goal is to get everything to the President's desk by October 1," Speaker Newt Gingrich said recently. What follows is a list of Republican proposals that the Monthly considers to be grave threats to the economic and social well-being of the country. Each will be taken up in some form by Congress this fall. One bill would let industry pollute our air. Another would give employers a free pass to endanger the safety of their employees. Republicans would also raiese taxes on the working poor, and lower them on the affluent.

It is not too late, of course. With a strong stand by congressional Democrats (that means no missing votes--see box, page 32) and the aid of the small but pivotal group of moderate Republicans (see list, also on page 32), the most noxious of the Republican proposals can be stopped. Let your congressmen know what you think of the following ideas-before they become laws.

THE BAD IDEA WHO WINS WHO LOSES TAX CUTS the the rest FOR THE wealthy of us RICH

REPEALING affluent future THE SOCIAL elderly generations SECURITY MEANS-TAX

GRAZING western the owners RIGHTS ranchers of federal

lands you

SECURITIES fraudulent small-time REFORM companies investors

and investment

firms

TELECOM telecom smaller DEREGULATION giants, companies,

i.e. Rupert TV watchers,

Murdoch telephone

users REPEALING the wealthy, the working THE EARNED whose tax poor INCOME TAX cut this helps CREDIT finance

CUTTING stingy sick, poor AND BLOCK- governors people GRANTING MEDICAID

CUTTING unclear poor kids HEAD START

REVIVING the defense the "STAR WARS" industry taxpayer

CONTINUING The defense the THE B-2, F-22, industry, taxpayer AND SEAWOLF districts with SUBMARINE defense

plants

ELIMINATING unclear Americans AMERICORPS with big

hearts but

small wallets

CUTTING prison everybody CRIME builders else PREVENTION PROGRAMS

REPEALING hunters with everyone but THE bad aim, Superman ASSAULT homicidal WEAPON psychos BAN

RESTRICTING businesses who workers OSHA'S don't care INSPECTION about their POWERS workers

MAKING businesses who workers MANY OSHA don't care REGULATIONS about their VOLUNTARY workers

ELIMINATING the mining miners THE MINE industry SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION

REMOVING AIR people who...