Barbed Farewell

A blast at Reaganomics

Unusually modest for a politician, Pennsylvania Congressman Marc Lincoln Marks admits that he has had a "very undistinguished" three-term career in the House. A moderate Republican, he had loyally supported Reagan's economic program in what he called "my own best political interests." But as the white-haired lawmaker spent 19 days in the Bethesda National Naval Medical Center undergoing treatment for a chronic back problem, he brooded about his pro-Reagan votes. "I had a gut feeling that I was wrong," he recalls. "I should have paid attention to it. I was as guilty as anyone."

Last week Marks, 55, who has a reputation as a responsible and intelligent member of the House, tried to shake that guilt. In a rambling but barbed half-hour address to a nearly empty chamber, he bitingly assailed Reaganomics. "Mr. Speaker," he said to Democrat Tip O'Neill, who listened with unusual attentiveness, "the time has come to stop this massacre. . . The time is now to call out to thinking women and men everywhere to raise their voices against this murderous mandate that is being carried out."

Marks assailed "a President and his cronies whose belief in Hooverism has blinded them to the wretchedness and to the suffering they are inflicting." He ticked off those whom he considers the victims of Reaganomics, including "the sick, the poor, the handicapped, the blue-collar and white-collar workers, the small business person, the black community, women of all economic and social backgrounds, men and women who desperately need job training, families that deserve and desire the right to send their children to college; in fact, anyone and everyone, other than those who have been fortunate enough to insulate themselves in a corporate suit of armor."

The former trial lawyer attacked the military budget as "stuffing the defense community with more dollars than it can in its wildest dreams use without vomiting money."

He accused the Administration of "spitting out words of war" while trying "to excuse the millions of people that are marching in Europe, opposed to our nuclear policies. . . by saying it is all a Communist-inspired plot. My God, did the McCarthy era teach us nothing?"

Why had Marks chosen to speak out now? Well, he admitted, he had decided not to seek re-election in November because of his back problem. Did he fear retaliation from conservative Republicans, including the President? "When I called my wife in the bomb shelter," Marks quipped, "she wasn't concerned."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.