News stories from Saturday January 21, 1978
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- President Carter submitted to Congress a politically controversial package of tax cuts and revisions that he said would keep the economy humming through 1979 while "making our tax system fairer and simpler." The package included a crackdown on deductions for business entertainment and a tightening up on deductions by individual taxpayers for medical care and casualty losses that is certain to provoke protests.
The tax measures proposed by President Carter would reduce the federal income taxes owed by almost everyone with an income under $100,000 a year. People with incomes above that amount would pay more taxes. Proportionately, the lower a taxpayer's income is, the more his taxes would be cut. If Congress follows the President's schedule, the tax measures will become effective Oct. 1 and will be reflected in the withholding from paychecks after that date. They are meant in part to offset the large Social Security tax increases.
[New York Times] - A 13-count felony indictment against Richard Kleindienst, an Attorney General in the Nixon administration, was sought by staff lawyers of the Watergate special prosecutor's office after they concluded that he and other senior Justice Department officials had lied under oath, according to Watergate documents. The papers also disclosed that Erwin Griswold, the former Solicitor General, was a subject of the same grand jury investigation, and that the late Richard McLaren, the former head of the department's antitrust division, might have been indicted if he had not had a fatal illness. [New York Times]
- The Navy has been criticized for spending too much for combat planes in a secret memorandum circulated to the Army, Navy and Air Force by Secretary of Defense Harold Brown and his staff. The message said that "the Navy situation is not improving" and that the Air Force has been able to buy over twice as many aircraft with only 50 percent more funding. It also said that the Navy and Air Force programs were "a study in contrasts," with the Air Force meeting its long-term requirements while naval efforts were seriously lagging. [New York Times]
- Eastman Kodak lost an antitrust suit brought by a much smaller photographic company, Berkey Photo Inc. of New York. A jury decided, after a trial of seven months in Federal District Court in Manhattan, that Kodak had used its technological expertise to monopolize much of the amateur photographic business. The suit was among a number of antitrust actions pending against Kodak. The jury was ordered to return to court Feb. 21 for trial to determine the damages to be levied against Kodak. Walter Fallon. Kodak's chairman and chief executive officer, said the company would appeal the verdict on the ground that the court had applied "an incorrect standard of law in the case." [New York Times]
- President Anwar Sadat pledged in an address to the Egyptian Parliament that he would proceed with his peace initiative, and blamed Israel's negotiating tactics for the breakup of the peace talks in Jerusalem last week. The issue of peace in the Middle East and his initiative is no longer a matter of concern only to Egypt, he said, but is now a matter for the entire world. [New York Times]
- The main issue holding back an Israeli-Egyptian agreement on the principles guiding their peace negotiations was which Palestinians would be permitted to participate in the talks, according to aides of Secretary of State Cyrus Vance. The representative Palestinians would be concerned with the political future of all Palestinians. [New York Times]