PUTTING THE U.S. GOVERNMENT UP FOR SALE: DEALS TO PONDER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-01208R000100030064-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 22, 2011
• Sequence Number: 64
• Publication Date: February 11, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/22 : CIA-RDP90-0
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LOS ANGELES TIMES
11 February 1985
r~i~i1~g the US. Government
Up for Sale: Deals to Ponder
:_By LEWIS H. LAPHAM
Sooner or later it undoubtedly will occur
to,somebody in the Reagan Administration
to put the federal government up for sale in
a pa.riotic series of leveraged buy-outs.
The_ deficit and the national debt would
vanish as if in a magician's smoke. The Dow
Jones- stock averages would gain 4,000
phts; and everybody lucky enough to
eo nmand the necessary lines of credit and
1 t1E.al patronage would make a truly
selling the
is'defined as a "smokestack industry," like p science. This might mean
-
the steel and shipbuilding industries that mainder of the spoils and issue a press'
release about the great blessing that they inventory, in odd lots and at less attractive
f eelbiiger can weather the storms of the have conferred on the stockholders and the prices, to the Germans, the Japanese or a
free market. Government so defined meets American future. consortium of South American colonels.
L'tl~i of an eJ rp specie cvyions , fl old and
g es and dying Before dissolving the federal conglomer- -The military services: They could be
pensio s, debt, inflated wages a ate into its multiple elements, it first would 'offered to the larger corporations, both
pensions, incompetent ompetent management, s f be necessary to incorporate the entity in domestic and foreign. Given the fact that
its-ppeiitive prices, dwindling markets for Delaware and to assign both a trading most wars come about as a result of
its-product symbol (GVP or US) and an opening stock economic quarrels, the multinational cor-
.. government's decline into senescence price. Some of the subsequent deals would porations-like the princes of the Italian
and oblivion has been embarrassingly obvious for some time. It is the reason be easier than others. Renaissance-should pay their own con-
Ro'n'ald Reagan was twice elected Presi- The -government owns one-third of the dottiere. The troops could be fitted out in
nation's land mass, and the real-estate splendid uniforms bearing. the insignia of
o s.? Private companies now operate and sales, especially along the California. { Sony, CBS, Volvo, IBM and British Air-
few w pandeople beaches, ought to attract syndicates organ- ways.. (Some of the smaller military forma-
one, a tme as R ts. Rftelatitivelyvely control
fire_ deparpar people by people. like . Frank Sinatra and tions-the Marine Corps, say, or the Coast
]d tr di-
of private security protection as opposed to.
$15 billion for public law enforcement. >..: .
The Administration's current budget
proposals lack the courage of its greed as
well as its conviction. It isn't enough
merely to eliminate Amtrak and the Job
Corps, or to curtail payments of student
loans and crop insurance. Although admi-
rable as subtractions from-the burden of
loss, none of these adjustments supply the
virtue of additional revenue. Nor do they
come up to the rapacious standards of the
Wall Street speculators who prey on the
assets of undervalued oil or communication
companies..
The simplicity of the leveraged buy-out
complies with the norms of low cunning
customary among the gentlemen so com-
-Portably sealed in the board rooms of the
Reagan Administration. The acquisitors
borrow the money to buy the property in
question-a real-estate trust, an insurance
company, a government, etc.-which holds
assets worth a good deal more than the
purchase price. Instead of trying to pre-
ruinously
i
nto a
serve the entity, the acquisitors dismember tions might be inveigled
it, reducing its various productive organs to competitive auction.
the liquid forms of cash and tax manipula- -The Internal Revenue Service: Either
tion. Merrill Lynch or American Express pre-
The "process is not dissimilar to flensing, sumably would wish to extend their portfo-
boiling and drying out the carcass of a lios of "full financial services."
es
l
.
oye
,sperm whale. The acquisitors pay off the -The Postal Service: To the emp
usl
i
Ob
y
v
o
bank,loans with the money distilled from -The U.S. weapons arsenal:
erous
the liquidation of'the assets; they also pay the Soviet Union would make a gen
off the company executives who agreed to tender offer, but it is probable that the
of trucks, office space (2.6 billion square
feet) and hospitals.
The. sophisticated deals would require a
little more thought, but I can imagine at
least a few of the possible buyers:
-Mount Rushmore, the Washington
Monument, the Lincoln and Jefferson Me-
morials: The Disney and Marriott corpora-
Guard-conceivably could be so
viduals. Donald Trump or the Bass Broth-
ers might enjoy the adulation of -a house-
hold regiment: )
-The CIA: Both HBO and Warner
Communications look on the intelligence:.
enturv Cite as well as a vercentaee of the
boY-office receipts.
Lewis H. Lapham is the editor of Harper's.
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