Sin of Addition

WHEN Labor Secretary Raymond Denovan, EPA Chief Anne Gersuch Burford, and Secretary James Watt each embarrassed the Reagan Administration with immoral acts and statements, the immediate impulse of the chief executive and his sides was to rush to the defense of the offender. Martin S. Feldstein '61, chairman of the council of economic advisors, has made no grating gaffes and has taken no illegal actions. But he has publicly disagreed with the incredible claims of his boss, and independent thought appears to be the one crime the Administration cannot stand.

At a press conference earlier this week, White House spokesman Larry Speakes was asked whether Feldstein would be let go. Mispronouncing the name of a man he has worked with for 15 months. Speakes said the economic chief would not be asked "face to face." He jokingly wondered why the chairman was invited to a lunch to talk about the budget and snidely asserted that Feldstein might not "make it to dessert." Richard G. Darman, another White House aide joined the baiting when he sent Speakes a note during the conference implying the meal was the chairman's "last supper." Though Reagan himself did not sanction the performance--he was reportedly furious about it--he conspicuously did not rush to Feldstein's defense. And Reagan's willingness to allow advisers to humiliate Feldstein while keeping him on is inappropriate.

Why has Harvard's highest ranking Republican been threatened with return to the Charles? Because he has refused to accept the myths that all the other president's men so willingly repeat. He says that defense spending and tax cuts--like those Reagan has pushed through--cause deficits. He says that deficits push up interest rates. Nothing beyond Ec 10 and nothing Reagan didn't insist before he took office.

We don't embrace everything Feldstein backs. His support for massive social budget cuts in the face of defense funding increases, especially his insistence that Social Security should be slashed, are in line with Reagan's program. But we admire his willingness to do his job of impartial economic forecasts, stare down petty intimidation and stick to the truth despite the party line. The University can be proud that its professor of economics has at least given some Veritas to an Administration otherwise lacking.