THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Friday, December 23, 1994              TAG: 9412220027
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A12  EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Editorial 
                                             LENGTH: Medium:   54 lines

FAIRFAX REP SAYS `CUT SPENDING' BUT NOT IN MY BACK YARD

Tom Davis hasn't exactly said, ``Stop the revolution, I want to get off.'' But the newly elected Republican congressman from Virginia's 11th District has warned his party's leaders that there are limits to how much government spending he can afford to cut.

Davis represents the affluent Washington suburbs of Fairfax County. A lot of his constituents live off the government - directly or indirectly. The U.S. Geological Survey, for example, is headquartered there and employs 1,000 county residents. So Davis' top priority as a new congressman was a seat on the Post Office and Civil Service Committee, the better to protect local jobs.

Now, as his party prepares to slash spending, Davis is worried. Running for office, he supported the idea of a balanced-budget amendment and opposed tax increases. But on the issue of spending cuts, he's less gung-ho. He was quoted in Monday's Wall Street Journal. ``It may get out of control. I get concerned when people say, `What does this agency do?' and then say, `Oh, I don't understand that, let's throw it out.'''

Admittedly, Davis is a special case, since his booming district is largely a creature of the federal government. But here in Hampton Roads, Democrats Owen Pickett and Norman Sisisky bucked the Republican trend and won re-election in part because voters thought they would protect local military and defense-contractor jobs from deeper cuts.

The same dynamics will play out in 432 other congressional districts. Spending-cut Savonarolas hot to make bonfires of government vanities will find that making deep cuts is easier promised than delivered. Government programs have constituencies that will vigorously resist their elimination or downsizing.

It is fashionable to pretend that most government money is spent on the undeserving poor, on waste, fraud and abuse or on greedy special interests. In fact, most goes to programs for average people - senior citizens, farmers, students, homeowners, soldiers, sailors and veterans. And the larger the programs and the bigger the bucks at stake, the more numerous and powerful their constituents.

Who can forget the spectacle of Dan Rostenkowski's ambush a few years ago by senior citizens irate at being asked to pay more taxes for a long-term-care plan most of them favored? Shortly after Rosty was harried through the streets of Chicago, the offending legislation was repealed. Thus do constituents make cowards of them all.

That being the case, a rush to cut taxes today, to be balanced by spending cuts tomorrow, should be viewed with alarm. The two have got to go together. The one without the other promises red ink as far as the eye can see. by CNB