Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 30, 1992 TAG: 9203300060
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From The Baltimore Sun and The Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
So say the Democratic leaders of Congress. They have been watching in agonized disbelief as President Bush gleefully tries to exploit the lawmakers' troubles over the House Bank scandal. They are irked that he, of all people, is advancing the image of public servants too bloated on perks and privileges to serve the public.
"He lives a life like no other human being in the world," said Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. "What is the kettle doing, trying to call the pot black?"
In a loosely coordinated campaign highlighted by a series of hearings beginning this week, the lawmakers will attempt to show that the so-called "imperial Congress" has nothing on the imperial presidency.
For example:
While Congress members go on occasional junkets at taxpayers' or lobbyists' expense, the president has a 1,200-plane fleet at his command. In the flagship, Air Force One, (actually two deluxe 747s, with one acting as backup and decoy), he has visited all 50 states and nearly three-dozen foreign countries at a total travel cost estimated at $100 million a year.
While members of the House and Senate have taxpayer-subsidized gymnasiums, swimming pools, barber shops, medical clinics and restaurants, Bush has all those amenities at the White House and much more. And they cost him nothing - except for the haircut.
While Bush calls Congress "a privileged class of rulers that answers to no one with respect to its budget, its staff [and] its perks," his own budget, staff and perks are hidden in a maze of government agencies that disguise their true cost so thoroughly only guesses can be made. A 18-month-old General Accounting Office inquiry into how the White House finances political trips by the president and the vice president has come up empty so far because the White House is stonewalling, lawmakers say.
"They are losing all sense that every time they move, it's terribly expensive," said Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa., who is pushing for full disclosure of presidential expenses.
He noted that Bush flew to Texas in December to sign a highway financing bill at a construction site, in order to convey the idea that he was creating jobs. "I don't think a trip like that might be taken if American taxpayers knew that 30 seconds on television cost $200,000 more than if they had just put a card table on the lawn of the White House," Kanjorski said.
White House officials contend that there is little chance voter ire will be stirred by a new focus on executive perks.
"No one has ever accused George Bush of misuse of public funds," said Ron Kaufman, the White House political director. "That dog won't hunt."
But a House Democratic leadership aide warned that Bush might be "falling into real quicksand" by inviting a closer look into the fringe benefits of his own job.
"He who laughs last, laughs best," the aide said.
Sen. David Pryor, D-Ark., is about to issue new instructions to GAO investigators to get a full accounting of political travel made by the president and vice president. The government is supposed to be reimbursed for the cost of such travel, but the reimbursements only cover a fraction of the full cost of moving the president around the country.
But the most sweeping and most public examination of the goodies that go along with the presidency is being undertaken by Kanjorski. The chairman of an obscure House subcommittee, he has decided to use his power to seek a strict accounting of White House expenses for the first time since 1978.
He said Sunday that his Civil Services subcommittee on human resources would hold hearings Tuesday to consider travel by the president and his staff and whether the White House should reimburse other federal agencies that provide them transportation.
Kanjorski insists that the motives behind his research project, which began nearly nine months ago, are not partisan.
"We have no idea what the real costs are," he said. Figures provided by the White House are "useless in terms of what the realities are."
For example, Bush's 1993 budget proposal includes a figure of $29,000 for presidential travel. "Twenty-nine thousand wouldn't pay for the chauffeur for the limousine," Kanjorski said.
Kanjorski estimates the real tab for presidential travel at about $100 million per year. "It takes 30,000 or 40,000 taxpayers a full year of income tax to pay for that," he said.
by CNB