Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, November 10, 1994                   TAG: 9411170020
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A16   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

NOW COMES THE GOVERNING

Americans have cause to feel frustrated these days with politicians and Washington. After this grimy election season, we also have cause to take long showers.

It was hard not to get splattered by the dirt and worse. Campaign issues tossed to and fro sounded much the same around the country: Who's the biggest liar, the most negative advertiser, the likeliest threat to Social Security benefits, the best friend of President Clinton? Who can guarantee the Painless Tax Cut, the Magically Balanced Budget? Who'll be meaner to immigrants, tougher on welfare mothers, quicker to execute criminals?

At one point, Clinton had to travel to Syria to find a politician willing to be photographed with him. But it wasn't just the president. Issue No. 1 this fall was clearly: Who is sickest of government and least likely to take it anymore (with the possible exception of Medicare and other entitlements, defense, environmental protection, interstate highways, national parks, college loans, farm subsidies and a few other items)?

Though he lost his election, Oliver North personified the contempt for government underlying much of Tuesday's returns. Republicans, including incumbents, sought to discredit Congress as an institution, and theirs proved a brilliant strategy.

Yet now, as the din subsides, the task of governing must resume. It won't help that serious discussion of issues bearing on America's future was largely lost amid the attack ads and Clinton "morphing." Issues such as:

nThe deficit. The Clinton administration has brought it down. But it is projected to rise toward the end of the century at an alarming rate, driven by health-care costs.

The economy. A net total of 4.6 million jobs have been created since Clinton was sworn in. But the economy is changing in ways that threaten many Americans, especially those lacking skills to compete globally.

Poverty. As the gap between haves and have-nots widens, many families slip into poverty. But waiting until their kids commit crimes, then imprisoning them, seems the principal response in place today.

The GOP's "Contract with America," basically warmed-over Reaganomics, should not be confused with a serious answer to the nation's problems.

Republicans will go next year in record numbers to Congress, with a clear mandate to despise it. But it's hard to see how that in itself translates into an agenda for governing. The likelier prospect is for more partisan bickering and gridlock, more posturing and positioning for the 1996 election.

That won't do. For now, both the White House and the new lords of Congress, Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole, are issuing conciliatory sounds. More is needed. They need actually to work together.

The nation needs political reform to pare the power of special interests; welfare reform, aimed at reducing dependence and poverty; health-care reform to cover the uninsured and slow inflation; regulatory reform to promote desired outcomes instead of more bureaucracy and mandates; and budget reform to continue streamlining government, bring down the national debt, and invest in the public infrastructure that is crucial to future prosperity.

The best strategy now for both Clinton and his new partners in government is to accomplish something good. They should know, well enough now, that people aren't in a patient mood.