Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 27, 1995 TAG: 9510270081
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The 227-203 vote will draw a distinct line between the parties as they head into the 1996 campaign. Only 10 Republicans voted against the bill and four Democrats voted for it.
All five Virginia Republicans voted for the bill, and all four Democrats who voted opposed it. Rep. Norman Sisisky, D-Petersburg, did not vote.
The two-volume, 1,754-page bill is a field guide to GOP dreams about how to reshape, scale back and redirect scores of federal programs including Medicare and Medicaid.
Like its companion measure before the Senate, it would:
End Americans' entitlement to federal aid when they fall into poverty, while transferring power to states to weave the social safety net as they see fit.
Make deep cuts in farm subsidies that have been politically sacrosanct since the Great Depression.
Eliminate a Cabinet agency - the Commerce Department - for the first time in the history of the federal bureaucracy.
Give $245 billion in federal revenues back to businesses and individuals in tax cuts over the next seven years.
``It was the most decisive vote on the direction of government since 1933,'' said House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.
Democrats, resigned to defeat from the outset, relentlessly accused Republicans of trying to destroy Medicare and give tax cuts to people who did not need them. They seemed to agree with Republicans on only one thing: The debate was about far more than balancing the budget.
``It is about two very different visions for America's future,'' said Martin Olav Sabo, D-Minn. ``I call upon my colleagues to reject a vision of America that seeks to reward those who have already prospered in our economy while imposing burdens on those who have not.''
Still, the two-day debate was remarkably lacking in drama or suspense. That was a tribute, in part, to the party unity the GOP has displayed all year under Gingrich. It also reflected a pervasive sense that significant changes will be made yet. President Clinton has vowed to veto the bill as it is written.
The war of words between the White House and Republicans turned especially bitter Thursday, when Clinton's spokesman Mike McCurry joined Democrats in contending that GOP leaders wanted Medicare to die. ``You know, that's probably what they'd like to see happen to seniors, too, if you think about it,'' McCurry said in a sardonic manner. Gingrich and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., called the comment ``reprehensible, divisive, un-American,'' and urged Clinton to fire McCurry.
Even if negotiations between Congress and the White House produce changes, a sea change still is likely in federal fiscal policy because Clinton, for all his veto threats, has signaled a willingness to accept key elements of the Republican plan. He has endorsed the goal of balancing the budget and even indicated he could accept the GOP's seven-year time line; he has accepted the idea of ending poor Americans' entitlement to welfare; he has called for cuts, although he disagrees with Republicans about the size, in taxes and the growth of Medicare.
The bill's tax provisions show how much the terms of fiscal debate have changed since Republicans took control of Congress. In this bill, unlike past deficit reduction efforts, Republicans not only refused to consider tax-rate increases; they insisted on tax cuts for businesses and individuals.
The bill also would increase the tax burden on many working class families, however, by scaling back the Earned Income Tax Credit, which goes to families earning up to about $27,000.
Almost eclipsed by those proposals are scores of provisions that, at another time, would be considered major policy changes. The bill would eliminate an entire student loan program; establish new tax breaks to encourage savings for medical expenses; overhaul and reduce federal housing subsidies; require federal employees to contribute more toward their retirement funds; consolidate several foreign policy agencies including the Agency for International Development; and open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling. Clinton has said the oil-drilling provision alone would be enough for him to veto the entire budget reconciliation bill.
by CNB