ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, September 19, 1996 TAG: 9609190025
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A11 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Ray L. Garland
SOURCE: RAY L. GARLAND
THE TIME that Rep. L.F. Payne wanted to spend with his family will be mercifully brief. He will no sooner close the door on eight years in the House of Representatives than he will begin his quest for the post of lieutenant governor on a ticket almost certain to be headed by the present occupant of that conspicuously unimportant office, Donald S. Beyer, Jr. Of course, no one has yet run for it without hoping to become the big enchilada when the governor's obligatory limit of four years is reached.
Because Payne could be with us for a while, and with higher visibility than attended his service as choreman for the Southside Fifth District, let us break out his record in the present Congress from the pack of 10 other incumbents now sailing toward re-election.
The two previous Democrats to represent the Fifth, former Gov. William Tuck (1953-69) and Dan Daniel (1969-88), claimed all the advantages of serving in a Democratic majority that seemed destined to endure forever while voting more like Republicans than many Republicans. That suited the district just fine and they were seldom bothered by a challenger. But times change and Payne understood this.
As the old conservative Southern Democrats dropped out and the party's leadership moved relentlessly left, there wasn't much point in being faithful to a style that worked for Tuck and Daniel. Payne aspired to be a player in the House, rising, perhaps, to chair the powerful Ways and Means Committee, where he won a seat sooner than most junior members. His message to the leadership was, I would guess, the same as the role he's expected to play in the Beyer campaign: "You are moving too far from business and traditional Democrats. Let me be a symbol of the fact you haven't entirely abandoned them."
That required, of course, a neat balancing act, tilting to the left to avoid offending his patrons in the leadership, tilting to the right to please voters at home, especially those businessmen who don't give a hoot what label a thing wears so long as they own a piece of it.
Payne's balancing act was on display in his announcement for lieutenant governor. Asked to assess the record of Republican Gov. George Allen, he said that while Allen had accomplished much, "like the current Congress and Newt Gingrich, he moved too soon into the extreme and the fringes."
But in a rare show of strength, Payne announced the backing of 64 of 72 Democratic members of the General Assembly. Despite union misgivings, this would indicate Payne will face no serious challenge for the nomination, which leaves only the office of attorney general yet to be settled on the Democratic ticket.
Payne is probably proudest of his claim to fiscal moderation, steering a middle course between big spenders in his own party and demon budget-cutters among Republicans. The problem is Payne's ideal budget commands nowhere near enough support. When given a chance to support President Clinton's budget for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, he and the other five Democrats in the Virginia delegation voted no. But they were equally opposed to the final version of the Republican budget, yet to get past the president, which cut the projected growth in spending over six years by $703 billion and reduced taxes by $122 billion.
Oh, how the Democrats hated those paltry tax cuts, though drastically reduced from what the GOP tried to enact last year. Has anyone told you that a tax cut of $122 billion over six years represents little more than 1 percent of projected tax revenues in the same period?
This year, Payne and his "Blue Dog" Democrats (successors to the "Boll Weevils" of the Reagan years) joined with a handful of Republicans to propose a "coalition" budget. It was not without some good, even courageous, points. But it fell far short of a majority.
While Payne's budget eliminated all tax cuts and was committed to sufficient funding to maintain existing levels of service for Medicare and Medicaid, it mandated reductions in cost-of-living increases for Social Security and all federal entitlements tied to the existing consumer-price index. That would also have the effect of reducing adjustments in tax brackets for inflation, which was tantamount to a tax increase.
Committed as he was to winning re-election by demagoging Republican "cuts" in Medicare, etc., does any serious person believe Clinton would have signed a budget attacking the sacred COLA and raising taxes at the same time? Despite some good points, the "coalition" budget was an exercise in fantasy that served as a convenient cover for opposing the GOP budget.
Payne's more serious efforts to cut spending often focus on defense, where he seems very sincere. He was one of only four Virginia representatives voting to end production of the B-2 Stealth bomber and the only one supporting an across-the-board cut of 3 percent in defense spending for 1996. Payne also cast a lonely vote against the 1996 defense budget that spent $7 billion more than Clinton wanted. But in a show of party loyalty which is the story of this Congress, the other five Virginia Democrats, who voted for the bill, joined Payne in sustaining the president's veto of this same bill.
To please conservatives, Payne voted to repeal the ban on certain semi-automatic weapons and against late-term or partial-birth abortions. To please liberals, he was against lowering the number of immigrants and the use of federal funds by the District of Columbia to offer vouchers for low-income students to attend private schools.
Payne has cut things so neatly down the middle that his support for Clinton and the Republican "Contract With America" is almost precisely the same at around 68 percent for both, according to the impartial Congressional Quarterly.
Were he a more adroit performer in TV sound bites, this man could be dangerous.
As it is, he and Beyer have their work cut out for them, especially if Clinton wins. Not since 1973 has any party holding the White House also won the Virginia governorship.
Ray L. Garland is a Roanoke Times columnist.
LENGTH: Long : 105 linesby CNB