ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 27, 1997 TAG: 9702270066
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
In an all but fatal blow, Sen. Robert Torricelli announced opposition Wednesday to the Republican-drafted balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution. He said the proposal could hamstring future generations confronting a military crisis, recession or the need for federal construction.
``We write not for our time but for all times,'' said Torricelli, D-N.J., who has supported similar constitutional amendments in the past. When it comes to making a change in the 210-year-old Constitution, he added, ``good is not good enough.''
Elected to the Senate last November, the New Jersey Democrat thus became the 34th Democrat to oppose the measure, enough to ensure its defeat.
Republicans rushed to attack Torricelli for breaking a campaign promise. ``He has thumbed his nose at the people of New Jersey once and for all,'' charged Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott.
At the same time, Torricelli's decision confronted Lott with a choice between offering concessions in hopes of gaining the elusive 67th vote in support of the measure - or watching it go down to the narrowest of defeats next week and trying to pin the blame on the Democrats.
The White House issued a statement in which President Clinton said he was pleased with Torricelli's decision. He added it was now ``time to get down to the hard work of balancing the budget.''
The proposal, a cornerstone of the Republican congressional agenda, would require a balanced budget by 2002, with a three-fifths vote of the House and Senate to run a deficit thereafter. It cleared the House two years ago, when the Republican revolution was in full flower, but fell one vote shy of passage in the Senate.
This time, it bogged down in the House, where some Republicans flinched in the face of Democratic charges that it could threaten Social Security benefits. That prompted the GOP leadership to try to push it through the Senate first.
Republicans argued that the measure was needed to instill fiscal discipline in a government that has run deficits for nearly three decades. To dramatize their point, they stacked budget books several feet high on desks in the front row of the Senate, one thick volume for each of the years the budget has been unbalanced.
Within the new Senate, where all 55 Republicans support the measure, it quickly became clear that the swing votes were held by four newly elected Democratic senators.
Two of them, Max Cleland of Georgia and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, announced their reluctant support over the past several days.
Sen. Tim Johnson of South Dakota declared his opposition last week, even though he, like Torricelli, had supported a similar amendment only two years ago. And shortly after Torricelli's announcement, the Republican National Committee disclosed it would begin airing radio commercials in South Dakota on Thursday saying Johnson ``broke his promise.''
Landrieu's announcement on Monday left Torricelli squarely in the spotlight - a position clearly welcomed by a newcomer who has moved forcefully to establish his presence.
He conferred privately with senior Democratic colleagues on Tuesday, spoke by telephone with Clinton, delivered a formal maiden speech in the Senate at dinner time and met with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, in a room behind a darkened chamber afterward.
The New Jersey Democrat voted for similar amendments twice before, most recently in 1995 in the House when he was preparing for his Senate candidacy. He told reporters that he had done so to get the attention of Presidents Bush and Clinton at a time when deficits were approaching $300 billion. In the interim, he said, the deficit is closer to $100 billion, and added, ``I could no longer claim that I was using this to make a point.''
To become part of the Constitution, an amendment must clear both houses of Congress by a two-thirds majority and win ratification in legislatures in three-fourths of the states.
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Torricelliby CNB