THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 29, 1994 TAG: 9410290214
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE ADDIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
In military history, the break of day was the favored time for a firing squad.
Friday, Hampton Roads' two most experienced Democratic congressmen were asked to stand at dawn before a grass-roots group of budget watchdogs to explain why Congress has had such a difficult time getting the government's checkbook to balance. Few shots were fired, though, and both congressman were still standing after breakfast.
The local chapter of the Concord Coalition, a national organization that agitates for the elimination of the budget deficit, heard Rep. Owen B. Pickett, D-2nd District, and Rep. Norman Sisisky, D-4th District, argue that their support for stable economic growth and big-ticket defense programs contribute to an image that they are federal budget-busters.
Pickett, in particular, has been flailed repeatedly by his opponent, Republican Jim Chapman, with a Concord Coalition analysis of voting records that rated Pickett as one of the four worst deficit-fighters in Congress.
``I'll make no apology,'' Pickett said, ``for the fact that I see that the No. 1 responsibility of government . . . is to ensure the security of our nation. We must have a strong national defense. . . . If you want to criticize me for that, then go ahead.''
Chapman also champions an amendment that would require a balanced federal budget, and he widely advertises Pickett's refusal to vote for it.
Pickett said the amendment as presented does not include the words ``balanced budget.'' He characterized it as ``another one of those schemes that some wiseguys inside the Beltway have concocted to deceive the American public.''
The amendment as it is written is ``silly and unworkable,'' Pickett said, and ``as long as it is presented in the way it has been presented, I will continue to vote against it because it is not any solution or any model for this nation to follow.''
Sisisky said he had voted for the balanced-budget amendment, but ``reluctantly.''
Pickett said Congress had managed to chisel $50 billion off the budget deficit each year for the past three years, which he said was a path toward a ``sensible financial and fiscal policy'' without endangering economic growth.
Sisisky added, ``I've been catching a lot of flak for votes that have reduced the deficit $691 billion in five years, because there was a tax increase in there.''
Robert L. Bixby, state director for the Concord Coalition, noted that other legislators who vote for a strong military - he named Virginia Sens. Charles S. Robb and John W. Warner - manage to do so and still score effectively as deficit-fighters.
When a member of the audience asked Sisisky how he could reconcile a desire to cut the deficit with his willingness to vote for expensive military programs, the senator said, ``I guess I'm just gonna have to take my licks. .
The session eventually led the two politicians and the audience into the conundrum facing everyone who takes a try at deficit-cutting: Interest on the national debt, added to the cost of such ``entitlement'' programs as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, takes 62cents of every federal dollar.
With no policy changes, the Concord Coalition estimates, it will be just 15 years before interest and entitlements alone eat up nearly every cent of government revenues.
The local Concord group gave Pickett and Sisisky a polite hearing and an easy-over grilling, but several said afterward that they were unconvinced.
``If that's the direction we take,'' said one member, ``then we're never going to get where we need to go.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photos
Reps. Owen B. Pickett, left, and Norman Sisisky failed to win much
support from the Concord Coalition on their positions on cutting the
federal budget deficit.
by CNB