THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 12, 1995 TAG: 9501120030
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
When is a contract not a contract? If it's the Republican Contract With America, when you get the power to implement it, apparently.
On Sept. 13, 1994, Dick Armey - now House majority leader - unveiled the Contract With America and described it as ``not another campaign promise or a publicity stunt; it's a signed covenant between Republican House candidates and the people they represent.''
A preamble to the Contract said the idea was not just to change policies ``but even more important to restore the bonds of trust between the people and the elected representatives.
``That is why, in this era of official evasion and posturing, we offer instead a detailed agenda for national renewal, a written commitment with no fine print.''
Fine words. But only a week after taking power, the new Republican majority is beginning to modify the Contract. Already a promise to require a three-fifths vote on all tax increases has been scaled back to apply only to income tax hikes.
Now, Speaker Newt Gingrich has backed off a controversial welfare-reform promise, saying ``we're going to revisit the question of eliminating legal aliens from ever getting access to government services.''
Politics aside, this is a serious budget decision. Republicans planned to garner $22 billion over five years by depriving legal aliens of government entitlements, over half of all projected welfare reform savings.
Asked if he isn't reneging on a supposedly ironclad agreement, Gingrich said Republicans made the promises contained within the Contract before they knew they would be in power.
Does that now excuse them from making good? Gingrich wouldn't have let the Democrats get away with that kind of fast shuffle. And those who took the Contract as a solemn promise have a right to feel disillusioned.
In fact, the Contract was a very high-risk campaign strategy - reminiscent of ``Read My Lips.'' Some Contract promises were ill-conceived and others probably unachievable. Now Gingrich says his party isn't going to get ``trapped into doing something dumb just so you all can say we're consistent.'' But if the Republicans are now feeling trapped, they have no one to blame but themselves. It's their Contract, after all. No one made them invent and promote it.
If they attempt to govern according to its spirit, even if they don't adhere to its letter, they will probably be forgiven. But they have had an early lesson in the facts of life as a majority party. It is easier to promise than to deliver, and what they say now carries weight, so they had better watch their words. ILLUSTRATION: Drawings
REP. ARMEY
MR. GINGRICH
by CNB