THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 1, 1995 TAG: 9503010013
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
Late last week, the new Republican majority in the U.S. House passed the first money bill of the year to make some of its promised spending cuts. Now the fun begins.
Gov. George Allen could tell Speaker Newt Gingrich a thing or two about how the process works. As long as spending cuts are in the abstract, everybody's in favor. As soon as specific cuts are identified, the targets start to scream. Everybody's a liberal when it's his stipend that's about to feel the ax.
Consider last week's action. Several billion in rescissions from previously approved spending were passed by the House. If they take effect, look how many aggrieved constituents the Republicans will create.
The Pentagon lost $502 million in technology reinvestment funds.
Public broadcasting took a hit of $47 million, 15 percent of its federal dollars.
Cuts will eliminate 125,000 summer jobs.
Heating assistance for 6 million low-income homeowners will be eliminated.
National parks will lose $327 million.
A drug-free schools programs will lose $481 million.
R&D money for clean-coal technology, high definition TV and aerospace will be cut $615 million.
Those are just a few of the programs whacked in cuts that total $17 billion. And to actually balance the budget while cutting taxes, as the Republicans have promised, would require spending cuts 80 times as large. Few programs will be spared, and the pain will be widespread.
Even Republican stalwarts may suffer. An ironic reminder of what can happen when you start cutting occurred last week. Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Wash., won his seat in November by attacking then Speaker of the House Tom Foley as a pork-barrel politician.
But last week's cuts included a $426,000 agriculture grant for research to a university in Nethercutt's district. Foley was responsible for acquiring the grant; Nethercutt will get the credit for losing it. Does Spokane now wish it had retained Foley's services, or is it happy with the trade it has made?
Similar cuts will affect every district in the country, and voters in each will have to decide how they feel about the actual results of the Republican crusade to shrink the federal government.
There's no question government spending can and should be cut. Deficits must come down. But the pain has been soft-pedaled. When they discover what cutting actually entails, will voters retain their budget-cutting zeal? by CNB