THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, April 1, 1995 TAG: 9503310039
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines
A vote approaches in the House on tax cuts. Speaker Gingrich has called the promised tax relief the crown jewel of the Contract With America, but broken promises to deficit hawks put the outcome in jeopardy.
Over 60 moderate Republicans and conservative Democrats believe deficit reduction is more important than tax cuts. Polls show these lawmakers are in touch with grassroots sentiment.
The Republican leadership first promised no tax cuts would be voted until spending cuts were enacted, but the current schedule places the proposed tax cut first.
But what really riled the centrist swing voters in the House was the rescission bill that recently passed to cut $17 billion from current spending. Votes were solicited on the assurance that all cuts would be applied to the deficit. However, once the measure was passed, the leadership announced its intention to fund tax cuts out of the savings.
Once burned, twice shy. The swing voters have now put a proposal on the table to prevent future bait-and-switch tactics and to keep the leadership honest about deficit reduction. Under their proposal, a budget plan to reach balance by 2002 will be required. Tax cuts can be part of the package, but in any year the deficit target isn't met the tax cuts would be canceled.
The Republican leadership objects strenuously to this linkage; but if it needs the 60-plus votes of the moderates, it may have to deal. And why not link tax cuts to reduced spending?
That the mechanism the deficit hawks propose will work is unclear. But the hawks are right to put deficit reduction first and to make tax cuts contingent on progress. That was the original position of the Republican leadership.
We have amassed a national debt of $5 trillion by cutting taxes in anticipation of spending cuts that never materialized. Repeated efforts to make rules like Gramm-Rudman designed to force Congress to act responsibly were failures. Congress always found a way to weasel out of the trap and to do what was popular, which was borrow and spend.
This time it was supposed to be different and the Republican leadership has talked a good game on deficit reduction. But by putting tax cuts first they raise doubts.
One thing has changed, however. The voting public finally seems genuinely alarmed about deficit spending. That may give the centrists the leverage they need to insist on budgets that bring the deficit down. If it comes down to a contest between full-speed-ahead tax cutters and cautious, green-eyeshade deficit hawks, we say: Go, Hawks! by CNB