THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 3, 1995 TAG: 9505030015
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
Republicans won Congress by promising to balance the budget by 2002. But they've now missed an April 15 deadline for submitting budget resolutions. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., the chairman of the Budget Committee, has postponed announcing his plan.
Speaker Gingrich now says Medicare should be dealt with separately from the rest of the budget. He claims President Clinton should propose a way to save the program from insolvency. But Clinton offered his misbegotten health-reform plan last year and got handed his head. Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole says maybe a bipartisan commission is the answer.
In other words, the Republicans have come face to face with the tough choices entailed in balancing the budget and have flinched. Nevertheless, it's their problem. Neither Clinton nor some commission is going to bail them out.
The general shape of a solution is known in advance. Since Republicans have declared defense and Social Security off-limits, spending cuts amounting to $1 trillion must be found elsewhere.
Entitlements: Before Gingrich shunted Medicare onto a siding, Domenici was set to recommend spending $251 billion less on Medicare, $160 billion less on Medicaid, and $228 billion less on other entitlements - welfare, farm subsidies, federal pensions, unemployment insurance, veterans benefits and student loans.
And despite the promise not to cut Social Security, a proposed adjustment in cost-of-living accounting would mean $20 billion less in benefits. If Republicans have now decided that it's as dangerous to touch Medicare as Social Security, that $251 billion will have to be made up elsewhere.
Discretionary spending: Domenici would spend $200 billion less on crime, education, environmental cleanup, air-traffic control, public works and science.
Interest on the debt: If this formidable list of cuts could be passed, the deficit would shrink. A saving of $162 billion in interest payments is possible.
Can such a budget pass? And will members of Congress who vote for it survive the next election? Clearly, that's what Gingrich and Dole are worried about. Yet they promised to make the tough choices if given the power. Well, they've got the power; these are the choices.
Almost every interest group in the country will be hurt, but universal pain may be an ace in the hole. The only way to put the budget on the path to balance is to hurt everyone. If most people can be persuaded the goal is essential and the pain is equitably distributed, such cuts may have a chance.
But after 60 years of growing dependence, the people are habituated to government programs. Withdrawal symptoms are inevitable. There are 36 million recipients of Medicare, and they vote. Critics will point to all the bad things that will happen if cuts are made.
Republicans must quit looking for an easy way out and start making the case that deficit reduction is necessary. Voters must be convinced that bad things will happen if cuts aren't made and good things will happen if a balance can be achieved. So far, that sale hasn't been made. And running away from the issue won't win the debate. by CNB