THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 19, 1995 TAG: 9505190021
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
By passing a rescission bill that cuts $16.4 billion in already approved spending, Congress is asking for a veto and President Clinton has promised to give it one.
The bulk of the rescissions are targeted directly on favorite Democratic spending priorities and leave favored Republican spending intact. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 60 percent of proposed rescissions come from programs for the poor.
Clinton objects to cuts that total $1.5 billion or about 10 percent of the bill. At stake are funds for education, national service, job training, anti-drug efforts and housing for the poor. He has proposed alternative cuts to highway pork projects, the construction of federal buildings and government travel.
House Speaker Newt Gingrich denounced the threatened veto as shameful because the bill also contains funds for counterterrorism, investigating the Oklahoma bombing and disaster relief. But Gingrich knows those items were put in this bill in an effort to make it veto proof.
In fact, one rationale for the line-item veto that Gingrich has long championed is that it will permit a president to strike only those parts of a bill he objects to and so avoid the kind of arm-twisting now being employed by the Republicans. So which is it, Newt?
Truth be told, this fight is less about budget-balancing than about ideological muscle-flexing. The new Republican majority in Congress, feeling its oats, could hardly be expected to resist taking a shot at the president to see if he'd flinch or counterpunch. Now they know. If Clinton hadn't threatened a veto, it would have been an open invitation to roll him at every opportunity.
Now maybe both sides have gotten the macho out of their systems and can settle down to business. Of course both sides may choose to fight rather than compromise. Then we might see 18 months of bills designed to court a veto and a lot more of them from Clinton.
But that's a very risky strategy. Both parties now agree government must be cut, deficits must come down. The mandate of November is to just do it, not engage in partisan bickering and gridlock with one eye on the 1996 elections. Anyone seen practicing politics-as-usual could become highly unpopular.
If Republicans are smart, they will now produce a rescission bill that cuts billions from programs dear to both Democrats and Republicans. Farm subsidies as well as public radio, pork-barrel projects in Republican as well as Democratic districts. Clinton would have a much harder time justifying a veto in such a case. Republicans would look responsible. And, instead of having only finger-pointing to show for their efforts, spending would actually get cut. by CNB