THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 31, 1995 TAG: 9510310005
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
House and Senate have now passed huge bills that cut taxes, slow spending and aim at a balanced budget by 2002.
The two versions will have to be reconciled, a presidential veto is expected and then White House and congressional negotiators can begin trying to strike a bargain. That may sound a lot like business as usual, but if the process is familiar the substance of the debate has shifted dramatically to the right.
The fight isn't over whether to balance the budget, but how and how soon. The fight isn't over whether to cut taxes and services but where and how much.
There's a lot right with the Republican plans now on the table. They include provisions President Clinton has also advocated: welfare reform, curbs on the growth of entitlements, downsizing government and tax cuts for the middle class. But large areas of difference will have to be resolved. In some cases Republican priorities are out of whack.
Medicare and Medicaid have been growing too fast and aren't efficient. Giving participants an incentive to save money and a choice of plans is welcome. But a disproportionate half of proposed savings will come out of these programs that don't account for half the budget.
On the taxing side, benefits appear lopsided and it's not the working poor who come out ahead. Half of all tax cuts under the Republican plan go to less than 10 percent of families, those earning more than $100,000. That tilt is largely due to an overzealous assault on the Earned Income Tax Credit. The program has been abused by a number of recipients, but Republicans aren't reforming it. They're dismembering it.
Meanwhile, pork, corporate welfare and government bureaucracy have largely escaped unscathed. Republicans promised to zero out dozens of programs, to eliminate 13 agencies and three Cabinet departments. It didn't happen.
The list of boondoggles that have survived is long. It includes agricultural subsidies, the ethanol program, government help for overseas advertising, the B-2, the Seawolf, the Space Station, oil and gas tax breaks and a whole panoply of corporate ripoffs. When it comes to pork, the chief difference between Republicans and Democrats seems to be the special interests they pander to.
Think tanks such as the moderate Progressive Policy Institute and libertarian Cato Institute say $225 billion to $500 billion in corporate welfare could be wrung out of the budget over five years. That hasn't happened either.
White House and Congress must negotiate to adjust the balance. Yes, deficits have to come down and entitlements have to be on the table. But the pain ought to be shared equitably.
If students loans, welfare recipients, nursing-home residents, hospital patients and the working poor are targeted for cuts, defense contractors, agribusiness, mining interests and assorted pork merchants should be too. If the Republican revolution isn't seen to be fair, it won't survive. by CNB