THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 4, 1996 TAG: 9608030027
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 98 lines
What a difference an election on the horizon makes. A Republican Congress came to Washington 18 months ago to carry out a revolution. But the mandate for change turned out not to be as sweeping as first thought.
For starters, the middle class remains attached to its entitlements - especially Medicare. Republicans can argue that Democrats have demagogued the issue, but the GOP has still failed to make the case for substantial reductions in entitlement spending and dispel doubt about the fiscal feasibility of their program.
GOP proposals to cut the budget by hacking funding for environmental protection and other popular programs were also successfully portrayed as extreme, and the Republicans managed to get the blame for unnecessarily shutting down the government.
Lesson apparently learned, the Republican Congress has just completed several weeks of startling collaboration with President Clinton and has emerged with a legislative record on which members can campaign. It has dodged the do-nothing label, but only by bringing compromise back into fashion.
Welfare as we know it is dead. A landmark reform measure will become the law of the land. Republicans deserve much credit for the program, but Clinton who campaigned on reform in 1992 will claim it.
A Safe Drinking Water Act emerged from conference this week that offers more protection than previously expected. The GOP has learned a frontal assault on environmental regulation won't play.
In the wake of the TWA disaster and the Olympic bombing, Clinton is likely to get anti-terrorist legislation after the August recess. Though it troubles both the gun lobby and some civil-liberties advocates, this hot button issue will give Clinton another win.
The Kennedy-Kassebaum health-care reform legislation will be enacted. It provides portability of insurance coverage. While nowhere near as sweeping as the ill-starred Clinton health package, the president will argue that he has kept another promise: To ease worries about the availablity (if not the affordability) of health-care coverage.
Finally, the GOP caved on the issue of a minimum-wage increase.
Members of Congress can now return to their districts and claim a record of accomplishment. Unfortunately for Bob Dole, so can President Clinton. He can also claim to have curbed the extremist tendencies of the Gingrich wing of the GOP and forced the debate to the center.
Dole appears to have zigged when he should have zagged. If he'd stayed in the Congress, he would be taking credit in the Rose Garden alongside Clinton for these many compromise victories. And in fact, much of his career has been devoted to just such compromises.
Instead, while his party has stampeded to the center, he's been campaigning on issues he's rarely championed but which are important to the right wing of his party. That puts him in danger of finding himself out on a limb all alone as Clinton and Republican members of Congress industriously saw it off.
What a difference an election on the horizon makes. A Republican Congress came to Washington 18 months ago to carry out a revolution. But the mandate for change turned out not to be as sweeping as first thought.
For starters, the middle class remains attached to its entitlements - especially Medicare. Republicans can argue that Democrats have demagogued the issue, but the GOP has still failed to persuade voters that substantial reductions in entitlement spending are needed and to dispel doubt about the fiscal feasibility of their program.
GOP proposals to cut the budget by hacking funding for environmental protection and other popular programs were also successfully portrayed as extreme, and the Republicans managed to get the blame for unnecessarily shutting down the government.
Lesson apparently learned, the Republican Congress has just completed several weeks of startling collaboration with President Clinton and has emerged with a legislative record on which members can campaign. It has dodged the do-nothing label, but only by bringing compromise back into fashion.
Welfare as we know it is dead. A landmark reform measure will become the law of the land. Republicans deserve much credit for the program, but Clinton who campaigned on reform in 1992 will claim it.
A Safe Drinking Water Act emerged from conference this week that offers more protection than previously expected. The GOP has learned a frontal assault on environmental regulation won't play.
In the wake of the TWA disaster and the Olympic bombing, Clinton is likely to get anti-terrorist legislation after the August recess. Though it troubles both the gun lobby and some civil-liberties advocates, this hot button issue will give Clinton another win.
The Kennedy-Kassebaum health-care reform legislation will be enacted. It provides portability of insurance coverage. While nowhere near as sweeping as the ill-starred Clinton health package, the president will argue that he has kept another promise: To ease worries about the availablity (if not the affordability) of health-care coverage.
Finally, the GOP caved on the issue of a minimum-wage increase.
Members of Congress can now return to their districts and claim a record of accomplishment. Unfortunately for Bob Dole, so can President Clinton. He can also claim to have curbed the extremist tendencies of the Gingrich wing of the GOP and forced the debate to the center.
Dole appears to have zigged when he should have zagged. If he'd stayed in the Congress, he would be taking credit in the Rose Garden alongside Clinton for these many compromise victories. And in fact, much of his career has been devoted to just such compromises.
Instead, while his party has stampeded to the center, he's been campaigning on issues important to the right wing of his party, though he's rarely addressed them before. That puts him in danger of finding himself out on a limb all alone as Clinton and Republican members of Congress industriously saw it off. by CNB