Bipartisanship's Short Shelf Life

0 Comments | Insight on the News, July 2, 2001 | by Jennifer G. Hickey

Democrats preached peace, love and understanding as they took control of the Senate. But with the appropriations season set to kick off, this political show is destined for a limited run.

Thrift shops can be fun, and Fran Osborn was so intrigued by the rattle she heard when she shook the small box bearing the monogram M.P.G. that she quickly laid down a dollar (plus tax) for the item. Fran tried to put the best face on it she could after discovering in the package a smaller box with the words "Millard P. Griffin" and "Metrocrest Funeral Home" on an attached tag. She had not purchased a long-lost treasure but the misplaced cremains of poor Mr. Griffin, who had died in 1996, proving once again that appearances can be deceiving.

Certainly deception was the rage in Washington on June 6 -- coincidentally 57 years after another D-Day -- when the Senate was gaveled to order with a new (big D) Democratic majority. Led by the bipartisan urgencies of the new Senate majority leader, Thomas Daschle of South Dakota, Democratic committee chairmen oozed palliatives of cooperation and comity, to which Republicans hissed analgesic reassurances through clenched teeth.

The leaders of the two parties posed for the cameras like Patton's troops meeting the Red Army at the Elbe. The cameras clicked and flashed to record the moment for all those middle-of-the-road voters at home who want a divided government full of folks who just love one another.

With the humiliations of minority status fresh in the minds of both Daschle and Republican Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi, plus an election around the corner, it was evident this nicely wrapped bipartisanship was destined for the cremains table at a white-elephant sale -- particularly with appropriations season and debate on a patients' bill of rights about to begin.

Even before the change of power in the Senate, it was clear President George W. Bush's attempts more effectively to use the bully pulpit of the presidency would not go unchallenged by opponents in and out of Congress. As Bush traveled to the Florida Everglades to announce a $219 million budget request for conservation efforts (and repair damage done by continued criticism of his environmental policies), certain piratical elements of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights bypassed GOP members of the commission and circulated to the New York Times, Washington Post and ABC's Nightline a draft report alleging racial bias in the Florida elections.

Perhaps by coincidence, the report fingered Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who just happened to be with the president for a photo-op on the day before the report's release, and Florida's GOP Secretary of State Katherine Harris. Republican members of the commission saw the draft report for the first time in the newspapers.

As the president turned the most recent GOP victory in the Senate into law by signing the $1.35 trillion tax-cut bill, Daschle was indicating that many of the provisions, including a doubling of the child tax credit, would be reexamined. With 15 Democrats having voted for the bill, including Montana Sen. Max Baucus, who played a key role in its passage, the mischief for which Daschle may lust will not be easy. Cognizant of the philosophical malleability of a handful of senators, House Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas has drawn the battle lines, stressing: "[A] minimum-wage bill will not pass without tax benefits to counter unemployment effects" of the minimum-wage increase. The Texan sees a cut in the rate of double taxation on capital gains as the most likely measure to move forward. Armey also has called for relieving any sunset on the tax cuts because "the benefits will be more profound if we can assure the American people it will be permanent."

House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt of Missouri asserted the Bush tax cut "turns its back on fiscal responsibility" even as two appropriations subcommittees already were bursting their budgetary britches. With the ink on the tax cut yet to dry, Republicans and Democrats joined in bipartisan bliss to approve an $18.9 billion spending bill for public lands, some $800 million more than Bush requested. The House Appropriations subcommittee on Agriculture approved a $15.5 billion spending bill, a $110 million increase over Bush's budget.

With the kickoff of the season of spending, the press conferences and demagoguery began anew. Highlighting what he perceived as "the antisocial priorities of this administration" Rep. John LaFalce, D-N.Y., blasted its decision not to invoke emergency provisions to release $40 million in supplemental appropriations for a mortgage-insurance program. Run by the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD's) Federal Housing Administration, the program insures mortgages on rental-apartment buildings for low-income individuals. Why has HUD asked Congress for supplemental funding? The $101 million appropriated for credit subsidies for the current fiscal year already has been exhausted.

In a Washington Post column, Office of Management and Budget Director Mitch Daniels counseled members of Congress to "eliminate games in gimmicks, even as we ... differ and compromise on substance." But it will take more than opinion pieces in Washington Beltway newspapers to convince Americans that "fiscal responsibility" doesn't mean spending more on programs producing few or no results.