Make the Deal, Get the Credit

Insight on the News, Dec 13, 1999 by Jennifer G. Hickey

The budget deal came in at $390 billion as lawmakers and wanna-bes looked forward to general elections a year away and presidential candidates began to posture outrageously.

Perhaps it is little more than irony that, after seemingly endless displays of budgetary hyperbole and flagellation, the Republican-controlled Congress and the Democratic-controlled White House finally settled on a budget deal as Americans prepared to celebrate Turkey Day. Having sated themselves on a steady diet of continuing resolutions, the adversaries at last served up a $390 billion deal and prepared to enjoy the political feast.

Late in the evening of Nov. 16, Republican and Democratic leaders emerged from budget talks in full stride and hell-bent for reaching the closest microphone to claim victory. The lead Republican negotiator, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete Domenici of New Mexico, said he was "thrilled with this bill." House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt of Missouri beamed like Howdy Doody and declared, "The president got his priorities; we got our priorities!"

The not-so-silver lining for taxpayers is that the fiscal 2000 budget is even fatter than the one in 1999.

Somehow, the GOP had allowed a lame-duck president -- who less than a year ago was on the verge of being impeached -- whittle away a proposed 1.4 percent across-the-board spending cut to 0.38 percent. Nonetheless, it resulted in a savings of $1.3 billion. GOP Rep. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, who represents the not-so-mythical Okie from Muskogee, said of the cut that "even if it were 0.001 percent ... it set a precedent," although it wasn't enough and he voted nay in the end.

While the GOP leadership was crowing about the alleged 0.38 percent cut, the Clinton administration and congressional Democrats nabbed funding for an alleged additional 50,000 police officers on the streets, or somewhere; restoration of billions of dollars in Medicare cuts; and the payment of $1 billion in claimed arrear-ages allegedly owed to the United Nations.

Ironically, for all of their chatter about Republicans being the obstructionist party, it was the minority which stalled passage in the final days. Drawing the first line in the sand was West Virginia Sen. Robert C. Byrd, who demanded environmental regulations be rewritten to help mining interests in his state, followed by Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, who warned the budget "probably wouldn't pass the Senate" unless a provision were included to subsidize satellite TV viewers in rural states. And, of course, Wisconsin's Democrats were heavily into the obstruction as they held out for gouging the consumers of dairy products to keep more cows fully employed.

To get the money for the United Nations, the administration was forced to agree to a measure barring funds for international groups that advocate abortion. Some 135 House members, including five Republicans, had signed a letter to Clinton opposing the provision enacted by Ronald Reagan in 1984, arguing it would set back "women's rights." Unimpressed, New Jersey Republican Rep. Chris Smith refused to flinch on the issue because any "inconvenience ... pales in significance when compared to the lives" being saved. His staunch refusal to buckle so angered California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer that she promised "to make this a political issue at the next election."

Since Congress will not address the recent agreement signed by the Clinton-Gore administration to support China's entry into the World Trade Organization, or WTO, until late next year, most politicians hope to sidestep the issue for now. But not Vice President Al Gore. Associated with the WTO agreement, which is part of Clinton's pursuit of a "legacy" other than his Monica Lewinsky escapades, he risks a heavy union and environmentalist backlash. With former New Jersey senator Bill Bradley edging upward in the polls, Gore moved quickly to reassure big labor and to tell his base he would shape future trade agreements "to better protect our own environment and the global environment as well." Environmentalists, including Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, say the administration needs "to go much further." What the furious labor leaders are saying cannot be printed in this magazine.

Then there are the African-Americans. In an effort to counter Bradley's courtship of minorities, Gore began airing a carefully targeted ad on approximately 250 Urban Radio Network stations. The spot preaches about the Goliath-like Gore who "stood up to the Republicans ... to make sure Carol Moseley-Braun got her appointment as ambassador" and who is "fighting to make sure the Republicans don't stop our black nominees from becoming judges." Not bad on the hypocrisy scale for the man who first used the Willie Horton issue.

Coming off his Madison Square Garden fund-raiser aimed at ESPN dads, Bradley began airing an understated spot featuring Maureen Drumm, a mother who says she "is alive today" because of a Bradley-sponsored amendment that permits mothers to stay in the hospital as long as 48 hours after giving birth. But there still is a little Washington politician left in the former New York Knick: The legislation referred to was passed after Drumm gave birth.