GOP budget ax is mightier than Clinton's veto pen

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Feb 26, 1996 | by Stephen Moore, | Tim Penny

The real, unreported story was that voters scarcely missed the thousands of other projects and agencies that were inactive: the departments of Energy and Housing and Urban Development, the Export-Import Bank and domestic-economic programs, to name a few. Only those who make their livelihoods off these vast and expensive irrelevancies minded or noticed.

Congress can regain control of the budget process and the debt by passing a continuing resolution that does three things: (1) To keep America on a balanced-budget track, all programs - except for a handful of vital ones - should be funded at a maximum, not a minimum, of 75 percent; (2) programs that were funded at less than 75 percent in the appropriations process should be funded at the lesser of the House or Senate level; and (3) the budget savings from the CR should approximate the $25 billion of forgone savings in 1996 from entitlement reforms. Federal expenditures then would remain on a level that would produce a balanced budget by 2002.

This strategy would achieve three goals: (1) It would keep high-priority programs fully funded; (2) it would keep most other agencies operating on a skeleton basis, rather than forcing a complete shutdown, which angers voters; and (3) it would cut the deficit by up to $50 billion. Congress could defend these cuts by arguing they are necessary to keep faith with the voters in the quest to balance the budget - even in the face of White House obstructionism.

The instantaneous response of Republicans to this hard-line strategy is: Clinton will veto the CR. It is a sign of how poorly Republicans are faring in the budget war that GOP leaders are spooked by Clinton's vetoes. If cowardice is dictating strategy, the budget war basically is over. The GOP may as well capitulate to Clinton's make-believe balanced budget and end the charade.

If Clinton were to veto a budget-restraint CR, then Congress could start sending the White House line-item appropriations, beginning with the highest priorities. First a bill to fund veterans' hospitals. Then a bill to fund the Census Bureau. And on down the line. Low-priority programs, of course, should never get funded. If Clinton vetoes these single-item spending bills, he has to tell the American public why he is forcing travelers to stand in lines to get a passport or why he is keeping Yosemite National Park closed. It would be Clinton who would be choosing to shut down essential programs to blackmail Republicans into accepting his spending priorities rather than the other way around.

After four months of futile wrangling about the budget, balanced budgeters in Congress have only one option remaining: unilaterally stop deficit spending right now Congress has the constitutional power of the purse. Now is the time to use it.

Stephen Moore is director of fiscal-policy studies at the Cato Institute. Tim Penny is a former Democratic congressman from Minnesota and a senior fellow at the Cato Institute.