THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, December 26, 1995 TAG: 9512260062
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JANET HOOK, LOS ANGELES TIMES
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
No matter how the budget struggle between President Clinton and Republicans will be resolved, the GOP has already accomplished a remarkable feat since it took control of Congress a year ago: It has utterly transformed the terms of debate in Washington, making a mockery of the hoary truths that guided policy and politics before the 1994 elections threw Democrats out of power on Capitol Hill.
In the pre-1994 political world, Medicare was untouchable. Today, Clinton and the Republicans are arguing not about whether to cut projected spending from the health program for the elderly but about how much to cut.
For years, states were regarded with suspicion as agents of social policy. Now it seems that they can do no wrong and that they're clearly destined to get more power to shape the nation's social safety net.
Tax increases, once the bread and butter of deficit reduction, are now unthinkable. Balancing the federal budget, long dismissed as a throwaway line for conservative politicians, is the generally accepted framework for almost everything.
``They have engineered an incredibly dramatic shift in the political culture of Washington, from one of distributing benefits to one of austerity,'' said Ross K. Baker, a professor of political science at Rutgers University. ``The theme the Republicans have set is one that Clinton has tuned his instrument to. What the Republicans have done really transcends legislation.''
No one yet knows exactly what the legislative legacy of this GOP Congress will be. At this moment, the outlook is mixed. With the year drawing to a close, Republicans are bumping up against obstacles at almost every turn: budget talks stalled, their welfare reform bill facing a veto, telecommunications legislation snagged and very little of their much-heralded ``Contract With America'' actually signed into law.
``They have succeeded in changing the terms of debate, but they have not succeeded in accomplishing any of their legislative goals,'' said Ann Lewis, deputy director of Clinton's re-election campaign.
But this is only the midpoint of a two-year term for the Republican Congress, and much of its agenda is tied up in the torturous talks with Clinton over how to balance the budget by the year 2002. Much is at stake in those talks because the issues on the table - proposals to curb the growth of Medicare, to end the federal guarantee of health care assistance to the poor under Medicaid, to cut taxes and to slow the government's fast-growing entitlement programs - are fundamental to the GOP goal of not just balancing the budget but of restructuring government in a lasting fashion.
If the budget talks collapse, Republicans may have only themselves to blame. Having built a strong consensus behind the idea of balancing the budget and other broad GOP goals, some Democrats argue, Republicans are at risk of coming up empty-handed because they won't give on the details.
``We are acting on the Republican agenda,'' said Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, D-Conn. ``With a little flexibility, these folks can achieve an extraordinary victory. But they are about to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.''
But even if no long-term budget-balancing plan is enacted, Republicans will not have failed on the budget-cutting front. Clinton has already signed seven appropriations bills that by themselves go a long way toward the GOP goal of reducing government spending.
He has signed bills that would cut spending for energy and water programs by 6 percent, transportation programs by almost 9 percent and legislative branch operations by more than 10 percent. Some programs took far deeper cuts: Rural housing grants were cut in half; the Appalachian Regional Commission was sliced by more than one-third; dozens of programs and agencies were wiped out, from the $15 billion Interstate Commerce Commission to the Coast Guard's $8.5 million buoy-replacement project.
Those appropriations bills did not go as far as some conservative activists had hoped in abolishing, not just trimming, federal programs like the Appalachian commission. In that respect, as in others, Republicans have fallen short of the standards of revolutionary change that they set for themselves at the beginning of the year. But compared with the incremental changes that usually are the measure of movement in Washington, they have made important strides toward their goal of a smaller, less expensive government.
KEYWORDS: FEDERAL BUDGET U.S. CONGRESS REPUBLICAN PARTY by CNB