DATE: Wednesday, September 24, 1997         TAG: 9709240013

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial

                                            LENGTH:   63 lines

BUSTING THE BUDGET THE STING

Remember the balanced budget deal Congress and the White House struck just months ago? Apparently they don't. Spending bills now coming down the chute are busting the budget one after another.

True, the deficit is coming down thanks to a robust economy that is providing ample tax revenues. That surplus made it possible for the negotiators to enact a package of tax cuts instead of making tough spending choices and reforming entitlements.

But the good economic news won't continue forever and the entitlement problem isn't solved, simply deferred. Now is the time to deal with the hard issues rather than avoid them. Instead, Congress is indulging in a spending binge.

A military construction bill calls for spending $9.2 billion - $1.1 billion more than originally budgeted - for a 12 percent increase. Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain is urging that 129 items be removed using the line-item veto, but under the congressional proposal 41 states would get more money from Congress than under the Clinton administration budget. Spreading the largess widely may make the bill veto-proof.

The defense budget that is being put forward by Congress stands at $247.7 billion. That's $3.7 billion, or 1.5 percent, more than the administration recommended. Included in the dubious spending are funds for the missionless B-2 bomber, eight more cargo planes than requested, ships the Navy doesn't want, money for National Guard and reserve installations that could be better spent on regular military bases.

In short, we're looking at pork as usual. But times have changed. Post-Cold War budgets are tighter, so there's less leeway for wasteful, self-serving defense spending. And the balanced-budget deal requires fiscal restraint.

But, according to a Wall Street Journal report, more than a third of the added money would be spent in the home states of Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., and House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga. That may make the increases bulletproof.

So if Congress is sure to pump extra billions into these appropriations bills, will it redress the balance by spending less in other areas? In theory at least, a dollar can be added to one program only if it is subtracted from another. But don't count on that happening.

Consider the massive highway bill now working its way through Congress. So-called donor states (including Virginia) have been paying more in taxes than they have received in highway funds. As a result, they're in revolt. They want more, but the states that have profited from the status quo don't want to accept less.

Rather than make a hard choice, Congress is poised to solve the problem in characteristic fashion. Give everybody more! So the $103 billion transportation-authorization bill may wind up spending $27 billion more than budgeted over the next five years.

There's a name for promising to balance the budget and then promptly busting it: fraud. And the president is unlikely to heed McCain's advice and use the line-item veto to re-establish budgetary restraint. He, too, is in the free-lunch business.

Taxpayers have been bribed with tax cuts. The favor of other constituents is being bought with spending on roads and defense pork. But eventually, the bills will come due. The politicians buying popularity today don't plan to be around when that happens. But the rest of us will be unable to avoid the consequences when the cost of the con is revealed. The time to blow the whistle is now.

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