Letter from a Whig

...Therefore, each can be expected to look rather skeptically at budget requests emanating from bureaucratic subordinates...

...Many incumbent Republican congressmen and senators complained during the course of the campaign that their efforts were being undermined by Nixon operatives working through the Committee to Re-Elect the President...

...The embarrassment of Watergate and the failure of the President to campaign for some of them added to the bad feeling...

...He is aware of the fact that unless he does so, we will be faced with a deficit that could trigger a new inflationary spiral in spite of the economic controls now being used to keep the lid on...

...The second factor that will lead some normally conservative congressmen and senators to support liberal attacks on the President's programs is more serious...

...He has said he wants to get at the waste and he is appointing people he thinks will do the job for him...

...He has embarked on what appears to be a serious campaign against the wasteful federal bureaucracy...

...But still there is something wrong with what's going on...

...Thus, he, rejected the advice of those who said he would have to raise, taxes or "reform" the tax system in a way designed to increase revenues, and he has apparently scrapped the idea of a value-added tax which might have allowed Washington to extract more money from the average American with less pain...

...In other words, a simple across the board attack on spending, while admirable in that it could save everyone some money, does not in itself constitute much of a policy...

...Given this fact, the appointment of Elliott Richardson as Secretary of Defense makes as much sense as sending Cap Weinberger over to HEW...

...Each man is viewed as essentially hostile to the self-defined goals the agency is to manage...

...There can be little doubt that the President has decided to go after waste in all areas and after substance in several...

...This is not to say that defense spending and social welfare programs will ultimately be cut to exactly the same degree, but it does mean that a concerted effort is going to be made to cut back in all areas - including defense...

...There is undoubtedly a good bit of waste in the best of programs, but some of them are necessary and others are not...

...The course he is charting may prove politically dangerous for the reasons outlined above and because he is apparently going to take on everyone at once, and it begs the important substantive questions that should be asked about the goals and values of various government programs...

...The spending ceiling never was adopted, although it did get through the House, and the President began impounding funds to stave off the huge deficit that seemed inevitable a year or so ago...

...His economic advisors have told him that he must either cut spending or raise taxes in order to reduce this swelling deficit, and his political advisors have informed him that the American people aren't in any mood for new taxes...

...Washington observers are waiting to see whether the President's people are willing or able to make the necessary distinctions to accomplish this.ccomplish this...

...The merits of the case, however, are less important than the feelings of those on the Hill who blame the President and appear intent on getting even with him...

...To do this one must separate the good programs from the bad so as to save the one and eliminate the others...

...An across the board attack on everything will perhaps reduce the size of things, but is not likely to improve the quality of government very significantly...

...If the Congress or the Courts take that weapon from him many believe that there will be little anyone can do about either the size of the government or the burgeoning deficits that threaten the value of the American dollar...

...They felt that committee fund-raisers were drying up funds they desperately needed and were put off by what they saw as the highhanded manner of the second-echelon people they were forced to deal with...

...Every agency and program has some sort of a constituency on the Hill and one can safely assume that dozens of bureaucrats are at this very moment burning up the phone lines to mobilize their friends and defenders...

...The President's people, for their part, argue that they did help by channeling some money into crucial campaigns and dismissed as a copout the charges made against the President himself...

...There is a widespread feeling that the Congress has allowed the executive branch to get away with too much in recent years and many senior congressmen and senators have become increasingly alarmed by this trend...

...During the campaign and since the election, he has continually stressed the need for restraint, and his ability to impound appropriated funds looms as a major weapon in his fight against runaway spending...

...This is a course that must of necessity result in confrontation after confrontation with the Congress...

...Even before Congress convenes, House Democrats have voted by an overwhelming margin to oppose the President on Vietnam and seventeen senators have filed suit to prevent him from impounding funds appropriated by the Congress...

...Last Fall many of those who supported the President's proposed spending ceiling did so because they felt the Congress was simply refusing to confront the problem of matching income to spending...

...Thus, the attack on the President's power to impound funds has the support of men like Sam Irvin and James Eastland as well as Vance Hartke and Ralph Nader...

...If they win, they will be reasserting their power all right, but they will also make it very difficult for the President either to hold the line on federal spending or gain much real control over the various federal agencies...

...The appointments when viewed from this perspective are certainly logical enough, and one can hardly question the President's intent...

...Thus, in spite of the President's overwhelming victory over George Mc-Govern in November, his operatives are being reminded that liberal Democrats dominate to Senate, are gaining more and more influence in the House, and simply do not intend to let the President get away with very much this time around...

...The liberal cause will inadvertently receive support from non-liberal and conservative congressmen and senators who are either upset with the President or concerned about what many see as the diminished role of the Congress in our government...

...And if preliminary indications mean anything, conservatives as well as liberals will feel the heat as their favorite programs get the knife because it now appears that cuts will be made on something like an across the board basis...