Letter from a Whig

...for senators it was $230...

...If the rate of increase continues, it has been estimated that the state budget will grow from 1973's $9.3 billion to $47 billion by 1989...

...Advising the task force were people like Milton Friedman, Peter Drucker, Roger Freeman, James Buchanan, and others of equal distinction...

...If you're interested in knowing how much the senators and congressmen earned, the Commerce Clearing House broke down their $42,500 annual salaries, beth per diem and in terms of an hourly salary...

...The system is flawed, they concluded, by a bias in favor of public spending...

...The system is producing more public goods than are desired by the consuming public...

...182 are undecided, and 74 declined to comment...

...The implication was that the legislature would be unable to find new uses for the money...

...87 do not...

...48 are undecided...

...Many Republicans are concerned that the upcoming election will be turned into a referendum on Nixon's ability to govern, and political analyst Kevin Phillips has given estimates of up to fifty House seat losses for the GOP...

...On the other hand, the public interest in having that program is diffused...

...That doctrine is drawn from Marx and Nietzsche, Marx supplying its wish to make man whole again and Nietzsche furnishing the partisan bite of willful mastery...

...But the system of administered tolerance does not work by itself in any context of opinions or with any cast of characters...

...During the first session of the Ninetythird Congress 17,528 bills were introduced, at an approximate cost of $1,500 per introduction...

...As a practical matter, government spending could not be reduced significantly by eliminating individual bad programs...

...The opportunity was a statewide referendum-Proposition One on the ballot--which sought by constitutional amendment to limit state expenditures to their 1973level, as a percentage of state personal income, and in the future gradually to reduce that percentage, The proponents' strategy was simple: let the people vote on how much government they want--and they will vote for less than we have now...

...On the way we have seen that liberalism does after all have an understanding of itself as a whole in the work of liberal politics...

...There were also a number of panel sessions, on everything from d~tente and Red trade to the women's movement and equal rights...

...Six Republican seats, in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, and California, are up in special elections and the GOP (under normal circumstances) should hold on to at least four of those seats...

...Ashbrook, however, was able to catch the prevailing sentiment well when he quoted John Greenleaf Whittier: '~When faith is lost, when honor dies, the man is dead...

...I have not attempted to examine the doctrine here, but only to show some of its consequences and its hostility to liberalism...

...And many Republicans, including the new Minority Leader John Rhodes (R-Ariz...

...After the defeat of Proposition One, there is reason to wonder if the growing encroachments of public power on individual freedom can ever be reduced...

...Although it is a Democratic district Nixon won it in 1968 and 1972 and it sent the late Republican John Saylor to Congress for thirteen terms...

...Such extraneous commentary is used for all kinds of pertinent political activities, including the praising of a constituent on the birthday of his dog...

...If he is reflective, he--or she---will wonder why the separateness of human beings is unchangeable and what this implies about the power of human beings...

...Similar forebodings shroud the February 19 defeat of the Republican candidate for Vice President Ford's Michigan seat...

...A figure hotly contested, but all parties relied on the figures of Professor C. Lowell Harriss who made clear, however, that in California, where taxes are above the national average, total revenues--as opposed to taxe~ do approach the 44 percent estimate used by proponents...

...The committee was initially prone to vindicative partisan attacks, because of the liberal Democrats who control 8 The Alternative April 1974 the committee But Chairman Rodino is an attempt at bipartisan conciliation first appointed John Doar as Chief Counsel (a "Republican" who is registered as an Independent and who has, reportedly, never voted for a Republican in his life...

...Background The proponents of Proposition One felt that government had grown too large and that traditional efforts and mechanisms to halt that growth have proved hopeless...

...And still, with rare exception, no one ever really knows what the legislation passed truly means...

...It's worth their while to spend a great deal of energy on it...

...bloc of fifty Southern Democrats, for example, show no signs of unanimity on this question...

...Constituent letters calling for impeachment have slackened off, but one Republican congressman (who had indicated at home that he was going to keep an open mind on the issue of impeachment until the House Judiciary Committee has concluded its inquiry) received an angry letter from a constituent complaining that any efforts in support of the President were "divisive" and "damaging" for the country...

...Of the 32,325 pages in the Congressional Record for 1973, 8,325 were devoted to the so-called extraneous commentary...

...By any standard the 1974 Conservative Political Action Conference has to be considered a success...

...Honey, if that don't say it all, I don't know what does...

...A. Lawrence Chickering California's Proposition One ON NOVEMBER 6, 1973, California voters had an historic opportunity to call a halt to the indefinite growth of government and to begin rolling back gradually the share of state output controlled by Sacramento...

...Such a volume of legislation might not seem surprising, considering the "many urgent problems" confronting the nation...

...But as the President outlined his major legislative goals for the coming year the eyes of Congress still focused on Watergate...

...35:23.35 For those interested in the "vital" statistics of the first session of the Ninety-third Congress, the Commerce Clearing House's Congressional Index reported the following: The House of Representatives was in session for 175 days, for a total of 790 hours...

...Each panel was made up of %Vho's who in American Conservatism," the notable exception being the absence of our own distinguished editor and domestic beer advisor RET...

...Letter from a Whig f by C. Bascom Slemp "One Year of ff/atergate Is Enough" C~vVAsHINGTON)--It was that time of year again...

...The great virtue of this proposal [Proposition One] is precisely that it lumps together all of these little programs into one bigger total and thus makes it possible for the public interest that is, The Alternative April 1974 9...

...The hourly rate for senators would be $46 and for congressmen $53...

...Of the legislation that passed 244 enactments were signed by President Nixon, and one bill (the war powers measure) became law through Congress' override of a veto...

...Republicans, cabinet members, and members of the diplomatic corps applauded loudly while most Democrats refrained from even perfunctory applause...

...Liberals and conservatives can be found on both sides of the fence...

...The pessimists, on the other hand, wonder how marketable a constitutional expenditure limitation can be in any form...

...Impeachment The question of impeachment has also reached new heights...

...Opponents also contested the $47 billion figure...

...The evenings were highlighted with banquet speakers like Governor Ronald Reagan and Senator James Buckley (C-R-N.Y...

...The same survey also revealed that 89 favor resignation...

...A showdown vote over whether or not Nixon should resign was avoided during one panel when the M.C., Dan Joy (an aide to Congressman John Ashbrook [R-Ohio]), headed off the vote by calling it "inappropriate...

...In its laborious efforts Congress filled 32,325 pages of that award-winning perlustration we have so often talked about-the Congressional Record Given an estimate of 1,500 words per page, the total word output would be 65 million or, as the Commerce Clearing House reports, 233,000 words for each new public act...

...is currently studying whether or not Nixon ought to be impeached and, in the process, will attempt to determine what constitutes an impeachable offense...

...At the rate of $209 per page for the Congressional Record, Congress' fiscal restraint is less than praiseworthy...

...On the issue of impeachment a recent UPI survey indicated that of the 402 congressmen surveyed 55 favor impeachment...

...On the other hand it does seem a rather expensive escapade to introduce that many pieces of legislation in light of the fact that the Senate passed only 726 bills, and the House passed even less, 717...

...In fact, as the constituent wrote, the issue was all but settled since a leading Jesuit in his parish had prayed for an "impeached" President for Christmas...

...The polls conducted since the election leave doubt about what happened...

...In 1930, 15 percent of personal income in the United States went to support government at all levels...

...And many supporters of Proposition One are hopeful it may be resurrected in a more marketable form next November...

...Most important, of course, the proponents believed that a majority of the people agreed with them...

...The radical doctrine of self-expression, implying the facile, though destructive, creation of a common body of human beings, stands in plain opposition to these opinions...

...If the special congressional election in Pennsylvania in February is any indication of the voter trend this fall Republicans had better prepare for bad times...

...Each one of us saves a few cents, but for the special interests, those cents accumulate into a great many dollars...

...The task force concluded that the problem could not be contained by conventional means...

...What appeared to be a warm reception on national television was, in fact, a partisan show...

...Whether '~one y e a r . . , is enough" still remains to be seen...

...In the past the difference has been made up by regular tax increases...

...Professor Friedman gave the reason for the bias as follows: ~'[W]hen you take one program itself, all of the people who have a special interest in that program land in Sacramento like a ton of bricks...

...In the face of this situation, on September 1, 1972, Governor Reagan assembled a special task force to study the problem and recommend a solution...

...Political Action Conference The weekend of January 25 saw a congregation of conservatives in Washington, D.C., the likes of which had not been seen for at least a decade...

...The Republican counsel for the House impeachment inquiry, Albert Jenner, in a "conciliatory" gesture also modified his statement that the President could be held responsible for the actions of his subordinates (even if he did not know about them) and added, only if he (Nixon) specifically authorized them...

...With this understanding, which does not have to be sophisticated in most, a liberal citizen will found his opinions on the separateness of human beings, and accept that there are others outside himself who have rights and to whom he has duties...

...But the conference also served to highlight that an unanimity of opinion vis-a-vis the body politic and political strategy for the upcoming elections does not exist, even among conservatives...

...A few numbers tell much of the story...

...are awaiting further developments without being apologists for the Administration...

...With less reason, liberals now give nervous hospitality to the varieties of radical self-expression...

...As for partisan spirit, one may suggest a moderate, retrospective anger at the angry, as it is rather late for a liberal backlash against their radical enemies...

...WCatergate" is considered the overriding factor, but Republican difficulties are compounded by the fact that sixteen incumbent GOP congressmen have already announced their intent to retire, and more retirements are expected...

...President Nixon came before the Congress to deliver his State of the Union message...

...They argued that expenditures for many state services---especially education-were leveling off from this record high growth period...

...Congressman Joe Waggonner's (DLa...

...Obscenity takes the verbal form of pornography so that it can have ~redeeming social value," and women's liberation is placated with quotas...

...Fortunately, the situation is not as bleak as it might appear...

...This compares with only thirteen announced retirements by House Democrats...

...Contrary to the radical analysis, liberal society requires successful politics in which competent politicians act imaginatively and speak skillfully to produce a ruling majority...

...139 do not...

...Although it is generally the Democrats who support impeachment and the Republicans who do not, the issue is just not that clear cut...

...The House Judiciary Committee, under the chairmanship of Peter Redino (D-N.J...

...Liberals today are not likely to take this requirement for granted, for they sense quite correctly that their leaders have been outgeneraled by Richard Nixon...

...He will regard the making of a whole community not as a matter of course, but as requiring care in construction and preservation...

...But when the verdict was in and the people had spoken their piece, Proposition One went down by a margin of 55 percent to 45 percent...

...Nixon's end may, indeed, be near, but as one Washington official recently observed, it is not yet in sight...

...Sponsored by the American Conservative Union and Young Americans for Freedom, the 1974 Conservative Political Action Conference offered a packed agenda, covering everything from precinct organization, youth campaigns, campaign finance and reform, issue development, campaign media, campaign management, to the role of the party in the campaign...

...Political observers, however, will not have to wait until November to test their theories...

...Democrat John Murtha defeated Republican Harry Fox by a slim margin of 220 votes...

...As a result, whenever you try to take off one special program at a time, the special interest is suppressed...

...and 126 declined to comment...

...Perhaps a more important statistic: for the last two decades total public revenues in California have been growing at a rate of 10 percent per year, while personal income has been rising only 7.5 percent a year...

...Based on the number of days the House and Senate convened, the '~daily salary" for congressmen was $240...

...As we have seen, politics is recognized as important only if the connection between reason and self-love is understood as a problem for men...

...More recently Rodino has spoken of an expeditious inquiry into the question of impeachment...

...Impeachment Continued Impeachment, of course, still remains an issue on Capitol Hill...

...Our senators met on 184 days, or 1,084 hours...

...For the pessimists (including this observer), the real question concerns the validity of a long-cherished libertarian assumption--that the mass of people are fed up with government and want less of it...

...To be sure, liberal hospitality in the system of administered tolerance tends to transform expression into speech and interest...

...His Democratic colleagues would (reportedly) like to drag out the inquiry and allow it to climax just before the 1974 congressional elections--in the national interest, of course...

...In 1950, the figure was 32 percent, and in 1973 it had grown to 44.7 percent in California...

...To support able politicians, certain fundamental opinions hostile to the radical doctrine of self-expression are also required...