Editorial Political default
Steinfels, Margaret O'Brien
Political default In spite of the drama of presidential vetoes and congressional brinkmanship, the Battle of the Budget is not exactly a clash of Titans. Skirmishing policy wonks looks more like...
...Not that devolution to the states is objectionable in itself...
...The revolutionary 104th Congress is less about smaller budgets than about reconfiguring the balance of power in the United States...
...Skirmishing policy wonks looks more like it...
...When it comes to dollars and deficit reduction, there may not finally be much difference between the Clinton budget and the Gingrich budget (though the "Blue-Dog" Democrats' budget, which seems to take the best and reduce the worst of both budgets, may offer the basis for a reasonable compromise...
...The critical issues are those of fairness, justice, and responsibility for the common good...
...Should the legislation behind the Republican budget eventually prevail, it will change the way Americans govern themselves...
...Clinton and Gingrich seem to agree that that question should be left to the American people in next November's election...
...What merit is there in returning to a system of proven corruption and failure...
...It is hard to see how this can be done without an important role for the federal government...
...According to a series in the Washington Post (January 19-22) on the budget negotiations, Gingrich, taken by President Bill Clinton's charm and limitless gift of gab, was convinced that the administration would ultimately give way to Republican budget-cutting pressures...
...In the meantime, a budget is needed for a federal government that the shutdowns have succeeded in showing to be more, rather than less, necessary...
...We cannot, he said, "go back to an era of fending for yourself...
...It is the principle of federal government itself-its proven ability to protect individuals, especially the most vulnerable, and to counterbalance the power of the powerful...
...To almost everyone's surprise, including his own, it was Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga...
...In this issue, Kevin Kelly examines how well, and how poorly, states do in managing and administering what are, after all, national programs (see page 14...
...How will minimal standards and guarantees be established and maintained when all fifty states are "experimenting" with welfare...
...Well into 1996, there is still no end, and still no budget...
...Forcing the government to close down two times was not a good idea...
...That makes sense, if Democrats and Republicans alike will campaign on that basis...
...Sounding like a good moderate Republican in his State of the Union address, Clinton declared that "the era of big government is over...
...If local control were what the Republicans are really after, not states but cities and counties would be the more obvious choice for block grants...
...The Republicans argue to the contrary: power and responsibility should be returned to states and to individuals...
...We have to go forward to the era of working together-as a community, as a team, as one America...
...The Republicans have paid dearly in internal dissension and public disgruntlement...
...But those pressures backfired...
...who blinked during what everyone expected was the budget endgame at the turn of the year- a game the Republicans felt destined to win...
...The reforms of the Progressive era, the New Deal, and the War on Poverty helped to contain that kind of abuse and to redress the inequalities of political power, education, and employment opportunities among the states...
...At the same time, he defended sharing burdens and responsibilities...
...Devolution to the states in the form of block grants, the end of entitlements, and cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, and welfare may mean a smaller federal government, but not necessarily a smaller, more efficient government over-all...
...It is not yet clear how fifty state governments will do better at what is now being done by one, the feds, especially when the states will have fewer dollars...
...Welfare reform experiments in states like Wisconsin and Michigan are still experiments...
...But is that what their programs will finally achieve...
...But if the Republicans have not won, neither have they lost...
...Furthermore, if in the next several weeks they also force the federal government to default, thereby terrifying the bond market, they will find themselves deemed doubly irresponsible-not your traditional Republicans...
...But Clinton is holding out for something else...
...Sending block grants to the states sets up a "race to the bottom," a politics of competition among states and within states over who will not care for the most vulnerable- the poor, the elderly, children, and the sick and disabled-while handing the levers of power to special interests that have always wielded undue influence in most state houses...
Vol. 123 • February 1996 • No. 3
