Looks backward at the Republican
Levinson, Mark
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Working late one night this summer, trying to figure out how to download some information from the Internet, I dozed off at my computer. My head rested on the keyboard, and as I...
...Except for Social Security, defense, and interest on the national debt, everything the federal government spent money on was cut: from education and student loans to infrastructure and environmental cleanup...
...Before the Republican revolution, these programs automatically expanded during recessions when the need for them increased...
...As the economy slowed, state tax revenues declined...
...But the American people have a much more complicated attitude toward government...
...PORTER: What happened to the Republican revolution of the late 1990s...
...Clinton's support for the balanced budget was not only bad politics, it was also bad economics...
...By the mid-1990s the Republicans had created an ideologically driven local and national organizing network...
...When Clinton embraced the balanced budget, that was the signal that Democrats, or at least Clinton, had adopted the Republican agenda...
...My head rested on the keyboard, and as I slept I must have pressed a complicated sequence of keys...
...However, before Clinton embraced the balanced budget, congressional Democrats had Republicans on the defensive by counterposing their massive spending cuts, which hurt the middle class and the poor, with their generous tax breaks for the wealthy...
...In the mistaken belief that the budget deficit was a burden on future generations, we cut the hell out of programs that guarantee our children a future...
...They felt that both the Republicans and Democrats were too extreme...
...But the Republicans cut the federal government's contribution even while more mothers were being required to work...
...REPORTER: Why did he do it...
...In 1994 the United States's budget deficit, at less than 3 percent of GDP, was smaller than that of all other G-7 countries (the seven largest economies in the world...
...REPORTER: It has been very rare in American politics that a party actually implements its platform...
...But the curious fact is their programs were never that popular...
...Harry Truman once said that when faced with a choice between fake Republicans and Republicans the voters will choose the real thing...
...REPORTER: Why was it bad economics...
...It's ironic and sad...
...The program— increased public investment, paid for by progressive taxation and the elimination of unnecessary subsidies and tax breaks...
...The other half had bowed to pressures from the infant formula companies...
...The safety net had been shredded and the government was no longer a countercyclical force cushioning the economy's fall...
...DISSENT: Because of the belief, common at the time, that states always knew better...
...And they did...
...economy over seven years [Republicans] or ten years [Democrats...
...When states attempted to move more welfare mothers into work, they had to provide more child care...
...Virtually all the programs that were converted to block grants were already administered at the state and local level...
...This group formed the Democratic Leadership party (DLP...
...And please remember that we can't return articles unless they're accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope...
...The party soon fizzled and most of its members drifted into the Republican party...
...DISSENT: One by-product of the Republican revolution was that millions of people realized that politics mattered...
...The DLP seemed to have everything: media attention, money, support from well-endowed foundations and think tanks...
...In a way, it was modeled on the Contract With America, but it had much more popular support than the Contract...
...The Medicaid block grant forced states to make very difficult choices...
...Some cut back on care for the elderly, disabled, or blind, and others just reduced coverage for the poor...
...State and local agencies did that...
...Check all your figures, dates, names, etc.— they're the author's responsibility...
...Spending on these programs actually went down when the need was growing...
...REPORTER: Other examples...
...Most states are required by law to balance their budgets...
...It was the most radical transfer of power from one level of government to another since the New Deal...
...By 1994 competitive bidding saved more than $1 billion a year, which was plowed back into the program so an additional 1.5 million low-income pregnant women, infants and children—nearly one of every four served— could qualify...
...Please use inclusive language so that we don't have to make adjustments during editing...
...For example, during the recession in the early 1990s the number of people receiving food stamps rose by five million people...
...Previously, the federal government shared the additional child care costs...
...The cuts were not small...
...In 1995 the debate between the Democrats and Republicans was, "Should we cut over $1 trillion from the U.S...
...REPORTER: For example...
...DissENr: Republicans believed that government was the cause of our economic problems...
...Since that night, I have slept at my computer regularly, but so far I have been unable to duplicate that extraordinary feat...
...2) Please don't write to ask whether we're interested in such and such an article—it makes for useless correspondence...
...That amount did not rise when poverty increased...
...The Republicans took a basic cash assistance program for single-parent families with children, combined it with child care and child nutrition and converted it into a block grant—which of course reduced the amount previously spent...
...or, "Should government build that road or that school...
...The problems were awesome...
...Use WordPerfect 5.1 if possible, and send us the disk...
...So states eliminated some categories of families in order to both stretch the dollars under the block grant and meet the 50 percent requirement...
...REPORTER: What were some of the problems with specific programs...
...or, "Should government spend more money...
...DISSENT: Gingrich and the Republicans were at their peak when liberalism was at its lowest...
...Not only did this increase taxes on middle- and low-income families while giving the rich a huge tax cut, it also threw state tax systems into disarray...
...REPORTER: How do you explain what happened to the Democratic party...
...Without competitive bidding there would have been more low-birthweight babies, more childhood anemia, and probably more infant mortality...
...The biggest problems were in health care...
...The fiscally conservative, pro-business Democrats began to feel isolated amid the growing populist sentiment...
...DissENr: They do...
...DISSENT: It was a combination of the collapse of liberalism and a short period of extraordinary political discipline on the part of the Republican party...
...In fact, House Majority Leader Dick Armey admitted that people would never vote for a balanced budget if they knew what it meant...
...REPORTER: How do you explain the 1994 midterm elections and Newt Gingrich's defeat of Bill Clinton in the 1996 presidential election...
...DISSENT: Take, for example, welfare...
...The only thing it lacked was support from voters...
...the answer will be no...
...So states had to pay for the extra child care, or, when the states couldn't pay, they forced more families off the rolls in order to meet the 50 percent requirement...
...They converted this program to block grants and repealed the requirement that states use competitive bidding to purchase infant formula...
...People were dissatisfied and they were voting for change...
...438 • DISSENT Comments and Opinions reduction in the purchasing power of the private sector and cushioning the economy's slide...
...From 1994 to 2000 Republicans made massive cuts in government spending, transferred power from the federal government to the states, and eviscerated the safety net...
...REPORTER: What about 1996...
...If, however, you ask, "Should government strengthen our Social Security system...
...The repeal of the federal income tax meant the repeal of state income taxes...
...Dick Armey said that Medicare is "a program I would have no part of in a free world...
...There was very little accountability and states enacted a hodgepodge of regulations...
...Candidates signed on to it, and unions and community organizations ran grassroots campaigns of support...
...Predictably, infant mortality also increased...
...Unemployment increased from 5.6 percent to over 12 percent...
...DISSENT: First we should clarify what we mean by the Republican revolution...
...REPORTER: Many governors actually supported block grants...
...As we're not an academic journal, we prefer that they, wherever possible, be dropped altogether or worked into the text...
...These reductions made the recession worse...
...5) We're usually quick in giving editorial decisions...
...Don't the Republicans deserve credit for that...
...To make matters worse, the Republicans replaced the federal income tax and corporate income tax in favor of a flat tax...
...Some states tried to raise taxes to meet increased demands for services, but even in those states large cuts were required to balance budgets...
...The day after Clinton announced his plan a spokesman for Gingrich said, "In an extraordinary act of statesmanship, the president took from the hands of Democrats the knife with which they hoped to slit our throats...
...There was not a massive change in consciousness in the mid1990s toward conservatism...
...REPORTER: Republicans used to argue that block grants were necessary because it is more efficient to move programs to the state or local level...
...When I woke, I discovered that I had somehow called up part of a document from the future: an interview with a Dissent editor from early in the next century...
...This was a predictable consequence of transferring these programs to the states...
...It provided nutrition supplements to pregnant women, infants, and young children, and had been found to reduce infant mortality, low birthweight, and Medicaid costs...
...Gingrich's star faded quickly...
...The number of people living in poverty swelled to an all-time high of 44 million.' Conditions were terrible...
...The Contract With America was based on extensive polling They knew what themes were popular...
...Despite that, they repealed the competitive bidding requirement...
...Hospitals were forced to close, most people had to pay more for health care, and the number of uninsured rose dramatically...
...and it was growing at a slower rate than the economy, which means that the debt burden was decreasing...
...Many of them were quite extreme, as revolutionaries are wont to be...
...These were radical changes...
...In addition to that, they required states to enroll 50 percent of all welfare parents—about three times the 1994 requirement—in work programs, but provided no funding for the additional work slots...
...If there's a delay, it's because a few editors are reading your article...
...The Congress, on a bipartisan basis, supported competitive bidding because not to do so was a waste of taxpayers' money...
...DISSENT: One of the worst things they did was to change the WIC program, which had the most outstanding record of any federal program...
...DISSENT: Republicans took control of the Congress in 1994 for the same reason that Clinton was elected in 1992...
...The basis of Democracy 2000 was that the thirtyyear decline in wages and living standards for most Americans was not inevitable...
...Now that the Democrats have control of Congress and the presidency, their challenge will be to . . . (here the manuscript breaks off) q...
...Before competitive bidding began in the late 1980s, the WIC program had to pay very high prices for infant formula...
...In order to balance the budget, $1 trillion of government spending had to be cut by 2002...
...The Republicans had converted school lunches, food stamps, AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children), and Medicaid into different block grants that provided states with fixed amounts of money regardless of economic conditions...
...It was a colossal political misjudgment...
...On average, all non-defense and non-Social Security federal expenditures had to be cut 30 percent...
...In the late 1990s we learned the hard way that a balanced budget doesn't lead to economic growth...
...These cuts led to a recession, higher unemployment, worse education, and so on...
...However, the parties were moving in opposite directions...
...You didn't have to have block grants to give states more flexibility...
...DISSENT: Clinton's election strategy, undoubtFALL • 1995 • 437 Comments and Opinions edly very shrewd, was to attract conservatives by balancing the budget, and appeal to liberals by doing it in a more humane way than the Republicans...
...The federal government did not directly administer food stamps, child care, welfare, or foster care...
...Or take a chance and send us your article...
...6) Please bear with us—we have accumulated quite a backlog of material, and you may have to wait for a few issues before you see your article in print...
...They also said that a state could count toward the 50 percent requirement both people FALL • 1995 • 439 Comments and Opinions placed in work activity and people eliminated from the program...
...Some states decided to terminate Medicaid coverage for children in families not receiving cash assistance—that is, children in working poor families...
...4) Notes and footnotes should also be typed double-spaced, on a separate sheet...
...But in 1997 the opposite happened...
...THE EDITORS q 440 • DISSENT Comments and Opinions launched the Democracy 2000 project...
...3) Type your ms double-spaced, with wide margins...
...the answer is overwhelmingly yes...
...In addition, most states were not equipped to administer these programs...
...He was a vicious politician, what Frank called a "mechanic of power," and that contributed to his "success...
...The states had relied on the federal income tax to begin state tax computations...
...They don't like government in general but they like the specifics of what government provides...
...REPORTER: Why...
...DISSENT: There was much dishonesty in the Republican arguments for block grants...
...In 1994 Republicans barely won more than 50 percent of the popular vote for Congress...
...But none of these abstract themes had anything to do with reality...
...Competitive bidding was fought by the two largest infant formula companies, Ross Laboratories and Mead Johnson...
...It had become a collection of conservative politicians, business lobbyists, and social liberals out of touch with the majority of Americans who were struggling to maintain their living standards...
...and a trade policy that supported workers' rights throughout the globe— generated a lot of excitement...
...enhancement of family economic security through universal health care, pension portability, and higher minimum wages...
...During the 1997 recession long-simmering tensions within the Democratic party boiled over...
...These programs acted as automatic stabilizers, offsetting some of the *Prior to that the largest number of people below the poverty line was 39.4 million in 1959...
...The Democratic party, which once had a mass base in the unions and in neighborhoods, had atrophied...
...When people looked to the government to do something, the government wasn't there...
...We are still trying to get out from under the real burden imposed on us in the name of preventing a phantom burden...
...In a very short amount of time the states had responsibility for everything from welfare, Medicaid, transportation, and environmental protection to health and safety programs...
...The Republican cleverness in the short run was their undoing in the long run...
...DISSENT: The budget deficit was not an economic problem...
...REPORTER: How could they have made these fundamental changes if their programs were not popular...
...No state had the capacity to administer its own income tax...
...No dot matrix submissions, please...
...If you ask Americans, "Should government play a role in the economy...
...DISSENT: During the 1997 recession the antigovernment ideology came back to haunt Republicans...
...We will not consider manuscripts submitted simultaneously to several publications...
...I believe that Barney Frank's judgment of Gingrich—that he was one of the least substantive legislators of his generation—will stand...
...So when government transferred responsibility to the states it simultaneously limited the states' ability to raise revenue...
...Look at our last few issues to see if your idea fits in...
...the empowerment of workers and their unions through labor law reform...
...But when they implemented their ideas the American people rejected them...
...DISSENT: That's right...
...They also cut back the unemployment insurance program...
...Of course the states had less money to run these programs because we were cutting $1 trillion in government spending...
...For the first time in seventy years this country had a recession that government policy made worse...
...All you had to do was rewrite the rules...
...It started when the new insurgent leaders of the AFL-CIO To Our Contributors A few suggestions: (1) Be sure to keep a copy of your manuscript...
...REPORTER: As astonishing as the Republican revolution was, the reaction against it was also surprising...
...Even before the 1997 recession many of them realized they had gotten themselves into a lot of trouble...
...However I am happy to offer this glimpse into the future, which may provide readers with some hope in these dark political times...
...This is ironic because the reason Congress enacted the competitive bidding requirement in 1989 was that only half the states had implemented it...
Vol. 42 • September 1995 • No. 4
