Carter's Agenda for Congress

...Waishington-USA CARTER'S AGENDA FOR CONGRESS BY ANDRIW MOLLISON Washington CONGRESS has limped back from its summer vacation surly, split and leaderless And its condition is not likely to improve as it begins addressing the matters at hand President Carter has demanded that the first of these be his energy package Of course, Congress has ignored Carter's orders before—especially on energy Yet the President for once is using the White House's "bully pulpit" to preach the same sermon day after day, instead of switching to a new text each week, and his attempt to set the agenda through such concentration seems to be working True, outnumbered liberals have not given up on reversing the White House decision to decontrol oil prices over the next 27 months, a decision that will give the oil companies windfall profits for crude tapped in cheaper days But so far at least Carter has managed to turn the public debate away from decontrol itself and focus it on the issue of the windfall tax This has enabled him to please numerous traditional Democratic constituencies solar enthusiasts, the poor, who are hardest hit by rationing through price, and the labor-backed alternative fuels lobby, which would use labor-intensive methods to transform coal into energy All these groups, Carter repeatedly explains, could receive part of the revenue from the new tax without disturbing his budget plans After its energy spinach, Congress will probably dig into the tax-cut dessert that has been proscribed by the President Once again, the cuts would be phoney Far from putting more money in people's pockets, they would simply prevent tax increases caused by inflation pushing incomes into higher brackets Nevertheless, the formula has worked for Congress and Presidents in the past, so the argument will probably center around who—corporations or wage earners—should receive the cuts, rather than on whether to have the cuts at all Some repetition of old patterns, though, does not mean that the 96th Congress is functioning the way its predecessors have After its first session, only conservatives could claim any success Except for an increase in Food Stamp funding for emergency purposes, and a new trade treaty whose adoption was masterfully guided by Robert Strauss, the "major legislation" items on the authoritative list that is compiled and updated weekly by Congressional Quarterly remain un-passed Andrew Mollison, a previous New Leader contributor, is chief political writer for the Cox Newspapers Of these, the salt n agreement, tougher standards for nuclear safety, Alaska land use rules, the sugar bill, and formation of a new Department of Education stand a good chance of passage later this year Likely to die are such initiatives as lobbyist disclosure and campaign financing reforms, hospital cost control, national health insurance, trucking deregulation, and the first meaningful attempt by the Senate Budget Committee to lower and limit spending targets set by appropriation committees for their fief-doms There are three major reasons why a predominantly Democratic Congress working with a Democratic President has fallen into so deep a slump The first is fragmentation Before the Vietnam War there were basically two caucuses in each house, the Democratic and the Republican Today there are —among others large enough to have staff and office space on Capitol Hill —the Ad Hoc Congressional Committee for Irish Affairs, the Congressional Black Caucus, the Freshman Republican Class, the High Altitude Coalition, the Hispanic Caucus, the New England Caucus, the New Members Caucus for Democrats, the Port Caucus, the Rural Caucus, the Shipbuilding Caucus, the Suburban Caucus, the Viet-Era Veterans Caucus, and the Women's Caucus The three traditional voting blocs—Democrats, Southern Democrats and Republicans—have been replaced by one-issue alliances that vary from amendment to amendment Bills emerge loaded down with a hodge-podge of contradictory provisos The second major reason for Congress' seeming stand-pat stance is the weakness of its leadership Just how serious this is became apparent last July House Speaker Thomas P ("Tip") O'Neill of Massachusetts piedicted that lellow Demociats would vote "10-1" for the gas rationing plan Then came the vote a tew horns latei and Dcinoci atic suppoi t was only two-to-onc With united Republican opposition, the plan was wounded so badly that O'Neill's minions pulled it olt the floor More significant than the loss itself, however, was the revelation that O'Neill, vaunted as the politician's pol, could not even get an accurate vote count from his whips As Senate majority leader, Robert Byrd of West Virginia has more power But he has a narrow 59-41 party margin and chooses to be a procedural traffic cop and upholder of Senatorial prerogatives, rather than leader of the Democratic team On the afternoon of Carter's last prime-time press conference, for instance, Byrd cracked the whip—not to line up statements backing the President, but to make sure Democratic senators knew that Byrd's annual banquet and talent show would be held that night as scheduled Only five skipped his summons to watch Carter, the rest of the Democrats were listening instead to the red-vested Senator fiddle away The third factor in the Congressional slump is Carter himselt Shocked bv pollster Patrick Caddell 01 his own son\ record on Capitol Hill into starting anew...

...the President attempted to grab the governmental reins and set priorities only in mid-July, when the session was half over He has worked hard since then, using a Camp David sojourn, a nationally televised speech, the Cabinet shake-up, and his Middle Western media extravaganzas to focus public attention on the energy program If that piece of the legislative puzzle falls into place, the Administration feels, the rest will probably follow But despite some apparent progress, as the lawmakers return to Washington the 10-year, $142-billion energy package is still bobbing on the legislative seas, half swamped by regional disagreements and congressional suspicions of the untried On the economic front, Carter?who would have been a Jerry Ford Republican had he been born in the North—will go along with any legislation that creates the impression of government concern for rising prices and lengthening jobless lines (The exact shape of the legislation will be determined more by chance—who has the most saleable ideas as the Congress rushes to adjourn for the year-end holidays—than by the half dozen or so congressional committees investigating the alternatives ) For the fact is that Carter himself does not appear to have any more notion than you or I about how to handle simultaneous boosts in inflation and unemployment And his anti-inflation budget targets—although temporarily intact—will probably be shattered by antirecession adjustments during the fiscal year that begins Octo-berl The real danger for the President, of course, is that the puzzle will not fall into place alter all, thanks to the efforts of Republicans to his right and Democrats to his left The former will be trying to push through the tax cuts, the latter, led bv Representative Tohv Mottett of Connecticut, will be attempting this month to cancel the decision to dccontiol oil prices Should both initiatives succeed, Cartel would find himselt entering an election vear v\ ith neither a balanced budget nor anv windtall goodies to distribute...