October 27, 1996

Ironically, Clinton And Gingrich May Need Each Other

Pollsters have conferred re-election on Bill Clinton - a prognostication not certain - and now are focusing on Congress. House Speaker Newt Gingrich is the target.

The Georgia conservative speaks common sense openly - namely, that the "era of big government is over."

No, he did not plagiarize this truth. He said it first. It so resonated with Americans in 1994 that Clinton stole it lock, stock and barrel.

Election winners this year - Democrat or Republican - will have to really, really, cut Medicare and Social security to save these "entitlements" from bankruptcy. Yet, to say so in an election year is to touch the third rail of politics.

For pointing out that the emperor wears no clothes, Gingrich has been the victim of a $35 million negative advertising blitz by the AFL-CIO. It is the most expensive, long lasting, untruthful, personal attack in U.S. history.

The huge labor union no longer represents just industrial workers. Government employees constitute a third of the membership, and their aim is to expand government.

Gingrich and Dole propose a soft landing over a six-year period for a reformed Medicare program. They would do this by holding health care and pension cost increases to twice the rate of inflation - not "cut" them.

Clinton wants to roar ahead at three times inflation, more if necessary, to a hard landing on someone else's watch - while he builds his presidential library.

To set his place in history as champion of the down trodden, Clinton needs a Democrat Congress to help him "fix" - read that, cancel - legislation the devil made him sign.

Tax-and-spend liberals trash Gingrich for his supposedly "extreme" Contract With America. They sneer that none of it materialized - a bias so blatant that even the left-wing media blush.

Gingrich and his freshmen Republicans swept into office promising to bring 19 pieces of reform legislation to the floor for debate and vote.

He never claimed the revolutionary bills - bottled up by Dem majorities for decades - would pass either House, much less be signed into law by Clinton. Democrats in the Senate - where filibusters are allowed - were certain to block conservative measures and uphold Clinton vetoes.

Nonetheless, important contract proposals - eight by my count, Gingrich says 14 - made it into law with support from a few boll-weevil Democrats reflecting constituent sentiment:

• Line-item veto permitting presidents to delete specific budget expenditures rather than entire appropriation bills. This, alone, justifies the Contract.
  
• Limit federal welfare to two years for able-bodied recipients. Clinton vetoed two such measures, but signed the third under public pressure.
  
• Return welfare administration to the states.
  
• Cut social boondoggles in the 1994 crime bill - such as midnight basketball leagues in black neighborhoods – to put more police on the street. Clinton turned this into his "100,000 more officers for cities" - actually 17,000.
  
• Require Congress to obey the same government regulations as families and businesses.
  
• Tough penalties on runaway fathers for failing to pay child support.
  
• Tax incentives for adoptions.
  
• Limit appeals in death-penalty cases.
  
• Reduce government regulation of telecommunication services.

Clinton claims credit for most of these in his campaign speeches.

The only failure of a contract proposal in the House was that for term-limits on congressional members. Gingrich declares that a clean term-limit bill will be the first introduced in the next session of Congress if Republicans retain control.

All other contract proposals passed the house. Some made it into law. Those that did not, such as a balanced-budget amendment, also will be re-introduced by a Republican House.

The Democratic National Committee - believing it has destroyed Dole and Gingrich - now boasts it will re-take both houses of Congress.

To do so, Democrats must defend 29 open seats being vacated by their members. Republicans must hold onto 20 seats left by retiring members. This gives the GOP a nine-seat incumbency advantage over and above what seats they take on issues or superior candidates.

More importantly, the courts forced eight congressional districts - gerrymandered on behalf of blacks - to be re-drawn. Republicans won the resulting three special elections and expect to take at least four of the remaining five.

Even if Clinton wins in a landslide, the Republicans likely will keep control of both houses of Congress.

The nation can survive another Clinton term, but not another Democrat Congress. Contrary to popular conception, presidents are just mouthpieces. The Constitution gives power only to the House to originate tax and spending bills.

Until the present Congress, Republicans had not held a majority in both houses simultaneously for 70 years. It was Democrat-controlled Congresses which ran up the national debt to $5.2 trillion despite record tax hikes.

With a Democrat Congress, ultra-liberals would return to power as leaders or chairmen of powerful committees: Gephardt, House speaker; Bonior, majority whip; Rangel, ways and means; Dellums, armed services; Dingell, energy and commerce; Conyers, government operations; Dodd, Senate majority leader; Daschle, majority whip; Biden, judiciary; Teddy Kennedy, labor.

These were a disaster and would be more so again. They are incensed with Clinton's pandering to Reagan Democrats and conservatives. Old-guard Dems may shun lame-duck Clinton if he is re-elected and they remain a minority.

Gingrich is brash; but he is the only politician on the scene with fresh, sensible solutions and the courage to speak out. The nation needs more such talent.

Ironically, he and Clinton may need each other if both are returned to office status quo.

PARTING SHOTS

When Clinton winds a clock, the clock stops. When Dole gives a fireside chat, the fire goes out.

Charles DeGaulle reminds us: "The graveyard is full of indispensable men."

When your head swells up, your brain stops working.

By Lindsey Williams, columnist for Sun Coast Media Group newspapers