European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 23, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Monday november 23, 1992 commentary the stars and stripes Page 13line-item veto amendment won t fix deficit James j. Kilpatrick lord Macaulay once remarked that he knew of no spectacle so ridiculous As the British Public in one of its periodical fits of morality. He was talking about Public reaction to the scandalous behaviour of lord Byron in 1820, but his comment might Well apply to the american Public and the deficit in 1992. There is indeed something ridiculous a perhaps hypocritical is a better word a in the current fit of hand wringing Over the deficit. A poll taker the other Day found that 46 percent of the respondents listed Quot the deficit Quot As their Foremost concern. What hokum i done to believe it for a minute. Of i believe 46 percent of the respondents thus answered the poll takers question. They thought it the politically Correct thing to say. The truth of the matter is that the people arc concerned about the deficit As they Are concerned about Somalia. They Are abstractly concerned but not personally concerned. And not Many really truly Cross your heart want to do anything realistic about ending the deficit. This would Hurt. Nevertheless in the current fit of morality All the old demands for a Quick fix Are surfacing once More the line item veto and the balanced budget amendment. These Patent medicines have about the same therapeutic value As Lydia Pinkham a vegetable compound. The lady a elixir Nad no More lasting effect than a shot of honest booze which in fact it mostly was. The line item veto in its pure or impossible form would not work at the Federal level. At least it would not work As effectively As its advocates suppose. This is because 75 percent of the Federal budget More or less is beyond a presidents reach. There Are no Quot line items for social Security benefits food Stamps crop subsidies interest on the National debt and other untouchable programs. For these outlays Congress appropriates a sum sufficient and the Treasury pays accordingly. A line item veto would not touch the invisible billions spent on the Cia. It would not affect spending from Trust funds. What it comes Down to for Good or ill is that a line item veto would threaten Only a Small handful of pork chop projects. If Congress were to pass a statute giving president Clinton a line item veto the statute would face a Tough constitutional Challenge. Article i Section 7, provides for the presidential veto of a Quot Bill a not part of a Bill. The idea of an inactive veto is better. Under this proposal the president could veto say a $100,000 item for a playground in Myersdale a. Unless Congress then approved the item All Over again in a separate up or Down vote the veto would stand. This might work but i Dunno. On March 20 George Bush attempted to rescind 65 items totalling $68 million these were items of pork pure pork. Sen. Wyche Fowler jr., d-ga., had tucked away $200,000 to build a storage warehouse for Vidalia onions. Rep. Bob Traxler d-mich., let his heart and the Treasury bleed for celery growers in Michigan. Sen. George j. Mitchell a Maine won a bundle for the Lobush Blueberry pickers of Maine. Sen. Robert c. Byrd d-w.va., chairman of Senate appropriations took one Long look at Bush a speech about pork and turned the presidential message into hash. So much for the line item veto. A roughly the same objections apply to the Many proposals for a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. It  work. Fourteen years Congress enacted a statute on the subject part of Public Law 95-435. Section 7 was a clarity Quot beginning with fiscal year 1981, the total budgeted outlays of the Federal government shall not exceed its  this was known As the Byrd amendment after its Patron sen. Harry f. Byrdjr. Of Virginia. Congress ignored it absolutely. The act was unenforceable. This was a problem with the constitutional amendment rejected of the House last june. It could have been enforced Only by surrendering the taxing and spending authority to the . Supreme court a Lousy idea if there Ever was one. Yes All but nine state governors have a line item veto and yes All but 10 states demand that their legis years _ it became lature pass a balanced budget. If the states had the Unm Odel of restrained Power of the Federal government to Coin Money at will the people would be having spasms about state deficits also. Quick fixes wont work. We had better try something else like reforming human nature. C Universal press Syndicate it s time for arabs to make move for peace having inundated journalists with misinformation for More than a decade James a. Baker Iii and his amazing leakage machine Are Down to their last piteous squirt that the cause of Middle East peace would Best be served by appointing Baker and his Quot strongly condemn Israel crowd As special envoys. He even sounded out the israelis to see if they would object. Done to worry it wont happen. Nor will former president Carter the second Choice of american arabists get the assignment. The perfect Choice for Clinton administration special Middle East envoy extraordinary and plenipotentiary nobody. That a because this is the moment to discover whether direct negotiation Between arabs and jews has a future. Syria especially wants an Active american mediator both As a Barrier and a source of pressure. Israel prefers to Deal directly with its neighbors until an agreement is in sight at which time an american acre tary of state ought to be Able to walk and Chew the gum of closure at the same time. Here is where matters stand in the Middle of round seven israelis new prime minister Yitzhak Rabin stunned the world with two preemptive concessions a a political settlements freeze a step toward statehood Long demanded by Bush and the palestinians and an offer of territorial Compromise on the Golan Heights the strategic spot that was so often used to attack israelis below. And in payment to the Bush Campaign for helping the Rabin Campaign against Shamir Rabin did not object to the arming of saudi Arabia with our latest f-15s. Safire but from the Arab leaders Rabin a moves have evoked Little Progress. He has won the privilege of talking face to face in Public with arabs willing to use the word Quot peace a with a recording of the sessions played for Hafez Assad himself. But the syrian Leader has offered no restraint on Hezbollah terror nor have the saudis ended the economic Boycott in response to a settlement freeze. In anticipation of a Bush Victory the arabs played a waiting game one can what have l these concessions produced in return from the americans something a loan guarantee to help Settle refugees and More Access to . Techno 02v. Imagine the ferocity with which Baker would have pounded on Israel had he returned to the state department but without an administration in Washington determined to Force Israel out of the disputed territories Arab leaders who have been demanding Quot every Inch Quot Are now faced with the need to negotiate. They know that Rabin is already overextended last month an uproar at Home required him to Tell the Knesset a i emphasize we Are speaking of withdrawal on the Golan Heights not from the Golan  sensing this and perhaps Sei de with intimations of his own mortality Jordan a King Hussein belatedly berated iraqis Saddam Hussein and expressed interest in an egyptian style peace treaty with Israel. Rabin knows Assad a double game does not include signing a treaty opening Borders or building a hangar for Al a1 planes that a Why total Transfer of the Golan is not in the cards. Same with the palestinians if they insist on All or nothing on sovereignty nothing is what  get. Arabs fail to grasp Rabin a democratic vulnerability. If his preemptive Concession strategy fails Rabin 70, will be challenged by the new liked. Rabin a chief negotiator Itamar Rabinovich is ready for the eighth round in december before becoming israelis ambassador in Washington. But the arabs delay a they cannot see their Golden moment passing. Assad lost his negotiating Edge with the passing from Power of Bush and Baker hell never get Back on the Golan if he loses Rabin. Catho now Ycek Timos