European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 16, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse Tuesday february 1$, 1993 commentary 1 the stars and stripes Page 15 deficit reduction a huge Challenge for Clinton Davids Broder when you look no president Clinton and his state of the Union address from this Side of the continent the perspective is More than sobering. Whatever hopeful signs of recovery May be seen in other states Northern California remains in a recession and Southern California is enduring some thing closer to a depression. People Here arc waiting anxiously for Clinton to fulfil his Campaign Promise to stimulate the Economy and help provide More jobs. Out More than most states Call. Fornia and its peo ple will judge Clinton by these Riou Ness of the Steps he takes to Deal with the Bud get deficit. This " state is struggling with a third straight year of horrendous Revenue shortfalls and the cuts that arc coming Here leave Little room for sympathy toward the Challenge Clinton faces. This year the legislature faces As much As an $8.6 billion Cap in its spending plan and gov. Pete Wilson has proposed his own budget that is 11 percent lower than last year s. Everything that has made California a Leader in the nation since world War ii is on the chopping Block. Its once Superb education system is being starved state Parks face closure big holes arc being ripped in the social safety net. And All the while population and the de Mand for services increase. A business Leader who is helping Start a think tank in Sacramento to focus on the state s problems Calls the budget Cri Sis insoluble in the Short term. Wilson a Republican whose approval rating has been shredded by the unending budget crisis told the Day area Council Here that unless Job growth can be stimulated there will be no end to service cuts. The trouble is that 800,000 jobs have been lost in the last two years and with Bank Merg ers and defense cutbacks in store no end is in sight. Wilson and the nation s other Gover nors most of them democrats Laid Down one of the standards by which i think Clinton s economic program can judged. At their meeting in Washington earlier this month they warned that unless serious action is taken this year s ,6ive $290 billion Federal deficit will More than double by 2003, and the cumulative de twill go from $3 trillion to $7.5 trillion just 10 years from now. Those numbers arc incomprehensible but the governors understand what the consequences arc. Without bold action now,1 they said in a policy Resolution adopted at the meeting the United states will continue to experience stagnating rates of productivity economic growth real wages and living standards. The result will do further de Cline in the competitive position of the United states in the International econ omy. This will dramatically change the country s position As a world Leader and it could even jeopardize our democratic they called on the president and con Gress to Avert this threat by taking Steps now that will eliminate the deficit in eight years. They recognized that such a commitment will require Tough Deci Sions and that nothing can be spared. Short term economic stimulus however desirable must be part of a Long term strategy that maintains a commitment to deficit reduction they said. That Standard is a Tough one but Clinton s plan can also be Laid against a proposal made less than five months ago by someone even More knowledgeable about the deficit demons than the Gover nors May be. He is Leon e. Panetta then chairman of the House budget commit tee and now the director of Clinton s of fice of management and budget. Last september Panetta a strategy for balancing the budget within five years an even tighter timetable than the governors set Forth. Like them he said that everything must be on the entitlements like medicare and social Security discretionary programs like defense and space and taxes would All have to be part of the solution. If we fail to change our ways he warned the damage will be enormous. The current pros a arc for deficits so Large and economic growth so slow that the deficits will feed on themselves Lead ing to an Ever worsening upward spiral of debt and interest payments. And ultimately a real danger of losing control of the Money Supply and no one who knows Panetta doubts that he gave Clinton a budget recommendation at least Tough enough to meet the standards set by Pete Wilson and the other governors. Administration officials have pledged that Clinton will make the hard choices. C resentment rising at Puritan Hillary Clinton two kinds of resentment arc crystallizing and not Only among americans on the matter of Hillary Clinton. The first of these is that during the Campaign she was really something of an impostor. And this is important for reasons not widely touched upon namely that the american people put presidential candidates through a pretty rough ordeal. The Price of glory. It is to be compared really with College and fraternity hazing with Boot Camp Ignominy. At the Virginia military Institute for example what Are elsewhere called freshmen Are called at a different level of course presidential con tenders Are subhuman. They have to stand out in sleet and Snow begging passers by to shake their hands they need to appear As often As a dozen times per Day whether to address a recreation room at an old folks Home struggling against interruptions and the conversational Din of deaf or bored old men and women or to address crowded and critical College audiences. It is something of a psychological payment against the glory that is theirs beginning the night the Winner is chosen the Royal Glamour of life in the White House and the deferential treatment for the rest of the retired president s life. On the famous 60 minutes program in january 11j92 that focused on the question of marital Fidelity poor Bill Clinton found himself saying plaintively to Steve Kroft i have told the american people More than any person running for president. I have said things to Vou tonight that no american candidate had Ever before been asked.". Now the first lady was spared that kind of initiation because the Assumption wus that after All it was her husband who was running for office. And on at least one occasion Clinton sharply rebuked a journalist for acting As though it was she the american people were being asked to vote for or against. Ambrose Evans Pritchard the Washington Cor respondent for the daily Telegraph in London put it this Way last week the Clin tons engaged in false Advertis ing during the Campaign. With great skill Hillary crafted softer image More in keeping with the traditional spouse. Hillary did not Campaign Hon Estly for the position she now holds. Indeed she hid behind her husband Only to emerge in the limelight triumphant sport ing her Maiden name once the votes were safely that surely is one cause of the with William f. Buckley current discontent wit woman who docs not hesitate to act As in effect chief of staff for her husband. A second cause of irritation is the Atli Shustic Hygiene being demanded All of a sudden of such As Kimba Wood. One recalls at that same 60 minutes interview with candidate Bill Clinton when he made it As Plain As one can do that he had at one Point been unfaithful. Arc we taking the position that people who have had prob lems can Tyun for president he asked. No the american people Are not taking that position. But Hillary is acting in a Way that would be deeply resented if done by someone in the name of the religious right. That Hillary it a Puritan the Telegraph goes on there can be no doubt. She is a secular missionary. Her cast of mind like that of most Liberal activists would have drawn her to the Church in another biographer Judith Warner records that she carries a Bible out it it for ethical not religious the disqualification of judge Wood to be attorney Gen eral was done by the president but there is the sense that his termination of Kimba Wood reflected the censorious Ness of his wife. The Telegraph concluded in its report to British readers that the whole Saga is an astonishing mix of incompetence and the mix of formal puritanism did you pay you Nanny the minimum wage and intimate fraternity style bonding is to say the least distracting. Grown and sex offi Cio distinguished men and women were brought to Camp David Over a weekend were sat Down in a Liv ing room where one or More facilitators zoomed in on members of Clinton s Cabinet coaxing them to divulge some spillage from their childhood the better to induced common understanding. Clinton s contribution Evi Dently was that he a a fat Little boy. He d have done better to let it out that he is a confused big boy now and in recent Days something of an embarrassment for which his wife is the perfect complement. A
