European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 12, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse Thursday August 12, 1993 commentary the stars and stripes Page 15 Clinton s pruning shears May need sharpening Walter r. Mears it want the , and it won t be the last. Presidents have been vowing for years to slay budget deficits or at least Corner and Cut them. President Clinton said his quest was different even revolutionary with stronger spending restraints realistic goals and economic prophecies. And it s Only the beginning. He said his Cabinet already is assigned to come up with additional budget cuts to be recommended next year. There will be More spending cuts in every year i m Here lie said. But there was a disquieting sense of familiarity of having been there before which fed doubts about the claims for this Mission. That waste opening for critics republicans and dissent ing democrats some who had a role in prior promises of Defi Cit control. Now they play to the sceptics and Clinton acknowledges that s a lot of people. It shows in the Public opinion polls in the Potency of Ross Perot s outside the Beltway politics in the majority who say Linton does t keep his promises. And scepticism heightens into suspicion when the topic is the budget deficit the problem successive presidents have been promising to curb or even end. Both Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan said they d balance the budget within four year term. But deficits Rose during Carter s four years and rocketed during Reagan s eight. George Bush reneged on his Central Campaign Promise against new taxes in order to make a deficit curbing Deal with Congress in 1990 that one also was oversold As a route to balanced Bud gets in this decade. Clinton s commitment was to restrain deficit spending that will not end in the foreseeable future and is projected to add $1 trillion to the National debt Over the next five years even if things go As planned. Things Seldom do. I know full Well that americans Are very sceptical of any claim by the govern ment Clinton said in his televised address the firs list ism making two lists of Fop democrats but what should senator Scall opposin6secwl Sill to the nation recently. You must wonder if these cuts Are for real and whether the taxes will really be used to pay Down the yes he said on both counts. But spending that can t be avoided can add to the deficit anyhow without being counted against targets and spending Ceil Ings. The Federal Price tag for Midwest flood Relief is up to $5.8 billion nearly Dou ble what first went to Congress Only a week ago. The 1990 plan was overtaken by recession soaring health care costs and the emergencies of that Era Hurricane Relief the persian Gulf War savings and loan bailout costs All exempted from the spend ing Caps that require offsetting cuts or Rev Enue increases to balance added expenditures. Clinton said those Caps were the Best feature of the 1990 plan. The one thing they did right that we re also doing except we re doing it even tougher is they had some pretty stiff Caps on Domestic spending programs he said. For All that he said the Bush Era plan did t deliver did t produce deficit reduce True but deficits would have increased even More without it. Leon e. Panetta Clin ton s budget director and one of the congressional architects of the 1990 Deal said it is working and things would be a lot worse if it had t been done. Republicans argued that the Clinton program does t actually Cut spending. True again it reduces projected spending just As the last one did. And nearly $45 billion that was counted As savings under the 1990 deficit reduction agreement is being counted again As part of the new one. In the end it will take real numbers to Settle the political claims and counterclaims. So there s ample time for argument perplexing As it is. C the associated press out of Washington flows nothing but cynicism this is what it came Down to in the final dispirited week of Washington watching. The Call for shared sacrifice had turned into a plea for a 4.3-cent increase in a gasoline mantra of change historic action came to rest on a plan for a modest deduction in the budget bold step and new Era boiled Down to this plan or no plan and the people who once talked of a new covenant ran a Concession stand trading compromises for sen when the president s cry that we re All in this to Gether subsided the one thing we were in together was is the old doldrums. The sigh that i heard was the sound of the helium slowly escaping the balloon of political Promise. As a candidate Bill Clinton asked americans to vote your Hopes not your those Hopes were tempered by doubts. As a newly elected president he played endless choruses of Don t Stop thinking about tomorrow. But we worried about the drag of yester Day s debts and yesterday s habits. Americans knew about the Gap Between Politi Cal rhetoric and reality Between what you want an what you can get. We knew about watching legislation and since january Washington has come to seem More and More like a Force of nature a Mississippi that erodes or floods the people who try to change its Way sooner or later it seems politicians go with the flow or get the word we use to describe the per manent establishment of Media Congress lobbyists is a City that lives on crises and dines out on criticism. It has been relentless in its pressure on the newcomers. Who knows what this pressure did to break through the internal levees Arouna White House lawyer Vincent w. Foster or s sense of Worth before he apparently committed suicide routinely Washington pours its coldest water on ideals. It floods the landscape inside the Belt Way with an easy and sophisticated Bath of scepticism. From this epicentre the Media beam out their daily re ports on the ebb and flow of Power without even realizing that their beat has become cynicism. Analysts and reporters Tell us when we Are being con Ned when the budget is Nei ther the biggest deficit Cutter nor the biggest tax Raiser. But there Are to nightly reports on sincerity. In the past years too Many. Americans have become part of that closed Loop that Beltway of sceptical insider ism. We Are people who re fuse to be suckered. And refuse to believe. We have be come detached from politics As anything but a business of management and Power mongering. In this atmosphere it s not surprising that the new president has had trouble staking out the High ground. He is a Man who always spoke out of two sides of his Mouth and 1 do not mean As a hypocrite. He talked in the language of values and the language of pragmatism. He used the sunday cadences of the moralist and the daily voice of the Deal maker. But Ellen Goodman Washington Only hears its own tune. When first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke last Spring during her father s illness about a crisis of meaning in America Washington lampooned her As Saint Hillary. When it was discovered nut she and her husband discussed the politics of meaning even the meaning of political life their questioning was dismissed As sophomoric. Caught in this unrelenting current the presi Dent who talked about finding a new third Way has spent his time negotiating Between the two old ways. Whether the Issue is the budget or Gays in the military or even National service he has faced the Choice be tween yet another congressional stalemate and yet an other congressional Trade off. Instead of establishing common ground he compromises. Instead of circumscribing new values he has patched together in easy alliances of self interest. I Don t mean to suggest that the new government is a failure. But the successes Are at the margins and in the Fine print. They be been wrestled out of the status quo at a High Price. The Man in the White House has t yet established that Trust that lets us drop the guard of scepticism. We see the details but not the big picture. We see the poli tics but not with All due respect the meaning. Without that connection Between people and presi Dent Between principles and pie charts Between mean ing and policy the White House is a captive of cynicism. And the Only thing that he people inside it can do is to keep on bailing. C the Boston globs
