European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 11, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Thursday August 11, 1994 commentary the stars and stripes Page 17 Clinton bases Agenda on old Public attitudes for president Clinton life of late has been All Lent and no easter and Las week echoes of events 30 and 25 years ago underscored his problems. The Man who campaigned. As the candidate of change seems uncomprehending of changes pertinent to governing. The Man who pledged to make change our Friend and not our enemy is ending that changes in Public attitudes Are unfriendly to his  nation has paid As scant attention to the 30th anniversary of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution aug. 7,1964 As the nation paid to the passage of it. It passed without negative vote in the House adjust two in the Senate. It authorized the presi Dent to take All necessary Mea sures to prevent further aggression in Vietnam. Bitter experience soon caused Many people particularly democrats of Clinton s age and persuasion to assert that such a casual congressional role in authorizing major uses of military Force is anti constitutional. Yet last week on the eve of the 30th anniversary of what once was widely regarded As a dereliction of constitutional duty the Clinton administration asked no Congress but the United nations Uganda sri Lanka saudi Arabi through the Security Council to authorize an inva Sion to end the menace that Haiti poses to world peace. In 1945, when the unite nations was born and before Bill Clinton was there May have been a significant american constituency for such a dilution of National sovereignty and disregard of Congress constitutional role. But not How. Virtually All americans George f. Will believe that no . Invasion of another nation can be justified by anything Short of a threat to vital . Interest the Protection of which does not require . Permission. In Domestic policy the revival of congressional supremacy and the miniaturization and marginalization of the presidency is illustrated by the death of a thousand cuts administered to the presi Dent s highest priority his 1,300-Page health care plan. Trie executioner was Congress. Recently when 6rganizers of a 25th anniversary Woodstock nostalgia concert announced that their show would not go on because they had sold 48,343 fewer tickets than the 50,000 they had expected a member of the so called Woodstock generation took a stroll Down memory Lane. President Clinton was out and a outdoing his daily quota of speeches about health care and turned up in Independence mo., to note that Harry Truman had favored National health insurance. The Force of that observation is unclear. When americans really want something the political class does not wait 45 years to give it to them. An when Amman became president republicans and conservative democrats enacted their postwar Agenda of cutting taxes curbing Union Power and repealing wartime regulations. National health care could not be passed then even though the mobilization of Victory in the second world warhead Given the Federal government a pres Tige unmatched before or since and even though in 1950 a median income family of four paid Only about 2 percent of its income in Federal taxes compared to about 25 percent today. Clinton s health care proposal revealed him to be oblivious to changes that have occurred in his lifetime concerning government s prestige and burdensome Ness the former crashing the latter soaring. For perspective consider that in 1958, when Clinton was 12, a Gallup pol showed that Only 12 percent Lameri cans thought Congress was doing a poor Job. Long before the second world War americans were remarkably ready to concentrate Power in new government agencies that americans believed would Wield Power wisely for Long term plan Ning. For example regional problems produced such bold improvisations As the new York port authority in 1921, the Colorado River compact in 1922, the Tennessee Valley authority in 1933. Today even if our solicitude for Snail Darters and spotted owls were compatible with such projects our reduced Confidence in government is  helps to explain the Fate of Clinton s health cafe proposal which his aides recalling the government Friendly 1930s, advertised As the social Security of the 1990s." his proposal now looks like a political version of a Woodstock re Vival that no one wanted an exercise in a nostalgia not widely Felt an attempt to revive a vanished and irrecoverable Polit ical past. Nostalgia is often a yearning for child Hood the years of fairy tales the essence of a fairy tale writes literary critic Cynthia Ozick is that wishing does make it so the wish achieves its own Ful filament through its very steadfastness of  c Washington Post politicians must take first Steps to Cut deficit sen. Bob Kerrey d-neb., the chairman Calls it the third rail commission meaning that anybody who touches it Dies. Sen. John Danforth r-mo., the vice chairman says i would bet a stick of chewing gum that we succeed but nothing  what they Are talking about is More formally known As the bipartisan commission on entitlement and tax  was set up by president Clinton after Ker Rey delivered the vital 50th vote a pc r a to save Clinton s first budget while complaining Liniai the measure did not go nearly far enough to curb Long term  commission s other 30 members 10 republicans and 10 democrats from the House and Senate 10 from private life include some deficit Hawks and larger number of people who have been enthusiastic advocates of Federal  test for Kerrey and Danforth is to see if they can get their fellow commissioners to speak forcefully Andin one voice on what this country faces if the trends in Federal spending Are not curbed and reversed. What they know is summarized in a set of Daz Linely Clear charts prepared by the commission staff. Like Ross Perot s flip charts in the 1992 Campaign the graphs Are More vivid than translations of the same trends into words. But Here Are a couple of examples each year the trustees of the social Security system report on the Long Range prospects for the solvency of its retirement and disability  year since 1985, the trustees have acknowledged that in the Long run social Security taxes will no support the promised benefits. In 1985, they estimated that the fund would be exhausted m 2049. Each year they have moved the fateful Date  year their prediction is that the Money will run out in 2029. In 1985, doomsday was 64 years away now it s barely half As Distant. Second consider this. Federal taxes today Are at about their historical level 19 percent of the Gross Domestic product. Federal spending is about 22 percent of the Gap hence the deficit. Without controls on Federal health care spending medicare and medicaid total Federal spending can be expected to Rise to 37 per cent of the Gap by 2030. Balancing the budget that year would require virtually doubling Federal taxes. But you say Congress is debating health care plans that Are designed to slow Down medical  they pass and suppose they succeed better than they have in any other country and that after1999, medical costs Rise no faster than the growth of the Economy. Terrific. But the charts show that Federal spending still goes to 29 percent of the Gap by 2030, requiring that All taxes be increased by half or All spending be Cut Byone third to balance the Bud get. The fundamental Force be Hind these trends is that we have an aging population. Peo ple Are living longer. As the first of the baby Boom ers begin retiring in about 15 years a great Many of their parents will still be around using social Security and medicare benefits and rapidly depleting those funds. The most important effect of these trends is that discretionary spending the things the working generation wants the government to do to meet current needs is increasingly getting squeezed out by the inexorable growth of retirement and health benefits. Discretionary spending encompasses everything from de fending the country to catching criminals to maintaining the. National Parks to paying government workers. And it s All in jeopardy. If they did t know it beforehand the members of the Kerrey Danforth commission have certainly been exposed to these and other equally compelling facts in David s. Broder the meetings they be attended. Now it s time for them to Start spreading the word to publicize the findings a and some of them Are getting cold feet. Several of the commissioners who Are democratic members of the House argued that these inconvenient truths should not be spotlighted just when Congress was about to debate health care legislation creating potentially expensive new entitlements. Some would rather delay things not just past the health care debate but past the november election. The two chairmen judging from what they told me last week stand United across party lines in their determination to Tell it As it is and Send a report to president Clinton that will Lay out the full scope of the problem. They d also like to give him recommendations that would help provide political cover and moral encouragement for his moving on these Long term issues. But. Kerrey and Danforth Are also realists the crisis they see is real but it s also Long term. Clinton has to think about the Way people voting in1996 would react to raising the social Security retire ment age or taxing dollars spent More than Dollar saved or any of the other remedies they Are contemplating. Cut the two men Are also right in saying that Small Steps now could Avert calamitous choices later. This is an area As they say where politicians have to be willing to step out ahead of the Public. Cd Washington Post the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page represent those of the authors and Are inno Way to be considered As representing the views of the stars and stripes or the United states government