European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 24, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse Monday october 24, 1994 commentary the stars and stripes Page 13 election d referendum on big government Cal Thomas the Day after republicans signed their a contract with America a democrats bought commercial time on radio stations around the country deriding the document and calling it a contract a a on America. Among the criticisms was that republicans want to revive �?oreaganomics.�?�. A a a a a. President Clinton has taken to singing this theme in recent Days. He claims that a Republican takeover of the House and Senate in next months elections would mean that the crime Bill would not be funded and big deficits would return. The fact that he has mortgaged the nation through the governments Pur. Chase of Short term Low interest Bonds which could increase the deficit when they come due at higher interest rates is never mentioned. Instead of being defensive about a reaganomics a republicans should proclaim that it was the democrats in Congress who prevented the Reagan economic program from achieving All of its objectives. The gop should take heart president Clinton and the democrats Are playing right into Republican hands by telling the majorities who voted for Reagan in �?T80 and �?T84 they were stupid. Let them. A a. A. A a a a a a a a a a. President Reagan kept his Promise to Cut taxes fueling the largest and longest expansion of the Job Market in Post world War ii history. What Congress failed to do was reduce spending which is Why. The deficit grew. Republicans should recall Reagan a stirring address at the 1984 gop convention in Dallas where he said a the choices this year Are not just Between two different personalities or Between two political parties. They Are Between two different visions of the future two fundamentally different ways of governing a their government of pessimism fear and limits or ours of Hope Confidence and Reagan said democrats never met a tax they did no to like1�?�?oor when Reagan took office in 1981, the top marginal income tax rate was 70 percent. He brought it Down to 28 percent which spurred economic growth and actually increased Federal tax revenues. Under Clinton the top rate including surcharges on a the Rich a has edged Back up to 42 percent. In 1989, the heritage foundations Burton Yale Pines wrote a it is economic growth that makes it possible for living standards to increase for nearly every american. It is growth that defeats poverty. It is growth that enables us to have More options in life to have More Leisure to learn and do More things. Reagan reminded America that government cannot create economic growth and that government generally is the enemy of economic growth. Yet Reagan also taught us that there is something government can do. It can create an environment that is Friendly to growth. It can encourage men and women to take economic risks and then allow them to get big rewards when they this is precisely what happened under historian Stephen Ambrose has written that a Reagan will be remembered As the president who reversed the decades old allow of Power to the Clinton administration is trying to turn it Back again. The coming election is a referendum on big government. Ever growing government is the cause of the deficit spending and eroding Freedom. Never has americans cynicism about government been As great As it is now. Rarely has there been such an Opportunity to restore a we the ten years ago Ronald Reagan predicted what democrats would do if they gained the while House a is there any doubt that they will raise your taxes that they will Cut Back our defense preparedness raise interest rates Quot Reagan talked about change real change smaller government lower taxes a stronger military. More individual Freedom less government intrusion. Reagan spoke of a a springtime of Hope for America a but the liberals Are bringing Back Winter. Let the democrats run against Reagan. And let republicans remember that Reagan a ideas worked. C los Angola Timos 94 ballots could produce profound change democrats Are trying to revive their flagging spirits and reverse their sagging fortunes by attacking the a a contract that Republican congressional candidates have signed. The Core of the contract is a constitutional amendment to require a balanced budget an idea Many democrats Ana much of the intelligentsia Call but now comes James q. Wilson of Urcla past president of the american political science association and no Simpleton defending the amendment As a sound response to the current tensions Between americans political and constitutional sys terns. A a a in an essay for a Book on Public policy forthcoming from Johns Hopkins Wilson argues that different eras Are defined by different problems. From the founding to the civil War the defining problem was the Federal governments legitimacy. From the civil War until the new Deal the problem was Power under what limits did the Federal government operate from the new Deal until recently the problem was representation were All groups appropriately involved in Washington a increasing importance the defining Issue of today a Era Wilson says is collective Choice can Washington which now acknowledges no limits to its scope and responds to rapidly proliferating factions make choices that serve society a Long term interests for individuals hard choices Are unavoidable. But for americans acting collectively a acting through a Federal government that is no longer constrained by either the old constitutional understanding of its limited Power or the old stigma against deficit spending a it hard choices Are avoidable and thus Are avoided. These changes have come about since mid Century. Of dry a policies did not involve a constitutional revolution because most were compatible with then existing notions of Washington a proper Purview. After of dry a first 100 Days states rights were reasserted As serious restraints on Federal Power. For would not have dared to try to do Many of the things that have been done since the 1960s, such As Federal supervision of elections where minorities Are deemed a underrepresented a direct payments for health care for the elderly with guidelines for Hospital and physicians fee funds and regulations for local school systems and so on. Is there any human want or difficulty that is not now considered a Federal policy problem policy making says Wilson has been nationalized in the sense that there no longer Are arguments about whether the Constitution bars Federal action in particular spheres the last barriers fell in a 12-month period in 1964-65, with the passage of the civil rights act the elementary and secondary education act and medicare. Thirty years later the Public a patience with and the intellectuals Confidence in government have been a eroded by what Wilson Calls frustrations with a an activist government enmeshed in the countless details of everybody a electoral politics has become More disorderly as1 parties have weakened and faction s have multiplied. Elections have become less important because policy making is increasingly done by courts bureaucracies and Legislatures operated by a political class increasingly ambitious and decreasingly oriented to Broad Public preferences. That class has increasingly shifted decisions from Arenas where Public opinion is most powerful a state and local governments and private institutions a to in George f. Will Sti Tutins such As courts and the Central government where elites have privileged Access. No wonder Many substantial policy changes from affirmative action to foreign interventions reflect not popular desires but elite interests. Pursuit of these interests by the elite is facilitated by abandonment of the old stigma against peacetime deficits. This abandonment by conservatives As Well As liberals underscores Why the political class is Best under stood As a class it is More United by professional interests than divided by ideas. The change in the mores of the political class regarding deficits serves the convenience of that class and serves a constitutional a actually an anti constitutional revolution. Until us proximately the mid-1960s, the Public a desires for incompatible things were less important than they Are now for two reasons. Until then the Federal government was thought to have no constitutional authority to act in Many spheres. And there were fewer of the pressure groups that have been brought into existence by government activism a groups that exist to influence the governments Ever expanding Agenda. But now the incompatible demands a basically demands for increased government benefits and decreased taxes a Are accommodated by borrowing from future generations. Hence says is no longer As Clear As it once was a what if anything Ati election might however the elections nov. 8 might produce sufficient votes in Congress for a balanced budget amendment. If so the rules of collective Choice will be re written and these off year elections will have produced change More profound than most presidential elections cd Washington Post a
