Through a series of incredibly shortsighted blunders, the GOP appears about to hand to President Clinton the issue of balancing the budget. First, let's take a look at what one level-headed observer had to say about the way Republican leadership has handled the fact that Bill Clinton, at long last, produced a 7-year budget plan certified by the CBO as achieving the desired goal of balance within that time frame:
"Why do Newt and the rest of the Blowfish insist on getting everything, i.e., a balanced budget and the all the money distributed exactly how they want it? President Clinton has already agreed to a seven year balanced budget deal, which Newt & Company led us to believe was the most important objective. But now that he has agreed now they insist they must dictate how the money is collected and distributed. Why not walk before they run and accept the balanced budget agreement and work in future years to shape or mold the way the monies are collected and distributed? Their annoying demand of their way or no way is disturbing."
These succinct and concise remarks are those made by a Sam Gorman. Coming across them on the CNN comments page felt like a breath of fresh air. The fact is that what the Republicans have insisted all year was the essential point, that the budget had to balanced by a time certain, is a point they now have won! But apparently, they are too extremist, and blinkered, to realize it. If they had been in touch with political reality, they would have had the smarts to sense a win, made a deal, called it a victory, and quit while they were ahead. By persisting with their right-wing ideological nonsense of gutting Medicaid and welfare, they have left Bill ("I"ll balance the budget later, maybe") Clinton as the only leader in Washington touting the value of a balanced budget for its own sake. Paradoxically, the value of a balanced budget in and of itself, apart from ancillary considerations of stimulating the economy, or encouraging safety net innovation, is now something only Clinton is advocating. And the Republicans did it all to themselves by unrestrained nihilism.
I don't know if our friends in the press realize the golden opportunity that the Republicans just handed to Mr. Clinton. About the only comment I've heard which hints at this reversal of rhetorical roles were a few words spoken by Cokie Roberts on today's This Week with David Brinkley. Roberts pointed out that the public's call has always been for a balanced budget; the public has NOT been clamoring for state governments to pick up the slack from a shrunk federal government, for a return of power to local communities, etc. etc. As she correctly pointed out, the screams for a devolution of the federal government issue largely from inside the conservative Republican community, and find nowhere near the resonance within the American electorate at large that calls for a balanced budget find.
But whether or not the press realizes that Clinton has a golden opportunity to seize the issue of a balanced budget and claim it as his own, I sure hope HE realizes it. You see, I'd rather see the incumbent Rhodes scholar in charge of the White House for another four years than have the Newt calling the tune in a Dole or Gramm presidency. And this was not always the case with me. At one time, I was very seriously considering switching my registration to Republican. (I'm currently registered Independent, as of last year. Prior to that, I was a registered Democrat.) If a reasonable progressive Republican, WITH GUTS, like Specter or Weld had declared, and made a good showing, I would have been right in there pitching. Of course, the obvious question then, I suppose, is "Why don't you mention Powell?" Well, to be truthful, I was never really convinced that Powell had guts, meaning that I wasn't really convinced that he was prepared to take on his Republican peer group on the tough issues -- issues that a progressive Republican worth his salt has to deal with, such as abortion, affirmative action, school prayer, etc. etc. If a Republican isn't prepared to stand up and take the brickbats and boos, the way Specter was willing to, then he ain't no progressive Republican in my book. When Powell appeared to do just that in his first interview with Barbara Walters, I was genuinely shocked and pleased. But then, as he slowly backtracked from those positions, ("the Christian right has added to the dialogue," "I'm opposed to any government funding for abortion of any sort") it became apparent that this man, who has lived his whole life following other people's orders, was getting ready to follow more orders, those of the GOP Shiites. In fact, I wasn't even surprised when he quit the race. No kidding he didn't hear a calling! He didn't even have the stomach.
But, to get back to my main point, the current GOP leadership has now revealed itself as having more than fiscal responsibility as its main agenda. Indeed, from the way not only Newt, but adults like Domenici and Kasich have been trashing the CBO-certified Clinton plan, you'd think this was February 95 all over again, with Clinton still calling for $200 billion yearly deficits as far as the eye could see. It may even be that fiscal responsibility was NEVER their agenda, that they used that as a cloak for social deconstructionism of the most draconian and irresponsible sort. And now that Clinton has stolen their fire with a real plan to balance the budget, they are falling back on the most tired, true-believer sort of right-wing anti-federal rhetoric, to get out of having to negotiate with a weathervane President who has now trapped them by showing his willingness to deal. Poor dears! Well, that tears it for me. I certainly don't want these guys in the Oval Office now that their other hidden agenda is out in the open. Who knows what their agenda might be next year? Better the timid moderate progressive agenda of Bill Clinton than the take-no-prisoners principled guerrilla ideology of a GOP gone loony. Of course, if I'm right, and this little brouhaha ends up positioning Clinton as the advocate for a balanced budget in the public's mind, and the GOP as hopeless ideologues, then the entire country will probably wind up in November agreeing with me and not with the new extremist Republican agenda.
Well, never mind their agenda; what's yours? Tell me about it at