08-04-2001

CONGRESS: On the Spit at the Pig Roasts

Congressional Republicans had hoped to hit the town- hall-and-state-fair
circuit during the August recess with evidence that they and the new
President together had changed the way Washington works. They wanted to
wave around a fistful of accomplishments taken from the wish lists they
had drawn up at the beginning of the year. Tax cuts, sweeping education
reforms, comprehensive energy legislation, a faith-based initiative, new
trade authority for the President, and health care bills all were in the
mix.


Instead, GOP lawmakers are going back to their states and districts waving
only a tax-cut bill that's currently delivering between $300 and $600 per
taxpayer. While other major bills are in the works, some are far from
President Bush's desk. And the promised changing of Washington's culture
to make way for a new era of bipartisanship hasn't materialized.


Congressional Democrats, however, aren't in much better shape. They're
going home preaching gloom and doom-that the federal government is on the
brink of falling back into a deficit, thanks to an issue involving the
Medicare trust fund that most folks don't understand. And lately, the
Democrats' new control of the Senate hasn't been producing major
bills-it's mostly been producing gridlock, as party leaders elbow for
advantage.


But despite the legislative shortcomings of both parties, congressional
leaders are sending their members back home this week with carefully
crafted messages to deliver to America between bites of funnel cake and
rubber chicken. These messages include plenty of upbeat spin and oversized
promises about what Congress will do upon returning to Washington on
September 5.


Republicans have a detailed recess campaign built around the theme of
"Home to the Heartland." A House GOP leadership aide said that
during August, Republicans from President Bush down to freshman House
members will all focus on one message each week: education, the need for a
comprehensive energy plan, health care and prescription drug legislation,
and the Republican-sponsored tax cuts.


And of course, Republicans will engage in plenty of high-profile reminding
that they are responsible for the tax-rebate checks that many of their
constituents will be receiving during the recess. "The timing is
pretty good," said Rep. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, a member of the House
Ways and Means Committee. "The checks are in the mail." Even
Democrats who voted against the tax bill are jumping on the rebate
bandwagon. "The tax rebate was a Democratic idea early in the
debate," noted Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D. Added Rep. Rosa DeLauro,
D-Conn., "Doing something for working people is a good thing to
do."


Republicans, however, believe they'll get more mileage out of the rebates.
"As the tax checks come to Americans, a lot of us are going to be
talking about it," said Senate Republican Policy Committee Chairman
Larry Craig of Idaho. "I think the American people are going to say,
`Wow. Darn. They really meant what they said.' " During a recent tour
of his state, Craig said, he asked a constituent what she planned to do
with her rebate check. "She said: `I've got four school kids. What do
you think I'm going to do with it?' " said Craig. "A lot of
people are going to go out to the Wal-Mart and buy school clothes for
their kids."


Republicans also plan to trumpet the rebate as a down payment on the
relief that's still to come because of the tax-cut package that Bush
signed into law in June. But most Democrats are going home to argue that
the tax cuts endanger future spending on priority programs-and could
prompt a raid on the Medicare and Social Security trust funds. "Our
members will make a concerted effort, especially as the rebate checks are
going out," said a House Democratic leadership aide. "It's a
winner on two fronts for us: It's a fiscal responsibility issue and it's a
Medicare issue."


In recent months, Democrats have been issuing increasingly dire warnings
that if federal budget surplus estimates drop, as expected, the Bush
Administration may not be able to fund its defense request without dipping
into the Medicare trust fund. The Congressional Budget Office is scheduled
to issue new surplus estimates during the August recess.


The Medicare and Social Security trust funds were routinely used to pay
for other programs until last year, when the surplus was large enough that
the two trust funds could be used to pay down the debt. The Bush
Administration lately has given the impression it is open to using
Medicare funds for other purposes, because it has argued that the Medicare
trust fund is just an accounting gimmick. "It doesn't exist,"
said James Dyer, staff director of the House Appropriations Committee.
"To talk about raiding Medicare is sophistry."


But House Republicans are in a difficult situation because they are on
record as refusing to spend the Medicare trust fund on anything other than
Medicare. Some of them concede they are vulnerable on the issue. "I
think it's very clear Republicans have said there's a Medicare surplus and
there's a Social Security surplus, and we'll do everything we can to make
sure they're not dipped into," said Rep. Pete Hoekstra,
R-Mich.


Democrats, not surprisingly, plan to exploit the issue. "I'm going to
tell a lot of people in my district that the defense budget is at
risk," said House Democratic Caucus Chairman Martin Frost of Texas,
whose district is home to thousands of workers at Lockheed-Martin and
other defense firms.


Democrats will also argue during August that the tax cut has inhibited
Congress's ability to adequately fund other programs. DeLauro said she
plans to tout the Democratic themes of health care, the environment,
Social Security, and education, but noted that when she's asked why
Congress cannot solve a problem, she'll answer: "Because we have a
tax cut that has sucked up every dollar we have to do
everything."


The tax cut, however, isn't the only issue that lawmakers will talk about
back home. DeLauro said she will loudly question why the House has not
taken an up-or-down vote on campaign finance reform. And regardless of
what the House did on patients' rights legislation before departing
Washington, she promised to tell her Connecticut constituents that
Republicans had sought "to defeat a genuine patients' bill of
rights."


Indeed, health care will remain a major issue for Democrats. DeLauro said
she'll question why Republicans have failed to tackle the issue of
providing prescription drug benefits to Medicare recipients. Frost plans a
meeting on that issue with the Tarrant County Senior Citizens' Alliance.
He also plans to travel his district attacking the Bush plan to privatize
Social Security. Frost gloated that he once handily defeated a Republican
opponent who ran on that specific theme.


For some members, the pending farm bill reauthorization and an emergency
farm aid package will be the prevalent topics of discussion.
"Attention in North Dakota is on the farm bill," said Pomeroy.
He hopes to visit with agriculture groups during the break, but said he'll
try to convince voters that the Medicare trust fund issue is also
important.


Freshman Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., said he knows that voters in the rural
part of his central Indiana district will want to discuss the farm bill,
regardless of what he wants to talk about. So he has scheduled meetings at
the Red Gold Tomato plant in Muncie and with farmers in Wayne County in
eastern Indiana. There, he will sing the praises of the farm bill recently
approved by the House Agriculture Committee, a measure that would boost
subsidies for crops such as soybeans, corn, wheat, and cotton by $45
billion over 10 years.


Aside from farm issues, "the leadership is interested in us talking
about energy," noted Pence, who will meet with officials of the Rural
Electric Cooperative in Indianapolis. Portman, for his part, plans to tour
a power plant in the Cincinnati area-even though gasoline prices in Ohio
never spiked the way they did in other states-in an effort to emphasize
the use of new technology to increase energy production. And Senate GOP
Whip Don Nickles of Oklahoma, like other Republicans in his chamber, will
grumble about the Senate's inaction so far on energy legislation.
"It's not going to be completed when we leave," Nickles said.
"It would have been, had the Republicans been in
control."


Meanwhile, Portman, who co-authored pension reform provisions of the tax
bill, will hold a district meeting to discuss how people may benefit from
the pension changes. Portman also said he will try to focus attention on
the pending education reform legislation, and particularly will try to
turn up the pressure on conferees to quickly finish reconciling the
competing House and Senate versions of the bill. Portman noted that school
will be starting toward the end of the recess, so it will be a good time
to argue that "we want the conference to get its work
done."


Ultimately, of course, one has to wonder whether what lawmakers do over
the recess really has much impact on the voters. The responses were mixed
during recent phone interviews with a few folks in the
hinterlands.


In Frost's Texas district, Samuel Villarreal, a credit collector at
Hopkins Furniture in Fort Worth, said he is sympathetic to the
congressman's argument about the downsides of the tax cut. "Are we
really ready to pay the price that's coming later on?" Villarreal
asked. "Is it going to come and bite us later? Are we really going to
benefit from it?"


But a farmer in Pence's Indiana district said though he'll listen to the
congressman discuss the farm bill, he's dubious that Congress will provide
enough help. "It doesn't look too good out here," said Quentin
Williamson, a farmer in Richmond. "We're going to have a bumper crop,
so there's going to be a huge surplus." He said all the federal
government can do is "keep writing checks. We don't like that, but
there's no alternative."


At the same time, Williamson indicated that members of Congress may
confront a slew of questions from their constituents about one topic
that's probably not covered in the party briefing books: Washington intern
Chandra Levy. "They're talking about that everyplace," noted the
Indiana farmer.


David Baumann

National Journal