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52 IRET Congressional Advisory 1 (1996)

handle is hein.taxfoundation/iretcgadv0050 and id is 1 raw text is: March 8, 1996 No. 52 THE BUDGET WARS: SECOND ENGAGEMENT We've been wondering for some time now how the White House intends to deal with the fiscal 1997 federal budget, given that the country still doesn't have a fiscal 1996 budget. Last month, we were given the answer: skirt the dilemma by [1ff Policy /I tendering the rejected January effective use 1996 budget offer and battle.they mi finessing the basic issues that, the principle until late 1995, separated the reordering ofI Administration and the policies rest. Congress. By doing so, President Clinton has clearly indicated that he's convinced that he's swept the issues off the table, that he's made the Congressional Republican leadership present themselves to the American public as bad guys, and that keeping that leadership mired in a numbers game is a winning tactic in his bid for a second term. He may well prove to be right, particularly if the Republican leadership continues to forget or ignore what the November 1994 election outcome was about and relinquishes defining the budget battle to the opposition. Many of the Republican victories in November 1994 were inspired by Newt Gingrich's insightful analysis of the sources of weakness and failure in American society. Gingrich provided a clarion call to take government off its accelerating growth path itker-s. of Ist clt s ..on iudge and to curb its increasing dominance in the daily lives of households and businesses. He insisted on a radically different though ancient perception of the appropriate role of government that, if implemented, would drastically change and shrink the inventory of government activities. Republican candidates, fired by the Gingrich message, secured the enthusiastic support of their constituencies and came to Washington ready and eager to make that message the order of the day. So how come that message and its implied policy agenda has all but vanished from the scene? The short answer is the infatuation of policy makers -- Democrats and Republicans alike -- with numbers. When the core budget policy issue is identified as the number of years over which the move to a zero budget deficit must occur or whether the CBO's or the OMB's budgetary and economic trend .are to make lines are to be relied on or the budget how many dollars are to be cut early articulate out of Medicare and Medicaid which their over the target period, and so tprioities and on, the really basic issues concerning what are appropriate activities for government to undertake and in what amount are lost sight of. Freshman Republicans might well wonder where their issues, the ones they learned from the Speaker of the House, have gone, what they are doing here, and what they're supposed to do to square things with the folks back home. The irony in this situation is that it hasn't been these freshmen who have lost their way; it's been their leadership who have allowed the greatest opportunity in modern times to change the course and character of government to turn into a mindless numbers game. No intellectual or political genius is required of President Clinton for him to recognize that if he can keep the Republican leadership on their present course, he'll be the winner come November. Institute for Research on the Economics of Taxation IRET is a non-profit, tax exempt 501(c)(3) economic policy research and educational organization devoted to informing the public about policies that will promote economic growth and efficient operation of the free market economy. 1730 K Street, N., Suite 910, Washington, D.C. 20006 Voice 202-463-1400 * Fax 202-463-6199 0 Internet www. ret.org

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