Resplendent in their $1,000 suits, draped in their powerful self-absorption, the Democrats who will decide the fate of President Clinton’s proposed $500 billion deficit-reduction plan daily mouth their discontent.
This one-maybe David Boren of Oklahoma-picks his umpteenth fight with Clinton over the “mix” of taxes and spending cuts. That one-maybe Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, the fear of his re-election campaign shining in his eyes-complains about a proposed nickel-or-so-a-gallon gasoline tax.
Another-maybe Max Baucus of Montana-bemoans the pressures of high office as he labors to cut a last-minute deal for his state or region.
Their second-guesses are dutifully reported, even as the Clinton budget plan reaches critical mass inside a House-Senate conference. And, over time, the mewlings of these faithless Democrats inflict far more damage on Clinton than the predictable, obstructionist ways of Republican leader Bob Dole.
By the time it all comes to a vote this week, conference leaders Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York and Rep. Dan Rostenkowski of Illinois may concoct a formula for getting Clinton the majority he needs in a Democratic-controlled Congress.
But just seven months into Clinton’s term, his putative allies are choking the life out of his administration.
After 12 years of Republican rule in the White House, after being handed a stunning opportunity to govern when the country spurned George Bush last November, Clinton’s self-proclaimed helpmates seem prepared to toss his presidency on the garbage heap.
They have aided and abetted the work of Dole, whose instincts are simply partisan, and Texan Ross Perot, the billionaire fake populist who cannot and will not defend his own budget plan, but is determined to put a second presidential notch on his belt buckle.
In their own defense, Democrats point to final tallies in congressional votes to prove they are loyal to Clinton, looking past the obvious harm done by the public nit-picking of President Boren or President Baucus.
In many respects, Clinton has been his own worst enemy, backing and filling over nominations and policy positions.
But, living and working as he does in the Democratic Party, who can blame him?
Key elements in his party have no discernible sense of loyalty, no investment in the Clinton presidency. All they want is political cover on tough votes, or no tough votes at all.
They did not want to have to vote on Lani Guinier’s nomination to the Justice Department, for example, and Clinton accommodated them. They would not defend the lifting of the ban on gays in the military, so Clinton crafted a deal that earned him a pounding from the Left.
On the budget debate, many congressional Democrats have assumed the most cynical of all available postures.
That’s the one where you keep saying the president’s plan isn’t “tough enough,” that it doesn’t “go far enough,” even as you alternately broker deals and beg for relief in the face of hard choices.
For all his faults, Clinton picked up an enormous burden in deficit reduction, a burden the electorate insisted it wanted carried in this presidency.
To that end, Clinton and his true allies have labored mightily to construct a plan that will appease all 56 Democratic egomaniacs in the Senate, as well as the 258 demigods and goddesses in the House. But there is no pleasing this crowd.
The other day, shortly after Boren jumped ship, Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.) said he was hanging over the side.
Kerrey voted with Clinton on the budget in June, but said he had hoped that “a major structural change in the size of government” would emerge. Interestingly, that was Kerrey’s presidential campaign promise, not Clinton’s. The remark sets an impossible standard for Clinton and betrays a mindset that makes it all but impossible for him to govern.
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For all their protestations, the Democrats understand the administration’s plan is the sole available option. Neither the long-forgotten “Dole plan,” nor Perot’s published rantings-complete with his 50-cent gasoline tax-pass the laugh test for trimming the deficit.
But these same Democrats are comfortable drawing bright lines around aspects of the Clinton plan that irk them. And some of these chaps-Boren comes to mind-are complicit in Reaganomics, having boosted the economic theory which over 12 years quadrupled the national debt and shifted the tax burden down the economic scale.