I greet you this New Year with praise of gridlock.
While many people are downcast about the chaos accompanying balanced budget and telecommunications reform bills, I find comfort in the belief that all the discord and seemingly endless bickering over every provision-big and small-is precisely what the Founding Fathers intended.
House Republicans led by Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), who promised change upon their arrival in Washington a year ago, are hell-bent against passing any more short-term funding until President Clinton agrees to their seven-year budget blueprint.
The problem is Republicans are right on the policy and wrong on the politics. Clinton, using his veto pen to draw a line in the sand, has stolen the budget issue from Republicans and gained popular support by criticizing GOP cuts in New Deal social welfare programs while cleverly calling for spending reductions that are consistent with American values.
Grab the moral high ground, Bill, and look presidential as House and Senate Republicans fight each other.
In defense of gridlock, look at the magnitude of legislation being dealt with. One piece involves the most dramatic overhaul of telecommunications laws since the Communications Act of 1934, based on the revolutionary notion of bringing competition to an industry historically dominated by monopolies.
The other-premised on another unthinkable notion-concerns balancing the budget and taking on the politically unpopular task of reining in uncontrolled growth of welfare, Medicare and Medicaid.
This is democracy in action-sloppy, uncertain and often misguided, but also resilient. The big mess is not proof the system is flawed. Quite the contrary.
Good gridlock is more virtue than vice. Better the delays and disruptions, fragile compromises and yes, even name-calling, than quick, efficient lawmaking typically associated with repressive political regimes.
Step back and think a moment about where the two initiatives began, and where they are today. The budget President Clinton submitted to Congress last February would not erase the federal deficit any time soon.
The administration rallied against the bold Republican plan to balance the budget (with a middle-class tax cut) over seven years-the centerpiece of the revolutionary GOP political agenda-calling it cold, heartless and simple-minded because of the 2002 deadline.
The White House charges have, in fact, some validity; yet, now Clinton has come full circle with a vague seven-year budget plan of his own.
