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Seven Party Responsibility Comes to Congress

1. Stuart Eizenstat, "The Hill's Budget Stampede," Washington Post, June 21, 1981, pp. C1, C3. [BACK]

2. CQA 1981, pp. 257-58. [BACK]

3. "Crocodile Tears," editorial, Washington Post, January 25, 1988, p. A12. [BACK]

4. Richard E. Cohen, "Democratic Dilemma—No Credit If They Work with Reagan, Blame If They Don't," National Journal, March 21, 1981, pp. 482-86. [BACK]

5. Robert Reischauer, "The Congressional Budget Process," in Gregory B. Mills and John L. Palmer, eds., Federal Budget Policy in the 1980s (Washington, D.C.: Urban Institute, 1984), pp. pp. 397-98. [BACK]

6. Richard E. Cohen, "For the Congressional Budget Process, 1981 Could Be the Make or Break Year," National Journal, January 10, 1981, pp. 59-63. [BACK]

7. See Hugh Heclo and Aaron Wildavsky, The Private Government of Public Money, 2d ed. (London: Macmillan, 1981). [BACK]

8. Greider, Education of David Stockman, p. 57. [BACK]

9. Morganthau, "The Gipper Loses One," Newsweek, June 1, 1981, pp. 22- 23. [BACK]

10. Stockman, Triumph of Politics, p. 195. [BACK]

11. Ibid. [BACK]

12. The budget resolution's reconciliation instructions to the Committee on Ways and Means read as follows:

(15)(A) the House Committee on Ways and Means shall report changes in laws within the jurisdiction of that committee which provide spending authority as defined in section 401(c)(2)(C) of Public Law 93-344 sufficient to reduce budget authority by $3,699,000,000 and outlays by $8,247,000,000 in fiscal year 1982; to reduce budget authority by $3,660,000,000 and outlays by $9,247,000,000 in fiscal year 1983; and to reduce budget authority by $3,511,000,000 and outlays by $9,573,000,000 in fiscal year 1984; and

(B) the House Committee on Ways and Means shall also report changes in laws within the jurisdiction of that committee sufficient to reduce appropriations for programs authorized by that committee so as to achieve savings in budget authority and outlays as follows: $978,000,000 in budget authority and $994,000,000 in outlays for fiscal year 1982; $1,294,000,000 in budget authority and $1,312,000,000 in outlays for fiscal year 1983; and $1,647,000,000 in budget authority and $1,675,000,000 in outlays for fiscal year 1984. (United States Statutes At Large, 1981, p. 1754)

13. The classic case is the Park Service, faced with a cut, declaring it had to cut the hours for tours at the Washington Monument—the most visible cut imaginable. In 1986 the Library of Congress managed a nice version of this: responding to the Gramm-Rudman sequester, it closed its main reading room at 5:00 p.m. instead of 9:00 p.m.; it got more money. [BACK]

14. For detailed descriptions of these proposals, see Timothy B. Clark, Linda E. Demkovich, Robert J. Samuelson, and others, "Congress Works a Minor Revolution—Making Cuts to Meet Its Budget Goals," National Journal, June 20, 1981, pp. 114-25; Helen Dewar, "Hill Panels Meet or Exceed '82 Budget Cut Goals, Estimates Show," Washington Post, June 13, 1981, pp. A1, A5; and Dewar, "OMB `Indicts' Democrats," Washington Post, June 15, 1981, pp. A1, A13. [BACK]

15. Clark et al., "Congress Works a Minor Revolution"; Helen Dewar and Robert G. Kaiser, "Reagan Allies Ready Budget Alternative," Washington Post, June 12, 1981, pp. A1, A5. [BACK]

16. Stockman, Triumph of Politics, p. 200. [BACK]

17. Ibid., p. 203. [BACK]

18. Ibid., pp. 204-5. [BACK]

19. Clark et al., "Congress Works a Minor Revolution"; Helen Dewar, "House Democrats Hunker Down For Next Fight on Budget Cuts," Washington Post, June 16, 1981, p. A2. [BACK]

20. Smith, "The Congress," p. 62. [BACK]

21. Helen Dewar, "House Democrats Try to Cut Losses on Social Programs," Washington Post, June 17, 1981, p. A2. [BACK]

22. CQA 1981, p. 262. [BACK]

23. Barrett, Gambling with History, p. 160. [BACK]

24. Jane Seabury, "Republicans Criticize Democrats' Slow Pace on Budget Legislation," Washington Post, June 22, 1981, p. A2. [BACK]

25. Robert G. Kaiser, "Budget Warriors Improvised, Coddled," Washington Post, July 4, 1981, pp. A1, A2. [BACK]

26. Peter Goldman, "Reagan's Sweet Triumph," Newsweek, July 6, 1981, pp. 18-20. [BACK]

27. "Unfinished Business," National Journal, July 11, 1981, p. 1266. [BACK]

28. Peter Goldman, "The Honeymoon Is Over," Newsweek, June 29, 1982, pp. 36-37; and Art Pine, "Whistling Dixie on Tax Bill: Can GOP Rise Again?" Washington Post, June 21, 1981, pp. G1, G6. [BACK]

29. Pine, "Whistling Dixie on Tax Bill," p. G6. [BACK]

30. Stockman, Triumph of Politics, p. 208. [BACK]

31. S. William Green, "In Search of Fairness," Congressional Record, Vol. 128, no. 90, July 14, 1982. [BACK]

32. Goldman, "The Honeymoon Is Over"; and Kaiser, "Budget Warriors Improvised." [BACK]

33. Calculations from National Journal, July 4, 1981, p. 1218. [BACK]

34. CQA 1981, p. 259. [BACK]

35. Smith, "The Congress," p. 64. [BACK]

36. Stockman, Triumph of Politics, p. 218. [BACK]

37. Barrett, Gambling with History, p. 160. [BACK]

38. Lou Cannon and Dan Balz, "Reagan Taking His Economic Plan on Road, Flays Democrats," Washington Post, June 25, 1981, p. A3; and CQA 1981, pp. 262-63. [BACK]

39. Ward Sinclair, "Powerhouse," Washington Post, June 26, 1981, p. A1. [BACK]

40. Ward Sinclair and Peter Behr, "Horse Trading," Washington Post, June 27, 1981, p. A1. [BACK]

41. Ibid. [BACK]

42. Ibid. [BACK]

43. According to S. William Green (R-N.Y.), ibid. [BACK]

44. Richard E. Cohen, "Small But Influential," National Journal, July 11, 1981, p. 1260. [BACK]

45. Peter Goldman, "Reagan's Sweet Triumph," Newsweek, July 6, 1981, pp. 18-19. [BACK]

46. Ibid. [BACK]

47. Dennis Farney, "President's Budget Wins Vote in House on Rules Question, Stunning Democrats," Wall Street Journal, June 26, 1981, pp. 3, 14. [BACK]

48. Ibid. [BACK]

49. Stockman, Triumph of Politics, pp. 221-22. [BACK]

50. Smith, "The Congress," p. 66. [BACK]

51. Barrett, Gambling with History, p. 163; see also CQA 1981, p. 264; Richard A. Cohen, "Reagan's House victory lightens burden for budget conferees," National Journal, July 4, 1981, pp. 1218-19; and Cohen, "Small But Influential." [BACK]

52. CQA 1981, pp. 263, 265. [BACK]

53. Democrats had, at the time, a 242 to 191 margin; 21 of the 242 had opposed the party on both Republican substitute first resolutions in 1980, so might be expected to defect in 1981. Of this group, 3 (Marty Russo, Ill.; Doug Applegate, Ohio; and Bill Boner, Tenn.) were loyal on Gramm-Latta 1. Each was no conservative and, having made his seat safe in 1980, had few electoral worries. Jack Brinkley and Elliot Levitas of Georgia defected on all other budget votes but supported their party on reconciliation, leaving 16 whom, we may safely say, the Democrats had little chance to win. Another 12 Democrats had defected on one of the 1980 Republican substitutes. Of these, Bill Nichols (Ala.), Andy Ireland (Fla.), Bill Lee Evans and Ed Jenkins (Ga.), Eugene Atkinson, and Kent Hance (Tex.) were all pretty conservative. Only Jenkins, whose anger at Gramm was noted above, resisted Reagan's courtship. The other 6 were moderates with histories of party loyalty. There were, therefore, 24 Democrats whose previous budget votes and ideology made them prime suspects to defect. The Democratic leaders'success in holding the three Georgians—Brinkley, Levitas, and Jenkins—was probably the best that could be expected within that group, bringing the basic margin to 221 to 212, if everyone else voted with their party. [BACK]

54. James A. Miller and James D. Range, "Reconciling An Irreconcilable Budget: The New Politics of the Budget Process," Harvard Journal of Legislation 20, no. 4 (1983), pp. 4-30; quote on p. 25. [BACK]

55. Ibid. [BACK]

56. Helen Dewar, "Senators Will Prune Budget-Slashing Bill," Washington Post, June 23, 1981, p. A5. [BACK]

57. Reischauer, "The Congressional Budget Process," p. 389. [BACK]

58. CQA 1981, p. 264. [BACK]

59. Dewar, in the Post, wrote that:

The leaders agreed to strip out provisions to do such things as permit wider trucks on interstate highways, deregulate the amateur radio industry, allow Western Union to enter international telecommunications markets, reauthorize the Older Americans Act and create a new program sponsored by Senator Jeremiah Denton (R-Ala.) to promote adolescent chastity, sources said.

But they disagreed over other items in such areas as further radio deregulation, television licensing, federal controls over community development grants and curtailment of subsidized housing for cities like Washington that practice rent control. ("Senators Will Prune Budget-Slashing Bill")

60. John L. Palmer and Gregory B. Mills, "Budget Policy," in John L. Palmer and Isabel V. Sawhill, eds., The Reagan Experiment (Washington, D.C.: Urban Institute Press, 1982), pp. 59-96; quote on p. 78. [BACK]


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