Show The Salt Lake Tribune COMMENTARY Al5 Sunday April 11 1993 Bradley Cisneros Form Strong Partnership to Create a New Urban Policy THE WASHINGTON POST WASHINGTON — When Sen Bill and Secretary of HousBradley D-ing and Urban Development Henry Cis- neros got together last Wednesday for their first substantive discussion since the Clinton administration began it was two of the brightest men in Washington talking about one of the nation's greatest needs — a sensible urban policy They did not spend much time on Cisneros' piece of President Clinton's "economic stimulus" package the $25 billion of extra Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) money which provoked the successful Senate Republican filibuster against the whole "jobs" bill Both of them can poke holes in the Republicans' claim that the $25 billion is all "pork" a political payoff for the support Democratic mayors gave Clinton's election But Bradley has limited enthusiasm for this kind of spending and Cisneros is enough of a political realist to know that trimming CDBG funds may be the price Republicans exact for letting the $16 billion bill come to a vote Privately Cisneros and Bradley would concede that the GOP has scored political points by ridiculing the notion that resurfacing tennis courts or building swimming pools should count as "emergency" spending paid for with borrowed dollars and not counted against the budget ceiling To be sure Republican rhetoric is overblown Most of the recreational proareas And if jects serve these projects aren't of urgent importance themselves the 98 percent unemployment rate reported last month in the nation's big cities sure is an emergency for the people who would get paychecks again if these projects are funded low-incom- ear r David Broder - R out-of-wo- But no one believes that CDBG is going to solve the unemployment problem permanently or spark a renovation of the cities It hasn't done that in the almost 20 years since it was started It survived because mayors like the projects it pays for but it never had a thorough evaluation until former HUD Secretary Jack Kemp commissioned the Urban Institute to begin one a year ago and those results are not in Bradley and Cisneros know that new approaches must be tried if the limited federal investment is to spark a serious t effort to revive blighted city neighborhoods Kemp knew that too but his urban initiatives never got much support from a White House where concern about the cities was born suddenly the day after the Los Angeles riots and died unmourned barely six weeks later dered against "gridlock and stalemate"? Yep they promised if we yoke up a Democratic president with a Democratic Congress we'd gasp at the lightning-fas- t action Zing ping Capitol Hill would click like a souped-uvideo game Well once again you feel like Charlie Brown when Lucy yanks the football down-to-eart- 74 41iTO-H- :e: 1 e-- Ser v: -- Iple:itsr e-f-:: - - I?? 4i s 1 Sandy Grady it ri 0 0 : et 4 - 7 wr 7: r ' ' 44 )i" 76031-if- - ' AP l'g Li I 5 tc r tt t Geo a - 7 e iii 4 ti 4 v - 1:11?! r ' -- -- finger-pointin- g oft-use- d Miss Spurned burned GOP troops decided to talk Clinton's $16 billion job stimulus package to death with a filibuster Oh this wasn't one of those epic filibusters of yore when senators read Shakespeare or the Bible all night It didn't match Strom Thurmond's solo record when he proved he had an iron voice and bladder by orating 24 hours and 18 minutes No this talkathon was orchestrated for television Republicans wandered in to make their speils before the cameras assured the 57 Democrats didn't have 60 votes to bust up the debate After three failures at breaking the yakathon tempers were becoming unglued "This is political blackmail unprecedented for a new president" said Sen Robert Byrd reminded Byrd Arlen Specter that Democrats knocked out John Tower as would-bdefense secretary at the beginning of George Bush's term Specter argued he'd gotten 119000 more votes than Clinton so he had a right to deny the president's program "It's raw presidential politics" thundered Don Riegle "Republicans running for president in 1916 would rather campaign here than New Hamp It-P- a e GOp INZP 1 1 4 - shire They're trying to wound the - presi- ' dent" ' D-G- n a D-A- la fresh-talkin- g w Ciiift k VI - t - V '' 00 V k la ' -- 1 A 1 kg " t''' 3' t111:tet at ilt 014il 4 4:14ilioto 40 Y1 of - q" - it 11 mit -kni74 -- - e Ytile(41tkiktg:oiceltg74LI3111611‘3111414 t I Tit) Ep Et - -- A 0': w -0 tioAmrtsYcirtMoU - 04 ILI 1Ik IiTA-1) i- - votes" half-millio- -- Ikt R-- "These crocodile tears remind me of the four years when Democrats wouldn't let George Bush pass his programs" said Republican guerrilla chieftian Bob Dole clearly enjoying the Dems' fury a Clinton pal Dale Bumpers put the blather into perspective: "I make $135000 a year and 95 percent of people think I'm overpaid After this travesty I'd agree with 'em" Whether the charade was depressing or comic — I'd pick the former — the stakes were high Clinton's stimulus gizmo with money for unemployment insurance summer jobs child immunization and highway construction supposedly evencreates 200000 jobs a tually Sure the impasse would be soothed in a backroom swap by Dole Senate leader George Mitchell and White House aides But the Republican rebellion sets a sour tone for Clinton What happens when he reform? tries to pass health-car- e Too often insiders are calling Clinton with a contemptuous curl of the lip "The Great Compromiser" Sen Sam Nunn backed him down on gays in the military Max Baucus made Clinton retreat on his to western federal lands by save plan raising grazing mining and lumbering retains his fees Bob Krueger help while daily thumbing his nose at Clinton Sure Clinton played hardball against who sneeringly Richard Shelby called Clinton "the taxman" and humiliated Al Gore on TV Why he cut off Shelby's tickets to a White House reception for the Alabama football team Shelby's unbowed So here we go again Despite a dynamic president and a semi-neCongress nothing much in the Imperial City has changed Same peacock egos same pontificating for TV same maddening gridlock Only one man is laughing Every minute they stall these guys make new Ross Perot fans :- k- ik: tift: fl'Istro ! Although Gramm's an ardent defender of the supercollider and space station that mean billions for Texas he's the loudest blusterer against Clinton's "pork" J Frank Lautenberg railing against Republican hypocrites snarled "When the trough is full of swill the hogs knock each other getting to it" "Very rough language" said John Chafee "The other side is bellowing its lungs out because it doesn't have the iF:ft:t?iteikt 41tflpi 1WraAP44i4 i5VI'VV10--101tirStkM3 tz This was a shot at Phil Gramm as one of several senators with '96 lust R-T- Those immortals Gridlock and Stalemate are back Also that American tradition The Congress Also the Backroom Deal Also those staples of Washington life: partisan feuding bickering and posturing for TV One thing doesn't change: the carnival of egos in the US Senate Even a youthful energetic president can get befuddled in that Hall of Winds Bill Clinton had been rolling past every peril so adroitly he seemed the Indiana Jones of politics His budget deal swept through the Hill He was compared to a young FDR — "formidable" was the rave One mistake He ignored Republicans who had seemed as extinct as polyester leisure suits Day after day Clinton invited Democrats into the White House to have their egos massaged He gambled he could pass his economic program with brute numbers Republicans even cut out of the Senate floor action were treated as coldly as Haitian boat people "They stuck their fingers in our eyes once too often" said Sen Trent Lott R- ' -- --- 11::MII to: e-- ft'41 ''' tj: Ir A re4t441 p away h m --3-- 4 -- self-respe- ct long-ter- — - 4: ? months of early childhood development Cisneros reacted enthusiastically to several of Bradley's ideas Both believe that the initiative for genuine community development must come from the neighborhood itself if it is to nurture people's sense of responsibility and soluBoth also believe that tions to urban problems will be found only if affluent suburban Americans accept their responsibility to end what Bradley has called "encirclement policies" and what Cisneros calls "spatial segregation" of the races For years no one in the Senate has spoken more candidly about race than Bradley Today no one in the administration is speaking more honestly on the curse of racism than Cisneros Together these two just might make a difference It will take virtually unprecedented cooperation from parochial federal bureaucracies to achieve these goals Meantime Bradley is working on a more concept a package of eight bills costing only $15 billion a year that would allow modest expansion and wider experimentation with several promising institutions created in individual communities by pioneering local people Among the "new tools" Bradley would help their inventors share more widely are a neighborhood reconstruction corps letting unemployed people develop their skills by rehabilitating abandoned build The Clinton White House is different Indeed the most ambitious of the administration's urban initiatives is being formed not at HUD but at the White House itself Called the "enhanced enterprise zone" plan it goes beyond the British model Kemp tried with minimal success to promote That plan relied primarily on tax breaks to attract businesses and jobs to poverty areas The new version as Cisneros described NEWS SERVICE — Remember the WASHINGTON 1993 campaign when Bill Clinton and a slew of new political firebrands thun- ings community schools that keep their doors open for programs for people of all ages 16 hours a day seven days a week and 12 months a year community capital partnership banks helping finance small business in blighted areas and "15- month houses" designed to help infants and their mothers find a safe and stimulating environment in those critical job-traini- - e Spurned Republicans Fight Back Impose Gridlock on Washington KNIGHT-RIDDE- it in an interview would let a targeted area get help in a block grant from a multiplicity of federal sources: HUD for its housing needs Education for its schools Health and Human Services for clinics and family counseling Labor for Justice for public safety programs Transportation for infrastructure needs EPA for cleaning up its environment and Treasury for tax abatements — all focused on a local design and delivered on a scale calculated to lift the neighborhood and its people into the mainstream 1 :4 I Senate Minority's Filibuster Power Must Be Changed By Mickey Kaus THE NEW REPUBLIC when this particular rule — allowing a s of the Senate to prevent a mere vote was considered an especially conNow troversial bit of would be a good moment to revive that two-fifth- Should Washington have had so much trouble deciding whom to back? On one side we have an elected president struggling to transform his nation's economy On the other side reactionary legislators mostly holdovers from the previous regime chosen under an eccentric unrepresentative system using parliamentary maneuvers to frustrate the president's reforms Yet somehow in the struggle between President Clinton and the Senate Republicans Washingtonians seem to be secretly applauding the GOP When Bob Dole the Senate minority leader was successfully blocking Clinton's initial $16 billion "stimulus" package I kept waiting for the expressions of disgust from my colleagues None came The predominant reaction seemed to be "Hey look at the Republicans finally getting their act todebt-ridde- n gether" Part of the explanation was simply that we here in the capital are easily bored The "Clinton juggernaut" story was getting stale the GOP revival offered a promising plot twist Another part of the explanation is substantive: You didn't have to be a Republican to have doubts about Clinton's plan to spend $25 billion on various mayors' pet projects But there was also a misguided insiders' sense of fairness at work Yes Clinton won the election the argument seems to go But it takes 60 votes to cut off debate in the Senate If Dole can muster all 43 Republicans to support a filibuster — well he has as he put it "every right under the rules to prevent this bill from passing" The rules are the same for both sides But that doesn't mean the rules aren't crazy There was a time not so long ago sentiment because Dole's filibuster wasn't really about the "stimulus" package It was about whether Clinton can govern without continually appeasing the Republican minority It may have been about whether Clinton can govern period The Founding Fathers didn't make governing easy They created two elected branches of government and within the legislative branch two houses of Congress This was an effective scheme for thwarting majority tyranny It also created the likelihood of divided government — "gridlock" When Republicans controlled the White House and Democrats controlled at least part of Congress as occurred from 1981 to 1992 complaints about "gridlock" might be dismissed Perhaps the voters were intentionally choosing inaction But what if one party finally wins control of all three power centers remains unified and still can't pass its program? Then surely it's time to start worrying The Constitution itself didn't require that the Senate adopt its wacky tradition of unlimited debate As Steven Smith of the University of Minnesota points out the tradition began more or less by accident Senators originally could cut off debate but found it rarely necessary So when they wrote a new code of rules in 1806 the provision was omitted on the grounds that it wasn't needed Soon senators were busy exploiting the obstructionist possibilities of the filibuster In 1917 the Senate adopted its infa debate-endin- g s mous Rule 22 under which a vote was required for the cloture motion to end a filibuster Rule 22 permitted segregationist Southerners to stall civil rights legislation until 1964 when the s was finally musrequisite tered In 1975 liberals with much huffing and puffing managed to obtain a tiny s modification of Rule 22: only of the Senate would henceforth be needed for cloture In the years since this pathetically inadequate reform filibusters have become more and more routine And Dole has broken new ground by using a filibuster to prevent a vote on an incoming president's basic economic program Reagan didn't face such tactics in 1981 If the GOP had filibustered Roosevelt in 1932 we might not have had a New Deal Why not simply change Rule 22 by mas jority vote? Because it takes a vote to cut off debate about changing the rule for cutting off debate! The dirty little secret is that virtually everyone in Washington has an interest in keeping the current rules The ability of a handful of senators to block any action is one of the things that makes senators such big wheels Now that Dole has pulled off his coup for example there are 43 Senate Republicans who are suddenly worth knowing and bribing with campaign donations (and projects) Lobbyists who have "access" to the 43 senators are suddenly more valuable And there are 43 additional political celebrities to be interviewed so journalists are more in demand as well That's the kind of "stimulus" Washington understands two-third- two-third- three-fifth- two-third- pork-barr- Mickey Kaus is a senior editor of The New Republic in which this article first appeared Specter of Big Brother Controlling Health Care Is Too Chilling to Imagine LOS ANGELES TIMES SYNDICATE WASHINGTON — The man (as distinct from the woman) in charge of health care reform White House aide Ira Magaziner says the task force he heads has reached agreement on the basic principles of a national health care plan Magaziner says the task force plan will guar antee — yes guarantee — health care to all individuals no matter how sick they are whether they are employed or unemployed whatever their economic status from cradle to grave (Actually the President wants to make abortion part of the plan so it might be said that his proposal will extend from womb to grave) This is a utopian dream that will cost a fortune or reduce the quality and availability of care or create lengthy waiting lists for some procedures — or all of the above I called my doctor to see what difference the emerging Clinton health plan might make in his ability to provide the same level of care he has been giving my family Dr John Curry is a primary care giver in family practice in northern Virginia beHe says government's havior in the Medicare program for the elderly ought to be a warning of worse things to come Each new regulation says Curry is accompanied by threats of fines and jail terms for doctors who are found to have violated increasingly complicated rules Many doctors he says have stopped accepting Medicare patients because the doctors don't get paid what their services are worth and there are too many hassles Time was says Curry when a doctor could bill Medicare a set amount for an heavy-hande- d rCal MB Thomas 1 46: k ' ''' I ' tk : office visit but bureaucrats have created five separate categories of office visits and frequently second-guesdoctors as to the proper category and fee s The health maintenance organization or HMO is another preview of coming attractions according to Curry In exchange for a fixed fee a patient can call the primary care giver for the tiniest Under the HMO contract says Curry "I expected to see only really sick folks and maybe do some annual physicals but they make me carry a beeper and I not only get an average of six calls a night for the most minor problem people want to come in and see the doctor for a cold When they had to pay $20 out of their own pockets for an office visit they would treat their own colds and I could see people who really needed to be seen" Government-managecare will make it harder to reach the doctor Physicians will increasingly rely on nurses and medical assistants to treat patients' ailments Waiting lists will grow "Where medical care used to be a relationship between a patient and the doctor" says Curry "it will become a relationship with an amorphous organization supervised by businessmen and overseen by the govern d ment" When Big Brother is the supervising party of primary care predicts Curry it will be the frustrations and bureaucracy of Medicare multiplied by 10 Before we rush to embrace Ira Magaziner's (and Hillary Rodham Clinton's) medical vision for the future everyone should read a satirical but frightening article in the March 22 issue of Medical Economics magazine Emergency physician Frank Venuti of Flats NY called it "If Medicare Ran Baseball" Venuti says games would be held in the snow Some home runs wouldn't count New rules would come out every other week The games are broadcast on "The Government Fairness Network" It's enough to make you sick but you'd better not be Chances are the doctor won't be available for some time — if ever a |