Orange County Gives an Earful to Congressmen

The first round of the federal budget battle is over, but the calls keep pouring in.

Orange County’s largely conservative voters are telling their congressmen that they’ve had it up to here with talk of new taxes and that their Republican President is starting to act like a big-spending Democrat, congressional aides said Tuesday.

But there is plenty of constituent ire to go around.

In the last 24 hours, “the tone has shifted away from . . . ‘What did Bush do to us?’ toward, ‘You guys in Congress are just a bunch of do-nothings. You got your pay increase and you’re not doing the job,’ ” said David Coggin, administrative assistant to Rep. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad), who represents southern Orange County.

But, Coggin said, voters say they strongly approve of Packard’s votes against the five-year, $500-billion deficit reduction package originally proposed by the White House and congressional leaders. All five members of the delegation opposed the original plan, which included a 12-cent increase in the gasoline tax and increased Medicare premiums. The package was soundly defeated in the House early Friday.

After a weekend of intense negotiating, the Senate and House passed a new budget resolution, over Republican objections, that gives congressional committees controlled by the Democrats much greater latitude in setting tax and spending policy.

Early Tuesday, the House gave final approval to a companion spending measure that permits the government to continue operating through Oct. 19, while congressional committees work out details of $40 billion worth of proposed tax increases and spending cuts for 1991.

Voters “are completely frustrated with the fact that it’s gone on for five months, and we wait until the last minute, 3 in the morning, four days late, and attempt to fashion something,” said Peter Slen, press secretary for Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach).

“They don’t want tax increases, and they see no real cuts in government spending” in the plans proposed by congressional leaders, Slen said.

“People are getting more aggravated with the system,” added Paul Mero, press secretary for Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton), who represents northeastern Orange County. “We’d get calls like, ‘I’m never voting for a Republican again,’ but it’s weird, because they would then compliment Mr. Dannemeyer for holding firm, almost as if he’s not a Republican--or a Democrat.”

Dannemeyer was one of only three members of the House--and the only Californian--to vote against the compromise spending measure that allows the government to remain open for the next two weeks. Although Dannemeyer’s alternate budget proposals are routinely ignored by his colleagues, he unveiled a new five-year plan this weekend that calls for $424 billion in spending cuts and no tax increases.

“There is a strong theme of ‘Get your act together and do something,’ ” said Larry Hart, press secretary for Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Long Beach), whose district includes northwestern Orange County. “Although there is another theme, of ‘Hang in there and don’t raise my taxes.’ ”

Paul Morrell, administrative assistant for Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), said that after fielding a host of irate telephone calls, “my feeling is that (Orange County voters) are just angry.”

On the other hand, Morrell said, “the thing that is amazing is that . . . the President and the congressional leadership went toe-to-toe with the American public, and the American public won.”