COLUMN RIGHT/ JAMES P. PINKERTON : Time to End Silence of the GOP Lambs : Only Perot speaks for those who want to limit government.

As President Clinton jets across the country, selling the most ambitious tax-and-spend program since the New Deal, we should pause to ask, “Whatever happened to the Republicans?”

Remember them? They once had a President named Reagan who used to talk about change, growth and hope. Clinton remembers. He explicitly styles himself after the Great Communicator, even as he seeks to bury Reagan’s policies.

As with Reagan in 1981, Clinton will almost certainly “win” the fight for his economic plan. The Congress will probably water down the spending cuts (which were liquid to start with), but Clinton’s gyroscopic political skills enable him to keep his poise, even when his promises hit the fan. Recall the scene in “Citizen Kane,” when Kane, the press lord turned political candidate, prepares two alternate post-election banner headlines: “Kane Elected!” and “Fraud at Polls!”

The Republicans are huffing and puffing, threatening to blow Clinton’s White House down. But they lose steam when they can’t answer his taunt: If you want more spending cuts, he says, tell me where, but be specific. No hot air, be specific.

The GOP bag of budget tricks--which in the past gave us caps, freezes, balanced budget amendments and tax checkoffs--is finally empty. Republicans made budget deals in 1982, 1984, 1987 and 1990. Each traded real tax increases for phony spending cuts. The numbers tell the story: Since 1980, taxes are up 122%, spending 150%.

Clinton isn’t interested in cutting spending, but who thought he was? He’s a Democrat, and that’s not what Democrats do. Instead, he’s delivering for Democratic constituencies, big and small: billions for his neo-Great Society; an extra no-strings $28 million for the District of Columbia government, apparently just for being a loyal source of Democratic electoral votes.

So what can the GOP do? First, recognize the truism: You can’t beat something with nothing. Blind opposition to Clinton’s program reinforces the Democratic argument that the Republicans hanker for the Bush-era status quo. The Republicans need to fight for a different vision.

Start by eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts, not because it funds pornographic art, but because it funds art, period, and that’s a luxury we can’t afford right now. Then do away with the Small Business Administration, the space station and such relics as the Rural Electrification Administration and the Tennessee Valley Authority. Maybe Republicans will finally get the gumption to oppose these bureaucratic money pits now that their friends in the cushy corner offices have been replaced by Clinton’s friends.

Nothing rings more hollow than Republican declarations that Social Security is the one perfect program that should be put on a pedestal, albeit at ever-higher expenditure levels. This shamelessness breeds cynicism about the Republican commitment to fiscal conservativism. But we don’t need to cut widows and orphans to save money. If we can raise taxes on millionaires, let’s also take them off the retirement dole. Establish the common-sense principle that Social Security should only go to people who need it.

Getting beyond the obvious boondoggles, Republicans have to face the fact that the government does a lot of things that people want done. The challenge is to find more effective and efficient ways to do things that are now being done so badly. Elevating the Veterans Administration into the Cabinet was one of the worst actions of the Reagan years. Nobody’s arguing that we should pull the rug out from under veterans, but let’s not confuse the worthy end (helping vets) with the incompetent means (the VA bureaucracy). Rather than wrestling with red tape, let’s start over: Empower veterans with vouchers and let them choose their own hospitals. The GI Bill and VA loans both followed this choice model, and they are great successes. Only with health care have we Sovietized our commitment to vets. If Clinton can cut Cabinet dining rooms, Republicans should seek to eliminate Cabinet posts and direct the aid to those who earned it.

Economists say that the only power you have in this world is the power of an alternative. Right now, people who believe in limited government are disempowered, because nobody is speaking for them. The Republicans are so busy defending their little turf that they don’t see the political earthquake coming.

They should tune in March 21, when Ross Perot comes back to prime time, charts and all. Perot knows his audience. He knows that in politics, like business, failure to satisfy the market means opportunity for someone with a better idea.