Here We Go Again! : Congress wants to play games with quake aid

Most of us have regretfully or gratefully come to terms with the fact that the professional football season is over. Now there figures to be a resounding shout of approval, especially in California, when the other football season finally ends. We mean the one on Capitol Hill.

About a week ago, President Clinton did right by California by calling for $6.7 billion more for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The money would support recovery in the 40 current national disaster areas, and the lion’s share (72.6%) would be earmarked for damage remaining from the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Clinton’s move was an appropriate response to vital needs within a state that contributes so much to the rest of the nation. Then someone yelled “football.”

GINGRICH & CO.: House Speaker Newt Gingrich and other GOP leaders wrote a letter to Clinton saying that they would not act on the disaster aid until the President proposed equivalent cuts in other spending programs.

The reaction from the Clinton Administration was swift. “We believe our supplemental request should be treated as an emergency and should not require offsets,” the White House budget chief, Alice Rivlin, told the Associated Press. Moreover, Rivlin said, there will be no list of cuts.

All of this caught Gov. Pete Wilson unaware. He said that Californians should be treated the same as any other Americans who suffered devastation in a natural disaster.

But new handwriting already was appearing on the wall. Suddenly, we began hearing other members of Congress talk of how tired they were of shoveling money to a state where people chose to live in dangerous circumstances. And it was Rep. David R. Obey (D-Wis.), who came up with this gem: “Frankly, I think a lot of us are getting tired of some governors coming to Washington with their hands out.”

How quickly they forget.

ECONOMIC ENGINE: Twenty percent of all the goods that are exported from this nation are produced in California. Among the growth industries on which the U.S. economy will depend in future years--ranging from advanced forms of transportation and computers to biotechnology--one-third or more of the companies are here in California. If you want to talk about which state played the biggest Cold War role in helping to drive the Soviet Union into bankruptcy and political oblivion, you’re talking about California.

Want to talk about pillars of U.S. auto marketing? Again you will have to talk about California, which buys more vehicles than the next two highest-ranking states combined. Agriculture? California is No. 1 in overall marketing of crops, livestock and products. According to the 1994 Statistical Abstract of the United States, Californians paid nearly $62 billion in federal income tax in one year. No other state came close.

A failure to help California complete its recovery from the worst natural disaster in U.S. history would have negative repercussions far beyond its borders. Congress should wise up, and ante up.