U.S. Firms Eager Soldiers in Drive to Balance Budget : Lobbying: The Chamber of Commerce, other business groups have marshaled forces to persuade Congress to do what any company or family must do--live within its means.

Lee Janssen, who sells Chryslers, Plymouths and Dodges in rural McCook, Neb., says he talks to “anybody who will listen” about the need to balance the federal budget--even if it means cutting the farm price supports that help his customers.

Bill Graser, a florist in West Seneca, N.Y., writes letters to legislators and worries about his 8-year-old son. “What kind of a future does he have in America when we’re in debt so deeply?” Graser wants to know.

Janssen and Graser are two of the eager foot soldiers in an army of 16,000 local activists for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, men and women who have enlisted in the war for a balanced federal budget. The national Chamber, its state and local affiliates--along with hundreds of other business groups, trade associations and civic organizations--are enrolled in the hard-charging Coalition for a Balanced Budget.

For the nation’s business community, the federal budget is the biggest political issue these days. Entrepreneurs and corporate executives alike are convinced that this may be the best opportunity in decades to force Washington to do what a business or a family must do--live within its means, balancing revenue and spending.

These business interests are emboldened by Republican control of both houses of Congress, which has provided sympathetic legislators who share their view of the world. The business community already has achieved notable successes in this Congress: preliminary approval of bills making it harder to file and win product-liability lawsuits, strict new restraints on government regulators and proposed cuts in the budgets of government agencies.

The budget crusade is being waged on many fronts: at town hall meetings when members of Congress are back in their districts, in television and radio commercials, in newspaper advertisements and letters to the editor, at Rotary and Kiwanis club meetings, in conversations at neighborhood barbecues.

The tools of persuasion range from basic talk to sophisticated computer and fax networks.

In Benton, Ark., “it’s a one-on-one situation,” said David Dickinson, describing how he often chats about the need for a balanced budget with the customers who come into his Tops Shoes store.

In Sacramento, Martyn Hopper, the state director for the National Federation of Independent Business, has access to a computer and fax system so sophisticated he can tailor special alerts for particular types of businesses throughout California, whether they are insurance agencies or bowling alleys or sandwich shops.

With the fax system, and telephone trees, the NFIB quickly and efficiently mobilizes legions of small-business owners. The goal is to generate “relentless pressure,” Hopper said. The quick-reaction system, honed to a fine edge in the fight against President’s Clinton health care plan last year, is being devoted to budget and tax issues this year.

Business lobbying efforts will reach a crescendo this week when Congress returns from its summer recess and begins grappling with the details of trying to fulfill the Republican pledge to produce a balanced budget within seven years.

The Chamber of Commerce and its allies make up just one of the battalions in the budget wars.

Another business-led organization, the Coalition for Change, began a $10-million fall campaign this past weekend, opening with radio ads in two dozen states proclaiming the need for a balanced budget.

“It will take an enormous amount of courage on the part of elected representatives to deal with this,” said Ken W. Cole, vice president for government relations at AlliedSignal Inc., one of the key companies involved through the Business Roundtable, which includes the CEOs of 220 of the nation’s biggest corporations. Joining with the Roundtable in the Coalition for Change are billionaire Ross Perot’s group, United We Stand, America, Inc.; the Seniors Coalition, a conservative seniors group, and Third Millennium, a group representing young voters.

The budget resolution approved earlier this year was the easy part of the crusade, with the Senate and House proclaiming the federal government’s red ink would disappear in the year 2002.

Now comes the hard, painful politics: passing appropriations bills that cut deeply into cherished spending programs, ranging from Amtrak routes to farm price supports to the export-promotion programs of the Commerce Department. And even more challenging will be the effort to overhaul the massive Medicare program in order to slash $270 billion from future spending.

“It’s going to be hard for the Republicans” to carry out their promises, said R. Bruce Josten, senior vice president for membership policy at the Chamber of Commerce. “They need a lot of willpower to accomplish this.”

Josten says his members, at least, are firmly committed to keeping the pressure on Congress: A survey of 10,000 Chamber members showed 96% in favor of balancing the budget in seven years.

But what if the cherished goal requires wiping out helpful federal programs and tax credits, with a resulting negative impact on your company or your industry? When that question was asked, support for the balanced budget dropped, but was still an overwhelming 86%, Josten said.

Using its membership roster of 215,000 businesses, the Chamber previously identified 40,000 potential activists who said they were willing to be contacted by fax to help with hot issues. Then they were asked about specific issues, and the balanced budget was the biggest drawing card, with 16,000 volunteering for this year’s campaign, including auto dealer Janssen, florist Graser and shoe salesman Dickinson.

Advocates of a balanced budget always go back to their businesses or their homes as the source of analogies to express why they demand action from Congress.

“People around here are conservative in their savings and spending habits,” Dickinson said. “They know that when you spend more money than you have, you have to catch up. As a country, we have to get ourselves under control and get spending in check,” he said.

“As a parent, I have to make hard choices for my family, and Congress has to make hard choices for the country,” he added.

By the dozens, state and local business groups, trade associations and individual firms have pledged to join the lobbying charge. Josten, who serves as co-chairman of Coalition for a Balanced Budget, said the membership has reached 800 organizations and associations and is still climbing. Collectively, they represent 3 million to 4 million members, he estimated. The Christian Coalition also is an active member, lending its powerful political backing to the business groups pushing for the drastic budget changes, he said.

As a sign of the intensity of the issue, the American Business Conference, an influential group of corporate leaders who are the presidents and chairmen of 100 high-growth companies, is taking the unusual step of preparing a special package of budget charts for their companies to distribute to every worker in their factories, offices and distribution centers.

“There are some hard choices that have to be made and a feeling that not enough Americans are aware of the budget process,” said John Endean, the group’s vice president.

“This is an important time: There is a window of opportunity that may close quickly.”

Graser, the florist, puts the goals of the lobbying effort in a more blunt fashion: “Congress has been talking a lot. Now they have a chance to do something, and we’ll see if they have the guts.”