Politics Amok: It’s Closing Time : A confused nation looks toward Washington

Washington has done it to us again. Playing a partisan game of political self-interest, the Clinton White House and the congressional leadership, both Republicans and Democrats, spent weeks crossing swords over government spending. They seemed to get serious only after President Clinton vetoed two politically loaded bills to extend the nation’s debt limit.

Facing a midnight deadline, Clinton met with lawmakers Monday but the session was fruitless. Afterward, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) said the participants “went around and around but we don’t have an agreement.” He added that the talks would continue this morning.

Once again, voters have been treated to shameless threats of a government shutdown. Once again, politics have compelled each side to hold out in the face of a costly suspension of many government activities. Once again, we citizens are struggling to figure out just what’s going on.

SAME OLD CULPRITS: As always, ideology and partisanship are the culprits. Talk of a budget crisis was largely for political effect, an artifice. Four times in the 1980s and the 1990s, government services were interrupted in similar political stalemates. But none resulted in a default on the government’s financial obligations. Temporary funding mechanisms allow the government to stand fully behind its obligations.

In this case, any immediate threat of default is averted by the Treasury’s plans to obtain needed funds. Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin prepared what he called “extraordinary and unprecedented actions” to avoid a federal default when a huge interest payment comes due on Wednesday. The actions include using surplus money from some government trusts to temporarily fund pensions for federal workers and other programs.

Officials have planned for the closures of nonessential federal operations, with about 800,000 employees, or 40% of federal civilian workers, being furloughed.

A COSTLY BUSINESS: The last time the government shut down was in the fall of 1990. But that occurred over the Columbus Day holiday weekend, so it was not very costly to the government. A 1991 study by the General Accounting Office est imated that the cost of a three-day shutdown would range anywhere from $244.6 million to $607.3 million.

In pushing the situation so far, the GOP majority in Congress succumbed to traditional Washington politics. With the recent change in political power on Capitol Hill, little is different but party affiliation and ideology. The tactics are the same, the finger-pointing as predictable as cherry blossoms in spring.

No wonder the public is angry, frightened and confused. This public consternation could well be the most damaging aspect of the bluster that has taken place in Washington. Americans are tired of such political machinations, and neither political party has clean hands.