[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 173 (Friday, November 3, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S16690-S16691]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                POLITICS AND THE DEAD ARTS OF COMPROMISE

 Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, when the New York Times ``Week in 
Review'' section had an article by Adam Clymer titled, ``Politics and 
the Dead Arts of Compromise,'' I read it and cut it out for my future 
reference. I have just re-read the article, and it is such a 
significant insight into where we are and where we're going or where 
we're not going, that I want to insert it into the Record.
  We have become increasingly an excessively partisan body. I do not 
blame either party specifically for that. I have seen that grow over 
the years, and it has hurt our country, and it has hurt the two-party 
system.
  What is essential is not that we win public relations battles, but 
that we work out practical compromises to govern. That's what Adam 
Clymer understands, and that's what we have to understand.
  I ask unanimous consent that his observations be printed in the 
Record.
  The observations follow:

                [From the New York Times, Oct. 22, 1995]

                Politics and the Dead Arts of Compromise

                            (By Adam Clymer)

       Washington.--The most serious debate in at least three 
     decades over the role of government in American life is being 
     conducted in the nation's capital these days--with all the 
     dignity of a 30-second spot. 

[[Page S 16691]]

       Polls are used to consider timetables for possible 
     negotiations, as each side ponders its moment of maximum 
     advantage. Television spots about Medicare have employed 
     slogans only minimally more civil than ``liar, liar, pants on 
     fire!''--which, of course, is their underlying message.
       And focus groups scripted the debate that preceded the 
     House's vote Thursday to curb $270 billion in spending for 
     Medicare and make wrenching changes in the centerpiece of 
     Lyndon Johnson's Great Society. Democrats may not have needed 
     any research before accusing the Republicans of slighting the 
     elderly to help the rich; that may be not be thoughtful, but 
     it is instinctive. But when Republicans said ``preserve and 
     protect,'' over and over, they were following their 
     pollsters' advice, not engaging in a serious discussion.
       Even the most ordinary tasks of Congress are subordinated 
     to political tactics. Only three of the 13 spending bills 
     that Congress had promised to complete before the fiscal year 
     began three weeks ago have gone to the White House. Some of 
     those bills have real problems, and may be hard for even 
     Republicans to agree on.
       But a few days ago Speaker Newt Gingrich explained the 
     delay in purely tactical terms. He said he thought President 
     Clinton would try to make headlines by vetoing them, and 
     snapped, ``I'm not going to give his Presidential campaign 
     new cheap-shot photo-ops.'' (In past Congresses, the dynamics 
     were only a little different: Democrats invited vetoes by 
     passing bills they knew Presidents Reagan and Bush would 
     reject, seeking campaign issues for the next election.)


                          arranging surrender

       One reason that major legislation and national issues are 
     being approached with the winner-take-all-quality of 
     elections is that the normal process of getting things done 
     in Washington, compromise, has become synonymous with 
     capitulation. If compromise is evil, then who needs 
     negotiations? All that's needed to arrange are the terms of 
     surrender.
       Kathleen Hall Jamieson, dean of the Anneberg School of 
     Communications at the University of Pennsylvania and an 
     expert on political language, suggests the problem is more 
     than rhetorical. ``The thing that the word `compromise' was 
     designed to describe--the process by which you forge 
     consensus--is no longer an acceptable part of the political 
     process,'' she said. That was especially true in the House, 
     she said, where ``institutional courtesies'' like 
     consideration for the minority and civility in debate have 
     fallen into disuse.
       Republicans, driven by a huge and unbending freshman class, 
     offer no apologies. Representative David M. McIntosh, an 
     Indiana freshman, explained last week: ``When we went home in 
     August, we all heard from the public, `Don't back down, don't 
     give in to the Senate or the President.' We came back and we 
     told the leadership that we won't back down, and we 
     haven't.''
       Mr. Gingrich knew what was coming, for right after the 
     election last year he proclaimed himself ``very prepared to 
     cooperate with the Clinton Administration,'' but ``not 
     prepared to compromise.'' And even Senator Bob Dole, the 
     majority leader, who has built a considerable legislative 
     reputation on making deals, said last month, ``This will not 
     be an autumn of compromise, make no mistake about it.''
       Mr. Clinton does not always spurn compromise. But he has 
     not given it a good name, either. Last week he even seemed to 
     be trying to cut a deal with himself on the subject of taxes, 
     first sounding contrite that he had raised taxes ``too much'' 
     in 1993 and then pronouncing himself proud of that year's 
     budget. But he has been attacking many of the Republicans' 
     spending cuts as ``extremist,'' so he risks being accused of 
     surrender if he reaches an agreement with them on next year's 
     budget.


                             feats of clay

       House Democrats will oppose almost any deal that involves 
     spending cuts; they don't believe in them. But Mr. Clinton 
     also fears attacks from the press, which cannot believe that 
     Mr. Clinton can give ground to help the country, but only 
     because he is wishy-washy.
       Compromise was once highly prized in American politics, at 
     the Constitutional Convention, in the Republic's early days, 
     and when Henry Clay, the dominant lawmaker of the first half 
     of the 19th century, was hailed as the ``Great Compromiser.''
       But in the years leading up to the Civil War, compromise 
     lost its good name. Abolitionists held slavery to be a moral 
     abomination, and Abraham Lincoln himself rejected a pre-
     inaugural effort to preserve the Union by guaranteeing 
     slavery forever in the states where it then existed.
       Joel Silbey, a Cornell University historian, noted that 
     compromise again fell into disrepute just before the 
     Progressive Era, when ``government seemed to be forever 
     compromising with evil power.'' Like the Civil War period, 
     and like today, he said, that was a time when outsiders got 
     involved in the political process and scorned its traditions.
       An important House Republican leadership aide said the same 
     circumstances prevailed today: ``The American people think 
     that politicians, once they get to Washington, are all too 
     willing to give up their principles, wedded to a system of 
     selling out.''
       Today's politicians find a lot of moral imperatives, like 
     the difference between achieving a balanced budget in 2002 
     and, say, 2003. Not Mr. Clinton, who has said at various 
     times that it would take five years, seven years, eight years 
     or nine. But seven years is what the Republicans say they 
     must have--or else.
       There are Democrats who speak of cuts in Medicare in the 
     apocalyptic terms they would use if faced with a bill 
     completely repealing this greatest of the Great Society's 
     programs. And there are Republicans, like Mr. McIntosh, who 
     look in absolute terms on a pet project of his and 
     Representative Ernest Istook's--an effort to prohibit groups 
     that get any Federal money from lobbying the Federal 
     Government, ever. They threaten to hold all other legislation 
     hostage until they get that prohibition adopted.
       Norman Ornstein, the Congressional scholar from the 
     American Enterprise Institute, says there may be 100 House 
     Republicans ``who believe, deep down, that compromise is a 
     bad thing.'' He said the leaders were giving themselves very 
     little breathing room by leaving only three weeks to get 
     major bills passed and then settle things before the debt 
     limit expires Nov. 12. ``It's a dangerous end game,'' he 
     warns.
       Earlier this month, it seemed both sides might negotiate. 
     But the Clinton side thought the Congressional quest for 
     Medicare cuts was hurting the Republicans and saw no reason 
     to give ground. It may be only when both sides think the 
     public will blame them for stubbornness that they may sit 
     down together.
       If so, politicians may be too busy testing attack phrases--
     like ``tax cut for your wealthy contributors,'' or ``a joke 
     wrapped in fraud and shrouded by farce''--to judge the public 
     clearly.
       Peter D. Hart, a Washington pollster, said a recent poll 
     conducted for NBC News and The Wall Street Journal showed 
     that a majority of Democrats wanted the President ``to make 
     adjustments to reach compromise'' with Congressional 
     Republicans on budget issues and that a majority of 
     Republicans wanted their lawmakers to compromise with Mr. 
     Clinton.
       ``Compromise may be a dirty word in Washington,'' he said. 
     ``But out among the public it is a very positive 
     term.''
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia is informed 
that, under the circumstances, morning business would have been closed. 
Does he ask consent to continue that for a time in excess of 5 minutes?
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I may speak out 
of order for such time as I may consume.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________