The Iran-contra hearings and the struggle over the confirmation of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork are going to seem like marshmallow fights compared to the battle royal that is brewing in Congress over defense spending.
According to Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) of the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Pentagon can expect not only a leveling off of military money in the next few years, but a real reduction in the arms budget as the exploding cost of weapons systems already programmed collides with the Gramm- Rudman realities of deficit control, a Godzilla-sized national debt and political resistance to tax increases.
The fight will not simply be the traditional one between hawks and doves but will embroil assorted members of Congress who view the defense budget as a form of pump-priming and down-home job creation and will kick, bite and scratch to keep pet defense contracts alive in their states or districts in fierce competition for dwindling Pentagon cash.
For example, the swollen budget for the controversial B-1 bomber project- which has been experiencing serious problems since the doors flew off one of the supersonic and supercostly aircraft on a congressional demonstration flight over the Virginia suburbs some years ago-has been spread out through subcontracts over all 50 states. This especially includes California, where dovish Sen. Alan Cranston (D., Calif.) has repeatedly pledged his troth to the nuke-laden B-1-constituents like Jane Fonda notwithstanding.
McCain, a former Navy aviator and Vietnam prisoner of war, said he also expects warfare between those trying to keep labor-intensive, back-home weapons projects alive and those who would like to see some money set aside for operations and maintenance so that the weapons produced will have bullets to shoot and fuel to make them go.
A similar struggle a decade ago saw arch-liberals such as Illinois` Abner Mikva and New York`s Bella Abzug fighting in Congress to keep obsolete forts and arsenals operating in their states. As the late Sen. Everett Dirksen might have said, with B-1s going for more than $250 million a copy, we`re talkin`
real money here.
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A recent national poll commissioned by the American Medical Association shows that an overwhelming number of Americans would like more money spent on family farms, catastrophic health insurance, children`s day care and student loans than on defense spending. Only public campaign funding and ”Star Wars” research money got less support.
The poll also indicates the public is extremely sour on American leadership in general, and particularly leadership in business (the Ivan Boesky syndrome), religion (the Jim Bakker syndrome) and politics (the 1988 presidential candidate syndrome).
The biggest fears of Americans, according to the poll, are (in descending order) that Medicare won`t be able to meet the needs of senior citizens, that AIDS will kill a large share of the population, that there will be a worldwide oil crisis, that Social Security will go broke, that the federal deficit will ruin the economy and that the American banking and financial system will collapse. In last place, fear-wise, is that there will be a nuclear war-probably because few think the B-1 bomber could even make it to Russia.
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A different and perhaps more appropriate kind of poll was just taken in Iowa, site of the first big 1988 presidential candidate competition. A local ice cream producer came out with flavors named after the leading presidential contenders. So far, the leading seller has been George Bush ”Preppymint,”
though the ice cream producer isn`t sure whether it`s because the stuff tastes like ever-popular peppermint or because Bush is the candidate most like ice cream.
He said his Gary Hart ”Donna Rice Cream” also is popular, though it`s not certain whether that is because of Hart or because of the Miami model who has had so much to do with Hart`s political thinking lately.
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Add the Justice Department to the list of Washington public buildings where public access is being limited (the Smithsonian Institution no longer lets the public park in what were the public parking garages and it`s easier to get into Ft. Knox than it is into the U.S. Capitol). Only one Justice Department entrance may now be used by the public. If anyone wants access through the many others, they`ll have to be fingerprinted first. There`s a joke that soon the only people able to get into the Justice Department building will be people serving subpoenas on Justice Department officials. There`s another joke that subpoena servers are the targets of the new restrictions.
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Only in Washington. On 16th Street, the boulevard leading north from the White House, metal signs have been erected to explain to pedestrians how to use the ”Walk” and ”Don`t Walk” flashing traffic lights. The signs say that the flashing ”Don`t Walk” light means that you shouldn`t walk.
Next they`ll be putting up the signs in triplicate.
