The State Of the Union: Austere

Carter calls for frugality and restraint

The day before Jimmy Carter delivered his State of the Union address, he met at the White House with the House Democratic leaders. He went around the table, asking each for his views on the fiscal 1980 budget. The last to be called on was House Speaker Tip O'Neill. "Mr. Speaker," said the President, "I save you for last. I've got to get my marching orders from you." O'Neill said he had spent more than 40 years fighting for social programs for the poor, and he added: "I didn't become Speaker to strip them." Replied the President, "I don't intend to. We're going to get the fat out." Then he added, "We've got a tough road. I know that."

Tougher than even he may think. His meeting with the leaders was only a prelude to the turbulent battles that will now begin over national priorities--battles between, to take one mighty example, those who want to cut the fat from social programs they feel have not worked well and those who want to search for lard in the military's billions. Carter's State of the Union address and his budget message would serve as the wick to ignite for the congressional session ahead all the contending political factions and the brawling special-interest groups.

Carter wanted to focus attention on two broad areas, the economy and evolving foreign relationships, while persuading his listeners that he had a sensible long-range strategy for dealing with both. With a view toward the politics of 1980, he hoped to come across as the cool, realistic leader. His delivery in a packed hall of the House of Representatives matched his message. Dressed in sober dark blue, standing so straight that his back almost arched, he spoke more haltingly than usual because he had the beginnings of a cold. There were the customary odd pauses and the staccato delivery. The applause was tepid, and when Carter proposed a slogan for his Administration, the New Foundation, it was clear that he was not building for the ages.

His basic theme was the complexity and intractability of problems. "The problems we face today," said Carter, "are different in nature from those that confronted earlier generations of Americans. They are more subtle, more complex, more interrelated. At home, we are recognizing ever more clearly that government alone cannot solve these problems. And abroad, few of them can be solved by the U.S. alone."

The President emphasized his battle against the No. 1 domestic problem, inflation, which is a "burden for all Americans, but a disaster for the poor, the sick and the old." To combat it, he singled out his bill to contain hospital costs; he claims the legislation would save Americans $60 billion over the next five years. Said he: "There will be no clearer test of the commitment of this Congress to the anti-inflation fight." He cited the need for deregulation of the railroad, bus and trucking industries after the successful liberation of the airlines from bureaucratic control.

Carter asked for support of his "strong" defense budget. "We have no desire to be the world's policeman," he said, "but America does want to be the world's peacemaker." Starting his anticipated hard sell of a nuclear arms treaty, he tried to reassure critics of the pact: "SALT II is not based on sentiment. It is based on self-interest--of the U.S. and of the Soviet Union. Both nations share a powerful common interest in reducing the threat of a nuclear war. I will sign no agreement which does not enhance our national security."

The address was the product of many White House hands, and it suffered from the group effort. Carter had personally devoted as much time to the speech as to any other he has given. National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski weighed in with foreign policy suggestions; Stuart Eizenstat pleaded for domestic causes; Vice President Walter Mondale insisted on reassurances to the poor. Nine versions were produced before Carter approved the final one.

The White House hoped that building the speech around the New Foundation would bring approval. The tactic did not work. Speaker O'Neill offered one of the kinder comments when he said, "These speeches never vary. They're all the same. I've heard it so many times I know it by heart."

Earlier in the week, Carter had submitted his budget message to Congress. The President estimated spending at $531.6 billion in fiscal 1980 with a $29 billion deficit. Though HEW's budget would be increased 10% and HUD would be given almost 19% more in funds, White House Press Secretary Jody Powell listed 79 programs that would be axed. They range from inner-city public-works programs to the National Board for the Promotion of Rifle Practice to the Alaska branch of the National Petroleum Reserve program.

Members of both parties pounced on the budget. Republicans charged that not enough had been cut to defeat inflation. Said Senator William Roth: "To describe Carter's budget as lean is like looking at the package of bacon in the supermarket. You don't see the fat until you open the package." Liberal Democrats denounced the budget for cutting too much, although they greatly exaggerated the economies in programs that apply to the poor. At a meeting of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, AFL-CIO President George Meany warned: "The fight against inflation must be on the basis of the equality of sacrifice, not the sacrifice of equality." Ted Kennedy was also indignant: "The austerity is an arbitrary one. The budget is an unfair one because it gives too much to some in our society and demands too much from others."

A harbinger of the battles ahead came in the House of Representatives. Over Carter's objections, the House Democrats voted to instruct the Ways and Means Committee to defer the Social Security tax increase scheduled to take effect in 1981. Rather contradictorily, the House leaders also voiced objections to the President's proposed reductions in Social Security benefits. As Carter pointed out at his press conference, the cuts he is seeking are marginal and involve duplicate services. But Social Security is such an untouchable item on the liberals' agenda that any proposed changes are bound to raise an outcry. Those protests will doubtless multiply as the session progresses. As Carter approaches election year, he is very much the proverbial man in the middle--an enviable political stance in many ways. But it is also one that is subject to attack from both right and left in the two parties. In his State of the Union address, Carter staked out his position. It will take all his political talents to maintain it.

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