Budget An Achievement, If Not Revolutionary

By Brooks Jackson/CNN

WASHINGTON (April 26) -- When they stormed Congress two years ago, Republicans boldly pledged to go where no Congress had before. Their goal was a balanced budget and a dramatically downsized federal government.

That has not happened yet, evidenced by the just-signed budget for fiscal 1996. And they did not achieve many of the cuts they wanted. President Bill Clinton's Americorps program, which pays young people for community service, still exists, for example. Republicans tried to kill it, but in the end just trimmed the money by 15 percent. And all 25,000 members will keep their jobs

It's that way all over. Clinton's program to hire new police officers not only survived, but will grow. With 34,000 cops authorized so far, it stays on course to reach 100,000. And for public broadcasting, federal aid is down, but hardly eliminated at $260 million a year.

A year ago Republicans called for a revolution. Declared House Speaker Newt Gingrich: "The government is too big, it spends too much and needs to be brought under control."

But after a year of partisan warfare, vetoes, shutdowns and threats of default, what has really happened?

Not much, according to Allen Schick of the Brookings Institution. "In practical terms Medicare and Medicaid have not been cut," he says. "Medicaid is still an entitlement, welfare has not been reformed, taxes have not been reduced and federal programs, the large ones, the big ones have not been terminated. So if you look programmatically at the budget, you see very little evidence of a Republican revolution." (256K WAV sound)

Republicans claim to have eliminated 200 programs, if you count the barber shop in the House of Representatives and a program to wipe out cattle ticks in Puerto Rico. The old Interstate Commerce Commission is gone, but the departments of Commerce, Energy and Education still stand.

The biggest change is that a Democratic president now calls for a balanced budget, too. "The era of big government is over," Clinton proclaimed in this year's State of the Union address.

"I don't think that any president would dare send up a budget that wasn't in balance no matter how much invisible ink, blue smoke and mirrors he has to use to get from here to there," notes Carol Cox of the Committee for a Responsible Budget.

As for reality, the federal deficit is cut by nearly half from $203 billion in 1994 to an estimated $104 billion this year. It's due largely to a growing economy and real cuts in some federal spending

Says Cox: "It's the first time I can remember, and I've been around budgets a long time in this town, that spending for any major part of the budget actually went down compared to what we spent in the previous year (160K WAV sound)."

What's being cut is discretionary spending, such as money for summer jobs, which is down 28 percent. A Baltimore paramedic program from last summer is gone. A program to provide free legal aid fo the poor is being slashed by one-third. Between 300 and 400 offices may be closed, mostly in rural areas.

But all discretionary spending, including for the military, represents less than 31 percent of the budget. The big items are mandatory spending, such as old folks' Social Security, not addressed by Republicans. And on Medicare, Medicaid and welfare, the Republican Congress and President Clinton have yet to agree.

The bottom line is the federal government will spend less for discretionary programs this year than last year. And the savings will grow in future years. It's hardly a revolution, but it's definitely an accomplishment.

This story originally appeared on CNN's Inside Politics.

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