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TODAY Wednesday 14 January 1998 Each weekday. Conn Nugent on what's new in the world, on the site.

 

TODAY IN THE WORLD: Your Tax Dollars at Work

NPR's Daniel Schorr reports going to a Georgetown dinner party last Friday where one of the guests was Donna Shalala, Secretary of Health and Human Services. The Secretary was almost exultant, Schorr says, over the way that Clinton Administration initiatives on expanding Medicare and subsidizing more childcare had caught the opposition flat-footed. "You ain't seen nothin' yet," she said.

And yesterday I got a call from Hibernicus, Lib Tree's resident hardball player. "This guy's got the best timing I've ever seen. The press is giving him grief about being underambitious -- you know, the most important task he faced last week was naming the dog -- and then, bang!, he says he's going to balance the budget two years ahead of time, he announces big programs for boomers and young parents, and he declares a moratorium on new roads in the national forests. The Republicans are, like, 'duh'."

Actually, the Republicans are out there raising a ton of money by preaching tax cuts and fewer fetters on enterprise. The good news about the new surplus should impel less, not more, government spending, they say. Representative Bob Livingston argues that now's a good time to pare away some expensive enviro-pork initiatives, notably the Conservation Reserve Program at the Department of Agriculture and the greener sections of federal transportation law.

Not a chance. "Environmental protection" -- whatever it means -- is too attractive politically for the GOP to be seen as obstructionists or skinflints. The Conservation Reserve Program -- where farmers are paid by the feds to not raise crops on highly erodable soils -- is way too popular among enviros, farmers, and farm state politicians. And while most GOPers west of the Monongahela would like to put a bullet in the brain of any transportation provision that doesn't go directly to road building, they'll go along with some mass transit and some bikepaths if the overall size of the pork pie is agreeably increased. Right now Senate and House committees are drawing up alternate plans for a new multi-year ISTEA (Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act). In general, both houses want to spend more on transpo projects, both houses want to increase funding for the environmental-minded Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program, and both houses are entertaining amendments which will eviscerate same while not seeming to. (The highway lobby is very smart.) For a rundown of what's going on, check in with our friends at the invaluable Surface Transportation Policy Project.

Next questions: How will budget euphoria and concern for kids and the environment play out in the President's promised $5 billion annual package of tax incentives and R&D subsidies to blunt climate change? What will his opponents do about it? And what do we think of the name "Buddy"?

 

TODAY ON THE SITE

Tom Turner's new "In Other News..." column reviews the latest issue of the Nieman Reports, published by Harvard's noted journalism program. The theme of the issue, Tom says, is transportation, and he highlights all the good stuff.

 

Recent "Today" columns:

1/13: Johnny Mobil Appleseed
1/12: Superbowl, Scientific Uncertainty, and the Future of Al Gore
1/9: Goodbye, Delaware
1/8: Leaf Blowers, Old Cars, Class Conflict
1/7: The Great Improvement That Didn't
1/6: Proactive, Shmoactive
1/5: Mediocre Landscapes and Hope for the Planet
1/2: The Greatest Environmental Cause of the Year
12/31/97: The Top Twelve Environment Stories of 1997

To access more "Today" columns, click "Archives" below.