Off the Record

OFF THF RECORD

Liberal infighting may block socialized day care for yet another year. Our story so far: House Democrats have been backing the radical Act for Better Child Care (ABC), initiated by Senator Chris Dodd (D., Conn.) and supported by the usual suspects, including Mrs. Marion Wright Edelman, one of the capital’s top lobbyists and head of the Children’s Defense Fund. However, normally liberal representatives Tom Downey (D., N.Y.) and George Miller (D., Calif.) joined colleagues on the Ways and Means Committee in supporting a somewhat less ambitious version, which would avoid creating a new Federal bureaucracy. Both versions went to House-Senate Conference, but the Ways and Means Democrats wouldn’t back down. To avoid internecine warfare, Speaker Tom Foley killed both versions, whereupon Mrs. Edelman tried to read Downey and Miller out of the, well, movement. In a remarkable November 14 memo to the two apostates, Mrs. Edelman opens, “Re: Your continuing private guerilla war to kill child-care legislation this year and to defeat ABC,” and continues with three consecutive paragraphs beginning, “Is having it all your way or nothing worth ”

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OFF THF RECORD

Liberal infighting may block socialized day care for yet another year. Our story so far: House Democrats have been backing the radical Act for Better Child Care (ABC), initiated by Senator Chris Dodd (D., Conn.) and supported by the usual suspects, including Mrs. Marion Wright Edelman, one of the capital’s top lobbyists and head of the Children’s Defense Fund. However, normally liberal representatives Tom Downey (D., N.Y.) and George Miller (D., Calif.) joined colleagues on the Ways and Means Committee in supporting a somewhat less ambitious version, which would avoid creating a new Federal bureaucracy. Both versions went to House-Senate Conference, but the Ways and Means Democrats wouldn’t back down. To avoid internecine warfare, Speaker Tom Foley killed both versions, whereupon Mrs. Edelman tried to read Downey and Miller out of the, well, movement. In a remarkable November 14 memo to the two apostates, Mrs. Edelman opens, “Re: Your continuing private guerilla war to kill child-care legislation this year and to defeat ABC,” and continues with three consecutive paragraphs beginning, “Is having it all your way or nothing worth ”