On the Right

Somebody, somewhere, should devise the means of focusing public sentiment on the whole business of compound bills. These are such as last week exploded in the face of the Republican leadership. On this one, the Republicans were the aggressors. To the main bill (to appropriate aid for the dispossessed, primarily in South Dakota and Minnesota) were attached several riders. The Republicans gambled that the attachment would be parasitical-gambled that the live body would transport the appended organisms into law. What happened could have been predicted by rank amateurs in handicapping, and should certainly have been predicted by Messrs. Gingrich and Lott.

In big clashes weighing Congress against the Executive the odds vary according to the emotional candlepower of the issue. We were dealing this time around with flood victims, whose plight had been elaborated in 38 consecutive prime-time exposures to the ravages of nature. Under the impact of such huge deposits of human misery what happens is that distinctions tend to disappear. In the current case, even more pronouncedly than during the campaign last year that seemed to feature a presidential candidate who cared about the sick versus a presidential candidate who did not. Poor Mr. Dole could say one hundred times that the difference between Mr. Clinton’s call for a Medicare increase and his own was a miserable 1 per cent. Such distinctions do not trouble those who put aside all considerations when they view the problem as having to do with human health. The ambulance driver can charge anything he wants.

About the Author

William F. Buckley Jr.

William F. Buckley Jr. founded National Review magazine in 1955.

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Somebody, somewhere, should devise the means of focusing public sentiment on the whole business of compound bills. These are such as last week exploded in the face of the Republican leadership. On this one, the Republicans were the aggressors. To the main bill (to appropriate aid for the dispossessed, primarily in South Dakota and Minnesota) were attached several riders. The Republicans gambled that the attachment would be parasitical-gambled that the live body would transport the appended organisms into law. What happened could have been predicted by rank amateurs in handicapping, and should certainly have been predicted by Messrs. Gingrich and Lott.

In big clashes weighing Congress against the Executive the odds vary according to the emotional candlepower of the issue. We were dealing this time around with flood victims, whose plight had been elaborated in 38 consecutive prime-time exposures to the ravages of nature. Under the impact of such huge deposits of human misery what happens is that distinctions tend to disappear. In the current case, even more pronouncedly than during the campaign last year that seemed to feature a presidential candidate who cared about the sick versus a presidential candidate who did not. Poor Mr. Dole could say one hundred times that the difference between Mr. Clinton’s call for a Medicare increase and his own was a miserable 1 per cent. Such distinctions do not trouble those who put aside all considerations when they view the problem as having to do with human health. The ambulance driver can charge anything he wants.