The Week

On the Pope case: What did Andropov know, and when did he know it?

The line has held. As the July 1 deadline approaches, it looks as if the third-year tax cut is safe. True, the House may still pass Tip O’Neill’s $700 “cap” on taxpayer savings, a ploy that would squeeze all those Rockefellers and Vanderbilts earning $36,000 and $41,000 and $49,000 a year. Conceivably the cap might even pass the Senate too. But none of this would be any more than empty political posturing, as all sides now realize. President Reagan’s veto now seems less like a matador’s cape, to be pulled back at the last moment, and more like a brick wall. Reagan supporters can feel the sense of exhilaration that comes from successfully facing down a year-long campaign in the press. They can also proceed to carry the battle to the opponents’ territory on the spending side, where the veto threat is just as potent, and where the widely felt need to cut the deficit works in their favor.

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On the Pope case: What did Andropov know, and when did he know it?

The line has held. As the July 1 deadline approaches, it looks as if the third-year tax cut is safe. True, the House may still pass Tip O’Neill’s $700 “cap” on taxpayer savings, a ploy that would squeeze all those Rockefellers and Vanderbilts earning $36,000 and $41,000 and $49,000 a year. Conceivably the cap might even pass the Senate too. But none of this would be any more than empty political posturing, as all sides now realize. President Reagan’s veto now seems less like a matador’s cape, to be pulled back at the last moment, and more like a brick wall. Reagan supporters can feel the sense of exhilaration that comes from successfully facing down a year-long campaign in the press. They can also proceed to carry the battle to the opponents’ territory on the spending side, where the veto threat is just as potent, and where the widely felt need to cut the deficit works in their favor.