The Week

■ Mme Jeanne-Louise Calment of Arles, France, has celebrated her 120th birthday, which makes her one of a select few who address Strom Thurmond as “Sonny.”

■ The Balanced Budget Amendment remains in senatorial limbo aswegoto press. It is an imperfect tool (see Hadley Arkes, p. 58), especially without a three-fifths tax-limit provision that would have kept it from becoming a vehicle for raising taxes. But the ferocity of Democratic opposition suggests that it has powerful anti-government potential. Now that fear of a deficit is no longer a prop for opposing tax cuts, the Left realizes red ink is its best friend (note the New York Times patiently explaining how it’s OK for the debt to grow as fast as incomes). The arguments marshaled against the amendment—that it would compromise the FDIC, cripple government’s ability to spend its way out of recessions, etc.—were just cover for the perpetual $200 billion a year in non-emergency deficit spending proposed by the President. We hope Democrats enjoy defending their profligacy in 1996. In the meantime, Republicans may have to fight the out-of-control federal budget with no wall at their back— and Mark Hatfield still chairing the Appropriations Committee.

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■ Mme Jeanne-Louise Calment of Arles, France, has celebrated her 120th birthday, which makes her one of a select few who address Strom Thurmond as “Sonny.”

■ The Balanced Budget Amendment remains in senatorial limbo aswegoto press. It is an imperfect tool (see Hadley Arkes, p. 58), especially without a three-fifths tax-limit provision that would have kept it from becoming a vehicle for raising taxes. But the ferocity of Democratic opposition suggests that it has powerful anti-government potential. Now that fear of a deficit is no longer a prop for opposing tax cuts, the Left realizes red ink is its best friend (note the New York Times patiently explaining how it’s OK for the debt to grow as fast as incomes). The arguments marshaled against the amendment—that it would compromise the FDIC, cripple government’s ability to spend its way out of recessions, etc.—were just cover for the perpetual $200 billion a year in non-emergency deficit spending proposed by the President. We hope Democrats enjoy defending their profligacy in 1996. In the meantime, Republicans may have to fight the out-of-control federal budget with no wall at their back— and Mark Hatfield still chairing the Appropriations Committee.