Letter from Washington

Just a couple of months ago—at the end of the 97th Congress— the President and Tip O’Neill were aeons apart on the issue of a jobs bill. Mr. Reagan stonewalled the lame ducks on this, refusing to go along with any “make-work” legislation. Today, Mr. Reagan and the Speaker are doing another bipartisan number, a retread of their Social Security soft-shoe routine, and conservatives around town are alternately blanching and retching at what they see. Why a jobs bill now, they ask, when the economy is already on the mend?

Last week the talk around town was that the President’s proxies, Jim Baker and David Stockman, were secretly negotiating with the Democrats for a bill whose appropriation would be set at $4.3 billion for jobs and recession relief (food and shelter operations). Today one hears talk of double that number, but the White House is privately saying that $6.6 billion will be the final figure, and that it has climbed over the $4.3-billion level by reason, principally, of retaining the extension of unemployment-compensation benefits until the end of the year—an item that “will be crammed down our throats whether we like it or not.”

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Just a couple of months ago—at the end of the 97th Congress— the President and Tip O’Neill were aeons apart on the issue of a jobs bill. Mr. Reagan stonewalled the lame ducks on this, refusing to go along with any “make-work” legislation. Today, Mr. Reagan and the Speaker are doing another bipartisan number, a retread of their Social Security soft-shoe routine, and conservatives around town are alternately blanching and retching at what they see. Why a jobs bill now, they ask, when the economy is already on the mend?

Last week the talk around town was that the President’s proxies, Jim Baker and David Stockman, were secretly negotiating with the Democrats for a bill whose appropriation would be set at $4.3 billion for jobs and recession relief (food and shelter operations). Today one hears talk of double that number, but the White House is privately saying that $6.6 billion will be the final figure, and that it has climbed over the $4.3-billion level by reason, principally, of retaining the extension of unemployment-compensation benefits until the end of the year—an item that “will be crammed down our throats whether we like it or not.”