Reaganomics Revisited

The Reagan State of the Union Address marked the beginning of the long goodbye. The President recognized this as clearly as anyone, and so his speech, although well-written (and well-delivered once the Great Communicator hit his stride), was almost free of surprises. But not completely. Stacking the 43 pounds of federal budget components on the podium was an artful gimmick and a useful one, the budget process being an ongoing national disgrace.

Another felicitous surprise was Mr. Reagan’s promise to report on the pork items that he would “line out” if he had the line-item veto. That report is certain to create perverse hilarity among the Republicans when it appears shortly before Super Tuesday, and Angst among the pork-addicted Democrats. My staff, incidentally, had to labor arduously to get anyone on the Hill to admit that his or her Member of Congress had sponsored any of the pork items, such as the $3.4 million to the tailoring industry for research on how to sew sleeves onto shirts, or the $250,000 for research on how to prevent wild pigs from attacking exotic Hawaiian plants. Finally, one other quasi-surprise was the President’s bold asseveration on START—”No agreement is better than a bad agreement”—now seen here as occasioned by 1) trouble in Geneva, 2) the need for caution, on simple merits, and 3) the need for a sop to the Right.

JM

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John McLaughlin

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The Reagan State of the Union Address marked the beginning of the long goodbye. The President recognized this as clearly as anyone, and so his speech, although well-written (and well-delivered once the Great Communicator hit his stride), was almost free of surprises. But not completely. Stacking the 43 pounds of federal budget components on the podium was an artful gimmick and a useful one, the budget process being an ongoing national disgrace.

Another felicitous surprise was Mr. Reagan’s promise to report on the pork items that he would “line out” if he had the line-item veto. That report is certain to create perverse hilarity among the Republicans when it appears shortly before Super Tuesday, and Angst among the pork-addicted Democrats. My staff, incidentally, had to labor arduously to get anyone on the Hill to admit that his or her Member of Congress had sponsored any of the pork items, such as the $3.4 million to the tailoring industry for research on how to sew sleeves onto shirts, or the $250,000 for research on how to prevent wild pigs from attacking exotic Hawaiian plants. Finally, one other quasi-surprise was the President’s bold asseveration on START—”No agreement is better than a bad agreement”—now seen here as occasioned by 1) trouble in Geneva, 2) the need for caution, on simple merits, and 3) the need for a sop to the Right.