`Contract With America' likely to bat 9 for 10

The Journal Sentinel staff

Washington When House Republicans unveiled their "Contract With America" on the Capitol steps last September, reporters muttered that it was a publicity stunt, Democrats scoffed at the document, and many incumbent Republicans didn't even bother to attend the event.

Half a year later, no one takes the contract lightly or doubts the vigor with which the new Republican majority is pursuing its agenda of reducing the size and scope of the federal government.

"It's been wildly successful," said Rep. Scott L. Klug (R-Wis.).

By the end of the week, Republicans will have fulfilled the contract's pledge to hold votes on 10 major items within the first 100 days of the new Congress. The 100th day is not until next Thursday, but Republicans plan to begin a three-week spring recess after voting Wednesday on tax cuts, the last item in the contract to be addressed.

"A tremendous amount has been achieved," said Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R- Wis.). "This Congress has accomplished more in the first 100 days than any Congress since the New Deal Congress of 1933."

In just over three months, the House has approved welfare reform legislation, a constitutional balanced budget 1 amendment, the line-item veto, six bills that rewrite the 1994 crime bill, unfunded mandates legislation, an overhaul of the civil litigation system, a national defense blueprint, limits on new federal regulations and a package of internal reforms that require Congress to abide by the same laws that govern the rest of the country. Term Limits

The only item in the contract that did not pass was a 12-year limit on congressional service, which was supported by a majority of House members but did not get the two- thirds support needed to amend the Constitution. It looks as though the House will pass by week's end $189 billion in tax cuts, which would mean the House went 9-for-10 in carrying out the contract.

"The checklist is pretty impressive," the contract's architect, House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), told reporters this week. "Given the deliberate smear campaign by the Democrats, given the distortions by a fair amount of the media, we came through . . . in surprisingly good shape."

The Clinton administration and many congressional Democrats, of course, have a different view. Democrats planned nearly two dozen high-profile events and extensive use of technology to drive home their point that the Republican plan benefits the wealthy.

Vice President Al Gore on Monday described the contract as a "highly partisan extremist agenda. Like the discredited trickle-down economics that nearly bankrupted our nation in the 1980s, this 100-day juggernaut is also a mistake."

Rep. David R. Obey (D- Wis.) said in an interview that "there is very little in this contract that will help the average person. In fact, there is a good deal in this so-called contract that will injure them. It is a royal rip-off for the rich at the expense of everybody else in this society."

The publicity war has gone on all week. The Republican agenda will be attacked as anti-children, anti-education, anti-environment and pro-upper class in a series of speeches throughout the week by President Clinton and Democratic congressional leaders.

Meanwhile, Republicans are planning a big celebration Friday on the Capitol steps, and Gingrich plans a speech that night that apparently will be televised by most of the major networks.

The level of activity in the House has been astounding. The House has cast nearly 300 roll-call votes, more than double the number at this point in the last Congress. House committees have held 828 hearings, compared with 510 during the first three months of 1993, according to Charles Jones, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who currently is doing research at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. Party Unity

Jones said that on the 25 bills that have come up for a final vote so far in the House, Republicans have achieved 97% party unity losing an average of just six votes among the 230 Republican members. Meanwhile, an average of 83 out of the 204 House Democrats have been defecting to vote with the Republican majority.

Asked to assess the first 100 days, Jones said: "Absolutely remarkable, period. In American politics, historic, period."

Rep. Steve Gunderson (R- Wis.) said "the most significant achievement is a redefinition of the federal agenda and a recognition of the limits of federal government in the 1990s."

What is that redefinition? "An activist government in terms of moving authority and regulation back to states and local governments and increasing flexibility and choice for individuals," Gunderson said.

Characteristically, the pace in the Senate has been far slower and more deliberative. "The Senate's role is to catch its breath and be deliberate and maybe sand off the rough edges," said Klug, who believes that the Senate eventually will approve in some fashion most of the bills the House already has passed.