WASHINGTON - Democrats can see their slogan now: The Republican Congress could have granted new protections to managed care patients, kept our children from smoking, rescued our farmers and improved our schools - yet all it did was rename an airport after Ronald Reagan.
But before they take their campaign against a "do-nothing Congress" on the road this fall, the Democrats seem to be making sure Congress does nothing.
A bold but time-honored strategy has emerged in recent weeks to tie the Senate in knots by attaching partisan legislation to every bill on the Senate floor, then complain that Republicans cannot get anything done.
At best, Democrats may force Republicans to pass their legislation. At worst, they get live ammunition for the fall campaigns.
"Given the choice between having an accomplishment or having the issue, I'll take the accomplishment," Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota said Friday.
"Obviously, if you can't have the accomplishment, you look at what other silver linings there are."
The Democrats' insistence on attaching tobacco and managed-care legislation to other, unrelated bills has scuttled a product liability bill and stymied must-pass spending bills for agriculture, veterans programs and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Republicans complained that tobacco and managed care are issues that should be dealt with separately.
Now, Democrats are promising to attach an emergency farm bailout to every bill that reaches the Senate floor, again over Republican objections.
"There's an element of politics the closer you get to the fall elections, no doubt about that," conceded Sen. Tim Johnson, a South Dakota Democrat. "But there's also real frustration on the part of Democrats who have an agenda they can't get votes on."
Republicans are furious about what they see as Democratic obstructionism. Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi warned Saturday that stalling by Democrats would make it difficult for Republicans to enact tax cuts and pass other important legislation this year.
"I want you to know in advance what we're up against - so you won't be surprised by some political shenanigans that seem to ** be already in the works," Lott warned in the GOP's weekly radio address.
Lott said the Democrats' "goal is to create a legislative logjam, . . . a logjam that can only be broken by giving President Clinton more of your money to spend."
Sighed Sen. Connie Mack, a Florida Republican, "It's going to be a long summer."
In an election year when no overarching national issue has emerged to galvanize the electorate, Democrats hope to create three: empowering patients in managed care companies, curbing teen smoking, and improving education through smaller classes and school construction.
In addition, Democrats hope that a new push to help farmers stung by record-low agricultural prices and bad weather will help the party in elections in critical farm state races.
And Democrats are laying the groundwork for a claim to fiscal responsibility, should the Republicans continue their push to abolish the tax code and enact broad tax cuts on capital gains and kill the so-called "marriage penalty."
"I don't think there's going to be a nationalized election; I don't think people will walk into a voting booth angry and say the Republicans accomplished nothing," conceded Mark Mellman, a Democratic pollster.
"But doing nothing on [managed care], education and some of these other things will come back to haunt them in a number of key races, especially in the House."
In the past, the parties have been able to work together to pass consensus legislation. But this year, Democratic priorities have nothing in common with Republican priorities: tax cuts, tax-preferred education savings accounts and drug control.
"That is one of the biggest problems," Mellman said. "The Republicans have no agenda."
Republicans contend that with the economy humming along and voter satisfaction high, there are no demands for congressional action. The best Washington can do right now is to stay out of the voters' lives, said Lott's spokesman, John Szwartacki.
The conflicting approaches have led to a stalemate.
Lott yanked the 1999 spending plan for agricultural programs from the Senate floor last month, after Democrats tried to attach a new version of tobacco-control legislation.
He also put off a final vote on the Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development 1999 spending bill after Democrats moved to attach to it a broad plan to force managed care companies to give patients more choices.
"That was clearly [Democratic] leadership throwing a hand grenade in the manure pile," complained Sen. Christopher S. Bond, a Missouri Republican and chairman of the subcommittee that drafted the veterans and housing spending bill.
On Thursday, Democrats defeated a bill to limit punitive damages for small businesses after Republicans refused again to allow them to vote on amendments that would have attached the managed care bill and other pet legislation.
Republicans charged that Democrats do not really even want to pass these amendments. They simply want to embarrass Republicans by forcing the Republicans to block them, the GOP said.
"There is no desire on the part of [Democrats] to debate these amendments - none whatsoever," groused Sen. Slade Gorton, a Washington state Republican who pushed the product liability bill. "It's a simple smokescreen."
Bipartisan cooperation in Congress does seem to have vanished.
Two years ago, when Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts wanted to pass legislation guaranteeing that workers could transfer health plans from one employer to another, he sat down with a Republican, Nancy Landon Kassebaum of Kansas, to work out a deal.
This year, Republican Sen. Alphonse M. D'Amato of New York has written tough managed care legislation that almost every House Democrat has endorsed.
But Kennedy, who has his own bill co-sponsored by Daschle, has made no effort to work with D'Amato, who is running for re-election.
Past farm crises have transcended politics, linking farm-state senators from both parties. But last week, a news conference was held to unveil emergency legislation to rescue farmers from depressed agricultural prices.
Only Democrats showed up.
Their message: If Republicans do not allow a vote on the farm measure by July 22, they will begin trying to amend it to every available bill.
Republican leaders have now offered Democrats two deals on managed care legislation: a vote on the Democratic "patients' bill of rights" in exchange for a Democratic promise to drop the issue if they lose, and side-by-side votes on the Democratic version and a Republican alternative. Democrats rejected both offers.
"They're just playing politics," charged Oklahoma Sen. Don Nickles, the Senate's second-ranking Republican. "They want to beat the drums for an issue, not pass legislation."
Such tactics are nothing new, especially in the Senate.
During the run-up to the 1994 elections, Republicans used them to thwart President Clinton's national health care plan, sow dissension among Democrats on Clinton's deficit-reduction plan and crime bill, and generally paint the Democratic Congress as dysfunctional.
"It is a common tactic of a minority party that has been done for years," said former Republican Sen. Bob Packwood of Oregon, who led efforts to thwart the Clinton health plan.
But unlike in 1994, the electorate this year is showing few signs of anger with Washington that obstructionism could exacerbate, Packwood said. And that could doom any strategy for retaking control of Congress with "do-nothing" charges.
"It isn't going to work," Packwood predicted. "The voters are relatively satisfied. I don't see the people demanding that anything get done.
"The Democrats can go out and say this is a do-nothing Congress, but a certain amount of people will say, 'Good.' "
Some in Congress believe the gap may be bridged before lawmakers go home in October to campaign for the November election.
Republicans, especially in the House, could begin to feel the sting of the "do-nothing" charge, while Democrats reach a point where they can no longer refuse Republican overtures for TTC cooperation. That could lead to a rush of accomplishments this fall, said Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, a centrist Connecticut Democrat.
"We may have a frustrating July leading to an eye-opening August leading to a productive September," he predicted.
Pub Date: 7/12/98