EMERSON SAYS CLINTON WON'T HAVE IT EASY

President-elect Bill Clinton will have to do more than trot out the party label to win congressional support for his legislative proposals, says U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson.

Speaking to reporters at his office in the Federal Building in Cape Girardeau Thursday, Emerson said Clinton will have to work with various coalitions in Congress.

There is a wide range of differing philosophies among Democratic lawmakers in the House of Representatives, he said.

"The Democratic party in the House is not a consensus party...It is a coalition of a lot of disparate elements.

"The Republicans are a lot more of what is called a consensus party," he pointed out.

As a result, said Emerson, Republican lawmakers will still be an important factor in the legislative picture, even though they are in the minority.

"President-elect Clinton is going to have difficulty dealing with the Democratic majority in Congress," predicted the Cape Girardeau Republican, who won re-election to a seventh term Tuesday.

"There is a very small element of very conservative Democrats that he may well have some trouble with, and there is a very large element of super liberal Democrats that he may have difficulty dealing with, if in fact he is going to be the centrist president that he says he wants to be," said Emerson.

"I think that Clinton, if he is indeed going to be a centrist president, is going to have grave difficulties with the majority liberals in the Congress, particularly on economic issues.

He doubts Clinton will have such a hard time getting the liberal Democrats to go along on social issues, but predicts the socially conservative Democrats in the House will be balky.

The veteran lawmaker said he would support Clinton should the new president seek to secure line-item veto power and a balanced budget amendment.

"I've been for a balanced budget provision in the United States Constitution since the day I went to Congress," said Emerson, who has repeatedly introduced such a measure.

Emerson promised to introduce a balanced budget amendment once again when Congress reconvenes in January. In the previous session, the measure fell nine votes short of getting the necessary two-thirds approval in the House.

He predicted Clinton would face Democratic opposition in Congress over any line-item veto proposal.

Republicans picked up a few seats in the heavily Democratic House in Tuesday's election, but not enough to make a real difference, he said.

The term limit measure approved Tuesday by Missouri voters doesn't affect current members of Congress and won't take effect until at least half of the states pass it.

Emerson remains opposed to the concept. "I just feel you shouldn't arbitrarily limit people's service," he said.

"Not all of Congress are a bunch of bums the way the national media would portray us. There are a lot of very fine people serving in Congress, both liberals and conservatives, Republicans and Democrats."

But he said Congress does need some internal reforms. Emerson, who serves on a congressional reform committee, expects some of its proposals to move forward next year.

For instance, the House has too many subcommittees, he said. "There is too much tugging for attention.

"I think that we could well reduce the number of subcommittees, the size of staff on the committees, and we would thereby reduce the costs of the operations of Congress."

He expects a Clinton administration to move forward with pro-choice legislation and a gun-control bill. Emerson opposes both.

He's said he's uncertain what Clinton will propose in terms of economic policy.

In the three-way presidential race, Clinton received a plurality, not a majority. "I'm not sure that it means he has a mandate," Emerson said.

"I think it means he has got to be awfully careful as he moves forward...He has the Perot folks on the one side and the Bush folks on the other."

But Emerson thinks Clinton understands the political situation in Washington. "He's a pleasant person; he's a smart person. I think he is very astute politically and it will be interesting to see how he operates."

He said he had his problems with President Bush, particularly when the president broke his pledge not to raise taxes and accepted the 1990 budget agreement.

"The substance of that agreement was wrong for the economy at the time they enacted that. I fought vigorously in opposition to President Bush over that issue, and there of course have been other issues.

"I think, frankly, it was the beginning of the political downfall of George Bush," Emerson said.

Looking ahead to a Clinton administration, Emerson said "people are hopeful for positive change."