LINCOLN DAY EVENT: REPUBLICANS OPTIMISTIC OVER THE PARTY'S FUTURE

National and state Republican officials Saturday voiced their optimism in the GOP's future at Cape Girardeau's 23 Annual Lincoln Day celebration.

Despite the loss last year of the White House and the State House to Democrats, the Republicans said they are poised to once again become a political party that's united internally and with the American people.

"Nothing has melded the Republican Party more than (President) Bill Clinton's economic program," said U.S. Sen. John Danforth, who said the key to GOP victories in 1994 and 1996 is a united party.

He encouraged a three-point test on national and state issues: "Number one, is it something most Republicans agree on? Do most Democrats disagree, and do most of the American people agree with our side?" Danforth said.

The senator said the 43 GOP senators, who typically are "all over the map" on a wide range of issues, are united in the view that Clinton's economic program is "absolutely the worst program for America."

U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson told the Lincoln Day crowd of about 400 people that Clinton and Democrats in Congress are "rewriting the dictionary" by their use of the words "contribution" and "investment."

"Contribution really means nothing more than tax, and investment really means spending," Emerson said. "It's just a new face being put rhetorically on the same old Democratic Party.

"The problem is not that the American people are undertaxed; the problem is the Democrats in Congress overspend."

Although Democrats have solid majorities in Congress and the Missouri General Assembly, GOP officials expressed optimism in the 1994 and 1996 races.

"Two-thirds of the Senate seats up for re-election in 1994 are held by Democrats," Emerson said. "In the House, 30 of the sitting Democrats were elected by a margin of less than 3 percent.

"Not since 1892 and the defeat of Rutherford Hayes has the losing party in the White House gained seats in the House of Representatives, and we gained 10 seats last fall," the congressman added. "There is nothing wrong with the Republican Party; we just lost our voice last fall."

"We have to learn to persevere," said Missouri Rep. Mary Kasten of Cape Girardeau. "This great party of ours has to rely on each other to achieve what we want and what the people of Missouri want."

State Sen. Peter Kinder of Cape Girardeau called 1993 a "historic time" in the Missouri Senate. He said that prior to last fall's election, there were 23 Democrats to 11 Republicans.

"Everybody knows we pretty much took a shellacking in the state, but it was a very different story in the Missouri Senate," he said. "We are now at a historic 45-year high."

Kinder explained that after the election, and subsequent special elections, the ratio now stands at 18 Democrats to 15 Republicans with another special election April 6 that could further narrow the gap.

He said the Republican philosophy remains prevalent in Missouri. "We know that that philosophy is not to unionize schools and spend ourselves into bankruptcy," Kinder said.

Former Missouri governor John Ashcroft also took shots at Democrats and the Clinton administration. He said the GOP stands for the promise of empowerment to families and industry.

"That's real promise, not the promises broken and kept by the Democratic Party," he said.

Ashcroft said that although Clinton broke his campaign promise of a middle-income tax break, he has kept promises to open the nation's border to refugees with AIDS and to allow homosexuals in the U.S. military.

Danforth stressed another of Clinton's broken promises. He said that the president campaigned on the promise that for every $1 of new taxes, there would be $3 in spending cuts. His budget director, Leon Panetta, promised a ration of $2 in cuts for every $1 in tax hikes.

But the most recent analysis of his budget proposal predicts that for every $1 of new taxes, there will be only a 22-cent spending cut solely in defense.

"There has never been in the history of America a time when deficits were lowered by raising taxes," Danforth said. "Do you know what Congress does with your money when it raises taxes? They spend it."

But Danforth said Clinton's administration now is fueling a resurgence of a unified, energetic GOP.

"What all Republicans stand for, all across the ideological spectrum, is keeping the weight, burden, cost, and the tax load of government as light as we can keep it," he added. "That is why we'll bounce back, because the American people are where we are.

"The Democratic Party is the tax-and-spend party and Bill Clinton is the tax-and-spend president," he added. "The Republican Party stands against taxing and spending and so do the American people, and that's why the Republican Party is going to win in 1994 and 1996."