DANFORTH PRESCRIBES SOME TOUGH MEDICINE

page 6A editorial for tuesday

They say there are no good ideas that come from Congress. "They" are wrong. Eager as many Americans are to paint the folks on Capitol Hill as pay-raise-approving, perquisite-grabbing rascals, the fact remains that many gifted public servants call Congress their workplace. Criticism should more properly be leveled at the circumstances that keep good work from coming to the fore. American distress in this regard should be considerable.

Missouri's John Danforth made a speech on the Senate floor recently that was remarkable if only because our expectations for common sense to emerge on Capitol Hill are dismally low. Danforth lamented about congressional inability to address the most pressing problems before our nation, saying Americans are right to be frustrated with Congress ... and senators and representatives are right to be frustrated with a system that chokes fiscal vigilance. His words were thoughtful and hard-hitting:

I do not believe that the problem of America is that we in Washington are not spending enough, and I do not believe that the problems of America are going to be solved if only we spend a little more on everybody's favorite program.

I think the major cause (of congressional discontent) is that deep down in our hearts we believe that we have been accomplices to doing something terrible and unforgivable to this wonderful country.

The problem is that we have hurt America quite intentionally we have hurt America, for the purpose of getting ourselves elected.

We have told Americans that they should feel sorry for themselves. We have told them we can give them something for nothing. We have told them we can reduce taxes and we can increase benefits, and the numbers do not add up, and people want to believe that this is not a real problem.

We have defrauded the country to get ourselves elected.

What Danforth prescribes is tough medicine, though it shouldn't be. The aim of Congress was never meant to be the ~at-all-costs perpetuation of its membership, yet that body's leadership (if it might be so generously labeled) has constructed it just this way. Even those members who talk tough on fiscal responsibility lose their nerve when the real sticky questions arise. Forty-eight percent of the federal budget is taken up with entitlements, "untouchable" items, according to Congress; until there is sweeping reform in this segment of the budget, grumbling about peace dividends and pork barreling is meaningless.

We believe the irony of this to be that many Americans are willing to make some sac~rifices to put this country on the right track. What these Americans need are elected officials who accept the harshness of what needs to be done and who have willpower enough to see it through. We applaud Sen. Danforth for a tough and eloquent speech. And we wish his lone voice would become a choir.