TALKING IS BETTER

There were no surprises in the comments of Southeast Missourians who were asked to comment about the recent partial shutdown of the federal government. In most cases, folks said they weren't affected one way or the other.

Callers to Speak Out have drummed a repetitive theme: If the nation's government is going to close for a while, it ought to produce some benefit for taxpayers. In particular, most readers are incensed that government workers will get paid for the few days they were off work during the shutdown.

Of course, the Clinton administration hoped the shutdown would be so painful that Americans would howl in protest and pressure the Republican Congress to cave in on budget matters.

There were a few wrinkles created by the shutdown. Some Americans were inconvenienced as they sought to deal with affected government agencies. For the most part this meant delays in a bureaucratic system that isn't known as a model of efficiency in the first place.

Either way -- whether affected in some way by the shutdown or not -- most Southeast Missourians were left with negative feelings about the whole mess.

Most of them realize that another shutdown could occur later this month. Republicans and Democrats have an agreement to settle budget issues by Dec. 15. That isn't a very long time to resolve some of the complicated questions. The fact that both sides have agreed to balance the federal budget by 2002 hasn't made the task all that much easier. If anything, there is more pressure to get the job done and to do it in a way that works.

Congressman Bill Emerson and other moderates in Congress on both sides of the political aisle believe there is room for honest negotiation and reasonable compromise that is being ignored by the staunch positions at the extremes. As Emerson and his cohorts have demonstrated on other issues, particularly the recent negotiations on the farm bill, cooler heads sometimes are able to craft good plans out of the glare of television cameras and away from the push for grabbing headlines.

There is a strong sentiment in some quarters that shutting down government again would be preferable to making a bad compromise. But making a good-faith effort at the business of legislating is still better than empty posturing.