WASHINGTON -- Texas Gov. George W. Bush fretted that
Congress will surely spend any money laying around Washington, as
if presidents don't have a veto. Gary Bauer said he'll stop
abortion on demand, as if presidents can really do such a thing.
And Arizona Sen. John McCain accused Bush of setting aside not a
penny for Social Security, and of setting aside not enough.
An understatement of the power of the presidency, overstatement
of the same and a series of apparently discordant accusations were
among the rhetorical stretches Saturday when Republicans held their
final presidential debate before the Iowa caucuses.
Bush, attacked by McCain on a tax plan that would be financed
largely from projected budget surpluses, spoke as if surpluses
sitting in Washington would not be safe, and for that reason must
be given to the taxpayer.
''I will tell you what's going to happen,'' he said darkly. ''If
we leave money in Washington, D.C., the people are going to spend
it on bigger government and on more programs.''
''The president of the United States is not a hapless
bystander,'' McCain snapped back. ''The president of the United
States can force the Congress of the United States to spend less
money.
''And if they won't,'' he added with a steely grin, ''he can
make them famous.''
More commonly in Republican and Democratic debates alike, the
rhetoric has accorded the presidency more authority than it has.
Bauer declared Saturday that ''I will end abortion on demand in
my first presidential term,'' and contended, ''When I'm president,
there'll be no more Nazi salutes in the schools.'' In an earlier
debate, he promised to end the fear of rape in America by putting
rapists behind bars longer.
Even with tougher school discipline or jail sentences mandated
by Washington, no president can control every school hallway or
every dark street.
And with abortion a right affirmed by the Supreme Court, any
president wishing to change that in a fundamental way would need
congressional approval not only of his proposed restrictions, but
of enough of his judicial nominees to shift the court's balance as
vacancies open up.
Attacking Bush's tax cuts, McCain said the plan ''has not one
penny for Social Security, not one penny for Medicare, and not one
penny for paying down the national debt.''
''I've got $2 trillion set aside for Social Security,'' Bush
protested.
Not enough, said McCain. ''Two trillion isn't the Social
Security trust fund. ... It needs $5 to $7 trillion more.''
Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, as he has done often, called the Clinton
administration ''the most deceitful and corrupt in our nation's
history'' although this time he added the qualifier ''perhaps.''
Steve Forbes, too, spoke of ''absolute disgrace without precedent
in our history.''
No mention of Teapot Dome, the Bay of Pigs, Watergate or sundry
other scandals was made to complicate that assessment.
