Mullings A Political Cyber Column By Rich Galen

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How Are Thy Leaves So Verdant

Wednesday, March 14, 2001

A lesson on why it is so difficult to get things done in Washington was taught yesterday morning by Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM) at a breakfast sponsored by the Republican Leadership Council.

Domenici is the Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. The Senate - for those of you who have just recently arrived on the shuttle from Io - is evenly split at 50-50. Two Republicans have announced they don't like the President's tax package and one Democrat has announced he will support it. So the arithmetic has it as � um � borrow one from the five � 49 for; 51 against.

Senator Domenici answered a barrage of questions from 20 reporters, all bent on getting him to say he didn't think the President's plan has a prayer.

Which he did not say. But he DID say it wasn't going to be easy.

He also said that the President's tax package will probably not escape the Senate without some type of trigger mechanism and that it will be difficult - but not impossible - to keep the growth of discretionary spending at the four percent level proposed in the Bush budget.

Read the AP story by Alan Fram, and the UPI story by Peter Roff on the Secret Decoder Ring page.

Domenici pointed out that the government expects to collect over $28 TRILLION in taxes over the next ten years. All this package does is reduce that by $1.6 Trillion - a 5.7 percent refund. That is not likely to end civilization as we know it. Tell the truth, would you drive to the mall if you read some store had announced a six-percent-off sale? Maybe if the mall were on Io.

Anyway, Senator Domenici says he intends to wrap up the budget process in the committee quickly and take it to the floor pretty much as it was sent up by the President to "let the Senate work its will."

Another good lesson in Floor Politics came as the result of a question by the LA Times' Janet Hook who asked where the fifty votes for the budget will come from. Domenici said matter-of-factly, "It depends on where the four percent spending increase comes from."

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree�

Domenici finished by saying the tax bill could have a very positive effect on the economy even though most of the reductions don't kick in for a number of years because the perception of the government doing something to help the economy will, in and of itself, help the economy, but only if they "don't 'condition' the tax cut to death."

Wise words.

After careful consideration I have decided to come out against having all Army personnel wear black berets. This, having built six-year history of being one of the worst soldiers ever - and I mean EVER, going all the way back to the days when Og the Caveman woke his troops for the hunt by shouting through a wooly mammoth tusk - to wear a rumpled uniform.

This particular brand of headgear has been worn as a badge of honor by U.S. Army Rangers. But someone in the Clinton Administration decided to make the beret standard issue for reasons which are not now clear to anyone.

According to the U.S. Ranger Association web page, the Rangers trace their roots back to 1670, but are generally considered to have been founded by Major Robert Rogers to fight in the French and Indian War. The final words of The Ranger Creed are: "Rangers Lead the Way" as they have in, now, five different centuries.

If a soldier wants to wear a black beret he or she can go to - and complete - Ranger school.

The spread of the dreaded foot-and-mouth disease which has devastated UK meat farmers has been discovered in France. That has led the US to forbid the importation of meat products and live animals from anywhere in the European Union.

Ok, you aren't supposed to eat that much meat anyway, so you decide to switch to fish.

But just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water: NEW YORK (Reuters) - According to a report in the March 14th issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, health officials traced 22 cases of food poisoning in North Carolina to contaminated tuna, mostly in burger form and nearly all from restaurant dishes.

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