While President Clinton pledged more funding for federal programs in his State of the Union address Tuesday night, Sen. Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., promised less spending and more oversight of federal operations.
"Big government or families?" Lott said in the GOP response. "The income of the federal government, over the last 30 years, has gone up almost 1,000 percent. But during the same period, family incomes rose only half as much. Government has gotten fat, while families are working overtime just to stay where they were."
Lott said future budget surpluses should be used to pay down the national debt and to offer tax cuts instead of being spent on "unnecessary government programs."
In that vein, Lott promised Republicans will spend much of their time in 1998 looking at ways to reduce federal spending.
"We're going to concentrate on what we call oversight, which means finding out why you aren't getting your money's worth from government, and why so much of your hard-earned money goes for programs filled with fraud and abuse." Lott said. As an example of federal waste, he said the administration paid $23 billion in ineligible Medicare claims last year.
Lott said the GOP will focus its oversight first on the IRS, pledging to stop taxpayer abuse and initiate major reforms at the troubled agency.
"The only way to limit government and expand individual freedom is to eliminate the IRS as we know it today," Lott said. "It is morally wrong for a free people to live in fear of any government agency."
Governmentwide oversight will come in the form of requirements of the 1993 Government Performance and Results Act, under which agencies will set performance goals for fiscal 1999 with their budget submissions to Congress. Republican scrutiny of agencies' strategic plans in recent months has been filled with threats of cutting the budgets and eliminating the programs of agencies that don't perform.
Other Republicans echoed Lott's concerns that President Clinton is calling for a return to big government.
"He promised everything except stronger shoelaces," said House Appropriations Chairman Bob Livingston, R-La. He predicted that the president's proposals will cost at least $46 billion.
House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said, "The president wants to expand government. He sees surpluses and sees a pile of money for the government to hoard. We see the surplus and see an opportunity to return money to the hard-working taxpayers of America."
Former Republican National Committee Chairman Haley Barbour said the allegations of sexual misconduct surrounding the President had little effect on Republican plans, though he predicted a weakened Clinton in the coming year.
"President Clinton won't be setting the agenda for the federal government. I think that agenda has been set and the majority will stick to it," Barbour said.
House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, said he won't be disappointed if the scandal hurts Clinton's ability to lead. Most Republicans said it was appropriate that the president did not address allegations of sexual misconduct in his speech.
NEXT STORY: Bearer of Good News