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The Battalion
V IE WPOINT
Slouch
By Jim Earle
/ would like to take on Leonard for about $7,000,000
Impoundment proposal
should serve as warning
By DAVID S. BRODER
WASHINGTON — There was an in
structive little drama played out last week
when the Republican leaders of Congress
propounded the notion that the answer to
the latest budget crunch might he to give
President Reagan limited power to im
pound appropriated funds. The idea died
faster than talk of the Cubs second-half
pennant drive. It stayed around just long
enough to remind everyone that no matter
how much he may have won on Capitol Hill
in his first eight months as President, it is
utter nonsense to call Ronald Reagan “the
king of Congress.
Congress, these days, does not recognize
outside monarchs.
It does not recognize them, because
there is a clear institutional memory of how
profoundly Congress was embarrassed by
its last capitulation to such a claim of
sovereignty. It came only eight years ago —
in the presidency of Richard Nixon — and
impoundment was the crux of the issue.
Nixon impounded — that is, he refused
to spend — more than $8.7 billion of money
Congress had appropriated, thus effective
ly vetoing the legislative action without the
bother or political risk of an actual veto.
There were cries of outrage, court suits and
a general uproar from the Democratic ma
jorities on Capitol Hill. But the issue was
resolved only the following year, when
Congress, as part of the law creating its own
new budget process, made such impound
ments illegal.
It was the beginning of a profound pro
cess of reasserting the prerogatives of the
legislative branch, a saga which is skillfully
recorded and analyzed in a new book by
The Brookings Institution’s James L. Sund-
quist, “The Decline and Resurgence of
Congress. ”
Listening to House Republic Leader Bob
Michel argue last week for a restoration of
limited impoundment power to Reagan, I
had the impression that the canny Illinoisan
the small society
by Brickman
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IN
)1981 King Features Syndicate. Inc World rights reserved
Warped
No lighting up in the lifeboats
By DICK WEST
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Say you are a two-
pack-a-day smoker, a habit that costs you
about 10 bucks a week.
By giving up cigarettes right now, you
could in a little more than two years save
enough money to pay for a ticket on the
Royal Caribbean Lines’ first seven-day
cruise with separate accommodations for
non-smokers.
Unfortunately, the sailing date is just
four months ago. But don’t let a little thing
like missing the boat discourage you.
If there is a similar voyage in January
1984 — and who is to say there won’t be? —
your savings by that time would just about
equal the “special cruise rate of $1,193 per
person for an outside cabin on main deck,
based on double occupancy.
Morever, having been 28 months with
out a cigarette, you would be in a better
frame of mind to enjoy the trip.
Anyone going on the cruise a mere four
months after quitting smoking likely would
still he suffering withdrawal symptoms. But
after two years, an ex-smoker would be off
the weed long enough to be over the jitters.
After that long, smoke from another per
son’s cigarette would be more annoying
than tempting. Which is the proper atti
tude for the non-smoking section.
As the press release announcing the
cruise makes clear, a certain amount of tes
tiness on the part of non-smokers will be
part of the fun.
iwix-^
It
Arrangements for the “special accommo
dations and rates for non-smoking passen
gers’ were made by the Nonsmokers Travel
Club of Bethesda, Md., in cooperation with
ASH (Action for Smoking and Health).
Here is what ASH has to say about it:
“Travelers with a special sensitivity to
cigarette smoke, or those who simply prefer
to breathe air unpolluted by tobacco fumes,
have long been able to find protection in the
no-smoking sections of trains, planes and
buses, but usually could count on little pro
tection while trying to enjoy the
surely and luxurious form oftransportat
the cruise ship.”
Then it goes on to express
“cruise lines will finally realize that tie
jority of their passengers who are
smokers want, and will begin to expert,
same protection they now enjoy
smaller and less expensives formsoffc
portation. ’
Hear! Hear! T he ultimate, i sup^|
would be a cruise with smokers r
allowed on board. Any passengerseei
the pier with a cigarette in his mouthw
have the gangplank yanked out fromm
him.
Smokers, of course, can always
together and organize their own cni
Perhaps the tobacco companies will!
things along by embellishing cig
packs with coupons that can be traded ii 1 Ty
cruise tickets. Could be a good sel
point.
The Caribbean may not seemasesot
it once did but it sure makes a fine asha
I HP (TU***£ <9 rzw W oirxfco iXfUK
knew perfectly well that it was too soon for
such a counter-revolution. Michel indi
cated that Reagan is given to exclaiming
with some frequency that he wishes he had
the item-veto power as President he en
joyed when he was governor of California.
Michel and his Senate counterpart, Ho
ward If. Baker, Jr., have apparently ex
plained to the President a number of times
that the U.S. Constitution is not so gener
ous to executives as is the California feeling
that Michel was floating the impoundment
notion as a way of showing Reagan how
unrealistic his dream really is.
Be that as it may, the cold shoulder the
idea received from both Democrats and Re
publicans on Capitol Hill showed Congress
is not quite the submissive creature that
some had depicted in the wake of Reagan’s
earlier budget and tax victories.
The problem — as Sundquist points out
in the conclusion of his book — is that an
assertive Congress is not at all the same
thing as a Congress ready or able to provide
leadership of its own. “A resurgent Con
gress,” he writes, “is, by definition, one
that has turned away from its old depend
ence on the executive. But Congress has
not, in the eight years since it rebelled
against Nixon’s dictatorship, systematically
addressed the conditions that would allow it
to fill that leadership gap, either on its own
or in tandem with the President.
The crucial questions still remain on
Congress’ own agenda: policy' integration
vs. jurisdictional fragmentation; party
loyalty vs. individual autonomy; national
perspective vs. parochial representation.
That the Republican leaders even consi
dered suggesting a retreat from the im
poundment victory of 1974 should be a
warning sign to conscientious members of
Congress. It is a signal for them to go about
the work of strengthening their own institu
tion, lest the next crisis be the one where
the call for strong leadership does become
an excuse for a new assertion of executive
domination.
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Vandalism really ‘hits’ home
Editor:
This past Wednesday night at midnight
as I was busily doing my homework in
Davis-Gary Hall, I was rudely interrupted
by a projectile thrown through my window.
It turned out to be a rock with about 20
firecrackers attached to it. I managed to
throw some of themback out the window,
but before I could remove all of them they
flared up and started a small fire in my shag
carpet. I quickly put out the fire but not
before it had permanently charred a section
of my carpet. It was fortunate that I was in
my room at the time or else the damage
could have been much greater.
I informed University Police about the
incident. They filed a criminal mischief
complaint and told me that I was not the
only person victimized that night. Several
individuals had their car antennas broken
off or the air let out of their tires during the
night.
The incident anges me and weakens my
faith in the human condition. It is bad
enough that University property is the
target of senseless vandalism (the deface
ment of the A&A building) but it really hits
home when my personal property is des
troyed. The only benefit of such action is
the satisfaction of the pyromaniacal inclina
tions of the low-life that instigate such ac
tions.
Zack Heckmann ’82
thousand kisses to the super-neat™
Law’ Hall w'ho came to serenade usoim
day night. For ya’ll to take time cutoff
evening to come over (and rescue usli
the book monster) with young guitars,!
jo, violin and golden throats just got
show that those men of Law have gotil{
Serenade appreciated
The KeathleyKiss
Editor:
On behalf of all the Keathley Kissers, we
would like to extend a warm thank you and a
Editor’s note: This letter was accompa^
by 60 signatures.
By Scott McCullar
The Battalion
USPS 045 360
MEMBER
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Congress
Editor Angelique Copeland
Managing Editor Marcy Boyce
City Editor Jane G. Brust
Asst. City Editor Kathy O’Connell
Photo Editor Greg Gammon
Sports Editor •. Ritchie Priddy
Focus Editor ■ Cathy Saathoff
Asst. Focus Editor Debbie Nelson
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Bernie Fette, Belinda McCoy
Diana Sultenfuss
Stall Writers Frank L. Christlieb
Gaye Denley, Terry Duran, Nancy Floeck
Phyllis Henderson, Colette Hutchings
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Cartoonist Scott McCullar
Graphic Artist Richard DeLeon Jr.
Photographers Brian Tate
Becky Swanson, Dave Einsel
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