Word: congressmen
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Reagan claims that military and economic aid to the Contras is necessary "so we'll never have to send our own American boys." He even told congressmen they had a choice between supporting him and supporting communism. But the choice is not so simple...
Fortunately, there is strong resistance in the House of Representatives to Reagan's aid package. But, under pressure from presidential politicking that seems ridiculously out of proportion to the threat posed by a struggling Central American nation, congressmen are entertaining a number of compromise options. Few are real compromises and none is acceptable...
...steaming. "They are trying to make this the ultimate test of conservative patriotism," said Kansas Congressman Jim Slattery, a centrist Democrat. "The tactics have backfired," said another moderate Democrat, Dave McCurdy of Oklahoma. "The rhetoric, the harshness, are working against them." In a meeting with Shultz last week, these Congressmen strongly objected to what they called "red baiting." The Secretary insisted that the Administration was not questioning their patriotism...
...white hats and Democrats wrapped in red banners," Republican Senator Nancy Landon Kassebaum of Kansas declared, "I find this simplistic reasoning to be highly offensive." When it seemed on the verge of sabotaging its own crusade, the Administration shifted tactics slightly late in the week. Said one U.S. official: "Congressmen don't like to be threatened; they like to be cajoled...
...President's rhetoric was hardly new. He used the same "bargaining chip" argument to win funding for the controversial MX missile. Increasingly, however, Congressmen are fixated on the bottom line. Though Reagan spoke of seeking only "modest 3% annual growth," in fact his budget request for 1987 calls for a hike of at least 12% over 1986 spending, from $278.4 billion to $311.6 billion. Furthermore, the Congressional Budget Office calculated that the President's defense budget underestimates its true cost by $14.5 billion. Most Congressmen believe that in the end the President will be lucky to hold next year...