Word: congressmen
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Crimson editorial on February 11, Jonathan Moses applauds a recent federal appeals court decision declaring the Gramm-Rudman law unconstitutional. Mr. Moses makes several faulty arguments, prompting me to offer this rebuttal. His editorial correctly assesses the grim picture of Capitol Hill in which Congressmen are paralyzed by special interest groups and PACs. Such lobbying pressures make it difficult, if not impossible, for Congressmen to cut budgets. However, Mr. Moses loses all perspective on reality when he attempts to justify the court's decision, and calls for courageous Congressmen to "take a stand" as an alternative to Gramm-Rudman...
Legislators are often powerless in this three pronged grasp. They need PAC money to run their campaigns and PAC connections to help them with logrolling. The blob's organizational strength pressures congressmen, ever sensitive to popular opinion, into the slimy grasp of its politics. The creature knows its creators' weak spots...
Congress approved their bill, which destroyed its power to control the budget, and transferred the rest to the President. The bill neutralized the organizational weapon of the blob by mandating budget reductions into law. No longer would congressmen be subject to popular pressure; PACs could no longer attack them for voting down the funding of a project dear to the heart of some special interest group...
...light of this decision, what we need is for more congressmen to take a stand like our hero Mike Synar (D-Md.) who brought the ill-fated law to court. But representatives need to do more than that; they need to free themselves from the grip of the extremists in order to better represent the majority of Americans...
...very helpful" but did not commit himself to a specific offer of aid. For his part, Shultz noted the difficulty of devising a formula for Angola that would be "effective." Nonetheless, word leaked out last week that the Administration was prepared to send covert aid to Savimbi. Various Congressmen have also proposed several UNITA aid bills, including one calling for $27 million in overt military assistance and another for $41 million...