8B
Friday, March 3, 1995
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Budget measure falls short in Senate
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — In dramatic fashion, a battle-weary Senate rejected the balanced budget constitutional amendment by the narrowest of margins Wednesday, scuttling the cornerstone of the Republican drive to slash federal spending.
Lawmakers voted for the amendment 65-35 — two votes short of the two-thirds majority required to change the Constitution.
The margin would have been only one vote, but Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, who backed the proposal, voted against it at the last moment so he would have the right to force lawmakers to vote on the hugely popular measure again in the fall of 1996 — in the heart of the election campaign.
President Clinton, who waged a quiet campaign against the measure, attributed the amendment's failure to the refusal of Republicans to offer a guarantee that Social Security would be protected.
Amendment supporters immediately began seeking political advantage and included Clinton among their targets.
"A handful of senators and the president have won this battle, and the people have lost," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Uach, chief
sor.
Clinton urged Congress immediately to turn to the business of writing a budget that is tough on reducing the deficit, saying the nation does not need a constitutional amendment in order to work in the direction of a balanced budget.
"I am ready as ever to work with the Congress to make further reductions in the deficit," he said, warning Republicans against unduly harsh cuts in education and programs that benefit the elderly.
Other Democrats gleefully invited Republicans to deliver on what the amendment would have demanded but never delivered on its own: a balanced federal budget. To achieve that, the GOP would have to find $1.2 trillion in spending cuts over the next seven years, an unprecedented task sure to alienate millions of voters.
"I eagerly await the major's plans for deficit reduction," said amendment dee Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va.
In the end, Democratic leaders couched their fight against the amendment as a battle to protect Social Security and its tens of millions of elderly, heavily-voting recipients from the budget-cutting wars. Republicans vehemently denied that they would chop the program.
Nearly all senators sat silently at
their desks as the roll call was held, the only sound was that of the Senate clerk reading the name of each lawmaker and the response of "aye" or "no." Dozens of Senate aides lined the back wall, and the galleries were nearly full.
The long-awaited showdown capped a fierce debate that had ensnared the chamber since Jan. 30. Dole postponed a promised vote on final passage last Tuesday when, one vote shy, amendment supporters desperately sought the decisive vote from a half-dozen wavering Democrats or from the lone GOP holdout, Sen. Mark Hatfield of Oregon. The most hotly sought Democrats were the two North Dakotans, Sens. Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan.
Those Democrats held firm, saying the amendment did not protect Social Security from deficit reduction. Hatfield also voted no.
Though most amendment supporters were conservative Republicans, they were joined by Democrats, including liberals like Sen. Paul Simon, D-III, a chief sponsor.
In the final tally, 51 Republicans and 14 Democrats voted for the measure and 33 Democrats and two Republics — including Dole — voted against it.
Before running aground in the Senate, the amendment sailed through the House in January in
The amendment would require elimination of the deficit, now running close to $200 billion annually, by 2002. Lawmakers could suspend the requirement by majority vote during wartime and by a three-fifths margin at any other time.
two days by a 300-132 vote.
The measure, however, left for later the hard work of cutting spending or raising taxes to balance the budget.
Passage of the amendment was the top item in House Republicans' campaign manifesto, the "Contract With America," and a leading goal for Senate GOP leaders as well.
Poll shows that more than 70 percent of Americans support the measure. That margin drops dramatically, however, when people are asked about cuts that would be required in specific spending programs.
Amendment supporters say the measure would be the dose of pressure needed to force lawnmakers to finally address the deficit.
Foes said the plan would either be ignored by lawmakers, eroding respect in the Constitution, or force harsh cuts in federal programs. And it would handcuff policy-makers during recessions, when the government usually runs deficits because it is paying more in unemployment benefits and collecting fewer taxes.
Man shoots three women in courthouse; two dead
The Associated Press
SEATTLE — A gunnar opened fire on three women in a courthouse yesterday, killing two and critically wounding the third. One of the slain women was eight months pregnant, and efforts to save the baby failed.
A 47-year-old man with a semi-automatic handgun was taken into custody and questioned, police said. No charges were immediately filed.
"It appears that he knew all of the victims," said Christie-Lynne Bonner, police representative. "The relationships at this point were not clear."
The victims, who were shot while sitting on a bench on the second floor of the King County Courthouse, suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the head and chest, said Larry Zalin, a representative for Harborview Medical Center. Two of the women died and the third was taken into surgery.
The victims' names were not immediately released. However, Attorney Margie Baran said one
of the victims was a woman whose husband was seeking an annulment. The other two women, her friends, planned to testify for her, Baran said.
Baran said her law partner Mimi Castillo was representing the woman for an alleged domestic violence case. The hearing had been scheduled for 9:30 a.m. in family court.
Lois Edwards, an attorney who was on the second floor when the shooting occurred, said a man entered the courtroom and stood in front of the women and fired five or six shots.
At that point, she said, she and her clients ran out of the courtroom.
Authorities are investigating why metal detectors weren't in use on the second floor, court security officials said.
"Only police and corrections officers should be carrying guns in the courtroom," said Police Chief Norm Stamper. This drives home the message that if people are bent on destruction, they are not going to follow the rules."
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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PRE-GRAND OPENING MULTICULTURAL RESOURCE CENTER
April 4,1995 7:00pm Kansas Union Ballroom
Carlos Cortez, Professor Emeritus of History, University of California, Riverside will speak. He is the recipient of two book awards; his university's Distinguised Teaching Award and Faculty Public Service Award.
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COSTA RICAN STUDENT ASSOCIATION
DR. FRANKLIN CHANG-DIAZ
April 14th,7 p.m. Ballroom of the Kanas Union
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Robert Muller is the Chancellor for the University for Peace at Ciudad Colon, Costa Rica and has been assistant of the General Secretary of the United Nations for forty years.
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