Blurred Lines at Half-Time

Happily complying with tradition. Senate Republican Leader Hugh Scott stepped into the office of his Democratic counterpart, Mike Mansfield, to telephone the President and tell him that the Senate had ended its work for the year. For six minutes, Scott was bounced among White House secretaries and operators. Senator who? Senator Scott? Speak to the President? For what purpose? Is it urgent? While Scott squirmed at the nonrecognition, Mansfield smiled. The entire unproductive session had been marked by similarly confused communications between the Administration and the Congress.

Despite his cool relationship with Congress, Richard Nixon offset his switchboard's tactlessness by going to the Hill for lunch on the final day. He gave the key leaders cuff links bearing the Presidential seal plus pearl-ringed brooches for their wives. He offered general thanks, said nothing of his disappointments; his warm mood conveyed the impression that he did not intend to veto any major bills. It was the kind of rapport-building gesture that politicians of both parties had wanted him to make months earlier, though it is questionable whether gestures would have helped improve the final product.

Stick in the Mud. The net impact of the first half of the 91st Congress was so ambiguous that politicians could readily tag it in any way that served their purposes. Democrat Mansfield called the performance "responsible and respectable." House Republican Leader Gerald Ford termed it a "dolittle Congress, a treading-water Congress, a stick-in-the-mud assembly." In fact, the Congress was indecisive. It both declined to advance much of Nixon's legislative program and failed to establish any clear opposition program of its own. Only belatedly did Congress attend to even its basic housekeeping chores. It put off to the New Year, for instance, the Labor and Health-Education-Welfare appropriation bill, largest of the domestic funding measures. Several important proposals never reached the floor. The blame fell mainly on faltering leadership among the Democrats in control of Congress and vacillation by the President and his key Cabinet officials. The two forces rarely clashed directly; they more often seemed to mystify each other. A balance sheet on the major issues: -- INFLATION. The tax bill that finally passed last week will increase tax revenues now, while inflation is a critical problem, but will cost the Government heavily later. It includes an inflationary, if not unwarranted Social Security increase. If inflation continues, the President undoubtedly will blame Congress, and Democrats will blame the President. Capitol Hill did vote more funds than Nixon requested in some sectors, such as agriculture and public works. But it cut the total funds requested by the President for the current fiscal year by $5.6 billion, almost entirely from the defense budget. Yet spending for the year, according to Administration estimates, will exceed the President's budget by about $4 billion (to $197 billion). The projected surplus of $5.9 billion is sinking to near zero. Chief reason: automatic cost increases, such as interest on the national debt.

> THE WAR. As President Nixon pursued his policy of U.S. troop withdrawals and Vietnamization, the war issue was muted. He secured from the House a resolution that seemed to support his policy. He won a lottery draft system--which an earlier Congress had refused to give President Johnson--and this may further dampen war dissent. He scored victories on other security matters: authority and initial funds to deploy anti-ballistic missiles and Senate approval of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty.

> THE SOUTH AND CIVIL RIGHTS. The President's losing fight on the nomination of South Carolina Judge Clement Haynsworth to the Supreme Court was a clear warning that he cannot expect help from moderate and liberal Republicans on any strategy, "Southern" or otherwise, that might offend their own constituents. The Administration's proposal to weaken voting rights legislation as desired by Southern states stalled after passing the House, but may succeed in the second session. On the other hand, the Administration united with liberals last week to save its "Philadelphia Plan" for expanding construction-job opportunities for Negroes (see BUSINESS). Cabinet officials reversed themselves on an amendment to the Labor-HEW appropriation bill that would have barred the use of funds to advance school integration. They ended up opposing it and managed to kill the proposal. But the whole bill stalled when it emerged carrying $1.1 billion more than the President had requested, and he threatened to veto it. Most of the added funds would go to education.

> CITIES AND ENVIRONMENT. Congress failed even to take up the President's anti-crime package, or his innovative plans to share federal revenues with the states and to shift the main burden of welfare payments to the Federal Government. The Congress did, however, almost double the Administration's requested increase in money for food stamps. Although not recommended by the President, it created a Council on Environmental Quality as a White House office. It also appropriated almost $600 million more than the Administration wanted to combat water pollution.

Debate Center. The arguments over priorities in the spending of the Government's limited funds may become sharper as the second session of the Congress opens in an election year. Democrats will want to portray the Administration as shirking domestic needs, and Republicans will try to blame Democrats in Congress for free spending and inflation. In his State of the Union address, the President is expected to emphasize his determination to alleviate such domestic ills as deterioration of the environment and inadequate supervision of profit-making concerns that abuse consumers. But how much more money can be diverted from the defense budget--the only obvious source of massive funds--to launch costly new domestic programs is uncertain. The Democrats in Congress, too, are well aware that they could suffer politically if they fund new programs while inflation spirals.

The new session will likely center on debate over welfare programs, voting rights, revenue sharing, crime and the best ways to halt environmental decay. But unless Nixon's plan to disengage from Viet Nam goes awry, the big issue is likely to be the economy.

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