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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 3, 1962)
'3 5 - t ' IK Ml 0 WEDNESDAY. OCTOBER 3. 1962 lank Check MEDFOHD MAIL TRIBUNE. MEDFORD. OREGON for 0 omestic Pump Priming Unusai love for Congress By A. ROBERT SMITH Mail Tribum Washington Buriau Washington (Special) The most astonishing development of this Congress, operating as I it has in an at mosphere that has been thick with domestic politics, is that it has given President Kennedya blank check to spend millions of dollars just before the No- vember election. Congress last month enacted what is called the accelerated public works bill, an extra pump priming program which the administration requested in order to help economically distressed areas throughout the country with public works projects. House Republicans lost by a whisker a party drive to de feat this authorization bill, only because a group of Pen nsylvania Republicans voted for the bill in hopes it would help their distressed districts. Rep. Edwin R. Durno (R-Ore.) voted to kill the bill. The Senate followed up by appropriating a half billion dollars this week so that this program can start immediate ly even before Congress has been told specifically how and where the money will be spent. This is astonishing be cause Congress normally jeal ously guards its authority to specify precisely how budget ed funds shall be spent. Blank Check Complaint One complaint in Congress about the foreign aid bill is that it gives the administra tion a blank check to under take foreign projects which, if launched at home, would re quire very precise justification and congressional sanction be forehand. The administration defends this on grounds that the shift ing maneuvers of internation al strategy in the cold .war necessitate flexibility and pre clude long advance planning on overseas projects which, after all, are chiefly under taken to avert the spread of Communism. Congress, in effect, now has given the administration authority to launch a domestic aid program with the same flexibility privilege. It has left to a few govern ment officials the vital power of decision on which stales and communities will reap the benefits from this program. There are certain guidelines which, generally, limit this largess to areas of substantial unemployment. But Edward Gudeman, undersecretary of Commerce, reports that there are 1,069 such eligible areas in the country. Presumably all of them will press claims for local improvement projects, as many already have. Grants Pais Wants Pool Grants Pass wants a $190, 000 swimming pool, North Bend wants a $750,000 dock and Newport wants a $575,000 tewcr system, to mention a few of Oregon's eligible ap plicants. I Other communities else i where are less modest in their wants. In hard-hit Pennsyl I vania, Pittsburgh wants a $4 million zoo and a $25 million stadium; Erie wants a $3.6 million auditorium; and Phila delphia would like a $16.6 million extension of its sub way. The competition will be keen when it comes to cutting the money pie. The political pressures will be tremendous, as every congressional candi date recognizes the desirabil ity of being thought to have brought home some bacon from the federal pork barrel. The temptation or outright in tent to play political favorites in approving projects will be hard for the administration to control with an election in the offing. Political Favorites Congress, of course, plays political favorites, too, when it adds or drops specific pub lic works projects while work- ' ing on regular appropriation j bills. But there at least both j parties are represented, and I even minority party members !have ways of exerting influ ence on their majority party colleagues. Handing the administration a blank check, however, clear ly favors the political party in power, inasmuch as this is not a coalition government. If i President Kennedy chooses to play favorites, he can skill fully help "deserving Demo crats" running for Congress in areas where Republicans most threaten to win. Unaccountably, Senate Re publicans were restrained in objecting to the $500 million j blank check. But the Demo ; crats who control Congress I should have refused to grant the executive branch this precedent-making authority. Tha "ins" of today are the "outs" of tomorrow and either party can play the game, to the det riment of responsible government. HEARTS ACROSS THE SEA. London - (IPC - London long-distance telephone oper ator David Bird, 26, returned home Tuesday with his bride, the foimer Gloria Harris, 19, a New York long-distance op erator. They fell in live dur ing their chats across 3,000 miles of Atlantic Ocean. VI IS THE Man QUALIFIED to Dispense Health Products! 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