The President's prestige soars with a triumphant budget vote
Ronald Reagan's velvet steamroller smashed through the Democratic House of Representatives last week, flattening opposition to his radical plan to curtail federal spending. As a result, his even more controversial tax-cut proposals stand a good chance of gaining final congressional approval this summer. The President's victory in the House budget fight was decisive: not a single Republican deserted his party, while 63 Democrats abandoned theirs. That gave Reagan a 77-vote margin in the 253-176 roll call, on which a Reagan-endorsed budget proposal replaced a more moderate cutback recommended by the House Budget Committee.
It was the President's first significant political triumph since he took office, and it stemmed largely from the emotional groundswell of admiration generated by his cool and courageous conduct after the assassination attempt. Reagan, however, cited grass-roots pressure from the voters as the key to his success. Said he: "For years the American people have been asking that the Federal Government put its house in order. Today the people have been heard."
Implicit in the President's reaction to the budget vote was a threat to enlist that same kind of constituent pressure on lawmakers who fail to follow through on the rest of his economic package. Predicted Reagan: "When the people speak, Washington will now listen—and will act." Legislative strategists for the White House made little effort to conceal their optimistic belief that Reagan's popularity, coupled with his bold program, may even have forged a new coalition of Republicans and conservative Democrats that will give the G.O.P. practical control of the House, despite the Democrats present 51-member majority. With Republicans firmly in control of the Senate, the new combination could accelerate a historic shift toward conservatism in the nation's capital.
To be sure, those sweeping expectatations could fade as committees in both houses tackle the nitty-gritty details. In the past, intense lobbying by special interests has nibbled away at any cohesive economic planning. Beyond that, there is some question as to whether the President had won on the budget largely through his own effective lobbying and prestige, or whether the Democrats, particularly House Speaker Tip O'Neill, had fumbled away all chances for a much closer vote. Indeed, while the margin of victory was psychologically and politically devastating for the Democrats, it was partly illusory. If the last-minute head counts had been closer, an unspecified number of restive Democrats had pledged to stay with their party. When they realized that their votes actually would make no real difference, they jumped to Reagan's side.