The Veto Sticks

Last fall when the nation's voters gave the Democrats a 2-to-1 majority on Capitol Hill, Republicans warned disconsolately that the Congress would be virtually "veto-proof"--"probably the most dangerous we've ever had," as Arizona's Barry Goldwater called it. The Democrats rejoiced in those post-Watergate days that they had seized the initiative from the White House. Armed with what House Speaker Carl Albert spoke of as their "mandate," the Democrats set about formulating a broad new economic policy of their own--tax rebates, a tax cut, lowered interest rates, devices to encourage housing starts.

The key to the Democrats' antirecession program was a massive $5.3 billion plan to create 1 million new jobs (see ECONOMY & BUSINESS). In March, the Democrats' well-disciplined forces in the House pushed through the bill by 313 to 113, carrying 55 Republicans with them while losing only 25 Democratic defectors. The Senate approved it, then the House last month sent a final version to the President. The vote was 293 to 109--well over the two-thirds majority needed to overcome Ford's veto.

Last week the jobs bill was back in the House for a vote to override the veto--the most important test of strength yet between Ford and the congressional Democrats. "If we Democrats can't win on this crucial vote," House Majority Leader Thomas ("Tip") O'Neill told his party caucus, "then we can't win on any vote." To Ford, the issue was whether the Democrats would open an inflationary floodgate: more and more spending for more and more jobs.

Arm Twisting. House Democrats were more united on the bill than on almost any controversial economic legislation in memory. They had also picked up, they were confident, the 49 Republicans who had voted for final passage last month. In addition, they had the muscle of powerful lobbies--the AFL-CIO, the United Auto Workers, the National Education Association.

But they had not counted on an extraordinary and almost Lyndonesque display of political arm twisting by that 25-year veteran of the House, Gerald Ford. The President arrived back in Washington from his European trip at midweek. Minority Leader John Rhodes and G.O.P. Whip Robert Michel had already been at work among the potential Republican defectors. For those with aching economic problems in their home districts, Michel spelled out an escape: they could vote against the Democrats and then support his own much reduced version of the jobs bill.

Tough Vote. When Ford set off to West Point, he took three House Republicans along with him on Air Force One. He invited them to his forward cabin and, as New York's Hamilton Fish said later, "He told us how strongly he felt about the veto." After the lecture, Fish reversed his stand against the veto, and New York's Benjamin Oilman agreed to side with Ford should his vote be needed. On the trip back from West Point, Ford went to work on Air Force One's telephone, going down the list of his opponents and calling member after member, including some Southern Democrats. He called California's Pete McCloskey, Ohio's William Stanton, Tennyson Guyer and Charles Mosher, Illinois' Edward Madigan and Robert McClory, Michigan's Philip Ruppe, Vermont's James Jeffords. They all promised to go with the President. "This means an awful lot to me," Ford told them.

The House debate on the veto was already under way, but Ford kept up his barrage of phone calls. His intensity, the fact that he felt strongly enough to call member after member, had a powerful effect. Just as the House vote was about to begin, Ford reached Maine's William Cohen, a moderate Republican whose recession-stricken state badly needs new jobs. "Bill," Ford said, "this is going to be a tough vote. Can you possibly see your way to help out?" "It's a tough vote for me," Cohen responded. "I'll think about what you said in the next 15 minutes." Finally Cohen voted against the veto, but he had agreed to side with Ford if the vote was close.

It was an astonishing performance. In all, 18 Congressmen changed their minds--although some had been won earlier by Michel's escape bill, which allowed them to endorse the principle of more jobs while spending far less money. With just three minutes to go in the 15-min. voting period and the Democrats seemingly coasting to a victory, Rhodes gave the signal for the Republicans to start shoving their voting cards into the electronic slots that register the tallies in the House. In minutes the electronic scoreboards on the gallery walls showed Ford's victory: 277 to override, 145 against. That was five short of the two-thirds the Democrats needed.

Carl Albert understood what it meant--an almost disastrous loss of momentum for the Democrats' economic program. Albert was stunned, as was Tip O'Neill, who remarked unhappily: "We've got to reassess this." What they must contemplate is the fact that at least temporarily, their initiative is gone. Ford had proven he can make his vetoes stick.

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