Kasich

Washington. -- I've been trying to decide which is the most destructive element of the Republican schemes to balance the budget.My first inclination is to say it is Rep. John R. Kasich's plan to give a $340 billion tax cut to the rich and super-rich.But since Sen. Pete V. Domenici, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, opposes such a tax cut, and President Clinton would surely veto it, I don't worry about this most outrageous proposition.I've concluded that the scheme that will do the most injustice and weaken America most grievously is the plan to, in effect, repeal the Higher Education Act of 1965 and virtually take the federal government out of financing education, except for some questionable grants to states.

WASHINGTON -- Armed with steady public support for his economic package, President Clinton held his first meetings with Republican congressional leaders who appeared divided over how to respond to the plan.Nearly two weeks after making his economic package public, Mr. Clinton and Vice President Al Gore met yesterday with the Republican House and Senate leadership on Capitol Hill. GOP lawmakers described the discussions with the president as cordial and nonconfrontational.But the Republicans disagreed over how their party, in the minority in both houses, should deal with Mr. Clinton's efforts to drive his program of tax increases and spending cuts through Congress.

When Rep. John Kasich, the conservative Ohio Republican, and Rep. Ronald Dellums, the liberal California Democrat, agree on something, the House ought to pay attention. Especially when they are supported by the civilian leadership of the Pentagon as well as the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Not to mention the former Bush administration. The issue they agree on? The Air Force doesn't need 20 more B2 Stealth bombers at $1.5 billion each.Usually attempts to force unwanted weaponry on the military is fueled by legislators from districts where those products are made.

When Donald L. Fowler showed up in Towson yesterday to stump for 2nd District congressional candidate Connie Galiazzo DeJuliis, not many local people knew who he was. But her rival, Rep. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., changed all that.Though the name of Fowler, the Democratic national party co-chairman, isn't exactly a household word, his brief appearance at the old courthouse prompted Republican Ehrlich's harshest attack yet on DeJuliis.In a statement issued several hours before Fowler's appearance, he painted Democrat DeJuliis as a tool of "the nation's labor bosses" and a slave to political action committee money.

WASHINGTON -- Brushing aside last-minute criticisms and attempts to shift priorities, Congress moved late yesterday toward approving a five-year plan to cut taxes and balance the federal budget."

WASHINGTON -- Congress will begin returning from its recess today to find the central campaign promise of Republicans -- to erase the federal deficit by 2002 -- due and payable on demand.Just as the pollster-driven issues of the "Contract With America" dominated the euphoric winter, that single promise will hang over the Capitol like a black thunderhead.That is a problem for both parties. But for the Republicans, who so far have voted mainly on issues chosen by pollsters, the peril could not be greater.

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. -- At the end of a week of passionate Washington arguments over how much to cut the federal budget, Republicans and top officials of the Clinton administration came here to persuade top U.S. business executives that their approach has the better chance of keeping a thriving American economy from driving off the edge.It was a crowd of natural Republicans, who emerged Friday entranced by the energy and determination of Rep. John Kasich of Ohio, the House Budget Committee chairman.

TOWSON -- The county school board last night adopted an ethics policy that regulates travel, gifts, lobbying and other financial enticements for school system employees and board members.The policy, which will be forwarded to the state ethics commission for approval, comes more than a year after revelations that Arizona-based Educational Management Group Inc. financed trips to its headquarters for more than 70 teachers and administrators while negotiating a $5 million no-bid contract with the schools.

WASHINGTON -- Is the ''real'' Bill Clinton finally getting ready to stand up?Word from presidential aides is that Mr. Clinton will push the Republican-controlled Congress for major increases in social spending. Such talk is certain to trigger speculation that at last he is going to start acting like a traditional liberal Democrat.Consider the sourceBut based on his track record, the liberals will be prudent to hold their celebrating until they see how far the president actually goes in this matter, and how hard he fights for what he proposes.

Democrats make the claim that poor people are not the only feeders at the government trough. They are right. What they don't say is that the Democrats, who held power for 40 years, were equal opportunity Santa Clauses, giving taxpayer money to every special interest group that asked for it.The battle now being waged by Rep. John Kasich, R-Ohio, Sen. Spencer Abraham, R-Mich., Rep. Dick Chrysler, R-Mich., and others will determine whether the Republican Party is truly the party of smaller government or not. They are trying to defund ''corporate welfare,'' the web of tax breaks, incentives and subsidies threaded throughout the federal budget that benefits corporations at taxpayers' expense.