Russo stings Carter on mandatory IF Lyndon Johnson was the president," Chicago Sun-Times columnist Carl Rowan said on a Washington interview show in August, "Marty Russo's head would be rolling on the streets of Chicago." Russo's head is still on his shoulders because Jimmy Carter, not Lyndon Johnson, is the president. And apparently Carter cannot do much about Russo's vote in the House Commerce Committee which scrapped Carter's plan to control hospital cost increases. The committee voted 22-21 to delete Carter's mandatory 9 per cent annual limit on the rise in hospital costs from a voluntary-effort-plus-mandatory-cost-controls plan worked out by the House Commerce and Ways and Means committees. The 22nd vote, which deleted Carter's mandatory controls even as a backup to a voluntary effort to control costs by the hospitals themselves, was cast by Russo. Russo's reasons Various explanations were given for Russo's vote. Russo himself argued that the Commerce Committee had "struggled for seven weeks" with Carter's proposal. The South Holland Democrat added, "As time went on, I became increasingly convinced that a voluntary program would be more effective and more in keeping with my desire to lessen rather than increase the federal bureaucracy." But an aide to another Illinois delegation member offered another blunter explanation. "The IHA [Illinois Hospital Association] and the AMA really leaned on him," this aide said. "They told him 'We'll be watching you on this one.'" Rep. Dan Rostenkowski (D., Chicago), who put together the voluntary-plus-mandatory-controls compromise bills in his House Ways and Means Health subcommittee, seconded that sentiment in a separate interview. "You've got the nuns . . . priests . . . philanthropists, doctors, bank presidents. You've got a very sophisticated lobby against the bill and nobody for it," he said. But there was one major force lobbying for the bill — the Carter administration. Russo's office said that administration lobbyists rarely contacted him. "He never gave a commitment to the administration," a Russo aide claimed. "And there were no calls from HEW on it, or any other type of followup." The White House Russo's office also claimed that Russo didn't feel he had to support the White House on the issue, even though Vice President Walter F. Mondale visited Chicago in the spring to be the keynote speaker at a Russo reelection fundraiser. The dinner raised an estimated $20,000 for Russo's campaign. "Marty supported the White House on gas deregulation in the subcommittee. This wasn't his prime responsibility," Russo's aide commented. The aide did not mention that the gas deregulation issue surfaced in the committee in 1977 - before the fundraiser. But if Russo felt he didn't have to support the administration on hospital cost controls, the administration saw it otherwise. Mondale issued only a terse "no comment" when asked for his reaction. Carter, apparently, was more verbose and critical. Carter reportedly told House Speaker Tip O'Neill (D., Mass.) that he felt "betrayed by Russo and other Commerce Committee Democrats who voted against the cost control plan. But Carter also singled out Russo as a target, according to Russo's office. "By coincidence, there was a meeting that day—just after the vote— between Carter and freshman and sophomore House Democrats. Carter spoke a little while and was very displeased. He said he did not appreciate the defections of Democrats, 'including one in this room,' on the issue," Russo's aide said. But the aide also claimed that Carter and Russo have made up their differences. "They spoke a few minutes and cleared the air," the aide said. Errant Democrats Apparently the air was not cleared completely, however. When Russo scheduled a seminar for small businessmen in his district in August, the featured speaker was to be Commerce Secretary Juanita Kreps. After Russo's vote in the Commerce Committee, the Commerce Department announced that due to other commitments, Kreps would not be able to speak at Russo's seminar. With Carter trying to unify appearances by administration officials in order to push administration programs, the cancellation, though a minor thing, seemed no coincidence. The White House so far is silent on any further measures of retribution against Russo and other errant Democrats. But Carter's current low political standing (that same White House meeting where he singled out Russo also made it clear that the House Democrats didn't want his help this fall) insures that there isn't much he can do against Russo. Certainly Russo's head will not roll in the streets of Chicago, as Rowan said it would have 13 years ago under LBJ. As a matter of fact, about the only thing left is for Mondale to ask Russo for the equivalent of "give me my money back" — and Mondale's office ruled out that option. October 1978/Illinois Issues/35
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