Washington

Get this name right!

Dan Rostenkowski

SYNDICATED columnist George Will calls Congressman Dan Rostenkowski "Mayor Daley's revenge on the liberal Democrats" because, the conservative Will contends, the Chicago Democrat admits the party's programs are aimed more at the upper middle class than the poor. That is an exaggeration.

Will based his statement on the Democratic tax cut plan, which was put together by Rostenkowski and which was targeted at people making from $15,000 to $50,000 a year. The Reagan administration's tax cut was across-the-board, which would provide people making large salaries with large tax cuts and people making small salaries with little or no tax cuts. Rostenkowski, in the best tradition of Richard J. Daley's organization, simply made a deal that gave the Democratic leadership a fighting chance and at the same time ensured his own future as a leader in Congress. It was smart, old-fashioned politics.

Rostenkowski, chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, felt he couldn't afford to let President Reagan roll over him on the tax cut issue the way the president humiliated Budget Committee Chairman James Jones of Oklahoma on the budget cuts. Jones refused to compromise, either with the White House or the conservative Democrats in Congress who wanted deep spending cuts; Jones stuck to a liberal budget bill that was overwhelmingly defeated in the Democratic-dominated House. It was an embarrassing defeat for the Democratic leadership and virtually eliminated any chance of Jones succeeding Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill (D., Mass.) as House speaker, should O'Neill retire.

Rostenkowski, Democratic committeeman of the 32nd Ward on Chicago's Northwest Side, makes no secret of his interest in O'Neill's post. "Anyone who lives in the city and doesn't want to be mayor shouldn't live in the city. And any House member that doesn't want to be speaker, well, you know what I mean. You want to rise to the height of your profession, be the best. But for now I got a lot to prove as Ways and Means chairman. I got a lot to prove yet."

Rostenkowski put forward a one-year tax cut bill as an alternative to Reagan's three-year plan. But that was just a bargaining chip for the negotiations that followed. While O'Neill charged Reagan's tax cut "was a windfall for the rich," Rostenkowski calmly sought a compromise. Rostenkowski said of the difference between them: "Tip stands solid like an oak because he's got basically liberal chemistry and he's got great pride in protecting what has been built in the last 30 years by the Democratic party. I'm still at liberty to be the palm. I can sway." Rostenkowski settled on a two-year tax cut plan targeted toward middle-income Americans despite suggestions from some House liberals that he go down fighting with the one-year plan. "Look, I want a tax bill that can win," he reportedly told the liberals. "I never started a fight that I don't fight to win." Reagan refused to budge from his three-year plan though, and at his news conference in June he attacked the Democrats for not moving fast enough on a tax cut and accused O'Neill of "demagoguery." Most Democrats reacted angrily to the attack. But when Rostenkowski was asked his reaction to the president, he merely snapped: "He's very good looking!"

Meantime, Rostenkowski was moving behind the scene to add enough sweeteners to the Democratic tax cut plan to deny Reagan the large bloc of conservative Democrats he used to win the budget fight in the House. The sweeteners included relief on estate and gift taxes, the marriage penalty and the windfall oil profits tax. Yet he refused to yield on the main difference from the Reagan plan, the targeting of tax cuts to the middle class. Although Reagan eventually won the tax fight, Rostenkowski established himself among his peers, both liberal and conservative, as a man willing to compromise but who also can stand firm on a particular point that is important to him and the party. And it is his peers who will determine his future leadership role. His main competition, if O'Neill retired, probably would be Democratic leader Jim Wright of Texas and Democratic Whip Thomas Foley of Washington. But O'Neill intends to run for reelection next year and has said he plans to preside over the 1984 Democratic convention.

Rostenkowski, who came to Congress in 1958, might be speaker today were it not for the violent 1968 Democratic convention. Rostenkowski had agreed to back Hale Boggs of Louisiana in 1970 for majority leader of the House in return for Boggs' promise to appoint Rostenkowski as whip or deputy leader. Boggs won, but when he tried to keep his promise he was overruled by House Speaker Carl Albert, who was still angry that Rostenkowski, acting under orders of President Johnson and Mayor Daley, took the podium from Albert at the '68 convention to gavel down the anti-war demonstrators. But that is behind him now and he is enjoying his new position. "It means that there are all kinds of people throughout the business community who take very great care to pronounce my name correctly now," Rostenkowski told one reporter. "They used to see it on a piece of paper ... and they'd say 'Rostokop . . . Roskowtow . . .' or they wouldn't bother to say anything at all. Now they say it very carefully. Ros-ten-kow-ski! They say Rostenkowski! My old man would be up there on top of the church steeple if he could hear how carefully they say it now!"

36 | September 1981 | Illinois Issues