the yeAR of Living dAngeRousLy 191
Gorton and Lawton Chiles, the Budget Committee’s ranking Demo-
crat, put together a middle-ground plan that finally broke the impasse.
Domenici and Chiles, a gentlemanly moderate from Florida, were good
friends. With Domenici in the White House dog house, Gorton’s role as
the chairman’s chief strategist took on new importance. Steve Bell, the
Budget Committee’s staff director, sat about six feet from Gorton during
every committee meeting. “Although a lot of Republicans got mad at him,
I thought Slade was engaged in a real act of statesmanship as he tried to
put together a budget resolution that could be bipartisan in nature when
we had run into an absolute stone wall,” Bell says. “When I would talk to
his staff and heard that people back home perceived him as (divisive) it
was amazing to me that a guy who is so constructive could be seen as so
polarizing.”
The fallback Gorton-Chiles plan advocated $9 billion in tax increases,
sparing some social programs from deeper cuts, and a 6 percent increase
in military spending. It squeaked out of the Senate, 50-49, and headed to
reconciliation. The House wanted $30 billion in new taxes and 4 percent
real growth in military spending. Reagan vowed that he would veto any
tax increase and held tight on 10 percent for the Pentagon.
By fall the economy had moved from recovery to expansion and the
Dow Jones Industrial Average posted back-to-back records, closing at
1,272. Senate and House budget conferees compromised on a plan calling
for $12 billion in additional revenues and a 5 percent real increase for the
Pentagon. No veto was forthcoming but deciding who got gored was tor-
tuous. Reagan was never reconciled to reconciliation. Gorton said the pre-
sident and Congress better face the music: “We can’t balance the budget
Old friends promoted
to the other Washing-
ton: Congressman Joel
Pritchard and U.S.
Senators Dan Evans
and Slade Gorton.
Washington State
Archives