BY ARGIRIS MALAPANIS
Barely a day after his inauguration for a second term as president of the United States, William Clinton called for bigger cuts in Medicare than his proposals during the 1996 election campaign. Medicare is the federal program that provides health insurance for the elderly and disabled. It now covers 38 million people.

At a January 21 White House appearance, Clinton said he will propose $138 billion in Medicare cuts over six years. Repeating the well-worn bipartisan justification for slashing this social entitlement, the Democratic president said the cuts are needed to balance the federal budget. Clinton is scheduled to present his budget to Congress on February 6, two days after his State of the Union address.

"I'm going to do my best to reach out to the Republicans," Clinton stated at the White House presentation. "I want to meet them halfway on this and on many issues. And I hope they'll meet me halfway."

Leaders of the Republican majority in Congress praised Clinton's announcement. William Archer, a Texas Republican who is chairman of the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, called it "a very positive and very significant development."

At the same time, "Democratic leaders of Congress remained conspicuously close-mouthed," noted an article in the January 22 New York Times. "We have not seen the details of it and I think until we know more about it we have to reserve judgment," remarked Laura Nichols, spokeswoman for Rep. Richard Gephardt, a Democrat from Missouri and the House minority leader.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly January 21 to reprimand Speaker Newton Gingrich for "ethics violations" and fined him $300,000.

The congressional debate that led to this decision provided another indication of bipartisan rapprochement on how to go about cutting social services in order to undermine working-class solidarity and increase the employers' profits.

"We need to move beyond this," said Rep. David Bonior, a Democrat from Michigan, after the 395-28 vote to slap Gingrich on the wrist. "I am going to do all I can to temper the debate."

Rep. Nancy Johnson, Republican of Connecticut and chairwoman of the House ethics committee, spoke of bringing "a halt to the crippling partisanship and animosity that has surrounded us."

Conservatives praise inaugural speech
Clinton's January 20 inaugural address got similar, though guarded, approval from many conservative and some liberal politicians and pundits.

"Whatever backing and filling Bill Clinton does in the months ahead, the tone of his second Inaugural speech makes it clear that he and his advisers realize that no forward progress - no politicking, no deal making - was going to be possible until he moved to the political center, which is to say to the right," said an editorial in the January 21 Wall Street Journal. "The Inaugural Speech makes it even more plain that this project is inexorably going forward."

The editors of the financial daily, who have been among Clinton's most vociferous critics, made it clear they can live with the president if he sticks with his recent record and his promises at the multi-million dollar inaugural ceremony for "smaller government" - code words for slashing the social wage.

Conservative columnist William Safire, another champion of the scandal-mongering against the Clinton administration, called the president's speech "a respectable effort, forcefully delivered," in an op-ed article in the January 23 New York Times. "He bestraddled the center like a would-be Colossus with `The preeminent mission of our new government is to give all Americans an opportunity - not a guarantee....'," Safire wrote. "That sentiment was one Newt Gingrich of the Opportunity Society had to applaud, while entitlement liberals had to cringe."

Workers will pay for Medicare cuts
Clinton's latest plan to cut $138 billion from Medicare is much closer to last year's Republican proposal for slashing $158 billion from the program over six years. During the 1996 presidential race Clinton had offered $116 billion on the chopping block.

Soon after his reelection, the Democratic administration spelled out how this would be one of its first priorities. "My plan would cut payments and make some other changes that would lengthen the life of the Medicare Trust Fund for a decade," Clinton declared in the ABC news program "This Week" last November.

Most of the cuts proposed by Clinton, $91 billion, are to come from reducing payments to hospitals and health maintenance organizations (HMOs).

But a hefty amount, about $18 billion, will come by raising the monthly premium Medicare recipients pay. According to the White House proposals this premium would rise from the average $44 today to nearly $62 in five years.

"Beneficiaries' cost increases would be minimal," said an article in the January 22 Wall Street Journal. While such a rise may be considered minimal by most readers of the Journal, it is not for millions of retired workers who live on meager pensions or depend entirely on Social Security, with average payments barely exceeding $700 per month.

At the same time, government reductions in payments to HMOs and hospitals will mostly affect workers, because these institutions will be less likely to serve Medicare patients.

Retirees from the upper middle class or the bourgeoisie, also entitled to Medicare benefits, can easily afford private, and better, health insurance programs.

The administration's plan to cut Medicare was announced a week after the White House said that Clinton will seek major reductions in funding for Medicaid, the federal entitlement that provides health coverage for low income families.

"This frankly brightens the prospects for being able to get a budget agreement," said Rep. John Kasich, the Ohio Republican who chairs the House Budget Committee.

A year ago, disagreements between the Republican majority in Congress and the Democratic administration over the extent of cuts in these programs led to a temporary and partial shutdown of the federal government. In the ensuing months Republicans had to bury some of the most draconian cuts proposed in their earlier "Contract with America" and the Clinton administration's approach prevailed.

Differences remain after Gingrich vote
While Clinton was unveiling the current version of his blueprint for carrying out the bosses' war on labor at the White House, the House of Representatives approved a mild sanction against Gingrich.

The Republican leader was reprimanded for "bringing discredit on the House" by the improper use of tax exempt funds to advance his right-wing views through a course he taught at two small Georgia colleges. Gingrich also admitted that he misled the congressional committee investigating his conduct through "inaccurate, incomplete and unreliable statements." For this offense he was fined $300,000, which Gingrich says he may pay from funds left over from his election campaign fund-raising, despite the fact that Gopac, a "political action committee" he headed until 1994, was involved in the scandal.

This was the first time that a Speaker of the House of Representatives was reprimanded in the 208-year history of the U.S. Congress. The overwhelming vote in favor of the ethics committee's recommendation, and the debate around it, showed wide bipartisan agreement with taking this step.

As negotiations that would lead to this "historic" decision were being finalized, Clinton was traveling with Gingrich in the same car to the presidential inaugural ceremony. Less than 24 hours later Clinton announced his new proposals for cutting Medicare, getting some praise even from Gingrich.

No opposition from AFL-CIO tops
The seeming bipartisan convergence, and narrowing of tactical differences among the rulers on domestic policy, unfolds without any opposition of substance from the organized labor movement. So far, one of the main moves of the AFL-CIO tops in the debate around proposed cuts in the social wage has been to take part in the presidential advisory panel on Social Security, providing left cover for liberals.

That panel, includes Gerald Shea, assistant to AFL-CIO president John Sweeney; George Kouprias, president of the International Association of Machinists; and Gloria Johnson, director of social action for the International Union of Electronic Workers. On January 6, the panel made public a report that included a variety of options for gutting Social Security. The labor federation leadership has not uttered a peep of protest after Clinton's recent announcements, paving the ground to slash Medicare and Medicaid.

While a bipartisan agreement under current conditions seems likely, tactical divisions remain between and within the twin parties of U.S. big business, reflecting the fact that overcoming the rulers' problems -stiff competition from imperialist allies and declining profit rates - will not be smooth. "Everyone is talking about this bipartisan spirit, but I'm not convinced that we've reached any kind of reconciliation here," stated Rep. Kasich after the House reprimand of Gingrich.  
 
 
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