Gramm-Rudman

IT'S THE GOV JOCK'S version of computerized robots gone wild, attacking and entrapping their creator.

The Political Action Committee (PAC), originally created to insure the representation of minority views in our democracy, now threaten to engulf the very political machination that created them--the budgetary process. The PAC has become a real-life Washington nightmare of "The Blob," a mass of lobbyists that spills down from Capitol Hill, tearing at the heartland of America. Men, women, children run for cover.

An odd creature this blob, an amoeboid that has taken on a new shape that belies its original form. Defense contractors, businessmen, and the wealthy now mold its front, while minority groups, unions, the poor and others have been squished into the background. Money, bureaucracy, and connections make up its trident.

Legislators are often powerless in this three pronged grasp. They need PAC money to run their campaigns and PAC connections to help them with logrolling. The blob's organizational strength pressures congressmen, ever sensitive to popular opinion, into the slimy grasp of its politics. The creature knows its creators' weak spots.

The latest attempt to destory the blob by Phil Gramm (R-Texas) and Warren Rudman (R-N.H.) has fallen short. They had hoped to turn the fight over to one man, President Reagan. "He will save us from the monster," they cried while hiding under their desks from lobbyists knocking at their doors.

Congress approved their bill, which destroyed its power to control the budget, and transferred the rest to the President. The bill neutralized the organizational weapon of the blob by mandating budget reductions into law. No longer would congressmen be subject to popular pressure; PACs could no longer attack them for voting down the funding of a project dear to the heart of some special interest group.

BUT AMERICANS CAN cheer the recent federal appeals court decision declaring the Gramm-Rudman law unconstitutional. Federal judges decided that the Gramm-Rudman script to end the real-life version of "The Blob" was the wimps way out. Congress had run from the lobbyists.

In light of this decision, what we need is for more congressmen to take a stand like our hero Mike Synar (D-Md.) who brought the ill-fated law to court. But representatives need to do more than that; they need to free themselves from the grip of the extremists in order to better represent the majority of Americans.

Government requires tough decisions, independently made. We can't decide to build "Star Wars" simply because General Dynamics takes our elected representatives out to lunch. Anti-abortion activists shouldn't be able to control the majority simply because they are a well organized minority. Furthermore, legislators need to resist the extreme demands of the farm lobby that erode our treasury.

When our elected officials take a firm stand and realize the difference between special interest and everyone's interest they will have the strength to take back the halls of the capitol. Only when this happens will the power of the blob shrink.

Someday the 535-strong battalion of Congress will charge up the Hill crying, "We will not do lunch anymore!"