Gore Jumps Into the Job Of Cutting U.S. Waste - The New York Times

But Trump ... 

Now let's hear the Democrat chorus that they elected Al Gore to do the same damned thing.

S E E D E D   C O N T E N T

Aug. 20, 1993 -- Strolling around a Pentagon courtyard filled with attentive Federal employees, Vice President Al Gore is holding another gripe session.

Microphone in hand, sweat soaking his blue shirt, Mr. Gore exhibits the moist concern of an afternoon talk show host, offering up equal doses of empathy and outrage. But instead of tales of faithless husbands and long-suffering wives, he is talking about overpriced steam traps (for heating systems) and overregulated ash trays, unwieldy personnel practices and all manner of bureaucratic slag.

In campaign-style trips to Government agencies and in short-hop, out-of-town investigative missions, Mr. Gore listens to and retells the same horror stories over and over and over. If ever a temperament was matched to a task, this is it.

The point of compiling these tales of woe has been grandly called reinventing government, a task Mr. Gore has been handed to fulfill a Clinton campaign pledge to cut waste and address the widely held perception that Washington does not work. If that were not enough, Mr. Gore, during the budget fight, was also saddled with the job of fulfilling optimistic promises to Congress to find big, quick spending cuts -- and he has to do all this while remaining the President's bashful sidekick. Real Theory, Vague Hope

On Sept. 7, the Vice President is scheduled to present his findings, discovered not only by him but also by 1,000 full- and part-time employees. On that day, reinventing government, or REGO, as it has been nicknamed, will become reality instead of theory, or at least a real theory instead of a vague hope.

It will also become the well for a lot of expectations and promises, and the focus of fierce resistance from many people in the Government whose programs are to be reinvented out of existence.

Mr. Gore's group is expected to recommend plans to combine departments, revamp rules governing the civil service and abolish commissions in a manner that remains faithful to the vision of David Osborne, an author whose writings have influenced Mr. Clinton and who has worked on the project.

In "Mandate for Change," a book published by the Progressive Policy Institute, an arm of the Democratic Leadership Council, Mr. Osborne recommended legislation to eliminate or consolidate about 500 grant programs, an increase in waivers to allow state and local governments to bypass Federal regulations, and the appointment of a Cabinet member in charge of overseeing the process. Hard Task Lies Ahead

But the Clinton Administration will be forced to handle another familiar problem the moment the ambitious plans are announced.

Mr. Clinton must push this latest initiative despite the inertia of bureaucrats, lawmakers and lobbyists satisfied with the status quo, while at the same time promoting important proposals on health care and international trade that opponents say will increase taxes and cost jobs.

"It's not that his Administration is going to stand or fall over whether the procurement system is streamlined," said William Kristol, a conservative Republican who was Vice President Dan Quayle's chief of staff. "But politically it's very important for him."

Clinton Administration officials hope that by providing evidence that they really intend to clean up the Government, Republicans can be wooed, Ross Perot quieted and debts repaid to senators, like Bob Kerrey, who provided the crucial budget vote in part on the basis of high REGO hopes. But Washington bookshelves are full of the dusty fruit of previous efforts to streamline the Government.

"Some describe it as pressure," Mr. Gore said in an interview in the characteristically cautious manner that makes him seem such a polar opposite to Bill Clinton. "We view it as opportunity."

At the least, it will be another opportunity for Mr. Gore to prove how central he has become to the Clinton Administration. Officials said Mr. Gore had played a central role in developing environmental policy, budget strategy, staff maneuvering and the politics of defending the President.

His constant proximity to the President has become a running White House joke. When the White House staff gave Mr. Clinton a birthday party recently, Mr. Gore gave Mr. Clinton a life-sized cardboard cut-out of himself, suggesting that the stiff figure could keep him from getting lonely as he set out on trips around the country without his trusty sidekick nearby.

It got a big laugh, which Mr. Gore liked. He has grown fond of mocking himself, and uses his own supposed shortcomings as a sort of humanizing shield to deflect criticism or questions he does not want to answer.

Such was the case when he was asked to say, prematurely, how much money the streamlining initiative will save. Self-consciously, he began to spin out jokes that the comedian Jay Leno has told about his stiffness and his dancing style. Quickly, his press secretary, hovering nearby, joined in.

Reminded that he had not answered the question about cost savings, he demurred.

"I've tried to avoid any numerical estimates on the savings that are coming out of this, other than to say I'm confident they will be significant," he said. And that is all he will say.

Mr. Gore and his aides have already begun to lower expectations about how sweeping the REGO plan will be. Mr. Clinton is expected to sign a number of executive orders aimed at reducing waste in the Government when he presents Mr. Gore's report on Sept. 7. But Mr. Gore also warned that some of the more far-reaching solutions might not occur for eight or 10 years.

Mr. Gore, who spent 16 years in Congress, seemed to notice a storm brewing in February, when he noted how few Republicans applauded the President's economic speech to a joint session of Congress.

"Political change has sometimes been described as the metaphor of a sailboat tacking against the wind," he told reporters the next day. "When one side comes up out of the water, it's a vivid image. That visual image and that metaphor reminds me very much of what happened in the chamber last night. I saw the mirror image of it during the beginning of the Reagan era, when one side of the chamber stands and applauds wildly and the other side sits with their hands folded in their laps.

"Visually the image is very much that of a great ship changing course, with one side out of the water and the other, sort of sinking." Easy to Talk About

Mr. Gore made those comments six months before he cast the tie-breaking votes on the President's economic package. Bipartisanship, he acknowledges, is a lot easier to talk about than it is to accomplish.

Among the props Mr. Gore uses to promote his effort to reinvent government is a moth-eaten old wool glove knitted from mohair produced in part because of Federal subsidies that protect goat farmers.

Mr. Clinton had proposed eliminating the mohair subsidy in his budget, but it survived, saved by two lawmakers from Texas, Senator Phil Gramm, a Republican, and Representative Charles W. Stenholm, a Democrat. Neither man voted for the budget, even with the subsidy restored.

"There is absolutely no justification for it whatsoever except politics," Mr. Gore said through gritted teeth.

But the gloves are not his favorite story.

Leaping out of the wing chair in his West Wing office to rifle through the props during an interview, he reached for a heavy glass ash tray.

"Not ash trays," he explained, flipping through a manual of purchasing guidelines. "Ash receivers, tobacco, desk-type."

In order to meet Government standards, he read, the ash tray must, when dropped, break into "a number of irregular pieces, not greater than 35, and it must not dice."

The Vice President breaks off, exasperated. "It's crazy!"