Flood Bill

In “Outmaneuvered, Outthought, and Outwitted” (Column Right, June 16), William F. Buckley has the politics right but the issues wrong. If the proposals the Republicans in Congress sought to attach to the flood relief bill were so worthy, why didn’t they put them forward to stand on their own? It is precisely because they recognize the partisan nature of these proposals that Republicans attached them as amendments to what they hoped would be a veto-proof bill.

The proposal that in the absence of agreement between Congress and the president programs would continue to be funded at their prior level, in particular, deserves extended debate. It would change a fundamental ground rule of national politics: that the executive and the legislative branches must compromise to govern. Represented as a measure to prevent government shutdown, it would foster the adoption of more ideologically extreme positions and prolong deadlocked tug of wars.

JIM HESS

Irvine