XIV: Tales From the Old EOB
XIV: Tales From the Old EOB
On November 2nd, as Gerald Ford secured his reelection so did Senator Bob Dole secure his election as America's 42nd Vice President. The new Vice President-elect would resign his Senate seat on December 15th (two days following the meeting of the Electoral College) as questions and speculation intensified over who would take his now vacant Senate seat. As had been stated in October by Governor Robert Bennett, he would confer with both Senators Dole and Pearson before ultimately making his decision over whom to fill for Senator Dole's seat. The discussions between the three had brought another concern, in that Senator Pearson had made it clear in private that he was not intending to run for reelection again in 1978. This had brought another consideration into play in order to avoid losing any strong nominees in '78 to prevent the Democrats from taking the seat. On December 28th, Governor Bennett would announce that former Representative Wayne Angell would take the vacant Senate seat.
Arriving 'officially' in the White House, the new Vice President found himself in the Old Executive Office Building, with a question of what new principal policies the Vice President would chair. Vice President Rockefeller had been the chair of the Domestic Policy Council, with President Ford agreeing to have the Vice President as a full and equal member in terms of domestic policy. However in practice, that had not been the case with then-Chief of Staff Donald Rumsfeld objecting heavily to that of domestic policy going through the Vice President before the President, and in turn giving the image of President Ford as a 'caretaker' President (Rumsfeld had viewed as that with public perception having Secretary Kissinger in charge of foreign policy, and Secretary Simon in charge of economic policy, President Ford had to be shown in charge of domestic policy). This was also exacerbated by that of the conflicting political views between President Ford and Vice President Rockefeller along with how policy itself was processed within the Ford Administration. President Ford had told his Cabinet secretaries that they would have the primary responsibility in terms of handling the policies per each department, thus further removing the kind of 'policy' centralization under the White House (which was usually handled under the Domestic Policy Council). With the kind of issues faced by the Domestic Policy Council with no clear direction, and that of a consistent increase in influence by the Economic Policy Council, it was made consistently clear that there was no role for the Vice President in that of helping in a directionless Domestic Policy Council.
In terms of principal policies for the new Vice President, it would come to be in that of handling the newly recreated National Space Council and that of agricultural issues and other such issues that dominated the Plains' states. The National Space Council had given that of Vice President Dole a significant amount of responsibility as the Shuttle's development was continuing to pick up, and the growing need for the required national security payloads to be designed for the Shuttle. This was also brought alongside that of the questions for where NASA would head in the 80s after the Shuttle was ready for flight. In regards to the agricultural issues, for Vice President Ford it was arguably dominated by one of the bigger aspects being food stamps. For the Ford Administration it had been the view to restrict that of food stamps below that of the poverty line (which had been defined by the OMB as $5,500 for a family of four), and it had been a contentious issue between Congress and the Ford Administration throughout 1976. With Congress lacking in terms of the cuts that President Ford had sought (Congress had moved for cuts weighing in at a total of $241 million, versus the $1.2 billion that Ford had wished for), he had tried to move towards such measures by ordering the Department of Agriculture towards a series of new regulations aimed at restricting food stamp measures, which had seen a temporary injunction issues in both June and in July (when new regulations were attempted to be pushed forward).
Yet for 1977, it was a continuation of the food stamp fight between President Ford and that of the Democratic-controlled Congress, except for one exception. Food stamps were supposed to run out on September 30th, 1977, and so set into place a time limit for a reform act to be passed. The sides in the fights over food stamp reform had changed since 1976, with Senator James Buckley having lost reelection to Senator Moynihan and Senator Bob Dole having become Vice President. In the period of time however between the end of the 94th and the start of the 95th Congress, was the boost in support of that of the proposed Dole-McGovern Bill from the 94th Congress, of which had that of the most important component, the elimination of the extended purchase requirement. The extended purchase requirement, mandated that so someone would need to pay cash for the food stamps first, and then receive the food stamps after that; the elimination of the requirement would make it so that the amount of food stamps received would be deducted from that of the cash that would have been originally used to pay for the food stamps. The presence of Bob Dole as Vice President did not worsen matters for them as the fight over food stamps geared up for the 95th Congress.
It would be in this instance that the first 'clashes' between President Ford and Vice President Dole would be that over food stamps and a sharp difference of opinions over it. President Ford would be insistent on that of a refusal for the elimination of the 'extended purchase requirement' and to maintain a series of large cuts upon that on food stamps, while Vice President Dole would be insistent upon the elimination of it, arguing the major reductions in bureaucratic costs and that it would reduce the kind of 'food stamp fraud' that was being argued as prevalent. For now however, it had setup a rift in the Administration between that of the President and Vice President. Meanwhile in Congress, three 'sides' existed in the mess that was the food stamp reform, that of McGovern's proposed reform to eliminate the purchasing requirement, increase the gross income limit to $9,000 for a family of four, and a standard deduction of $125 a month; that of the Ford Administration's to have a gross income limit of $6,250 for a family of four, a standard deduction of $100 a month, and finally the most important provision within it, would have eligibility judged on the average actual income of the past 90 days; and then there was finally that of the Senate Agricultural Committee's (Senator Talmadge), which proposed a poverty-level income ceiling (after deducting income taxes and Social Security taxes) of between $100-$125 a month, with the maximum gross ceiling being limited to $7,800 before the income and Social Security taxes, with a further recommendation that eligibility be computed on earnings during the prior thirty days.
Yet what would become apparent was that Senator McGovern's proposed bill would be slowly gaining support, especially after a 'coincidental' meeting between that of the Vice President and the Senator, when Vice President Dole was heading to meet with Senator Minority Leader Robert Griffin. During President Ford's trip to the United Kingdom and the Middle East, Senator McGovern secured a major step of getting the elimination of the extended purchase requirement through the House and Senate Agricultural Committees (despite tough votes on them), although it would set an income limit of $7,000 for a family of four and that of a standard deduction of $125 a month. It was slowly becoming clear that a major and more liberal food stamp reform than what President Ford had desired was making its way through both the House and Senate and having an increased and worrying sign that it would wind up clearing cloture in the Senate.
President Ford's return and arrival back at the White House would be met to a degree by that of grimness by that of Vice President Dole and Director Bush over two pieces of news. The first piece of news having been that of a reply by the Soviets in terms of the meeting with Foreign Minister Gromyko over SALT II. The second piece of news would be that of a recent series of Soviet arm sales to the Derg (the Provisional Military Government of Soviet Ethiopia) and the rapidly changing geopolitical signs in the Horn of Africa...
On November 2nd, as Gerald Ford secured his reelection so did Senator Bob Dole secure his election as America's 42nd Vice President. The new Vice President-elect would resign his Senate seat on December 15th (two days following the meeting of the Electoral College) as questions and speculation intensified over who would take his now vacant Senate seat. As had been stated in October by Governor Robert Bennett, he would confer with both Senators Dole and Pearson before ultimately making his decision over whom to fill for Senator Dole's seat. The discussions between the three had brought another concern, in that Senator Pearson had made it clear in private that he was not intending to run for reelection again in 1978. This had brought another consideration into play in order to avoid losing any strong nominees in '78 to prevent the Democrats from taking the seat. On December 28th, Governor Bennett would announce that former Representative Wayne Angell would take the vacant Senate seat.
Arriving 'officially' in the White House, the new Vice President found himself in the Old Executive Office Building, with a question of what new principal policies the Vice President would chair. Vice President Rockefeller had been the chair of the Domestic Policy Council, with President Ford agreeing to have the Vice President as a full and equal member in terms of domestic policy. However in practice, that had not been the case with then-Chief of Staff Donald Rumsfeld objecting heavily to that of domestic policy going through the Vice President before the President, and in turn giving the image of President Ford as a 'caretaker' President (Rumsfeld had viewed as that with public perception having Secretary Kissinger in charge of foreign policy, and Secretary Simon in charge of economic policy, President Ford had to be shown in charge of domestic policy). This was also exacerbated by that of the conflicting political views between President Ford and Vice President Rockefeller along with how policy itself was processed within the Ford Administration. President Ford had told his Cabinet secretaries that they would have the primary responsibility in terms of handling the policies per each department, thus further removing the kind of 'policy' centralization under the White House (which was usually handled under the Domestic Policy Council). With the kind of issues faced by the Domestic Policy Council with no clear direction, and that of a consistent increase in influence by the Economic Policy Council, it was made consistently clear that there was no role for the Vice President in that of helping in a directionless Domestic Policy Council.
In terms of principal policies for the new Vice President, it would come to be in that of handling the newly recreated National Space Council and that of agricultural issues and other such issues that dominated the Plains' states. The National Space Council had given that of Vice President Dole a significant amount of responsibility as the Shuttle's development was continuing to pick up, and the growing need for the required national security payloads to be designed for the Shuttle. This was also brought alongside that of the questions for where NASA would head in the 80s after the Shuttle was ready for flight. In regards to the agricultural issues, for Vice President Ford it was arguably dominated by one of the bigger aspects being food stamps. For the Ford Administration it had been the view to restrict that of food stamps below that of the poverty line (which had been defined by the OMB as $5,500 for a family of four), and it had been a contentious issue between Congress and the Ford Administration throughout 1976. With Congress lacking in terms of the cuts that President Ford had sought (Congress had moved for cuts weighing in at a total of $241 million, versus the $1.2 billion that Ford had wished for), he had tried to move towards such measures by ordering the Department of Agriculture towards a series of new regulations aimed at restricting food stamp measures, which had seen a temporary injunction issues in both June and in July (when new regulations were attempted to be pushed forward).
Yet for 1977, it was a continuation of the food stamp fight between President Ford and that of the Democratic-controlled Congress, except for one exception. Food stamps were supposed to run out on September 30th, 1977, and so set into place a time limit for a reform act to be passed. The sides in the fights over food stamp reform had changed since 1976, with Senator James Buckley having lost reelection to Senator Moynihan and Senator Bob Dole having become Vice President. In the period of time however between the end of the 94th and the start of the 95th Congress, was the boost in support of that of the proposed Dole-McGovern Bill from the 94th Congress, of which had that of the most important component, the elimination of the extended purchase requirement. The extended purchase requirement, mandated that so someone would need to pay cash for the food stamps first, and then receive the food stamps after that; the elimination of the requirement would make it so that the amount of food stamps received would be deducted from that of the cash that would have been originally used to pay for the food stamps. The presence of Bob Dole as Vice President did not worsen matters for them as the fight over food stamps geared up for the 95th Congress.
It would be in this instance that the first 'clashes' between President Ford and Vice President Dole would be that over food stamps and a sharp difference of opinions over it. President Ford would be insistent on that of a refusal for the elimination of the 'extended purchase requirement' and to maintain a series of large cuts upon that on food stamps, while Vice President Dole would be insistent upon the elimination of it, arguing the major reductions in bureaucratic costs and that it would reduce the kind of 'food stamp fraud' that was being argued as prevalent. For now however, it had setup a rift in the Administration between that of the President and Vice President. Meanwhile in Congress, three 'sides' existed in the mess that was the food stamp reform, that of McGovern's proposed reform to eliminate the purchasing requirement, increase the gross income limit to $9,000 for a family of four, and a standard deduction of $125 a month; that of the Ford Administration's to have a gross income limit of $6,250 for a family of four, a standard deduction of $100 a month, and finally the most important provision within it, would have eligibility judged on the average actual income of the past 90 days; and then there was finally that of the Senate Agricultural Committee's (Senator Talmadge), which proposed a poverty-level income ceiling (after deducting income taxes and Social Security taxes) of between $100-$125 a month, with the maximum gross ceiling being limited to $7,800 before the income and Social Security taxes, with a further recommendation that eligibility be computed on earnings during the prior thirty days.
Yet what would become apparent was that Senator McGovern's proposed bill would be slowly gaining support, especially after a 'coincidental' meeting between that of the Vice President and the Senator, when Vice President Dole was heading to meet with Senator Minority Leader Robert Griffin. During President Ford's trip to the United Kingdom and the Middle East, Senator McGovern secured a major step of getting the elimination of the extended purchase requirement through the House and Senate Agricultural Committees (despite tough votes on them), although it would set an income limit of $7,000 for a family of four and that of a standard deduction of $125 a month. It was slowly becoming clear that a major and more liberal food stamp reform than what President Ford had desired was making its way through both the House and Senate and having an increased and worrying sign that it would wind up clearing cloture in the Senate.
President Ford's return and arrival back at the White House would be met to a degree by that of grimness by that of Vice President Dole and Director Bush over two pieces of news. The first piece of news having been that of a reply by the Soviets in terms of the meeting with Foreign Minister Gromyko over SALT II. The second piece of news would be that of a recent series of Soviet arm sales to the Derg (the Provisional Military Government of Soviet Ethiopia) and the rapidly changing geopolitical signs in the Horn of Africa...