Evening star., 1961-12-17
Returning Congress
Shows independence
BY CHARLES BARTLETT
Contributing Writer

Contributing Writer
Mid-December is a time of
preparation and the adminiStra-
ton gearing for the arrival of
Congress with considerable assur-
ance and poise.
No key official suspects that the
members will be any more supple
in their viewpoints or that the
legislative battles will be any less
intense than in the last session
No one pretendS to believe that
the manifest popularity of Presi-
dent Kennedy will provide an UNI
brella for all his program.
The concentration of the pre-
paratory period is heavy upon the
two key issues medical care for
the aged and extension of the
authority to move toward freer
trade and every canvass indi-
Gates that the administration will
not have the votes at the outset
OF the session to carry its position
on these two bills.
Hopes that the congressional
membership would be induced by
its Soundings in the grass roots
to take a more compliant view
OF the administration program
have faded. The surveys show al
ready that the Democratic men,
bers will return to Washington
with their familiar disposition to
praise Mr.. Kennedy to the skies
while picking and choosing among
his proposals. His personal image
continues to shine much brighter
among the voters than the image
of his program.
The Balanced Budget
Nevertheless the intimations of
an upper hand in the struggle
with Congress are far more dis
cernible in the White House than
they were as Mr.. Kennedy pre-
pared to take power a year ago
Some of this confidence stems
from the Presidents determina-
tlon to propose balanced budget
in January. This decision, ON
which the President appears firmer
than any of his advisers with
the possible exception of Secretary
Dillon, had some economic roots
in the strain on the gold balance
but its basic roots were political.
The administrators Achilles
Heel has been the public dispo-
Sition against Federal spending
and the ability of the opposition
to apply the spendthrift label to
its policies. The President and
his aides do not instinctively take
as severe view of the necessity
OF living within the national in
come as the Republicans but the
balanced budget proposal will
enable them. like a man who has
emerged from debt, to look the
legislators squarely in the eye
during the period ahead.
Similarly the Presidents pro-
gram has lost much of the
academic aroma which handi-
capped 1t last winter, Formulated
in large part by professional task
forces that assembled after the
election, Mr.. Kennedy's program
came originally to Congress with
the taint of the campus heavy
upon it. But the task forces exist
no more, most of the professors
have returned to their classrooms,
and the new program has been
drafted by the cabinet heads in
concert with the White House
staff. Most of these men are
popular with Congress and none
of them stirs the misgivings
which attended the professors in
their Washington interlude.
A Few Surprises
Most of the program has now
been scuffed around for the last
year and is at least familiar to
the legislators. The President is
holding a few surprises in the
domestic area for his state-of-
the-Union message but none of
these is believed to be sufficiently
startling or extensive to cause a
major furry. There appears to be
little disposition to revive the aid
to education bill, which was the