It's Still The Economy, Stupid

The most important news in Washington is not that the House Judiciary Committee is about to vote on impeachment. The most important news is about the world economy, and its affect on every American man, woman and child.

The House Committee's Republican majority is going to approve in the next 24 hours or so a formal impeachment inquiry.

This is part of the Republican effort to further leverage the humiliation the Democratic president has brought on himself and possibly remove him from office. That is a done deal. They'll vote on it Thursday, then leave town to campaign for next month's elections.

The economy and its problems will still be with us. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the U.S. economy still is in "reasonable shape." But he warned that next year may not be as good.

He says the U.S. stock market drop, plus recession in some places, depression in others overseas, clearly will cut into the growth of our economy.

"The situation in the American economy has become very fluid. We are clearly facing a set of forces that should be damping demand. We do not know how far it will go," Greenspan said.

Among other things, this indicates further reductions in U.S. interest rates.

It also indicates that yellow caution flags about America's economy are out, and figure to remain so for some time. The world economic storm shows no signs of abating.

But that is not where Congress's attention is. Whether to leave President Clinton in office is their main, and right now almost their only priority.