Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 7, 1990 TAG: 9005070081
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The lawmakers spoke to reporters after emerging from a 90-minute discussion with Bush and other senior administration officials in Bush's private quarters at the White House.
Although the administration made no immediate comment, comments from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers who attended the meeting seemed to indicate that Bush was prepared to consider some tax increases.
"The assumption is that everything is on the table," said House Speaker Thomas Foley of Washington.
The Senate Republican leader, Bob Dole of Kansas, echoed that view. "I don't know if you can have discussions otherwise," he said. Asked specifically whether that meant taxes were on the table, he said: "Everything, everything."
"We didn't discuss any specific ingredients for a budget package but how to go about future talks," Foley said, adding that the lawmakers will meet again with the president early this week after consulting with their colleagues on Capitol Hill.
Administration officials made no appearance after the discussions Sunday and offered no comment.
A key concern for Democrats about formal budget negotiations has been the president's willingness to make tax increases a subject of discussion.
Before the meeting, White House Chief of Staff John Sununu sought to play down expectations of any breakthrough. "We're not doing anything," he said.
The rare Sunday session involved only Bush; Foley; the House Republican leader, Robert Michel of Illinois; the Senate majority leader, George Mitchell of Maine; and Dole.
While Democratic leaders have said repeatedly that discussions with the administration will be essential at some point, the party is split over whether formal bargaining should come now or later in the year, after Congress has completed work on its own version of the budget and the spending bills that flow from it.
At least part of the president's motive in summoning the congressional leaders was concern that a weaker economy and higher interest rates than the administration predicted in January have rendered earlier White House budget calculations obsolete.
But Democrats, wary of a political trap, also see Bush's eagerness for immediate talks as an effort to short-circuit the congressional budget process before lawmakers adopt plans that conflict sharply with his priorities.
Last week, the full House and the Senate Budget Committee approved budget measures for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 that seek military spending cuts far deeper than those proposed in the budget that Bush sent to Congress in January.
by CNB