ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, March 20, 1996 TAG: 9603200066
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
President Clinton rolled out a $1.64 trillion election-year budget Tuesday, promising it would invigorate the economy, erase deficits and cut taxes. ``Who's he kidding?'' was the blunt response of House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
``As we pursue these priorities, we will do so with a government that is leaner but not meaner,'' Clinton said. Following his yearlong deadlock with the GOP over balancing the budget, he used the 2,196 pages of his fiscal 1997 blueprint to fuse timeworn Republican themes with his own.
Clinton would balance the budget in seven years but carve shallower slices out of Medicare, Medicaid and other benefits than the GOP wants. Taxes would be cut by $100 billion over seven years, mostly for families and small business, only half as deep as Republicans propose.
As he has before, Clinton proposed more money for computers in classrooms, environmental cleanup, research grants and other programs aimed at bracing the economy. He also called for more reductions in the federal work force, crackdowns against illegal immigrants and extra law enforcement funds.
As his package was released, Clinton invited congressional leaders to the White House to seek an end to the budget stalemate that has sparked two federal shutdowns since November.
``We should enact a balanced budget, and we should do it now, not after the November election, not after the political season, not later, but now,'' he said.
Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., Clinton's likely November opponent, seemed willing to try. ``He'll gain politically, I'll gain politically, but the American people will be the real gainers'' from lower interest rates and other economic benefits if an agreement is reached, Dole said.
But there were no indications the sides were any nearer agreement on Medicare, Medicaid and other programs, or cutting taxes.
Gingrich, R-Ga., typified the reaction by many Republicans, who accused Clinton of unconvincingly stealing their ideas and perpetuating big spending.
``We passed a balanced budget; Clinton vetoed it,'' Gingrich said. ``Who's he kidding? We passed tax cuts; Clinton vetoed it.''
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., dubbed the new plan a ``putting government first'' budget, a takeoff on Clinton's ``Putting People First'' 1992 campaign volume. House Budget Committee Chairman John Kasich, R-Ohio, said, ``If this had been in the [college basketball] tournament, it would have been knocked out in the first round.''
In this topsy-turvy budget year, Clinton released his 1997 blueprint the day the Senate voted 79-21 for a huge measure financing dozens of agencies for fiscal 1996, which will be half over on April 1. The White House says that measure, which is abnormally late, falls billions of dollars short of needs. Negotiations among the House, Senate and White House should begin this week.
Clinton's new budget, which would increase spending by 4 percent over this year's total, heaps mounds of detail onto a 20-page outline he submitted Feb. 5 to satisfy a legal deadline.
One item of note: It includes $950,000 to build a platform and stands at the Capitol and for other expenses next January, when Clinton or a successor takes the oath of office.
Clinton's budget aims to transform an expected $164.2 billion deficit in 1997 into a $7.6 billion surplus in 2002, the government's first black ink since 1969. Those figures use economic estimates of the Congressional Budget Office; under the more optimistic assumptions of the White House Office of Management and Budget, the deficit would disappear a year sooner.
Much of the pain would be delayed. Of the $593 billion in seven-year savings, $371 billion - nearly two-thirds - would occur in 2001 and 2002.
Big chunks of savings would come from Medicare, Medicaid, welfare and defense. Still, typical of presidents' election-year budgets, Clinton's highlights popular spending initiatives while de-emphasizing the ache of deficit reduction.
It reveals little about which annually approved domestic programs will be cut, and some of Clinton's proposals bear little relation to what Congress is willing to do.
He prominently proposes $772 million for his national service program, which Republicans tried to eliminate. He wants $491 million for Goals 2000, which prods states to make education changes and which the GOP has sought to slash. He would create $1,000 scholarships for the top 5 percent of graduates from every high school - at a $130 million cost.
There would be $100 million a year for a new fund to restore Florida's Everglades and extra money for Environmental Protection Agency operations, which Republicans have tried to cut. There would be new tax incentives for companies cleaning up abandoned urban industrial sites that would cost $3.4 billion over seven years.
Clinton wants extra money for scientific, health and technology research. There would be nearly $2 billion for hiring more police officers, a program Republicans have tried to reshape into flexible law enforcement grants. He would also hire additional border patrol agents and customs inspectors.
LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: President Clinton\``Leaner, not meaner.'' color. Graphicby CNBby AP. color.