Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 18, 1990 TAG: 9005180033
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady, White House Chief of Staff John Sununu and Budget Director Richard Darman led the president's team into the closed-door negotiations.
Congressional aides said it was likely to be several days before a detailed proposal for spending cuts or tax increases surfaced in the talks.
Savings of $100 billion or more might be needed to reduce the deficit for the 1991 fiscal year to the targets set in federal law. But Darman has suggested that the negotiations would be a success if the two sides agree on $50 billion in savings.
A leading Democratic negotiator concurred. "It is legitimate to ask the question, at what point do you begin to undermine the economy in terms of too many taxes and too many cuts," said Rep. Leon Panetta.
The talks began Tuesday with a session at the White House after numerous administration statements that there would be no preconditions. Bush campaigned two years ago on a pledge of "no new taxes."
Bush has rejected Democratic calls for him to take the lead in proposing a solution, and lawmakers suggested before Thursday's negotiations began that the president might not be willing to accept deep spending cuts.
"It's premature to know that," said House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., the top Democratic negotiator.
Panetta, chairman of the House Budget Committee, said he believed Bush would be willing to support whatever proposal emerges.
But he added, "There's a lot of skepticism around this place whether or not they'll be willing to grab this tar baby in the end."
Panetta, who also is among the negotiators, complained that partisan dueling is hindering negotiators and could jeopardize the talks' outcome. He said such pressures were likely to grow during the course of this election year.
"We're trying to walk through it, and you have the Hatfields and the McCoys firing shots over our heads," he said.
Even House Speaker Thomas Foley, D-Wash., who normally avoids political finger-pointing, was drawn into the fray.
On Wednesday, Rep. Bill Frenzel, R-Minn., had said Democratic calls for Bush to make a televised address on the deficit were an effort to force him to "do a Jimmy Carter." That was a reference to the former president's unpopular penchant of reminding the nation of its problems.
Asked about the remark, Foley responded, "Does that mean exercising presidential leadership?"
The negotiators' goal is to find enough savings to limit next year's deficit to $64 billion, the target set by the Gramm-Rudman balanced-budget law.
In January, Bush said it would take only $37 billion in savings to reach that figure. But in recent days, Darman has been saying it now looks as if the budget gap will surpass that ceiling by $60 billion to $100 billion or more unless action is taken.
by CNB