CLINTON ACCEPTS CUTBACKS WHITE HOUSE PROMISES DEFENSE-REDUCTIONS AID

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 9, 1993                   TAG: 9303090233
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium
CLINTON ACCEPTS CUTBACKS WHITE HOUSE PROMISES DEFENSE-REDUCTIONS AID
President Clinton has agreed with Democratic budget writers on an additional $55 billion in spending cuts to help build support for his economic program, the White House announced late Monday. But a House proposal could mean even deeper cuts.
Clinton also will unveil later in the week a program to help cities and industries hurt by defense cutbacks. Part of the initiative will free up to $1.7 billion in funds already earmarked by Congress for "defense conversion" but which have never been spent, aides said.
Democrats on the House Budget Committee said late Monday that they want to add $63 billion over five years in spending cuts to Clinton's proposed deficit-reduction package, $8 billion more than alluded to by the White House.
The Clinton administration indicated it could work with the higher House numbers.
"First thing in the morning, we'll take a look at the additional $8 billion. I don't think there'll be a problem with it," White House spokesman Jeff Eller said.
The moves came as Clinton sought to shore up support for his economic program as well as take the sting out of threatened base closings.
Democrats on the House Budget Committee said they told Clinton more spending cuts were needed to pick up the support of conservative Democrats.
"We're going to work with the members of the committee to get the specific cuts," White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers announced after the meeting.
Congressional budget officials say $55 billion is needed to meet Clinton's original goal of trimming the federal deficit by $140 billion by fiscal year 1997.
While the specific cuts have yet to be proposed, Myers said that Clinton would not support any additional cuts in defense spending.
The budget panel members expressed optimism that they would win committee approval of a budget resolution as early as Wednesday, which would be the first step in enacting the president's economic program.
Clinton asked the National League of Cities to defend his plan against criticism that it raises taxes too much and contains unnecessary "stimulus" spending. He sought help in persuading Congress "to pass the whole program" and not pick it apart.
The president will formally announce his defense conversion program later this week, said White House communications director George Stephanopoulos.
A key element of the plan will be the freeing of as much as $1.7 billion in funds already earmarked by Congress to help communities weather base closings and shutdowns of defense industries, White House aides said.
"He wants to . . . release the funds that his predecessors have never released so that we can have money for training and the revitalization of communities that are affected by the defense cuts," Stephanopoulos said.
And he may discuss it during a Friday visit to the USS Theodore Roosevelt off Norfolk, Va.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB