VA. MEMBERS OF CONGRESS REACT TO PRESIDENT'S ECONOMIC SPEECH

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

DATE: THURSDAY, February 18, 1993                   TAG: 9302180285
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
VA. MEMBERS OF CONGRESS REACT TO PRESIDENT'S ECONOMIC SPEECH
Reactions of Virginia's senators and Western Virginia's congressmen to President Clinton's speech Wednesday:
Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon: "I admire the boldness of his leadership and focus on long-term goals. . . . I think the recommendations are well-tailored to promote economic growth . . ."
"We prevailed in our regional effort to avoid a carbon tax, which would have penalized the coal industry; and the energy tax the president recommends is structured not to unfairly benefit one fuel in comparison with another."
On whether Clinton's tax-increase proposal will reduce the deficit: "I have no doubt that it will. . . . That is the goal we all share. . . . The days of smoke and mirrors are gone. These are real proposals."
Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke: On public reaction to Clinton's proposals: "They aren't calling me and cheering for a tax increase. What we're hearing is, `Bill Clinton says he's a new kind of Democrat, but this is just more tax and spend.'"
Fellow congressmen aren't happy, either, he said. "You could see the enthusiasm draining out of the House as the speech progressed. . . . I just don't think this is what people had in mind. . . . I think he's going to have a hard time selling a lot of this package."
Goodlatte said he was particularly disappointed that Clinton didn't talk about the burden of federal regulation that is "strangling private enterprise."
Rep. L.F. Payne, D-Nelson County: Clinton presented "a good vision for America as well as a good blueprint on how to make that vision become a reality."
"I don't think anybody ever likes to pay higher taxes . . . [but] people recognize that we need to do something different and make some changes and move the country in a new direction - and I think that direction was articulated."
Payne said the deficit-reduction proposal "is rooted in honest assumptions" and is more realistic than past tax-increase proposals to reduce the deficit. "We need to act on it quickly [and] comprehensively."
\ Sen. John Warner, R-Va.: In a prepared statement before the speech, Warner said, "I continue to believe that tax increases - especially the largest in history, which [Clinton] is expected to propose - are not the way to encourage businesses to expand and create new jobs. . . .
"Deficit reduction can only be achieved through new taxpayers holding new jobs coupled with meaningful cuts in federal spending. I am yet to be convinced that this plan will create jobs or significantly cut spending."
Sen. Charles Robb, D-Va.: Clinton's speech "was clearly the best speech and the most challenging in the five years I've been sitting in the chamber . . . one of, if not the best, in a generation."
Robb said the proposal is "using real numbers instead of the cooked numbers and rose-colored glasses we've been using" in the two previous, Republican administrations.
"I think that people will look at it and say, `Hey, it's tough, but it's fair,' " he said. "We simply cannot continue on the course we're on."
In Congress, there will be "all kinds of weeping and gnashing of teeth," but, Robb said, "it's important we approach the overall question as a comprehensive one."
To move forward with the proposals of economic spending and investment without following through with spending cuts and tax increases "would truly be an error of major proportions [and] would make a perilous situation even worse," he said.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB