Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 9, 1993 TAG: 9304090117
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
CONGRESS RECEIVES BUDGET
President Clinton on Thursday sent Congress the detailed version of a $1.52 trillion budget that already is being altered by the politics of compromise.As promised in his earlier outline, the president's 1,478-page plan would slash military spending while raising taxes on energy and Debt-reduction program increases U.S. debt. A3. on the income of top earners. In those priorities lie its broadest difference with the past 12 budgets of Republican rule. Overall spending in the year starting Oct. 1 would be about 3 percent more than this year, in line with inflation.
Clinton would use the additional money for new spending programs and to reduce the size of projected budget deficits. The national debt would grow by $1.45 trillion over the next five years under the Clinton plan.
Vice President Al Gore said the plan "hacks away at the deficit" while providing "the kind of change Americans want." Budget director Leon Panetta called it a "bold plan aimed at reducing the deficit, changing priorities and investing in the future of our people and our country."
But critics said the Clinton budget was noteworthy for what was not in it:
$66.7 billion must be cut over five years to meet the spending plans adopted by Congress and endorsed by the administration.
The cost of the administration's health-care-reform plan, which will not be completed until May, is not included.
Defense spending would be reduced by $12 billion more than Bush had proposed, but the document does not say which weapon systems the Pentagon must ax.
"We [Republicans] were taunted by the president to come out with our own specifics," said Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas. "He ought to practice what he preaches."
The $66.7 billion gap reflects tighter limits Congress set in the budget resolutions as well as re-estimates of administration policies and deals Clinton made over the past seven weeks. Implicit in those deals, in which he has added spending or reduced proposed fees, was that the administration and Congress would have to come up with offsetting spending cuts.
Though the budget usually is the opening gambit in months of bargaining over the government's tax and spending program, the first Clinton budget is unique. Congress already has approved the limits of what it will spend, and the administration is deep in negotiations over the package's elements.
For example, the budget document Thursday included revenue from increased mining and grazing fees charged to those using federal lands, even though Clinton told Western senators he would not push that plan in the budget.
The next step is for congressional appropriations committees to come up with their own versions of spending plans and for key committees to draw up tax plans.
With Democrats controlling the White House and Congress, the Clinton budget is expected to carry far more weight in that process than in the years of divided government.
But Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., flexing his muscles after success in stalling the president's economic-stimulus package, said Republicans would be "shooting real bullets" in their negotiations with Democrats as the budget pieces are put together.