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

DATE: FRIDAY, January 6, 1995                   TAG: 9501060100
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

CLINTON, GOP MAKE PEACE

In a generally harmonious beginning, President Clinton and Republican leaders of the new Congress agreed Thursday to search for common ground and said tax relief should be offset by cuts in government spending.

``My job is to work with them and to try to help build this country, and that's what I'm going to do.'' said Clinton, weakened politically by this past fall's elections.

``I thought it was a very, very positive meeting overall,'' said House Speaker Newt Gingrich, shedding his customary role as one of Clinton's fiercest critics. He later suggested that changes might be possible in some of the proposals comprising the Republicans' ``Contract With America,'' declaring, ``The world changes.''

For all the talk of harmony, however, there was no mistaking the wariness among longtime political foes.

House Democratic leaders emerged from the session and suggested that compromise may not be possible on a tax cut. ``Frankly, we have major differences in who we represent,'' said Rep. David Bonior of Michigan, attacking Republican calls for a reduction in the capital gains tax. ``They represent the wealthy in this country.''

And Clinton himself, strongly defending his own record of the past two years, took a poke at Republicans in comments to reporters: ``My job is not to do what they did. My job is not to stand in the way and be an obstructionist force. My job is not to practice the politics of personal destruction.''

The White House session was the first since Congress convened on Wednesday under GOP control for the first time in 40 years. In keeping with their new status, Gingrich and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole - a potential rival to Clinton in 1996 - sat beside the president at the Cabinet Room's polished wood table.

Afterward, Clinton said he'd be pleased to sign the first measure making its way through the new GOP-controlled Congress: a bill to place Congress under anti-discrimination and other laws that apply to private businesses. He also spoke warmly of two other GOP priorities - one measure strengthening the president's ability to cut spending and legislation and another to shield states and local governments from so-called ``unfunded mandates.''

Republican candidates campaigned on a platform of tax relief in the elections, and Clinton has announced his support for cuts more directly targeted at the middle class.

``They agreed we ought to have a limit to how much we cut revenues determined by how much we can pay for ... with spending cuts,'' Clinton told reporters.

Gingrich, testifying later at a House Ways and Means Committee hearing, echoed that pledge. ``We should pay as we go and if anything, pay more than we need,'' he told one Democrat who sought assurances that this year's cut, unlike the GOP-inspired measure in 1981, wouldn't inflate the deficit.

by CNB