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

DATE: TUESDAY, January 10, 1995                   TAG: 9501100084
SECTION: NATL/ITNL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                  LENGTH: Medium

BUDGET AMENDMENT ATTACKED

Democrats and advocates for the poor on Monday assailed a proposed constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget even as majority Republicans pressed toward a House vote on it later this month.

Knowing the votes were all but certainly stacked against them, critics struck at what they perceive to be the measure's Achilles' heelerase the deficit by the year 2002, as the measure would require. Instead, they focused on the need to rein in a national debt that has reached $4.8 trillion and is growing by about $200 billion a year. House Republicans included the amendment in their ``Contract With America,'' their election-season promise that they would stage votes on an array of bills within 100 days.

``Our posterity is our children and our grandchildren, and current federal fiscal policies impose a severe and burdensome debt on those children and grandchildren,'' said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill.

The Judiciary panel's Constitution subcommittee, hearing testimony on the issue all day, was told by White House budget director Alice Rivlin that the amendment would force spending cuts that ``boggle the imagination.''

This prompted Republicans to make accusations of their own.

``The [Clinton] administration ... is not only not willing to specify how you would balance the budget, you're not even willing to specify that you would balance the budget,'' said Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke.

GOP leaders who had planned House debate on the amendment for Jan. 19 delayed it for a week, saying they wanted to move up debate on a bill that would prohibit the government from imposing environmental and other requirements on states without money to pay for them. Governors want that measure passed so the balanced-budget amendment doesn't shift a higher tab to the states.

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., introduced a measure that would force a detailing of budget cuts before the amendment is sent to the states for ratification. Three-fourths of the states would have to approve it after congressional passage for the language to become part of the Constitution.

``While some politicians are saying, `Trust me,' the American taxpayer is saying, `Show me,''' said Daschle.

Meanwhile, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released a study predicting the amendment would damage safety-net programs for the poor.

The center, which advocates programs for low-income people, said the amendment and promised GOP tax cuts would require cuts of 29 percent in federal programs.

``It would necessitate dismantling substantial parts of the federal government over the coming decade,'' the center wrote.