ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 24, 1996 TAG: 9603220040
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: F-2 EDITION: METRO
PRESIDENT Clinton's proposed 1997 federal budget, unveiled last week, is not without irony. The immediate reaction of House GOP leaders abounded in the stuff.
The irony of the Clinton budget is the extent to which it adopts Republican themes. It would curtail spending on Medicare, Medicaid and welfare. It offers the pleasures of a tax cut immediately while deferring the deepest spending cuts until the magic balanced-budget year of 2002 draws nigh. It uses Congressional Budget Office economic projections, rather than the rosier assumptions of the administration's Office of Management and Budget.
Even so, the president's proposal departs on several points from GOP budget plans, mostly for the better.
For those, like ourselves, who wonder why there should be any tax cuts while a balanced budget remains a distant goal, the president's proposal - tax cuts totaling $100 billion over seven years - at least is half what the Republicans want. It's also less tilted toward the wealthy, focusing instead on middle-class families with children and college-tuition payers, and would be partially offset by $43.6 billion in new revenues to be captured by closing corporate-tax loopholes.
The irony of House Republicans' response is that they recognized how much Clinton had yielded to their positions ... and promptly condemned him for it.
"Who's he kidding?" asked Speaker Newt Gingrich. Dead on arrival, said House Budget Committee Chairman John Kasich - while complaining that Clinton was stealing their ideas.
Does this mean Gingrich & Co. would prefer an intransigent over a cooperative White House? A repeat of this year's still-unresolved budget stalemate, perhaps, over a quick compromise that would reduce opportunities for election-year posturing?
Clinton has also called for renewed talks to seek a resolution on this year's budget. If an agreement can be reached, says Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, Clinton's probable GOP opponent in November, "he'll gain politically, I'll gain politically, but the American people will be the real gainers."
That's an adult attitude. Dole's colleagues on the House side could learn from him.
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