ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, May 17, 1996 TAG: 9605170069
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: NATL/INTL EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
NOTE: Lede
The House approved a new Republican budget plan Thursday that lays the groundwork for a bitterly partisan election-year battle with President Clinton over taxing and spending priorities.
The new GOP budget plan, passed 226-195 largely along party lines, calls for eliminating the deficit by 2002 and retains top Republican priorities such as a $500-per-child tax credit for families and abolition of the Commerce and Energy departments, along with Clinton's Goals 2000 education initiative and 130 other programs.
Even so, the differences between the White House and congressional Republicans have narrowed since last year's titanic budget struggle. The new budget, for instance, would cut taxes less than Republicans sought last year and it backs away from some of their most controversial proposals to rein in spending growth.
Among Virginia members, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, voted in favor of the budget, while Reps. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, and L.F. Payne, D-Nelson County, opposed it.
Before approving the GOP fiscal plan, the House rejected Clinton's own budget 304-117. Later Thursday, as the Senate began debate on its version of the GOP budget, it also rejected the president's plan, 53-45.
The debate provided a window to Republicans' election-year challenge: They want to reclaim the budget-balancing issue as their own. Republicans contend that Clinton's plan to balance the budget is a sham that would postpone serious deficit-reduction measures until far into the future.
``His budget is kind of like a Hollywood set - a sturdy-looking facade backed by nothing more than a vivid imagination,'' said House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas.
Across the aisle, Democrats tried to debunk the impression that the Republicans have moderated their agenda, saying the new budget still provided too little for education, the environment and other social programs.
``We find throughout this budget a variety of sugarcoating to look a little bit better than the radical agenda of 1995,'' said Rep. Martin Olav Sabo, D-Minn. ``But when we look at its long-term impact, we find that in many cases it is as bad or worse.''
Both the House and Senate versions of the budget, which are supposed to be reconciled and passed before Congress adjourns next week for Memorial Day, make room for $122billion in tax cuts. That is down from the $226billion in tax cuts the Republicans sought last year and is just short of the amount needed to allow a $500-per-child tax credit for six years.
However, House Budget Committee Chairman John Kasich, R-Ohio, has said he expects a tax package of some $180billion in cuts - with the additional $58billion in tax cuts offset by closing corporate tax loopholes and extending an expired tax on airline tickets.
Kasich predicted the bill will include capital-gains tax cuts and probably liberalized treatment of Individual Retirement Accounts. That could put the House once again into conflict with Senate Republicans, who are much cooler to the idea of a bigger tax cut.
The House budget plan calls for eliminating the deficit in six years by reducing projected increases in Medicare by $168billion and Medicaid by $72billion, and by saving $73billion from welfare and tax credits for the poor and $311billion from other domestic programs.
Those are smaller savings than Republicans sought in the budget-balancing plan that Clinton vetoed last year, still more than the savings sought by Clinton in his own latest budget; his proposal calls for reducing Medicare spending by $116billion and for Medicaid by $54billion, and saving $43billion from welfare and tax credits for the poor and $228billion from other programs.
Republicans argued that Clinton's plan was bogus because it put off until 2002 much of the required deficit reduction, and did not specify where some of it will come from.
Democrats countered with a vigorous defense of Clinton's record as a deficit hawk, noting that he won congressional approval of a major deficit reduction package in 1993 - without any support from Republicans.
The congressional budget does not require the president's approval. It is a nonbinding guide for future tax and spending bills.
The House also rejected 362-63 an option backed by the Congressional Black Caucus that would have balanced the budget through big cuts in defense spending and closing corporate-tax loopholes, while spending more on domestic programs than Clinton or the Republicans proposed.
The House also rejected 295-130 a bipartisan centrist option that would have balanced the budget in six years but allowed for no tax cuts.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
LENGTH: Medium: 88 linesby CNB