ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, June 7, 1996 TAG: 9606070050
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
NOTE: Lede
Denying Bob Dole a going-away present, the Senate voted narrowly Thursday to reject a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced federal budget.
The Senate voted 64-35 for the amendment, two short of the 66 needed to send it to the states for ratification. Both Virginia senators, Democrat Charles Robb and Republican John Warner, voted for the amendment.
Despite the close outcome, there was little drama in the proceedings, which had far more to do with strategic positioning in the 1996 presidential race than with curbing the federal government's urge to spend.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, summed up his party's view of the vote: ``The liberal politicians have won again, and the American people have lost.''
Dole, as the Senate majority leader and GOP's presumptive presidential nominee, had scheduled the vote on the amendment to underscore his fiscal differences with President Clinton.
The Kansas Republican knew the amendment would fail, because it had not picked up any additional support since the Senate rejected it last year.
``We will lose, but we will have made the statement,'' Dole said before the vote, in one of his last speeches on the Senate floor. He will resign Tuesday, after 27 years in the Senate, to campaign full time for president.
With the Congress and Clinton unable to reach agreement on how to balance the budget, Dole said the only certain way is to mandate it in the Constitution. The amendment would have required a balanced budget as early as 2002, but did not address how it would be achieved.
Balancing the budget, he said, would help today's children avoid sky-high tax bills as adults to pay for the national debt, and would help today's adults by cutting interest rates for mortgages and car and college loans. He quoted Thomas Jefferson's warnings against burdening future generations with debt, adding, ``his fears of 200 years ago have become a tragic reality.''
He blamed Clinton for the inability to balance the budget, noting that the president vetoed the GOP plan to balance the budget.
``Next year, maybe the White House won't lobby against it,'' he said. ``Maybe there will be someone there who will lobby for it.''
When he finished his brief remarks, Republican senators gathered around Dole, shaking his hand and patting him on the back.
Clinton said again Thursday he wants to sit down with Republican leaders and work out a plan to balance the budget legislatively - without having to go through the controversial process of amending the Constitution. He called the amendment a ``gimmick.''
Twelve Democrats voted for the amendment Thursday, while Oregon Sen. Mark Hatfield remained the only Republican to oppose it. Only one senator, Democrat J. James Exon of Nebraska, who has consistently voted with Republicans for the amendment in the past, switched sides on this occasion.
Exon called the vote Thursday ``a sham where the Senate is being used as a tool in the president race. That is not the way to run the government and certainly is not the way to balance a budget.'' He praised Clinton for his record on reducing the deficit, which is projected to drop from $290 billion in 1992 to $146 billion in 1996.
LENGTH: Medium: 63 linesby CNB