THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 15, 1994 TAG: 9412150414
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LOS ANGELES TIMES
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
Hamstrung by political sensitivities, a bipartisan commission Wednesday failed to agree on a plan to restrain the federal budget deficit, and instead voted to ask President Clinton and Congress to strive for eventual reforms in Social Security, Medicare and other entitlement programs.
``If we delay action now, the choices will be higher taxes for Americans still in the work force or larger benefit reductions to retirees,'' the members of the Bipartisan Commission on Entitlements and Tax Reform said in a letter to President Clinton, after acknowledging their inability to agree on a plan. Under determined attack from labor and senior citizens groups, the commission failed to muster a majority for the controversial plan offered by its chairmen, Sens. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., and John Danforth, R-Mo. They wanted to raise the eligibility age for Social Security and Medicare to 70 in the year 2034, cut Social Security payroll taxes and require all Americans to use the tax savings to open mandatory private savings accounts.
In a news conference before Wednesday's final commission meeting, John Rother, public policy director of the American Association of Retired Persons said he was ``appalled'' that Kerrey ``continues to use seniors as the scapegoat for our nation's deficit problem.''
Larry Smedley, executive director of the National Council of Senior Citizens, said the commission is trying to ``sacrifice our children or grandchildren on the altar of voodoo economics.''
But Kerry, undaunted by the attacks and the failure to get the 20 votes needed to make his plan an official recommendation, vowed after the three-hour meeting to take his campaign to the American people to make major changes in Medicare and Social Security. ``Our true objective is to change the law,'' Kerrey said.
The political delicacy of the issue was underlined by the identity of the only two commission members who failed to vote Wednesday: Rep. Bill Archer, R-Texas, who will become chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, and Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., who will be ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee.
Their committees handle Social Security legislation, and the two men evidently felt the issue had such potential for controversy that they refused to sign the letter to Clinton, even though it essentially did nothing more than underscore the seriousness of the long-term problem. by CNB