CNN - Budget talks cordial but not decisive

Budget talks cordial but not decisive

Republicans nix pix with president,
promise action on many non-budget items

March 20, 1996
Web posted at: 4:45 p.m. EST

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Clinton met his probable election opponent, Sen. Bob Dole, on Wednesday to discuss how to balance the budget, but Dole said they put off serious talks until at least after Easter (145K AIFF sound or 145K WAV sound).

Dole, House Speaker Newt Gingrich (111K AIFF sound or 111K WAV sound) and House Majority Leader Dick Armey told a news conference that their 70-minute White House meeting was cordial, but they also hinted that there is unlikely to be agreement anytime soon on how to balance the budget by 2002.

"We've got a fairly full plate between now and the end of this month," Dole said. "Then we come back after Easter and work with the president (to see) if we can to try to achieve a balanced budget agreement."

White House reaction was given by spokesman Mike McCurry, who said, "The president said he was pleased with the results and said he hopes it indicates that there will be progress to come on the agenda."

No pictures allowed

The meeting, also attended by Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle and House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt, was not open to photographers, at the request of the Republicans. "We were tired of being props for the White House," Gingrich's spokesman Tony Blankley said, and he asserted that Republicans don't want to let President Clinton "bask in the respectability of Bob Dole."

"Ideally, we could get to a budget agreement with the president," Gingrich said, but he added, "I wouldn't want to stake my career on it."

He indicated that if the two sides cannot reach an agreement, the Republicans may seek to paint Clinton as a veto-prone president rejecting everything the Congress sends him (102K AIFF sound or 102K WAV sound).

GOP outlines plans

Republicans outlined an ambitious agenda for the next several weeks, including enactment of legislation to avoid possible default, a catchall spending bill to take the government through the end of the fiscal year, a farm bill, and legislation to give the president major new power to veto individual items of appropriations bills.

The GOP leaders said that after Easter, in addition to the working on the budget and related tax cuts, they want to tackle anti-terrorist legislation, along with reforms in immigration, health insurance, welfare and product liability.

Gingrich said Republicans have "really done a lot to keep the promises we made to the American people" in the 1994 election.

During their news conference at the Capitol, the Republican leaders did not mention proposals to raise the minimum wage, an issue Daschle said deserved attention. He and Gephardt held a separate news conference after the White House meeting.

Democrats not happy

Gephardt said Clinton is concerned that an administration program to add more local police might be "stopped with a block grant as the Republicans are trying to do." Block grants shift certain federal funds to state control. In addition, Gephardt said he was alarmed to learn that House Republicans are reviving an effort to weaken the federal ban on some semi-automatic weapons (255K AIFF sound or 255K WAV sound).

The House Rules Committee has scheduled a meeting Thursday on that bill, the last step before action by the full House. President Clinton has promised a veto if the measure passes.

Wednesday's White House meeting came one day after Clinton formally unveiled a 1997 federal budget proposal, including tax cuts and a plan to balance the federal books by 2002. Republicans in Congress rejected it immediately as an election-year "phony."

The White House and the Congressional Republicans have been at loggerheads over the budget for months and their standoff has caused two government shutdowns since November.

While both sides agree it would be desirable to eliminate annual federal deficits by 2002, they disagree vehemently over the proper mix of spending cuts and tax policy to achieve it.

Wednesday's meeting was the first between Clinton and the congressional leadership since the beginning of the presidential campaign primaries -- a round of elections that ratified Dole as the GOP candidate to run against the president this fall.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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