
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 25, 1990                   TAG: 9003252080
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: from The Washington Post  and Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: INDIANAPOLI                                LENGTH: Short

DNC AGREES ON TWO PARTY MEASURES

The Democratic National Committee waded into the fight over cutting Social Security taxes Saturday, adopting a resolution urging Congress to enact a plan proposed by Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., to roll back increases that took effect this year.

The committee also approved Saturday new delegate-selection rules for the 1992 campaign, and party leaders declared themselves ready to take on the Republicans and win back the White House.

Under the rules adopted here, the "window," or allotted time period for most delegate contests, will start on the first Tuesday in March, instead of the second Tuesday as in 1988. Party leaders said the change was made in general to encourage big states to advance the date of their delegate selection contests in hopes that this would mean an earlier end to the often divisive intra-party competition for the nomination.

The Social Security tax resolution put the national committee at odds with many of the party's top leaders in Congress, who either have opposed Moynihan's plan or equivocated.

"Democrats are in need of a political argument to make to the country to complement the congressional leadership," said Michael McCurry, DNC spokesman, adding that DNC members hope the endorsement of the resolution will strengthen the hand of Democrats in Congress in their negotiations with the Bush administration over the budget deficit.

Moynihan offered his plan late last year, saying that growing surpluses in the Social Security trust fund are being used to mask the true size of the federal deficit.

by CNB