Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 5, 1993 TAG: 9308050187
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The president is expected to win a House vote today and got a huge boost in the Senate when Arizona Democrat Dennis DeConcini ended his stubborn holdout and announced late Wednesday he would support the budget bill.
In a day filled with frenetic lobbying, Clinton also got another fence-sitter, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., who said: "It's as good a plan as we're going to get."
The president's strategists were pleased but remained cautious.
"I'd hate to characterize it as a done deal. It's not as if we can crack a beer and go home," said White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers.
Clinton remains at least one vote shy of the number needed to ensure a Senate victory Friday and Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Nebraska, whose vote the president needs, was still insisting he hadn't made up his mind.
But Senate leaders predicted, in the wake of DeConcini's announcement, that they would have the votes to push the plan through.
That note of optimism came at the end of a day that began with floods of telephone calls to Congress from ordinary Americans favoring or opposing the Clinton budget.
Republicans said most of their callers opposed the plan while Democrats said their calls were closely split.
There were 3.2 million attempts made to phone members of Congress between the president's Tuesday night speech and 4 p.m. Wednesday, according to AT&T, which corrected an earlier 10 million call estimate.
Earlier Wednesday, Deputy Treasury Secretary Roger Altman, who is running the White House war room coordinating lobbying efforts on behalf of Clinton's budget, voiced skepticism at reports of heavy negative calls to Congress.
Altman also attacked a number of overnight polls published Wednesday that signaled public opposition to Clinton's plan. According to one widely cited poll taken by USA Today and CNN, 44 percent of those questioned said the plan should be rejected and only 33 percent wanted it passed.
Stan Greenberg, who administered the White House polls, said a nationwide sample of 800 households as well as a specially monitored group of 50 households in Dayton, Ohio, showed "a strong plurality" favor the president's plan, by 48-41 percent.
"The big issue with the public is: Who pays the higher taxes and who doesn't?" Altman said, citing Greenberg's polls. The USA Today/CNN poll indicated that 68 percent of those asked believe the middle class would be hardest hit by the Clinton plan.
The plan does not raise income taxes on couples with gross income below $180,000. The only tax that hits middle-income families is a 4.3 cent per gallon increase on gasoline, which would cost the average family about a dime a day. Greenberg said his polls show that the gas tax "is not an issue" with the public.
Assuming the budget wins congressional approval by this weekend, the Clinton team plans to mount a weeklong "victory lap" of aggressive promotion to make sure the public understands its terms and why the administration believes it will help spur jobs and economic growth, Altman said.
Clinton plans to travel Monday to promote his anticipated victory.
by CNB