Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 11, 1995 TAG: 9511130040
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Even as they labored over two bills the White House has threatened to reject, GOP leaders invited the president ``to come to the Capitol'' Saturday afternoon to open compromise talks.
``We believe the American people expect the executive and legislative branches to work together to produce a budget that relieves the heavy burden of debt on the next generation,'' Speaker Newt Gingrich and Majority Leader Bob Dole wrote in a last-minute overture to the president.
At the White House, spokeswoman Mary Ellen Glynn said Clinton instructed Chief of Staff Leon Panetta to meet with GOP leaders ``to see if there is sufficient movement to warrant further conversations.'' If so, she said, Clinton will invite the congressional leaders to the White House.
Earlier, the two sides seemed headed straight for a confrontation that has been building since congressional Republicans took power last January, and the GOP leadership skewered Clinton for playing golf while a budget crisis loomed.
``Republicans in Congress have a responsibility to keep the government running without cutting Medicare and increasing premiums, without cutting education and undercutting the environment,'' said Clinton, emphasizing his opposition to the short-term bills making their way to his desk to continue government spending and borrowing authority.
In an atmosphere of intense partisanship, lawmakers sent the White House a measure providing for a monthlong extension of the government's borrowing ability and a $67 billion increase in the $4.9 trillion debt limit. The vote was 219-185. Clinton attacked it as ``deeply irresponsible'' because it contains a provision limiting the Treasury Department's authority to manage the country's finances. His spokesman said a veto was ``automatic.''
The second of two contested measures, needed to permit most federal agencies to continue operations after midnight Monday, was approved in the House on a vote of 224-172 and sent to the Senate. A vote there is expected Monday. The bill would cut back on spending for many agencies as well as increase Medicare premiums; the White House promised that it, too, would be vetoed.
All Virginia Republicans voted for the spending authority extension and the debt-limit extension, and all Democrats voted no, except Democrats Rick Boucher of Abingdon and Owen Pickett of Virginia Beach, who didn't vote.
Administration officials already have begun drafting plans for a partial government shutdown when the current spending authority expires Monday night.
Social Security checks would go out, they said, but no new applications would be taken. Veterans Affairs hospitals and the air traffic control system would remain in operation, but the Smithsonian museums and National Zoo in Washington would be padlocked.
Senior Republicans labored in private meetings throughout the day to piece together a final compromise on their major undertaking of the year, legislation to balance the budget over seven years and cut taxes. The plan calls for squeezing Medicare, Medicaid and welfare by hundreds of billions of dollars and clamping down on tax breaks for the working poor. Gingrich challenged Clinton's assertion that the GOP was cutting Medicare.
Clinton has threatened to veto that bill as well, once Republicans deliver it to him, as the two sides play out their politically potent struggle over taxes and spending.
In the meantime, Clinton urged Republicans to approve interim spending and borrowing measures that he could sign, and not try to stage a longer-term debate over budget priorities under the threat of ``a government default or shutdown.''
But Gingrich, R-Ga., and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., said that wouldn't happen until the president was willing to negotiate a broader budget agreement.
Asked if he was calculating that Clinton is going to blink, Gingrich said, ``I'm making a calculation that we aren't.''
by CNB