The White House and congressional Democrats -- unhappy with the direction of the GOP consensus proposals on Medicare, Medicaid, welfare and children's health -- appear ready to wait out their opponents in order to get what they want.
"The president's last words to me [Wednesday] night were, `I'm not going anywhere,'" Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., told reporters today of his meeting with President Clinton.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., who also attended the White House meeting, said Clinton was feeling very upbeat about his bargaining position, particularly on the spending bill. "He really can insist on things he really cares about," Rockefeller said.
Daschle said he asked for the meeting "to make sure we're on exactly the same page when it comes to our priorities," which he listed as a fully refundable child tax credit for those also receiving the Earned Income Tax Credit, the full $24 billion included in the Senate bill for child health -- including $8 billion from an increased cigarette tax -- and to "work through" Medicare changes still dividing Republicans and Democrats.
One option apparently under discussion, according to Daschle, is to move the tobacco tax proposal from the tax bill back to the spending bill. But while Daschle said he was more optimistic that differences on the spending bill can be worked out than on the tax bill, he termed "highly optimistic" Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott's desire to debate the spending bill on the floor Tuesday.
Asked if that meant he was prepared to delay the start of the August recess in order to finish, Daschle said, "I am suggesting that possibility."
But while Democrats appear ready to stall in the short term, Daschle said he is aware that if talks drag on into September, the whole process could be scuttled -- particularly if deficit projections scheduled for release show such good news that liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans combine to kill both bills.
Quipped Daschle, "We're contemplating introducing a bill to rewrite the title of the 1993 [reconciliation] bill as `The Balanced Budget Act' -- because that's what it was."
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