Kasich: Budget 'Very Difficult'

The agreement on funding for the reauthorization of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act between House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bud Shuster, R-Pa., and House Republican leaders will make it "very difficult" for the House Budget Committee to produce a fiscal 1999 spending plan, House Budget Committee Chairman John Kasich, R-Ohio, said Thursday.

"I'm very disappointed," Kasich told reporters. "It's too much spending. It's too much money."

Kasich made it clear he still is not happy with the deal, saying that, "I have a lot of [committee] chairmen who are saying they didn't know they were going to take money away from me." Earlier, he told the Republican National Lawyers Association, "Every time I walk on the House floor, I've got another chairman asking me for more money."

While Kasich said he had not examined the Senate Budget Committee's spending plan, he said he opposes any new net tax increase. Kasich has said in the past that any tobacco tax increase or settlement ought to go to a tax cut. The Senate plan would use it for Medicare. Kasich said he is not sure how that battle will be settled. "I've proven that I'm willing to fight like a tiger and get my brains beat out," he said.

Kasich's comments came as Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., Thursday urged the National Cattlemen's Beef Association to discount President Clinton's criticism of the Senate Budget Committee's FY99 budget resolution because Clinton "was calling from an airplane after speaking to the AFL-CIO in Las Vegas."

Meanwhile, saying neither Clinton nor the Senate Budget Committee have developed an acceptable spending outline, The Coalition--a group of moderate to conservative Democrats also known as the "Blue Dogs"--today said a budget should maintain fiscal discipline, set aside tobacco funds for a variety of programs and make the consumer price index more accurate.

"The Blue Dogs once again are trying to find the radical center," Rep. Charles Stenholm, D-Texas, one of the co-chairmen of The Coalition's budget task force, told reporters. "Somewhere between what the Senate proposes and what the president proposes, you're going to find 218 votes in the House."

The Blue Dogs released a set of budget principles, promising to develop a full budget plan if no one else produces one they consider acceptable. The group said any budget surplus should be applied to the federal debt, with the surplus eventually allowing a balanced budget that does not rely on the Social Security trust fund.

In addition, the Blue Dogs said budget enforcement should be maintained, with the budget relying on realistic estimates, and that any new spending initiatives should be offset by "politically feasible spending cuts." The group also said increased funding should be found for high priority programs, that tax reform should be passed by 2001 and that an accurate CPI is important for technical and fiscal reasons.

The Blue Dogs added that the budget resolution should establish a reserve fund for tobacco money, and any new revenue should be used for Medicare, medical research, teen smoking cessation, and assistance to tobacco farmers and communities dependent on tobacco farming.

While their plan does not call for a tax cut, Stenholm said it is "not in our proposal, but it's not out of our proposal," while adding any tax cut must be paid for.