Balanced Budget Baseline

As Clinton Administration officials head to Capitol Hill Wednesday to begin meetings on the budget, White House Legislative Affairs Director John Hilley today said the administration will ask GOP leaders about the possibility of using an average of economic assumptions from CBO and OMB as a baseline for budget negotiations.

"We will be reaching out to the Republican leadership to see if there is any manner in which we could agree on a common set of economic assumptions [between OMB and CBO]," Hilley said.

But beyond getting an agreement on economic assumptions, Hilley said he does not see detailed budget negotiations beginning until February.