President Clinton is misreading what he believes is a lack of support for adjusting the consumer price index now, a bipartisan group of senators said Thursday in calling for the president to take the lead in making the CPI more accurate.
"There is bipartisan support," Sen. John Breaux, D-La., told reporters, reacting to the administration decision not to appoint a commission now to study the accuracy of the CPI.
Breaux, who was joined by several Democrats as well as Senate Finance Chairman William Roth, R-Del., and Environment and Public Works Chairman John Chafee, R-R.I., said 46 senators last year supported the Centrist Coalition budget that contained a 0.5 percent adjustment in the CPI, and that support still exists for an adjustment. Breaux urged the president not to "quit until the fight is over."
Sen. Charles Robb, D-Va., agreed with that assessment and endorsed the 1.1 percent CPI adjustment recommended by a Senate- appointed commission, saying it "looks better because it has more refined thought." Robb said the lack of action on the CPI is "pure politics," adding that both sides want the other to move first.
Roth said he was very disappointed with the president's decision not to appoint a CPI commission.
"I hope he will reconsider that decision. What we need is strong bipartisan support and the leadership of the president," Roth said of Clinton.
House Budget Chairman John Kasich, R-Ohio, told reporters he does not believe Clinton's decision against appointing a commission is an indication that the president is unwilling to adjust the CPI.
Kasich added, however, that he still believes that "the administration needs to lead on this issue." He said he is not convinced that the CPI should be adjusted by 1.1 percentage points, calling that figure "the high end."
Meanwhile, Roth and Senate Finance ranking member Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., this week introduced legislation to establish a Cost of Living Board that would seek to improve the government's ability to adjust federal programs with a more accurate inflation measure.
However, on the other side of the Capitol, Reps. Gerald Kleczka, D-Wis., and Barney Frank, D-Mass., introduced legislation Thursday that would require any changes in the CPI to be approved by Congress.
Frank charged that Republicans are putting the Bureau of Labor Statistics "under very unfair pressure" to make changes in the CPI to help balance the budget.
"We're not going to stand quietly by while [the Republicans] hide behind some technical mumbo jumbo," Frank told reporters.
In a related development, a source indicated late Thursday that House Speaker Gingrich had authorized House Majority Whip DeLay to float the idea that a tax cut could be delayed until later in the year in an effort to achieve a balanced budget. DeLay floated the suggestion in a couple of interviews earlier this week.
However, a DeLay aide said the tax cut delay was DeLay's idea and that he was not "put up to it by anyone else."
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