Pointing to a new study showing the Clinton administration's fiscal 1998 budget is far out of balance, House Budget Chairman John Kasich, R-Ohio, Monday evening demanded the administration send a new spending blueprint to Capitol Hill.
"I think the president and his team ought to send us another budget," Kasich told reporters after the CBO reported the administration's plan would result in a $69 billion deficit in FY2002.
The administration had estimated that using its economic assumptions, rather than the CBO's, its budget plan would result in a $17 billion surplus in 2002. Administration officials had attempted to hedge their bets by including a trigger that would phase out tax cuts and increase spending cuts if its deficit targets were not met. Republicans, however, have rejected the triggers, and Kasich dismissed them again Monday.
In response Monday, White House officials disagreed with the CBO analysis and said the president would not resubmit a budget since he already provided a safety mechanism to deal with such an eventuality.
"We're not going to submit a new budget," OMB spokesman Larry Haas said. "We've submitted thousands of pages of material, and a mechanism to close the gap between the CBO and the OMB. We think we have gone the extra mile." He said the White House went out of its way to accommodate Hill Republicans by using the CBO's formula to calculate its tax proposals, while the CBO failed to meet repeated requests to provide its economic assumptions as a guideline for the administration.
Although the White House clearly anticipated its budget would not achieve balance by the CBO's estimates, Haas insisted the OMB's assumptions are more accurate than the CBO's. "We feel that we've done about everything we can do. We don't think we need to do more," he said.
Kasich's comments Monday are similar to ones made by Republican leaders during the protracted budget talks of the 104th Congress, when they repeatedly demanded the administration send a balanced budget plan to Capitol Hill based on CBO economic assumptions.
Kasich Monday said it is "astounding" the CBO estimates that 98 percent of the administration's deficit reduction comes in the last two years of the budget.
"The president doesn't do anything, frankly, to balance the budget until he and Al Gore leave office in this term," Kasich said.
The CBO said the administration's policies would reduce the deficit by $133 billion between 1998 and 2002, with $131 billion of that savings coming in the last two years. The plan calls for $84 billion in deficit reduction in 2002, through such difficult measures as finding $42 billion in discretionary spending cuts below the levels of the 1998 spending caps, adjusted for inflation, and $29 billion in Medicare savings.
Kasich said it is even more astounding that the Clinton budget would result in the deficit increasing by $24 billion in FY98.
"We'd be better off if we didn't have this budget," Kasich said.
Kasich further contended the Clinton budget includes no true entitlement reform, adding, "I don't want to balance the budget [by adding] up a whole lot of numbers." He said the administration must submit a plan that reforms entitlement programs and decreases the size of the federal government.
However, Kasich was vague about when Republicans will produce their own budget document, saying they want to concentrate on the shortcomings of the Clinton plan.
"At some point, we'll have an alternative," he said, refusing to set a date even though the statutory deadline for Congress to pass a budget resolution is April 15, little more than a month away.
Kasich said Republicans are trying to develop a strategy to "pull the president along" to a balanced budget.
Despite his criticisms, Kasich said Republicans will not refuse to negotiate with the administration until it sends a new budget plan.
"We're not drawing any lines in the sand," he said.
Mary Ann Akers also contributed to this report.
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