Rushing to meet a statutory deadline that will fall during the spring recess, Senate Budget Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., Thursday introduced two budget resolutions to serve as place holders on the legislative calendar until Congress and Republicans can agree on a plan to balance the budget.
Domenici offered the resolutions, neither of which he supports or expects to pass, not only to meet a statutory requirement that he report a budget resolution out of his committee by April 1, but also to highlight the serious divisions on all fronts and the major compromises that are needed to reach agreement.
He introduced both President Clinton's budget plan, which by GOP calculations falls $70 billion short of achieving balance in 2002, and a barebones plan that calls for the same level of savings in Medicaid and Medicare as proposed by the president, but requests savings of $183 billion in domestic spending. That is nearly three times what Clinton proposed.
There would be no funding for any of the new programs Clinton has requested and many existing programs would be terminated.
"The message from this second resolution [is] unless the president is willing to do more than his budget now envisions in mandatory programs, not only would he not be able to fund his new initiatives, there would be significant reductions in programs such as education, environment, crime fighting, transportation, housing and others and neither would tax cuts in the president's budget or any congressional budget be possible," Domenici said.
Another key budget player, House Budget ranking member John Spratt, D-S.C., suggested that as an "intellectual exercise" Congress might consider passing a budget resolution that contains the same level of savings in Medicaid and Medicare as the president's plan, but which does not contain any of Clinton's so- called add-ons, while freezing discretionary spending at current levels.
That way, Spratt said, "You could probably balance the budget in 2002. But that is a barebones, cold turkey budget."
Much like the second resolution Domenici placed on the calendar, such an approach would contain no new funding for education initiatives and no tax cuts. "It's pretty sobering. While it's doable, it's not easy," Spratt said, while making clear that his comments represent thoughts, and not a formal proposal.
Domenici and Spratt, along with House Budget Chairman John Kasich, R-Ohio, and Senate Budget ranking member Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., are slated to begin negotiations with the White House's budget team the week of March 31.
Meanwhile, as the Capitol Hill debate over whether to separate efforts to balance the budget and cut taxes continued, Kasich suggested, "Everybody ought to just relax", while insisting tax cuts will happen one way or the other.
"A Republican Party that doesn't have tax cuts is in danger of losing its soul," he said. And he promised, "We're going to have permanent tax relief. It's a matter of what the sequence is."
In the House, moderate Republicans and conservative Democrats were up to 54 signatures on a letter to Speaker Gingrich supporting a plan to separate tax cut legislation from efforts to balance the budget.
The letter began circulating late Wednesday under the sponsorship of The Coalition, a group of moderate to conservative Democrats, and the Tuesday Group of moderate Republicans.
The Concord Coalition weighed in Thursday in favor of the initiative, with the group's co-chairman, former Sen. Warren Rudman, R-N.H., declaring, "As we have witnessed over the past two years, demanding that tax cuts be included in a budget resolution is the surest way to kill any chance we have of reaching a balanced budget."
The group's executive director, Martha Phillips, said the Concord Coalition "plans to mobilize its nationwide grassroots network of volunteers during the [spring recess] to encourage more legislators to separate the two issues."
Gingrich has drawn considerable criticism from the conservative ranks of his party for proposing last week that the tax cut issue be dealt with separately from the budget. But it appeared Thursday that House GOP leaders planned to stick with their position and brush aside the criticism, since leadership aides were among the ones circulating the letter from The Coalition and Tuesday Group members.
However, in the Senate, 18 Republicans, including Majority Whip Nickles and GOP Conference Chairman Connie Mack of Florida, sent a letter to Majority Leader Lott urging him not to oppose any budget deal without a tax cut element.
The letter, organized by Sen. Spencer Abraham, R-Mich., noted that the recently adopted Senate GOP Conference agenda states: "To benefit working Americans and their families, Senate Republicans will work to provide tax relief such as the $500 per- child tax credit, a reduction in capital gains tax rates, estate tax relief, and expansion of individual retirement accounts."
Among the signers was Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, who, nonetheless, suggested in a speech to the National Cattlemen's Beef Association earlier in the day that there is "some wisdom" in Gingrich's plan to separate the budget cuts and tax cuts.
That is because the Democrats recently have been so successful in charging that Republicans are cutting the budget to make way for tax reductions, Craig said. "Tax cuts and tax changes can stand on their own merit," he added.
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