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Lott Pledges Cooperation with Clinton If Balancing the Budget Tops the Agenda

Monday, November 11, 1996

OnLine

The question policymakers in Washington are asking right now is whether the post-election rhetoric about cooperation between Republicans and Democrats will last long enough to affect the budget-writing process.

Exemplifying the current spirit, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., Nov. 10 pledged to cooperate with President Bill Clinton if the President plans to follow through on his promise to make balancing the federal budget a top priority in 1997.

The administration can expect cooperation on the budget issue from the GOP-controlled Senate as long as the President maintains his promise to downsize the federal government, Lott said in a November 9 radio address and on NBC’s Meet The Press Nov. 10.

The era of good feeling will end if the President "reverts to his old agenda of expanding government ... and if his bridge to the future turns out to be a toll bridge for the taxpayers," the majority leader warned during his radio address.

Similarly, Majority Whip Don Nickles, R-Okla., also promised to cooperate with Clinton, assuming that the President does not pardon anyone convicted in association with the Whitewater scandal.

Balancing the budget a priority

"I think psychologically and, in fact, economically it is very important for America to have a balanced budget," Clinton said in an interview aired Nov. 10 on ABC’s This Week With David Brinkley.

A plan that balances the budget is "achievable" and could be enacted in 1997, said the President, who provided no details about how he would bring the budget into balance. Clinton has invited congressional leaders to sit down and discuss the agenda for the 105th Congress.

Also a top priority for Clinton will be enacting tax incentives that would "open the doors of college to all Americans."

No across-the-board tax cut

Lott supports an across-the-board tax cut, such as the one offered by GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole, but the political realities prevent the passage of such legislation now.

For this reason, targeted tax cuts for families with children, and people who want to get a college education, should be looked at, Lott said. Another possibility is a capital gains rate cut, he added.

The majority leader also will look for places where "we could correct the mistakes" that were made in the 1993 budget reconciliation act. "There’s no question that the retroactivity of the tax increase in 1993 was highly offensive," he said.