Clinton Modifies Plan for 100-Day Legislative Agenda : Democrats: He says he would seek public consensus for his ideas before taking specific proposals to Congress.

Bill Clinton defended his revised formula of middle-class tax breaks and higher taxes on the wealthy Tuesday, pledging to push his economic plan through Congress in the first 100 days of his Administration.

In a two-hour appearance on ABC-TV’s “Good Morning America,” the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee also altered his plan to present congressional leaders with a 100-day legislative agenda. Instead, he promised to build consensus for his ideas with the public before going to Capitol Hill with specific proposals.

The Arkansas governor spent much of the rest of his day in private fund-raisers in Baltimore and Annapolis, Md., trying to dig himself out of the nearly $4-million hole his campaign found itself in at the end of May. Clinton confirmed his financial plight in filings to the Federal Election Commission, noting that his debt had ballooned from $2.5 million in April to nearly $4 million, and that the campaign raised only about half that much in private contributions during the month.

A few weeks ago, shortly after Clinton clinched the nomination with primary victories on June 2, the campaign told staffers that their checks would be late. The cash shortfall sent him on a virtual shopping spree of fund-raising events, including one at Tavern on the Green in New York City Monday night and the two in Maryland Tuesday. Another private fund-raiser was planned for today in Boston, before Clinton heads home to Little Rock, Ark., for an extended weekend.

On “Good Morning America,” Clinton offered a detailed explanation of how a larger than expected federal deficit forced him to trim back an earlier campaign promise of a middle-class tax cut. In his new economic manifesto, Clinton scaled back the size of the cut, and said that taxpayers with children would have to choose between the tax cut and a tax credit for their children. The manifesto also includes higher taxes on those who make more than $200,000 a year, as Clinton had proposed earlier.

Clinton said the deficit was about $250 billion when he started running for President and is approaching $400 billion now. “Look, the world is changing,” he said. “The deficit got bigger. The American people cannot have everything they want. We have to make choices. I’ve made choices.”

Earlier in the campaign, Clinton had championed the middle-class tax cut as a down payment on fairness and a way to stimulate the economy. It was an argument effective enough to defeat former Massachusetts Sen. Paul E. Tsongas and his other rivals for the nomination, some of whom argued that the policy would do more harm than good to the economy and would amount to about a dollar a day to taxpayers.

Clinton said he learned during the primary process from his challengers that rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure and improving education were issues as pressing as the budget deficit.

“I concluded, having studied this now for eight months while I went across the country, that the investment deficit in the country was contributing to the budget deficit,” he said. “We quadrupled the government debt, but we also stopped investing in things like roads and bridges and streets and railroads and environmental technologies and building the technologies for the 21st Century that would generate new jobs.”

Clinton also has revised a plan to create momentum on Capitol Hill for his campaign policies, a move that appears to be an attempt to keep his campaign free from too close an association with Congress. Earlier this month, Clinton had said he would work with Congress to craft an agenda; then, two days later, aides characterized the effort as a “challenge” to Congress, saying he would present his plan to legislative leaders later in the month. On Tuesday, he said he would appeal to the American people first--and drop the plan on Congress’ desk on Day 2 of his Administration.

“I think I should give it to the Congress and solicit their support,” Clinton said, “but only after I put it out to the American people first.”

Clinton staffers who opposed the cooperative venture feared that the governor would look too much like an insider if he worked out the plan with an unpopular Congress ahead of time--and that he would have to give up on some of his key proposals if Congress refused to back them. Those who supported the effort argued that he could contrast his ability to work with the Congress with President Bush’s government by veto and independent Ross Perot’s lack of party affiliation.

The agenda is expected to include universal health care, a waiting period for handgun purchases, campaign finance reform and an apprenticeship program for people who opt not to attend college. Other key proposals include universal college tuition loan guarantees that could be repaid with government service and tax code changes that would discourage U.S. firms from moving plants overseas and encourage job-creation in this country, campaign staffers said.

Some of those proposals were included in Clinton’s economic plan released last weekend, which he plans to defend to the National Assn. of Manufacturers in Washington today.

“What I want to do is give it to the American people, let the experts chew on it, let people find out what problems there are with it--if there are some problems,” he said on ABC. “Let’s argue it and debate it” during the presidential campaign. “Then I’d like to give its main components to the Congress and have them say, ‘OK, we’ll embrace this in 100 days. We will enact this.’ ”

Clinton promised to begin his Administration with “an explosive 100-day action period.”

“I intend to have a legislative program ready on the desk of Congress on the day after I’m inaugurated,” he said, adding that his election would give him the mandate to enact his programs. “It will be the most productive period in modern history.”