Senate OKs Budget as Stimulus Plan Stalls : Economy: Chamber approves Clinton’s proposal, but $16.3-billion incentive package is snagged on party lines.

The Senate approved President Clinton’s budget blueprint Thursday, while a parliamentary standoff over his $16.3-billion economic stimulus package grew increasingly bitter, with Republicans threatening a filibuster and Democrats vowing to cancel an Easter recess to fight for passage.

By a vote of 55 to 45, the Senate easily passed the House-approved budget resolution, which includes the President’s five-year spending plan, even though two Democrats crossed party lines to join every Republican in opposing it.

But with both sides holding firm to their positions on the stimulus package, Republicans were able to prevent a vote on it and to engage in a strategy aimed at talking the bill to death.

Meantime, the House approved a $225-billion increase in the federal debt limit to $4.37 trillion through Sept. 30 and sent it to the Senate for expedited consideration. The vote was 236 to 177, mainly along party lines.

Rep. Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.), chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said the Treasury had informed him that it would run out of cash and borrowing authority on April 7 unless the debt limit was raised.

The Senate was expected to take up the debt limit bill before the Treasury’s deadline.

The Senate debate will resume today on the stimulus package, and Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) has threatened to schedule a rare Saturday session if the impasse is not broken before then.

The depth of the acrimony was reflected in an emotional speech by Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.), dean of the Democrats in the chamber and a master of Senate rules.

“I’m getting a bellyful of this abuse of minority rights,” Byrd declared of the Republicans’ strategy. “If it’s hardball they want to play, here’s one who will not shrink from the task.”

A lengthy deadlock could endanger the payment of extended unemployment benefits after the first week of April.

Furthermore, a serious delay would damage Clinton’s clout on Capitol Hill, particularly if he is forced to make concessions so early in his Administration on a measure so vital to its success.

For their part, Republicans were attempting to demonstrate their political muscle in the Senate on this bill to increase their chances of influencing the outcome of future legislation emanating from a Democrat-controlled White House and Congress.

Several GOP lawmakers also said that they believe they will benefit politically by focusing public attention on the package, which they have labeled an old-fashioned pork-barrel bill.

That a standoff would ensue became apparent as Senate Democrats killed a series of Republican attempts to slice off parts of the package.

After caucusing with his fellow Democrats, Mitchell charged that the GOP lawmakers were trying to undercut the President as he left on his first foreign trip to meet Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin.

“Republicans are making a very strenuous effort to pull the rug out from under him at a very critical time,” Mitchell told reporters. “We’re going to stay here until we get this (bill) done.”

Republicans said they were fighting for American taxpayers to kill a bill the GOP claims contains wasteful spending, would add billions to the deficit and is not large enough to affect the course of the economy.

“The American people are asking the Congress to cut spending first and then consider other options to reduce the deficit,” according to a letter signed by 42 of the chamber’s Republicans and sent to Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.).

“Therefore, we will not vote to invoke cloture on this measure as presently constituted, notwithstanding the scheduled Easter recess,” the letter said.

In one vote, the Senate rejected 51 to 49 a Republican attempt to divert 18% of the funds in the package to provide cost-of-living increases for federal civilian and military employees next year--raises that Clinton wants to eliminate. Six Democrats broke party ranks to join all 43 Republicans.

Under Senate rules, 60 votes are required to stop a filibuster and force a vote. With 57 Democrats in the Senate, three Republicans would have to break ranks to end the debate if all the Democrats backed the motion.

Despite Mitchell’s strong words, a few Democrats said they would be willing to discuss a compromise if it would break the impasse and get most of the package approved. They quickly added, however, that Clinton would have to agree to such a strategy.

But Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and many of her colleagues said that they are ready to fight for the President’s program.

“We’ve talked about a lot of things but we’re absolutely clear on what we’re going to do,” she said. Sen. Robert Krueger (D-Tex.), who voted against the budget plan favored by Clinton, said: “I think that’s the right decision.” Also voting against the plan was Sen. Richard C. Shelby (D-Ala.).

While the budget resolution--the result of a House-Senate compromise--does not require Clinton’s signature and does not have the force of law, it sets spending caps for Senate and House committees and requires the tax-writing panels to raise $272 billion in revenues between now and 1998.