Clinton Offers to Trim Jobs Bill by $4 Billion; GOP Rebuffs Him : Economy: President’s latest deal would scrap about 25% of the money in his original package.

WASHINGTON — President Clinton offered to slash $4 billion from his $16.3-billion jobs bill Friday to get it past a GOP filibuster on Capitol Hill, but he got a quick rebuff from the top Senate Republican.

In a bid to avoid his first major legislative defeat, Clinton said his offer was designed to “achieve a significant portion of our original goals” in the face of united Republican opposition in the Senate.

“I make this recommendation reluctantly and regret the unwillingness of the minority to let the Senate act on the original legislation,” he said in a letter to Democratic Senate leaders.

Senate Republican Leader Bob Dole of Kansas dismissed the President’s proposal as no compromise at all.

“It isn’t a compromise when the President absolutely refuses to pay for his new spending programs,” Dole said in a statement from Minneapolis. Republicans have argued that any new spending should be paid for by cutting the budget elsewhere.

Clinton later said his long-term deficit-reduction program “more than covers the cost of this modest stimulus to create new jobs.” He said the jobs package was designed to “fire not a shotgun but a rifle to try to take advantage of the economic recovery.”

Clinton’s latest offer would scrap about 25% of the money in his original package while reducing its job-creating potential by 18%. At the same time, he wedged in an extra $200 million for hiring police officers laid off during the recession, an apparent enticement to law-and-order Republicans.

Left untouched in Clinton’s proposed compromise was money for road building, summer jobs for youth, childhood immunizations, AIDS treatment, waste water treatment construction, hiring meat inspectors, assisting small businesses and unemployment compensation benefits.

Other projects would get 44% less than originally proposed, including community development block grants, student loans, mass transit, summer schools and Head Start.

Several Republicans said they wanted a compromise that included offsetting cuts in other programs.

“We’re still not paying for any of it,” said Sen. Alfonse M. D’Amato (R-N.Y.). Added Sen. Christopher S. Bond (R-Mo.), “That’s just nibbling around the edges. It doesn’t deal with the real problem” of deficit spending.

Clinton’s cuts were accepted somewhat reluctantly by liberals among the Democrats on Capitol Hill.

“I accept it only because it’s before me,” said Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.), chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. “I don’t think the White House should reduce its commitment to Americans . . . to try to please a bunch of renegades and support Bob Dole’s presidential ambitions.”

The Democratic leadership tried to use the offer to step up pressure on the Republicans.

Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell of Maine said: “I hope that the Republicans will join us in this effort to provide jobs to American families and invest in our people. It is time to put aside the politics of obstruction and delay and pass a jobs bill for Americans.”

There were indications that Clinton’s offer might not be his last, and that he might ultimately offer to cut other programs to pay for parts of the package.

Mitchell said he would meet Dole on Monday to resume their attempt to reach a compromise. He ducked the question when asked if he might eventually offer to cut existing programs.

An Administration official, along with four Capitol Hill sources, said the White House had considered offering to cut some existing programs to pay for a small portion of the jobs package, but had abandoned the idea.

The remarks by the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, showed that there has been some receptivity to the idea of offsetting cuts, and that there could be more.

The Senate returns from its Easter recess this week and has scheduled a Tuesday vote on shutting off the GOP filibuster. Three previous attempts to end it failed as the chamber’s 43 Republicans refused to budge. Sixty of the 100 senators must agree to end debate.

Clinton planned to plug his scaled-back jobs bill Saturday in Pennsylvania, the home turf of Republican Sen. Arlen Specter, targeted by the White House as one possible convert. The President was scheduled to promote the jobs bill in an appearance at the Pittsburgh airport, which stands to gain money under the legislation.